For centuries, there has been an almost singular image of a scientist: wild-eyed, dishevelled hair and a man who is almost always white. While the reality is that science, and the faces behind it, have certainly become a lot more diverse and inclusive, this archaic and stereotypical image still persists even today. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are still undoubtedly dominated by white men, however, there is hope that the tide has and continues to change across the world.
Black people have always been pushing science forward for as long as science itself has existed but the major stumbling block for the community has been discrimination at two levels. The first has really been a lack of recognition of our work as just that - ours - with much of it stolen and passed off as just another white man’s ingenuity. Think of how South African heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard’s historic heart transplant in 1967 would not have been possible without Hamilton Naki. Think of the contributions of African-American women such as the late Katherine Johnson whose mathematical work was critical to NASA’s successful Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969.
The second level of discrimination sees Black women in particular being kept at the margins of the scientific community despite their groundbreaking work across a number of differen fields. The idea that women in general do not belong in science or that they are not competent enough to be scientists is still prevalent and impacts, as a result, the number of young girls and women who eventually enter into STEM fields. Who can forget the infamous Google memo written by a male software engineer who argued, largely making use of gender stereotypes, that the industry didn’t have a diversity issue but that women were simply not up to the task of occupying those kinds of “high stress” careers. And while sexism is nothing new the world over, in many African countries where gender stereotypes are deeply entrenched in culture, customs and tradition, the odds become stacked against young African girls who dream of becoming scientists.
Hence, it’s incredibly important to push back against these tired tropes of who can and cannot be a scientist and advocate fiercely for the fair representation and recognition of women in STEM fields. What better way to do that than to continuously amplify the work of women scientists? Thus, from leading pioneering research in the fight against Covid-19 to championing the sexual and reproductive rights of women, here are just 7 African women scientists who are trailblazing in their respective fields.
Francisca Okeke (Physics)
Francisca Okeke is an internationally-acclaimed Nigerian physicist at the University of Nigeria whose research of the ionosphere attempts to make sense of climate change. She is a recipient of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award which is awarded to five women from each continent in recognition of their contributions to both science and society. Okeke, who has many firsts under her belt within the physics space as a woman scholar, is passionate about encouraging younger women to enter into what is still a largely male-dominated space. Her passion for physics, according to her, has largely been a result of both her childhood curiosity and essentially being mentored by her father who himself was a graduate of mathematics.
Tatenda Zinyemba (Covid-19)
Tatenda Zinyemba is a Zimbabwean PhD fellow at the United Nations University-MERIT who is currently at the forefront of research attempting to better understand the impact of Covid-19 in Africa. With a Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Economics, Zinyemba is passionate about addressing inequalities in health, education and gender. According to her, the continued advocacy for women in spaces where they are underrepresented is key, especially seeing that, “Women constitute more than half of the world’s population and are endowed with the same mental capacities as men.” She adds quite simply that, “Having more women and girls in science should just be normal.”
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Faith Osier (Immunology)
Faith Osier is an award-winning Kenyan immunologist specialising in malaria, a potentially life-threatening disease which kills just under 400 000 people annually on the African continent alone. Her work has mainly focused on how the body’s immune system uses different ways to defend itself from the parasite that causes malaria. She is one of the leading African scientists that has been heavily involved in spearheading the crucial work towards developing a vaccine against the disease. Determined to see the fruits of her labour come to fruition during her lifetime, Osier, alongside several other scientists finally made history recently with the first-ever malaria vaccine (Mosquirix) which has since been approved by the World Health Organisation for use in children living in high-risk areas.
Tlaleng Mofokeng (Sexual & Reproductive Health)
Tlaleng Mofokeng, or “Dr T” as she’s known endearingly, is a South African medical doctor specialising in women’s sexual and reproductive health in addition to being the current United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health. Mofokeng has been at the forefront of advocating for abortion as necessary healthcare as well as the decriminilsation of sex work in South Africa. Her book, A Guide to Sexual Health & Pleasure, is not only about the so-called “pleasure revolution” and empowering women sexually, but also speaks to important issues such as consent while directly addressing the continued scourge of gender-based violence, rape and sexual assault in the country.
Susan Karanja (Neurosurgery)
Susan Karanja is only one of six women neurosurgeons in Kenya, the most women neurosurgeons in the entire East African region. And while, on the one hand, it is quite the feat to be part of a handful of specialists in the country, Karanja has often spoken in previous interviews about the need for experts like herself to be given the opportunity to further encourage young girls at the high school level to consider STEM fields as viable career paths for themselves. It is thus unsurprising that she was recently featured as one of 10 Remarkable African Women Breaking Barriers in Healthcare by Global Citizen alongside a number of women scientists including, among several others, Dr Sindisiwe van Zyl and Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng who are also featured on this list.
Sindisiwe van Zyl (General Medicine & HIV)
Sindisiwe van Zyl was a Zimbabwean-born South African medical doctor who unfortunately succumbed to Covid-19 complications earlier this year. Dubbed “the people’s doctor”, she consistently used her social media platforms and segment on radio station KayaFM to share her expertise on various topics including mental health, the effects of drugs, HIV, women’s health and more. She was awarded the Glamour Women of the Year award back in 2018 for her important work in the medical community, work she conveyed that she wanted to do following her own negative experiences with health workers as a teenager. Compassion was at the centre of her work, an underrated quality in a world where Black women’s health is often ignored and even put in harm’s way by those who are supposed to safeguard their lives.
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Wangari Maathai (Climate change)
Perhaps one of the most prolific and impactful environmental and social activists on the continent, the late Wangari Maathai left an indelible mark in the space of sustainable development and climate change. Maathai was certainly a woman of many firsts—the first African woman to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004; the first woman scholar from East and Central Africa to ever receive a doctorate in biology as well as the first woman professor in her home country Kenya. From 1977, Maathai began to mobilise women to start planting trees not only in an effort to fight rampant deforestation in the country but to also fiercely address and advocate for women’s rights in the country.