From global warming and droughts, to plastic pollution in our oceans and food chains, there has never been a more critical time in history for collaborative action to protect and preserve our planet. While politicians debate climate change policies, African women across generations like Portia Adu-Mensah from Ghana and Vanessa Nakate from Uganda are at the forefront of environmental activism to safeguard their communities and advocate for sustainable living. Equally, women like Isatou Ceesay from The Gambia are creating profit-making businesses and social enterprise platforms that financially empower other women and their communities.
Fatou Janah Mboob | TRY Women’s Oyster Harvesting Association (Gambia)
Fatou Janah Mboob makes it safer for women oyster harvesters to harvest, sell and even cook their products. An environmentalist, she is also one of the most important women entrepreneurs in her country because the oyster industry is an important part of Gambia’s economy, and is entirely made-up of women who harvest, process and market oysters in often hazardous conditions. Since 2007, TRY Women’s Oyster Harvesting Association has brought together oyster harvesters from 15 villages in the Greater Banjul district, who have received training in business and enterprise development, and sustainable oyster harvesting methods. In 2012, Mboob and the organisation were awarded the Equator Initiative Prize. In 2011, TRY and the Gambia’s Ministry of Education awarded 17 scholarships to children of oyster harvesters and continue to work to ensure this special group of women are continuously given educational opportunities.
The African Women Ecopreneurs You Should Know (Part 1)
Samia Balistrou | Scuba Diver and Founder, HOME Environmental Association (Algeria)
When you’re a scuba diver, these days you’ll see the growing effects of pollution and the exploitation inherent in ‘overfishing’ first-hand. That’s the case for Samia Balistrou, who has over 35-years of experience as a diver. In 2015, she combined her love for marine life and media, she started HOME Environmental Association in Tipaza, a coastal city east of Algiers, to raise awareness about the importance of marine life and sustainable fishing through media programmes such as Sawt-el Bahr or ‘Voice of the Sea.’ She takes people out on specially curated diving trips, which can be described as a ‘baptismal’ experience, as they see the problems facing Algeria’s coastlines up close. She also curated a workshop project called ‘Responsible Fisherman,’ which teaches fishermen about the dangers of overfishing and the damages of ejecting plastic into waters while they’re out at sea. The project has led to a Responsible Fishman’s Charter and an agreement with the Chamber of Fisheries and Aquaculture for continued support.
Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola | Founder and CEO, Wecyclers (Nigeria)
Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola has been at the forefront of the eco-business sector in Nigeria, and was one of its early trailblazers. Her company Wecyclers provides waste collection and recycling in and around informal settlements in Lagos, where nearly 70 percent of residents in the bustling city live. To get low-income families to participate, Wecyclers devised a rewards point system operated through text messaging that offers basic food items and cell-phone minutes for every kilogram of recyclables. And these rewards have been partly funded by brands such as Coca-Cola and GlaxoSmithKline. For her work, Adebiyi-Abiola was awarded the 2018-2019 King Baudouin International Development Prize and the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award for sub-Saharan African in 2013, along with grants from MIT.
The Akashinga Rangers (Zimbabwe)
Fighting poaching is one of the most dangerous professions in conservation work, but it’s an area where African women are taking pole position. All female-units are becoming particularly popular in countries like South Africa and Kenya, but the Akashinga Rangers in Zimbabwe are distinctive. They describe themselves as “Africa’s first armed, plant based, all-women anti-poaching unit,” protecting the Phundundu region which borders 29 communities. The 16-member unit was recruited by Australian conservationist Damien Mander who is the founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation. Since 2017, the group says it has arrested hundreds of poachers. The name Akashinga means ‘the brave ones’ in Shona language, which also speaks to some of the traumas members have overcome such as domestic abuse and sexual assault. Last year they were featured in a film produced by National Geographic, which you can watch here.
Brigitte Acakpo-Addra | Director, WEP-TOGO (Togo)
After years working in the field of environmental protection at various NGOs, Brigette Acakpo-Addra decided to set up Women Environmental Programme Togo, or WEP-TOGO, in 2014. WEP-TOGO’s main objective is to mobilise and involve women in the protection of the environment through sustainable development actions in Togo. That in itself is an amazing feat, but she’s also been an important promoter of ensuring women are a part of the wider conversation on deforestation and degradation in an initiative known as REDD+. In 2016, Acakpo-Addra set up a women’s consortium, Le Consortium Femmes REDD+ composed of over 60 members from women’s organisations in forest governance across the country, as a subsidiary for women’s participation. In May 2017, the consortium went on a national awareness tour in 60 communities, reaching around 7,000 women and 300 men to promote forest-friendly methods such as using cookstoves that limit charcoal usage.
Olivia Okinyi and Angela Musyoka | Co-founders, Pine Kazi (Kenya)
We’ve all heard of plastic waste and other materials recycled into bags and accessories, which is amazing in and of itself. But you’ll probably never think of pineapples the same way after this, because the same is being done with pineapple waste. In 2019, Olivia Okinyi and Angela Musyoka launched Pine Kazi, along with their co-founder Mike Langa, and started crafting eco-friendly shoes in their ‘circular’ model of plant-harvest-reuse. Their inspiration came about after the students visited Kenya’s largest pineapple factory. Pineapple fruits alone can produce 766 million tonnes of harvest waste annually, and when burned releases 1.8 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air. The company says it also works to promote women’s empowerment, skills and income to 5,000 pineapple farming communities in Kenya. Earlier this year, the company won a grant from the African Development Bank at its Fashionomics African Initiative.
Rose Twine | Founder, Eco Stove (Uganda)
Many parts of the continent do not have access to constant flow of electricity, particularly in rural areas, where cooking methods are still reliant on coal energy. In Uganda, over 50% of the population do not have eco-friendly stoves, and nearly 20,000 Ugandans die every year from indoor air pollution. In 2010, Rose Twine set out to change this by creating the Eco Stove, a safer option for cooking. The stove comes with special stones mined in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, and can produce and retain heat for up to eight hours and last for two years. It is smoke-free as it does not require any coal or wood, which is also great in tackling deforestation in the country. So far the company’s installed 17,000 stoves across the country and produces 40 stoves every day.
Mariam Hazem and Hend Riad | Co-founders, Reform Studio (Egypt)
Mariam Hazem and Hend Riad’s story behind Reform Studio begins just after the historic revolutions that swept North Africa and the wider Arab world in 2011. The fall of the late President Hosni Mubarak, gave the pair a renewed sense of responsibility to change their society by focusing on the environment — primarily Egypt’s waste problem. But reinvention is only a part of their story. They’ve pioneered a new eco-friendly material they call ‘plastex,’ which is made of weaved discarded plastic bags. All of their products and designs originate from this concept. Their weaving mechanism, however, is also in celebration of a craft that goes back 1,000 years in the region — which is rarely practiced within Egyptian society today. In 2019, they were named as one of OkayAfrica’s 100 Women Honourees and won the 2014 Cartier Women’s Initiative Award for the International Business Plan category.
Nicola Kagoro aka Chef Cola | Chef and Founder, Back to Black Roots (Zimbabwe)
Veganism is on the rise in Africa or as Nicola Kagoro shows, veganism is a return to practices pioneered by the ancestors. Kagoro is a trailblazing Zimbabwean vegan chef, and founder of ‘Back to Black Roots’ which she launched in 2018; a grassroots movement promoting a healthy, ethical, and affordable lifestyle in rural Africa. The name refers to the prominence of plant-based diets in Africa before Europeans introduced commercial animal farming. She has also partnered with the Akashinga Rangers to educate communities on the importance of having a vegan diet. When Kagoro is not busy running her education programmes about the benefits of a vegan diet, you can find her pop-up dinners in Harare, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Earlier this year, she was awarded a grant from ProVeg International to expand her mission to make plant-based diets more normalised.
Minky Mokapela | Founder, Raising Uhuru (South Africa)
Any mum reading this would know the struggle that comes with treating skin conditions like eczema during your child’s early years. That was the case for first-time mum Minky Mokapela, who in 2017 wanted to use more natural methods to treat her daughter’s skin, without having to use steroid-based products, and Raising Uhuru was born. Using cocoa and shea butter, which are both plant-based, and jojoba oil, Mokapela has created a range of skincare products that is safe for both adults and children. Mokapela hopes that her company will be one of South Africa’s most reputable exporters of natural cosmetics and can create up to 100 jobs in the next five years.