Esperança da Costa was the first woman Vice President in Angola. She was born on May 3, 1961, in a poor part of the capital, Luanda, the fourth of six children born to her machine technician father and seamstress mother. Recognising that education was the road to a better life, Da Costa studied hard at school and university, becoming a specialised plant biologist and university lecturer at a time when few women were involved in this field in Africa. As an activist in the struggle for independence, Da Costa held a number of government posts before being chosen as second on the ruling MPLA’s party list for elections. This led to her being sworn in as Vice President in September 2022.

Neusa Monteiro is the first woman commercial helicopter pilot in Angola. She flies in the dangerous and testing environments of offshore work, ferrying people and equipment out to ships or to drilling rigs. It is one of the riskiest jobs in commercial aviation. She began her training as a commercial helicopter pilot in February 2012 in Portugal, winning the accolade as Top Student in August the following year. She is the Vice President of Angolan Women in Aviation Association in Angola (AWA), and uses social networks to encourage young people, and especially women, to consider aviation as a career.

Paule Ella Guei, the first woman rugby referee in Côte d'Ivoire, had to overcome many obstacles on her way to recognition as an ambassador for Rugby Afrique and selection as one of the 12 “Unstoppables” from the continent. Guei sees women’s involvement in rugby as a way of breaking down gender stereotypes and a national tour around the theme “Break Barriers” helped identify and rectify issues in communities where women and girls are struggling and “provide inspiration, motivation and self-esteem” for them.

Florence Loan-Messan is the first woman to be elected as the President (Bâtonnière) of the Order of Lawyers of Ivory Coast, the country’s bar association. She has been registered with the Ivory Coast Bar since 1996 and was First Conference Secretary in 1998-1999, as well as Secretary of the Ivory Coast Bar Association from 2015 to 2018. She has a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in private law from the University of Abidjan as well as a Master’s in corporate law from the University of Toulouse Capitole in France. She has worked as an advocate in France, London and the Ivory Coast in private practice.

Rose Christian Ossouka Raponda was the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Gabon and the first to be appointed Vice President. Raponda was born in June 1963 in Franceville. She received a degree in economics and public finance from the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance and began her career as the Director-General of Economy and Deputy Director-General of the Housing Bank of Gabon. In February 2012, she was appointed the Minister for Budget, Public Accounts and the Public Service where she served until January 2014. In 2014, Raponda was elected Mayor of the capital city Libreville, representing the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party. Raponda was appointed as the Defence Minister in February 2019. She also became President of United Cities and Local Governments Africa.

Rita Verdavainne Aboghe established the first magazine in the country aimed exclusively at women. The magazine, On Dit Quoi?, aims to give a voice to women and to empower and mobilise them to fight against discrimination. Its arrival coincided with a growing awareness in Gabon of the rights of women and how they are often treated as second-class citizens in society. However, Aboghe has also backed causes such as the fight against cancer and violence against women and children, as well as helping local and international organisations with campaigns against discrimination against people living with HIV.

Irene Koki Mutungi is not only the first woman pilot to fly for Kenya Airways, but also the first African woman to qualify as a Captain on a commercial aircraft. After flying as Captain on several smaller Boeing passenger jets, Mutungi became the first African female in the world to qualify to Captain the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, achieving that milestone in 2014. In October 2022, she was inducted into the Aviators Africa Hall of Fame after working in the aviation industry for over 25 years. She makes it a point to encourage and mentor young women pilots and girls who see aviation as a career. She headed an all-woman crew which delivered Kenya Airways’ 4th Dreamliner from the United States to Nairobi.

Martha Koome was the first woman Chief Justice in Kenya. She was born in a rural peasant village in Kenya. She was one of 18 children from two mothers in the extended family. She remembers it was a struggle, but she achieved law degrees and post-graduate qualifications and, working at various law firms, made a name as a staunch defender of democratic values and of the rights of women and children. In 1995 she was appointed by the African Union Meeting of Heads of State as a Commissioner to the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of Children and served as Chairperson of the National Council on the Administration of Justice’s special taskforce on children. She was appointed as the country’s Chief Justice in May 2021.

Julia Auma Ojiambo was the first Kenyan woman to be enrolled at Harvard University in the United States and the first African woman to be appointed a Government Minister after independence. Born to missionaries in a rural area of Kenya in 1936, she trained as a teacher before gaining multiple university qualifications in science and community health. After lecturing at universities and being elected a Member of Parliament, Ojiambo filled a number of ministerial posts. Her speciality, and her passion, was nutrition and, in addition to publishing multiple books and papers on the subject, she is credited with developing a protein-rich biscuit used in the treatment of kwashiorkor, a disease marked by severe protein malnutrition and bilateral extremity swelling.

Miharisoa Barinia Rakotonirina is the first woman to be appointed Head of the Air Force Training Centre at Air Force Command in Madagascar. She signed up into the Malagasy Air Force in 2011, as it opened its ranks for the first time to women. She was commissioned into the Air Force in 2014 as its first female officer, after attending the French Air Force Academy in Salon-de-Provence, where she specialised in aircraft maintenance. Dealing with racism and sexism in her training just made her more determined to succeed, she once said in an interview, and she believes that her example and those of other pioneering Malagasy women will turn the tide on gender equality in Madagascar.

Rindra Hasimbelo Rabarinirinarison was the first woman Finance Minister in Madagascar. A lawyer and political scientist by training, she graduated in public management at Georgia State University in Atlanta and in international public procurement at the International Law Institute in Washington DC. Before her appointment as Minister, her role was to monitor the general policy of the state in respect of its economic, fiscal, budgetary and financial management; to coordinate the partnership framework with technical and financial partners; and to conduct international negotiations. In 2023, African Leadership Magazine named her as one of the Top 25 African Finance Leaders. In the same year, she was given the African Minister of the Year award in the African Business Leadership Awards.

Martha Imalwa is the first woman appointed as the Prosecutor General of Namibia, a post she has held since 2004. Imalwa went into exile to Angola in 1982, and studied and graduated with distinctions from the United Nations Institute for Namibia in 1985 in Zambia. She went on to study an LLB degree with honours in 1988 at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and returned to Namibia from exile in 1989. She served as co-ordinator for the Legal Assistance Centre after independence in March 1990 in Ongwediva, before becoming a State Prosecutor in 1992 at Oshakati and subsequently serving as Control Prosecutor for the northern towns.

Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila was the first woman appointed Finance Minister in Namibia and later the country’s first woman Prime Minister. Born in a rural area of northern Namibia in 1967, at a time when the country was being administered by the apartheid government in neighbouring South Africa, she went into exile at the age of 13 to join the liberation movement, which educated her. Returning to the country after independence in 1990, she worked as an economist in the President’s office, before being appointed Director General of the National Planning Commission and then Finance Minister, going on to assume the office of Prime Minister in 2015. Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, saying: “I firmly believe that women’s empowerment and economic development are closely related. On the one hand, development itself will bring about women’s empowerment. Empowering women will bring about changes in decision making, which will have a direct impact on development.”

Claire Karekezi is the first woman neurosurgeon in Rwanda and one of only eight in the country. Born in Butare in Rwanda in 1982, she had an interest in science from an early age and gained her medical degree in 2009. This was the start of a journey of further experience and training, which took her to Sweden and England and sparked her interest in neurosurgery, a medical speciality in Africa in which there are very few qualified women. After doing an internship in Morocco and further training in the United States and Canada, Karekezi returned to open the first neurosurgery unit at Rwanda Military Hospital in Kigali. An advocate for women’s advancement in the field, Karekezi is a vital voice in a sector where only 12% of neurosurgeons in Africa are women.

Esther Mbabazi is the first qualified woman commercial pilot in the history of the country. When she told her family she wanted to be a pilot, they were surprised, but supportive. Surprised because her father, a preacher, had died in a plane crash when she was just eight years old. Some people thought she was wanting to do it just to understand how her father had died, but she had always been fascinated by flight and by aircraft – and she didn’t want a job where she would sit behind a desk. After initial training in Uganda, she was sent to the United States for further training by Rwandair, the national airline, and thus became the first qualified woman commercial pilot in the history of the country. She fights against prejudice in a male-dominated industry – but also from passengers who are hesitant to fly with a woman (those people are told they are welcome to leave the aircraft). She says times have changed: “Women are out there working and everyone has the brains to do something, now it’s not about how much bicep or how much energy you have.”

Queen Kalimpinya is Rwanda’s first female rally driver. She has had to cope with a lot of scepticism from the men in a male-dominated sport, but after her story was shared on social media, it attracted the attention and approval of former World Formula One racing champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, who gave her encouragement as he shared it with his millions of fans. Born in Kigali to a family which allowed its children to dream their dreams, Kalimpinya’s first taste of success was as a finalist in the Miss Rwanda pageant. From there, the ardent fashion aficionado has become involved in a global fashion manufacturing business, running its Rwanda operation. Her interest in rallying started when she became a navigator, the challenging job of calling out the route ahead for a driver, allowing a rally stage to be driven at the fastest possible speed. When her driver retired from the sport, she was offered the seat behind the wheel of a turbocharged Subaru Impreza. She wants to show young Rwandese women that there are no areas in society they cannot conquer, no matter the obstacles.

Charlize Theron was the first woman from Africa to win an Oscar as Best Actress. She had a tragic upbringing. Growing up on a smallholding in Benoni, near Johannesburg, she saw her alcoholic father frequently physically assault her mother. In June 1991, he threatened Charlize and her mother, firing a gun at both of them. Her mother shot back and killed him, which a court ruled was self-defence. After training as a ballet dancer and working as a model, Theron moved to Los Angeles and through agent John Crosby, got small parts in movies, gradually becoming well-known. Not wanting to be type cast as a “pretty blonde”, Theron sought out challenging parts including that of serial killer Aileen Wournos, whom she played in the 2003 movie Monster. That won her the Best Actress Oscar in 2004 for a performance which film critic Roger Ebert called “one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema.” Theron’s Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project was set up in 2007 and supports youth in Africa in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Mandisa Mfeka is South Africa’s first black woman combat jet pilot. She wanted to fly from an early age. She, her mother and grandmother would come often from the rural area in KwaZulu-Natal where she was born, to Durban, to watch the air shows at Virginia Airport. Unable to afford the entrance fees, the family would park outside the fence and watch the performing planes. At school, she was an excellent athlete, winning the “Sportswoman of the Year” trophy in 2007 before deciding on the South African Air Force as her route into a flying career. Winning her wings as a pilot in 2011, she went on to train to fly the Hawk fighter, using the callsign “Comet” – because, “Comets have a lot of energy. I always saw myself as someone with a lot of energy and one who can glow quite a bit.” She is also a motivational speaker, focusing on empowering women to break glass ceilings. She says: "It’s not enough for us to be the first, we have to be many."

Caster Semenya was the first black South African woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal. Her life is testimony to discipline and determination. Born in a small village in the province of Limpopo, the athletically talented Semenya initially started running to train for her passion – playing football. But her talent was spotted in high school and at university, and she trained as a middle-distance runner, gradually moving up in the rankings. After winning the World Championship 800-metre title in 2000, she was subjected to a barrage of tests and criticisms by those claiming she was genetically a man. Although pressurised by this, she nevertheless continued to focus on her career, despite instances where she was banned from competing, pending the results of tests and litigation. The clamour against her grew stronger in 2016, after she won the Gold medal in the 800 metres at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the first gold medal win by a black South African woman. To this day, she is fighting legal attempts by a section of the international athletics community to exclude her from competing in certain events. She is unfazed. “God made me the way I am, and I accept myself. I am who I am, and I'm proud of myself,’ she says.

Saray Khumalo was the first African woman to summit Mount Everest and the first African woman to reach the South Pole. Born in Zambia in 1972, Khumalo was one of seven girls in the family. After living in Zambia and neighbouring Zaire, she came to South Africa and became involved in the business world, marrying and having two children along the way. She became inspired to become the first African woman to summit Everest and, on her fourth attempt, in 2019 she achieved her goal, but not without harrowing near-death experiences on the mountain in previous attempts. That only steeled her resolve, she says. Now, as a life coach, she campaigns for the education of the African child and uses her fame to raise funds.

Julie Manning was the first female lawyer in Tanzania and the first woman appointed as judge. Born in the town of Morogoro in 1939, the second of eight children, she was the first Tanzanian woman to enrol at the University College Dar es Salaam for university degree studies. In 1963, she was the first woman from Tanzania to graduate with a law degree. She was the first Tanzanian woman to be appointed a High Court judge (1973) and a Minister of Justice, from 1975 to 1983, one of the first two women appointed to high political office. She later served as a counsel and a Minister Plenipotentiary at the Tanzania High Commission in Ottawa, Canada, where she dealt with educational matters, international relations and development projects. She served on a number of boards, including the Electoral Commission. A hall at the University of Tanzania has been named in her honour.

Samia Suluhu Hassan was the first woman President of Tanzania. Born in Zanzibar in January 1960 to a teacher and his wife, she was educated in the country and earned various post-graduate qualifications from universities in England and the United States. After working as a government development officer in Tanzania and then with the World Food Programme, she went into politics and was appointed Zanzibar's Minister for Youth Employment, Women and Children. She became the country’s first woman Vice President in 2015 after her CCM party won the election. After the incumbent President, John Magufuli, died in 2021, she took over the Presidency, the first woman in the history of the country to occupy that position. In office, she has been lauded for her commitment to democracy, reversing some authoritarian policies and improving Tanzania's global image. She ordered the release of political prisoners, met opposition leaders, and allowed newspapers which had been shut down by the government to reopen.

Inonge Mutukwa Wina was the first woman to hold the position of Vice President and therefore the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Zambian government. Born in 1941 in a small village in the Barotse area of Western Zambia, Wina’s father was a teacher who married a princess in the Barotseland Royal family. She was married at 18, to Arthur Wina, a nationalist freedom fighter and university graduate. Wina’s father agreed to the marriage on condition that Arthur promise to continue her educational advancement. She accompanied her husband when he went to college in the USA and obtained her own degree in social work from Santa Monica College. After returning home, she obtained a degree from the University of Zambia and later, as President of the Young Women's Christian Association, she was instrumental in promoting women's human rights agenda, resulting in the Zambian government's establishment of the Victim Support Unit under the Zambia Police Service. In January 2015, Zambia’s new president, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, appointed her to the position of Vice President. “This was one of the greatest things to happen to Zambian youth,” said Wina. “It was a privilege for me, but it also had the benefit of renewing the ambitions of young women in my country.”