Famous Women With Courage

You’re not famous alone, you stand on the shoulders of women who paved the way for famousness; three woman September, Sirleaf, Maathai made a path.

Every year March is designated Women's History Month in the United States but influential women are not limited just to the USA. The three famous black African women South African Dulcie Evonne September, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Kenyan Dr. Wangari Maathai played a vital role for women throughout the world in history. Celebrate Women's History Month by learning about three famous black African women.

Dulcie Evonne September

Dulcie Evonne September was an anti-apartheid activist, humanitarian and political prisoner.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Politician and economist, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the first female elected president in Africa.

Dr. Wangari Maathai

Dr. Wangari Maathai organized women to work together for a mutual benefit, and to plan for future generations

Three famous black African women in woman's history month are Dulcie Evonne September, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Dr. Wangari Maathai.

South African Dulcie Evonne September.

Dulcie Evonne September was an anti-apartheid activist, humanitarian and political prisoner.
Dulcie Evonne September, in 1976 joined the African National Congress where she worked in the Women's League. She was an anti-apartheid activist, humanitarian and political prisoner. September was arrested and detained without trial at Roeland Street Prison on October 7, 1963.

Together with nine others, she was charged under the Criminal Procedure Act, with the principal charge one of a conspiracy to commit acts of sabotage, and incite acts of politically motivated violence. After almost six months of court proceedings, judgement was delivered on April 15, 1964.

September was sentenced to five years imprisonment, during which time she endured severe physical and psychological abuse. In 1973, as her banning order ended, September applied for a permanent departure permit. She had secured a position at Madeley College of Education in London, England; she then went into exile in London.

At the end of 1983, September was appointed ANC Chief Representative in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Coupled with her new appointment, September underwent a short course in military training in the Soviet Union.

On the morning of March 29, 1988, September was assassinated outside the ANC's Paris office at 28, Rue des Petites-Ecuries, as she was opening the office after collecting the mail. She was shot five times from behind with a 22-calibre silenced rifle. She was 52 years old.

Liberian Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Politician and economist, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the first female elected president in Africa.

Johnson Sirleaf began her political career in the 1970s as her nation's first female minister of finance. Worked within the banking industry at Citibank and the United Nations. She was imprisoned in the 1980s for criticizing the government and she has gone into exile twice to escape persecution. First ran in the Liberian presidential election of 1997 but was defeated.

After two years of rule by a transitional government, democratic elections in late 2005 brought President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to power. Under the 1986 Liberian Constitution, voters to a six-year term, which may be renewed once, democratically elect the president. On January 16, 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as the twenty-fourth and current president, making her the first elected female president in Africa.

She subsequently won reelection in 2011 and remains challenged to rebuild Liberia's economy, particularly following the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, and to reconcile a nation still recovering from 14 years of fighting. In 2016, she was named the 83rd-most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine. She has been called the Iron Lady due to her strong will and political persistence.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 or their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated “If asked to describe my homeland in a sentence, I might say something like this: Liberia is a wonderful, beautiful, mixed-up country struggling mightily to find itself.”

Kenyan Dr. Wangari Maathai.

Dr. Wangari Maathai organized women to work together for a mutual benefit, and to plan for future generations. Dr. Maathai was a Kenyan woman who taught her brand of sustainable development, democracy, and peace that won her the Nobel Prize. Dr. Wangari Maathai taught a practical understanding of love for the world.

Dr. Wangari Maathai was born in Nyeri, a rural area of Kenya on April 1, 1940. Maathai was a Kenyan environmental activist who founded the Green Belt Movement. She became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She earned her doctorate from the University of Nairobi in 1971.

In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. The Green Belt Movement focus at the time was poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting.

According to The Green Belt Movement, "Dr. Maathai saw the urgent need to respond to the necessities of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. “

The Green Belt Movement encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work.

Shortly after beginning The Green Belt Movement work, Dr. Maathai saw that behind the everyday hardships of the poor and environmental degradation, deforestation, and food insecurity there were deeper issues of disempowerment, disenfranchisement, and a loss of the traditional values that had previously enabled communities to protect their environment." Dr Maathai organized women to work together for a mutual benefit, and to plan for future generations.

According to the Nobel Prize, “Maathai's mobilization of African women was not limited in its vision to work for sustainable development; she saw tree-planting in a broader perspective which included democracy, women's rights, and international solidarity. In the words of the Nobel Committee: "She thinks globally and acts locally." Dr. Maathai died on September 25, 2011, at the age of 71 after a battle with ovarian cancer.

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