Check Out These Iconic Women Who Helped Shape The History Of Africa

African women are seen as teachers as they are the ones saddled with the responsibility of training the children which automatically the society.

There are women whose names will never go in extinct in the history of Africa because they gave Africans freedom and fought for civilization.

These iconic women helped in building the African culture that we have now through their creativity, leadership, and activism.

Here are some of these iconic women in African history;

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a champion of women’s suffrage in her country, Nigeria. She was many things in a woman. She was an aristocrat, a fearless politician, and a great teacher, who became the first women to drive a car in Nigeria.

She was famous for saying;

”As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. I am beyond their timid lying morality so I am beyond caring.” To put it simply, she was a colossus.

Angelique Kidjo

Angelique Kidjo is known as the “Queen of African Music.” She has won the Grammys multiple times to prove that she is worth that name. She is a Beninese musician, an activist, and a global ambassador.

In her words, “We women around the globe, we carry the world on our back. We build society.”

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai, an environmental political activist in Kenya, became the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, in Africa.

She had a clean record that spoke of peace, democracy, and sustainable development in her country. She was quoted as saying

“African women, in general, need to know that it’s okay for them to be the way they are—to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.”

Iman

Iman whose real name is Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid is an iconic supermodel from Somali, whose work as a philanthropist speaks volumes in the world. She has become a beacon of hope to millions of girls around the world.

She has a famous quote that says: “The women I gravitate to are the ones who defy convention and reinvent themselves – hence, they reinvent the world around them.”

Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba, a South African popularly known as “Mama Africa,” won an audience with her striking voice and infectious charm across the globe. She sang and spoke against racial injustices during the Civil Rights Movement.

One of her quotes includes “Age is getting to know all the ways the world turns, so that if you cannot turn the world the way you want, you can at least get out of the way so you won’t get run over.”

Flora Nwapa

Flora Nwapa is often called “The mother of modern African literature.” She became the first woman in Africa to get her works published in the English language in 1966.

The Nigerian writer got her international recognition when she wrote her debut novel Efuru.

Her famous quote goes thus:

“When I do write about women in Nigeria, in Africa, I try to paint a positive picture about women because there are many women who are very, very positive in their thinking, who are very, very independent and very, very industrious.”