Cameroon Omgba Bissogo(c. 1855 – 1896) was an Ewondo tribal chief and warrior who, during the colonial period in Cameroon in 1895, led a rebellion against German forces present in Cameroon. Omgba Bissogo was the head of the Ewondo Mvog Ottou sublineage. Bissogo and his army won their initial battles against the Germans.This was the …
Karnou Barka Ngainoumbey
Cameroon Barka Ngainoumbey, known as Karnou (meaning “he who can change the world”), was a Gbaya religious prophet and healer from the Sangha River basin region. In 1924 he began preaching non-violent resistance against the French colonisers in response to the recruitment of natives in the construction of the Congo-Ocean Railway and rubber tapping, and …
Bai Bureh
Sierra Leone Bai Bureh (February 15, 1840 – August 24, 1908) was a Sierra Leonean ruler, military strategist, and Muslim cleric, who led the Temne and Loko uprising against British rule in 1898 in Northern Sierra Leone.
Priestess Sarraounia Mangou
Niger Sarraounia Mangou was a chief/priestess of the animist Azna subgroup of the Hausa, who fought French colonial troops of the Voulet–Chanoine Mission at the Battle of Lougou (in present-day Niger) in 1899. She is the subject of the 1986 film Sarraounia based on the novel of the same name by Nigerian writer Abdoulaye Mamani. …
Aba Women’s Protest
Nigeria The Women’s War, or Aba Women’s Protest (Igbo: Ogu Umunwanyi; Ibibio: Ekong Iban), was a period of unrest in colonial Nigeria over November 1929. The protests broke out when thousands of Igbo women from the Bende District, Umuahia and other places in eastern Nigeria traveled to the town of Oloko to protest against the …
Aline Sitoe Diatta
Senegal Aline Sitoe Diatta (also Aline Sitow Diatta or Alyn Sytoe Jata; 1920 – 22 May 1944) was a Senegalese heroine of the opposition to the French colonial empire, and a strong young female symbol of resistance and liberty. A Jola leader of a local religious group living in the village of Kabrousse, Basse Casamance, …
Yaa Asantewaa
Ghana Yaa Asantewaa I (born 17 October 1840 – 17 October 1921) was the Warrior Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire – now part of modern-day Ghana – appointed by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Opese, the Edwesuhene, or ruler, of Edwesu. In 1900 she led the Ashanti war known as the War …