Mary Larteh is a woman traditional leader in Liberia. She is the Paramount Chief of the Jorquelleh Chiefdom in the Bong County.
Mary Larteh is a woman traditional leader in Liberia. She is the Paramount Chief of the Jorquelleh Chiefdom in the Bong County.
Larteh was appointed under the Presidency of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She heads 14 paramount chiefs in her county. [1]
She was suspended from this position in 2016 over an alleged involvement in the illegal establishment of Sande bushes in her community. According to the Executive Director of Women Solidarity Incorporated, her action was seen as a means of denying girls of school going age of their right to access education. [2] She was however reinstated the following year by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is still the chief of the area. [3]
In the 2017 runoff elections in Liberia, she admonished the youth of her community to uphold peace, and avoid resorting to or being used to instigate any form of violence during and after the election process. [4] [5]
Chief Mary Larteh is one of the several women traditional leaders whose leadership is being studied under a University of Ghana project titled "Women and Political Participation in Africa: A Comparative Study of Representation and Role of Female Chiefs", which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In this project, a mixed-methods approach is adopted to comparatively study women’s representation in the institution of chieftaincy and their influence on women’s rights and wellbeing in Botswana, Ghana, Liberia, and South Africa. [6] [7] Lead researchers on the project, Peace A. Medie, Adriana A. E Biney, Amanda Coffie and Cori Wielenga, have also published an opinion piece titled "Women traditional leaders could help make sure the pandemic message is heard" in The Conversation news, which discusses how women traditional leaders can educate their subjects on Covid-19. [8]
The Mende are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone; their neighbours, the Temne people, constitute the largest ethnic group at 35.5% of the total population, which is slightly larger than the Mende at 31.2%. The Mende are predominantly found in the Southern Province and the Eastern Province. The Mende are mostly farmers and hunters. Some of the major cities with significant Mende populations include Bo, Kenema, Kailahun, and Moyamba.
The Mfantsefo or Fante are an Akan people. The Fante people are mainly located in the Central and Western coastal regions of Ghana. Over the last half century, due to fishing expeditions, Fante communities are found as far as Gambia, Liberia and even Angola. Major Fante cities in modern Ghana include Kasoa, Winneba, Agona Swedru, Tarkwa, Oguaa, Edina (Elmina), Mankessim, Sekondi and Takoradi.
Ruth Sando Fahnbulleh Perry was a Liberian politician. She served as the interim Chairman of the Council of State of Liberia from 3 September 1996 until 2 August 1997, following the First Liberian Civil War. After eleven international peace attempts between 1990 and 1995 to end the civil war in Liberia, the attempts appeared to succeed. The interim Council of State consisted of a civilian chairman, as well as members of warring factions: Charles Taylor, United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy-K leader Alhaji Kromah, Liberia Peace Council leader George Boley, and two other civilians.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Sande, also known as zadεgi, bundu, bundo and bondo, is a women's initiation society in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. The Sande society initiates girls into adulthood by rituals including female genital mutilation. It is said by its supporters to confer fertility, to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment, and to maintain an interest in the well-being of its members throughout their lives.
Jewel Cianeh Taylor is a Liberian politician who is currently serving as the 30th vice president of Liberia. She was married to convicted warlord and former president Charles Taylor and was First Lady of Liberia during his presidency. In 2005, Jewel Taylor was elected to the Senate of Liberia for Bong County as a member of the National Patriotic Party. She served as the Chairperson of the Senate Health and Social Welfare Committee on Gender, Women and Children.
Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her efforts to end the war, along with her collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, helped usher in a period of peace and enabled a free election in 2005 that Sirleaf won. Gbowee and Sirleaf, along with Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Melody Millicent Danquah was a Ghanaian pilot. She was the first female pilot in Ghana and one of the earliest in Africa. She followed in the footsteps of Lotfia Elnadi who was the first Egyptian woman as well as the first woman from Africa to earn a pilot's license on 27 September 1933.
Suah Koko was an indigenous Liberian ruler who lived between the late 19th and early 20th century. She fought several battles against the expansionary Liberia Frontier Force before entering negotiations to grant accession of the territory she ruled over to the Liberian government. She later became a paramount chief and supplied porters to the Harvard Medical African Expedition (1926–1927).
Emma Shannon Walser was a Liberian lawyer and jurist who became the country's first female judge in 1971.
Peace Adzo Medie is a Liberian-born Ghanaian academic and writer of both fiction and nonfiction.
Nana Oye Mansa Yeboaa, also known by the name Mrs. Theresa Owusu, is a Ghanaian traditional ruler, politician, public servant and diplomat. She is a woman chief in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She holds the title of the Dompiahene of the Akuapem Traditional Area. She was the deputy minister for Finance and Economic Planning, the first female deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, and Ghana's ambassador to Belgium and the European Union.
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Gundonaa Hajia Samata Abudu is the Paramount woman Chief of the Dagbon traditional area in the Northern Region of Ghana. All women Chiefs in that area are subordinate to her. She heads the Gundogu skin, the female equivalent of the Yendi skin, which is headed by the Yaa-Naa. The Gundonaa is the only Chief, be it male or female, who is able to veto the Yaa-Naa's word. She is assisted in her duties by the Kpatunaa, a female Chief of the Kpatuya clan.
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Kgosi Rebecca Banika is the traditional leader for the Pandamatenga village in the Chobe district of Botswana. Pandamatenga is a diverse settlement consisting of eight ethnic groups. She was installed on 15 November 1999, being the first woman to be installed as a chief in Botswana, and the first to be elected to the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, having been elected in 2000. In 2019, she was re-elected to the Ntlo ya Dikgosi as a representative for her district.
Hosi Phylia Tinyiko Lwandlamuni Nwamitwa II, also known as Tinyiko Nwamitwa-Shilubana, is the traditional leader of the Valoyi area in Limpopo.
Mama Atrato II is the queen mother of Ho-Dome in the Asogli Traditional area of the Volta region of Ghana.
Mama Ametor Hoebuadzu II is the Paramount Queen of the Alavanyo Traditional Area in the Volta region of Ghana.
Ama Biney is a British Ghanaian historian, journalist, political scientist and academic, who for more than 25 years has lectured and taught courses on African and Caribbean history, the History of Black People in Britain, and on international relations in the UK and in Ghana, including at such institutions as Middlesex University, Birkbeck College, University of London, the University of Liverpool, and Webster University Ghana. Among outlets for which she has written are New African magazine, African Studies Quarterly, South African History Online and Pambazuka News, for which she has served as Editor-in-Chief. As an independent Pan-Africanist scholar and activist, she follows Steve Biko's tradition of "writing what she likes."