Every year when the world observes International Women’s Day, it offers us a moment to pause and reflect. For many African women, this day is not only about celebration.
It is about remembering the journeys that brought us here, honouring the women who came before us, and recognising the women who walk beside us today. It is also a moment to reflect on the responsibility we carry to continue building a more just and compassionate Africa for the generations that will follow.
My own journey into human rights work, community organising, and political engagement has not been a straight or predictable path. Like many women across our continent, my understanding of justice did not come from books or policy papers alone.
It came from lived experience.
As a survivor of violence, I came face to face with a painful reality that many women know too well, that the systems meant to protect us sometimes fail us. That experience did not close my path; instead, it became the beginning of a deeper commitment to ensuring that other women are heard, protected, and treated with dignity.
Over time, that personal journey grew into a broader calling. It led me into human rights advocacy, into community spaces where women gather to share their experiences, and into conversations about how we can collectively build safer and more just societies.
Working at grassroots level has been one of the most grounding parts of this journey. In community halls, village meetings, and everyday conversations with women across South Africa, I have witnessed the extraordinary strength that African women carry every day.
Many of these women may never hold public titles, yet they are leaders in their homes and communities. They organise quietly, support one another in moments of hardship, and stand up against injustice in ways that are both courageous and deeply inspiring.
As my work continued, I came to understand that community activism must also connect with the spaces where policies are shaped and decisions are made. Transforming the lives of women requires not only grassroots mobilisation but also engagement with the institutions that influence governance and leadership.
This understanding led me into political and policy conversations, not as a pursuit of power but as a commitment to ensuring that the realities of communities, especially women. are reflected in the decisions that shape our societies.
Recently, I had the honour of joining the Steering Committee of the Pan African Youth Parliament, within the committee focusing on women, family, youth and persons with disabilities. I have only just begun this journey, and I step into this space with humility and gratitude.
I look forward to learning from and working alongside Pan-African women from across the continent who share a commitment to justice, leadership, and inclusive governance.
Together we carry the responsibility of contributing to the Africa we want, an Africa where young women can lead, where communities are represented in decision-making, and where dignity remains at the centre of our collective vision.
This reflection is not about one individual journey. It is about the many women who walk beside me in the spaces where I serve, organise, and learn. It is dedicated to the young women serving within the Pan Africa Youth Parliament who are bringing renewed energy into conversations about leadership across the continent.
It is also dedicated to the women of the Futurelect Women in Public Office fellowship who are preparing themselves to reshape leadership within South Africa’s political landscape. Their commitment to ethical leadership and democratic participation offers hope for a future where governance is more responsive to the needs of communities.
At the same time, I dedicate this reflection to the women working alongside me through The Great People of South Africa, women who organise communities, support survivors of violence, and work tirelessly to build safer and more compassionate environments.
But the story of African women’s leadership does not live only in political institutions, civil society, or youth movements. It also lives deeply within the spiritual traditions of our continent. Across Africa, women have long served as spiritual guides, healers, seers, prophets, and traditional doctors who carry ancestral knowledge.
These women hold an important place within our societies, reminding us that justice is not only political or social, it is also spiritual. In many communities, women who walk the path of spiritual calling help people reconnect with their ancestors, restore balance, and remind society of values rooted in respect, healing, and collective wellbeing.
May those women who carry spiritual gifts, the healers, the seers, the prophets, and the traditional practitioners guided by African spirits , continue to use their gifts to guide our communities toward healing, truth, and spiritual justice.
Across these different spaces, community movements, political leadership, youth forums, and spiritual traditions. I see a generation of African women deeply committed to shaping the future of our continent.
These women come from different cultures, languages, identities, and lived experiences. Some organise communities. Some influence policy. Some guide others through spiritual wisdom. Some are still discovering their voice. Yet they are united by a shared belief that Africa’s future must include the leadership, wisdom, and dignity of women.
The women of the Women of the South Speak Out (WOSSO) fellowship remain an important part of the journey I reflect on today. During that fellowship, I had the privilege of walking alongside remarkable women from across the Global South, each carrying stories shaped by resilience, courage, and commitment to justice.
Through our shared storytelling, we learned that the experiences of women in our different regions are deeply connected, even when our contexts may differ. The fellowship reminded us that when women speak their truths, they do more than tell stories — they challenge silence and build solidarity across borders. Looking back on that journey with these women fills me with gratitude, knowing that our voices continue to echo in the work we each carry forward in our communities.
These reflections also remind me that the work we carry today is not new. We walk in the footsteps of extraordinary African women whose courage and vision shaped the struggles for justice and dignity across our continent.
Women like Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whose resilience during the liberation struggle became a powerful symbol of resistance. Women like Wangari Maathai, who showed the world that environmental justice and women’s empowerment are inseparable. Women like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who demonstrated that African women belong in the highest levels of leadership and governance. And women like Graça Machel, whose lifelong dedication to justice continues to inspire generations across Africa and beyond.
This generation of African women reminds us that our journeys are connected to a much larger story—one that began long before us and continues to unfold through the work we carry today.
As I reflect on this journey during International Women’s Day, I do so with deep humility and gratitude. My story is only one among millions of African women whose lives are shaped by resilience, courage, and community.
The women who walk beside me today, in Pan-African spaces, youth forums, civil society organisations, leadership fellowships, and spiritual callings, represent the continuation of a legacy that began long before us.
The work ahead remains significant. Women across Africa still face violence, inequality, and barriers to opportunity. Yet there is also hope. Every day, more women are stepping forward to lead, to organise, to heal, and to imagine new possibilities for their communities and for the continent.
Guided by the wisdom of those who came before us and strengthened by the solidarity of those who walk beside us today, we continue this journey together.
And in doing so, we honour not only the women who shaped our past, but also the future of Africa itself.
To all the women of our beautiful continent. Cheers to a blessed International Women's day.
