The Unsung Heroines of the Pan African Movement

Africa has been blessed with a number of great men and women who fought for the liberation of a black man, and some who still continue the struggle for Africa`s full independence and are celebrated within the continent and beyond, these can include Nkrumah, Nyerere, Lumumba, Toussain, Jean Jacques, Malcolm X, Du Bois, Antenor Firmin, Ahmed Sekou, Robert Mugabe, Thomas Sankara, Dessalines, Selassie, Martin Delany, Alexander Crummel, Edward Blyden, A.M Obote , Kawunda , Garvey , Mandela, Fanon to mention but a few and the new breed of liberators of 1980s like H.E Museveni of Uganda who has continued to hold the torch of liberation high as was lit by our pre and post-independent African heroes.

However as these great men were engaged in the struggle for the liberation of pour motherland, another equally great team of women was in trenches doing the best they knew how and their contribution towards the struggle for African total liberation, later on, gave birth to PAWO. One of the oldest women organization movement that fought side by side the Pan African Movement (PAM-the men`s armed wing) that was at frontlines fighting for the independence and decolonization of Africa. This breed of female fighters was key in advocacy, lobbying and pushing for the formation of the Organization of African Union (OAU) today’s African Union (AU).

Our African liberation history is uniquely shaped and advanced by a number of African women who have not been fully recognized within the continent for their selfless contribution to the struggle alongside men. Though often ignored by the patriarchy system, African women are very critical and we need to remind the young generation on the specific way these Black women enacted change in world history. They lived and left behind an important culture in activism that we see some trying to falsely emulate today, they never abandoned their heritage and values in the name of activism, theirs was an African struggle throughout their lives, they cared less for the media lines like those we have posturing as activists today. Those we have now are happy to exchange our motherland for the highest pay cheque and an opportunity for a visa for foreign workshops and seminars unlike former who selfishly played a remarkable role in the struggle of the African people.

These unsung African women heroines include; just mentioning but a few for space purpose;

An eighteenth-century leader warrior and spiritual leader, Queen Nanny was born in 1686 in present-day Ghana, Western Africa, she was sent as a slave to Jamaica, where she became the leader of the Maroons, a group of runaway Jamaican slaves an eighteenth-century leader, warrior. She is also believed to have led attacks against British troops and freed hundreds of slaves.

Constance Cummings-John (1918 – 2000) Sierra Leone; is best known for being the first woman mayor in the history of Freetown and participated in Pan-African organizations such as the League of Coloured Peoples and the West African Students’ Union (WASU).

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900-1978) was the first Nigerian woman to drive a car. She is credited as a pioneer of African feminism, social activist, educator and anti-colonial freedom fighter. Founder of the Nigerian Woman’s Union, that later became the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Societies in 1953. Her dedication to ending injustice is what makes her a phenomenal woman in African history.

Ntebogang Ratshosa (1882-1979) was regent of the BaNgwaketse, one of eight ethnic groups in current Botswana, for a period of four years (1924-1928) and was a daughter to King Bathoen I and Queen Gogoangwe, she governed the realm at the request of her dying mother, as the heir and future king, Bothoen II, was still a minor; With the support of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, of which she was a member, she developed a number of infrastructure projects like an aqueduct, hospitals.

Gisèle Rabesahala (1929-2011) devoted her life to her country’s independence, human rights, and the freedom of peoples. She was the first Malagasy woman to be elected as a municipal councilor (1956) and was the first woman to be appointed minister (1977), and still regarded as a pioneer in Malagasy politics.

Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu (1918 – 2011) of South Africa was an anti-apartheid activist and a wife to a fellow activist Walter Sisulu (1912–2003). Her contribution to South African political struggle remains unmatched

Pumla Ellen Ngozwana Kisosonkole, born South African in 1911 to Methodist church ministers; received her education at mission schools and attended the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape. she is also remembered for her famous pamphlet “Education as I Saw It in England”. She was a senior community development officer and a teacher at King’s College Budo. She became the first African woman to enter the legislative council in 1956 as a representative. From 1959-1962 was president of the International Council of Women and Uganda’s delegation to the United Nations in 1963 as well as a literary expert with UNESCO.

Josina Muthemba Machel (August 10, 1945 – April 7, 1971) who was a significant figure in the social and political modern history of Mozambique. She became a key figure in the Mozambican struggle for independence, promoted the emancipation of African women, and later married their country’s first president; unfortunately, she passed on at a young age of 25 years.

Aoua Keita (1912-1980) was a Malian midwife and anticolonial activist, was a member of the African Democratic Rally (RDA), and contributed to establishing women’s wings within the party, and was placed in charge of electoral campaign literature in the various posts.

Sally Francesca Hayfron was born in 1931 in the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), then a British colony, She went to Achimota School, and to the university qualifying as a teacher, she was to meet her future husband, Robert Mugabe, at Takoradi Teacher Training College where they were both teaching.

Rebecca Allen Namugenze Mukasa commonly known as Rebecca Mulira was a Ugandan women’s rights advocate and social activist. One of the earliest Ugandans to travel to the USA, the 1950s the fact that so little was known about Uganda in the United States at the time she and Kate Kibuuka visited that country in the early 1950s for the UWCA Conference, where she was ignorantly introduced as Mrs. Uganda.

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 – 1977) Black American who was an organizer with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Her civil rights work included organizing African Americans to vote and challenging the racist policies which prevented African Americans from voting. For her work, she was arrested and savagely beaten by police officers but continued her work for the cause after her recovery.

Shirley Graham Du Bois (born Lola Shirley Graham Jr.; November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American author, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American and other causes. She won the Messner and the Anisfield-Wolf prizes for her works.

Our own Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro (21 March 1926 – 22 October 2018); the first woman university graduate in East and Central Africa from Oxford University with a Bachelor of Arts (Hon) in History in 1954.

And so many more women contributors to our liberation struggle.

Therefore as we celebrate 58 years of Pan African Women Organization (PAWO) this year, we remember and celebrate the works of the above mention heroines and many more not be mentioned here because of space, we celebrate their selfless service to the plight of an African man and woman, we are what we are today because they were and they are our unsung heroes of the African revolution.

We remember these African heroines, as we face the unusual enemy covid-19 pandemic, as we see eroded African values that they fought to preserve, as we see an increase in domestic violence cases that continue to demean our mothers and sisters, as elites continue to erode our much-cherished values systems at the altar of rights and free speech. We remember our unsung heroines of this continent.

We can only honor them much more by continuing in their footsteps.

Mr Paddy D. Kayondo is an educationist and political analyst