Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works range from novels to short stories to nonfiction. Her best-known works include Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) – which was adapted into a 2013 film – short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), Americanah (2013), We Should All Be Feminists (2014) and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017).
She was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008.
Tin Hinan was the first queen of the Tuareg, a group of Berber clans of obscure origin. Legend states that she led them into the Sahara around 400AD. The Tuareg would later dominate lucrative trade routes across the desert in medieval times.
Yvonne Hudson is an American television actress best known for being the first African-American female cast member on Saturday Night Live. She joined the cast as a featured player for the show’s 1980–1981 season. (The first black female repertory player was Danitra Vance.) She was also the third African-American SNL cast member, following Garrett Morris and Eddie Murphy. Hudson first appeared on the show in 1978 as an uncredited extra in many episodes.
Hudson rarely had a role of significance and was among the majority of the cast members fired at at the end of the troubled season. She continued to appear occasionally in uncredited small roles until her final appearance on the show in 1984. Other than her stint on SNL, Hudson has not appeared in any other television or film role.
Lozikeyi was a senior queen of the Ndebele nation until 1893. She was known for being outspoken, and for her defiance of the white settlers – who described her as a “dangerous and intriguing woman” – in what would become Rhodesia. When her husband disappeared in 1893, she served for a time as de facto regent of the kingdom. She is credited with keeping the nation stable following not only her husband’s disappearance, but also their 1893 Matebele war with The British South Africa Company.
In 1896, along with her twin brother, Queen Lozikeyi led the resistance against colonial rule and land theft. Referred to as Imfazo or The War of the Red Axe (Impi Yehlok’elibomvu), this was the catalyst to what is commonly known as the First Chimurenga war. Queen Lozikeyi had wisely stored ammunition that had not been used by King Lobengula; the Imbizo regiment were able to use this ammunition against the Cecil Rhodes’ forces. The predominantly Ndebele Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) referred to her as the Foremother of ZIPRA; in a show of honour and for good fortune, ZIPRA forces buried two bullets at her grave years after her death.
By the end of that year, British forces and the Ndebele army had reached a stalemate. Queen Lozikeyi led peace negotiations in the Matobo mountains, resulting in amnesty and a ceasefire, though the Ndebele people had already lost their best land and control.
She remained defiant until her death in 1919 after she succumbed to influenza.
Author Yvonne Vera once referred to her as a “conspicuous and commanding figure. A big, bold and beautiful woman of ample proportions and clearly the leading spirit among the Ndebele queens. With quick intelligence and ready wit, she was also remarkable among Ndebele women.”
Near Nkosikazi in Bubi District is a school for which she campaigned and which she opened; it still serves students. She was the subject of a 2013 biography, Lozikeyi Dlodlo, Queen of the Ndebele by Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi.
In 2001, Shirley Clarke Franklin became Atlanta, Georgia’s first African American female mayor, as well as the first African-American woman to be a mayor of a major southern US city. It was the first time she had run for public office; with her 2005 re-election, she served as mayor until 2010. Under previous mayors, she had served the city as Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and Chief Administrative Officer and City Manager. In 2205, Franklin recieved the Profile in Courage Award in 2005 from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, which praised her management of the city during a critical period of enormous deficit and loss of public confidence in government following the corrupt administration of her predecessor, Mayor Bill Campbell.
Unity Dow a Motswana judge, human rights activist and writer currently who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation from 2 November 2019 – 26 August 2020. She successfully challenged a law that limited citizenship, inherited by children from the fathers but not from their mothers (Attorney General of Botswana v Unity Dow (1992)). The father of Unity’s children was not a Botswana citizen, meaning the children were not either. She later became Botswana’s first female High Court judge. She was also co-founder of the country’s first all-female law practice and was one of the founding members of the women’s organization Emang Basadi.
Dow has published several books, often addressing issues around the struggle between Western and traditional African values, as well as gender issues and her nation’s poverty.
In 2005, Unity Dow became a member of a UN mission to Sierra Leone to review the domestic application of international women’s human rights. On 13 December 2006, she was one of three judges who ruled on the prominent Kgalagadi (San, Bushmen or Basarwa) court decision, concerning the rights of the San to return to their ancestral lands. The court ruled that the residents had been forcibly and unconstitutionally removed, though forced relocation continued.
Since 2007, Dow has been a member of a special mission to review the Rwandan Judiciaries preparedness to take over the hearing of the 1994 genocide cases. Dow was also sworn in as Justice of the IICDRC (Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution Court) of Kenya by the Kenyan President to serve implementing the new constitution in Kenya.
Known as Madame A. C. Bilbrew, A. C. Harris Bilbrew was an American poet, musician, composer, playwright, clubwoman, and radio personality who lived in South Los Angeles. In 1923, she became the first black soloist to sing on a Los Angeles radio program. In the early 1940s, she hosted the city’s first African-American radio music program, The Gold Hour. LA County Library’s Willowbrook branch is named in her honor.
The only African-American Women’s Army Corps unit to serve overseas during World War II