Herstory Revisited

“I must say this: if you, the men of Ashanti, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight!”   Yaa Asantewaa  (17 October 1840 – 17 October 1921) was the  queen mother  of  Ejisu  in the  Ashanti Empire  – now part of modern-day  Ghana . In 1900 she led the Ashanti war known as the  War of the Golden Stool , also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War, against  British colonialism . She died in 1921. She was a successful farmer, an intellectual, a politician, human right activist, queen, mother and a military leader. Quite an impressive CV. Ashanti is a southern region of modern Ghana, named after the clans of Ashanti people who hard formed their own kingdom in 1670. The region had grown rich and powerful, trading gold and slaves with the British, Dutch and Danes. When Yaa Asantewaa was born in 1840, the British had assumed control of the other European’s Gold Coast forts. By 1...

“That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show.” Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron, 1815 – 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She is believed by some to be the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and is believed by some to have published the first computer algorithm. As a result, she is often regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of computers and one of the first computer programmers. Early childhood “ I believe myself to possess a most singular combination of qualities exactly fitted to make me pre-eminently a discoverer of the hidden realities of nature. ” Ada was the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron and his wife. He was disappointed that she was not a boy, but named her after his half-sister. A month after her birth, Byron left his wif...

“ We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk.”     Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was a Kenyan environmental activist, politician, feminist, scientist, and human rights campaigner who shaped modern Kenya into the nation it is today. Born Wangari Muta in a village near Mount Kenya, she grew up surrounded by beautiful scenery which  embued  her with a respect for nature. She studied abroad after receiving a scholarship to study in the States, earning a degree in biology and a PhD back in Kenya in veterinary anatomy. After that, she taught at Nairobi University, becoming a professor in 1977. While doing her PhD she married a (less successful)  politican  and they had three children together.   During this time, she campaigned for equal  rights for female staff, whom she united into a union.  She was also involved in several civil  organizations in the early 1970s  – 1973 s...