This article originally ran in the PAS Newsletter, Spring 2020, Volume 30, Number 3
by Florence Mugambi, Librarian, Herskovits Library of African Studies
As part of Northwestern’s celebration of 150 years of admitting women students, a Herskovits Library winter exhibition highlighted five of the many women who have earned PhDs in African studies. In addition, the University Libraries’ exhibition “On the Same Terms: The Beginnings of Women’s Education at Northwestern” has been on display in Deering Library since the fall quarter.
Hannah Abeodu Bowen Jones (history PhD ’62) came to Northwestern on a Liberian government scholarship to study history. She was the first person to obtain a PhD in African history at Northwestern and Liberia’s first woman PhD. Returning home to join the faculty of the University of Liberia, Jones reported that she was “referred to as ‘the Department of History’” because she was the staff ’s only Liberian with a doctorate and its only professor of history. As the only woman in Liberian president William Tubman’s cabinet, she served as minister of postal affairs (1975-76) and then of health and social welfare (1977-78). From 1981 to 1984, she was Liberia’s permanent representative and ambassador to the United Nations. Jones founded the Liberian Historical Society and participated in designing the eight-volume UNESCO History of Africa, serving as director of UNESCO oral history research on Liberia (1968-72). She coedited The Official Papers of William V. S. Tubman, President of the Republic of Liberia: Covering Addresses, Messages, Speeches, and Statements 1960-1967 (1968). During the Liberian civil war, she returned to the US where she taught history at Chicago State University.
Enid Rosamund Ayodele Forde (geography PhD ’66) was the first Sierra Leonean woman to obtain a PhD. Her dissertation, “The Population of Ghana: A Study of the Spatial Relationships of Its Sociocultural and Economic Characteristics,” contributed to the study of West African geography. On her return to Sierra Leone, she chaired the Department of Geography at Fourah Bay College. She authored a number of published articles on land use, economic development, and modernization in Sierra Leone. In addition, she assisted in carrying out the Sierra Leone national population census in 1986 and participated in the family planning program.
Thandekile Ruth Mason Mvusi (history PhD ’85) is an educator and social historian. She taught at several colleges and universities, including Spelman College and Drake University, where she cofounded the women’s studies pro-gram. In 1997 she cofounded the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy, a coalition of friends who shared a belief in the transformative potential of education. The Hamer Institute conducted seminars and workshops for K-12 teachers and students that highlighted the role of the Civil Rights movement in promoting citizenship and democracy in America; Mvusi went on to serve as core faculty and vice chair. From 1999 to 2001 she was a Fulbright scholar to the Kingdom of Swaziland Eswatini and later served as a consultant to the International Training in Women and Development Project. Her publications include The African Diaspora and the World (1998), The Poverty of Femaleness and Blackness in Swaziland (2003), and The Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy: Engaging Curricula and Pedagogy (2005).
Una Osili (economics PhD ’99) is associate dean of research and international programs and director of research in the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, where she is professor of economics and philanthropic studies, a position she also holds at Purdue University at Indianapolis. Osili serves as a consultant for numerous national and global institutions including the World Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the United Nations Development Program, the African Development Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and other agencies. In addition to providing expert testimony on economic development to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she has authored or coauthored many working papers for national and international agencies as well as many articles in leading academic journals and global media including National Public Radio, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal. A founding officer of the Association for the Advancement of African Women Economists, she established Generosity for Life, a digital platform that provides new data tools for financial decision-making in philanthropy and social impact.
Mshaï Salome Mwangola (performance studies PhD ’09) is an oraturist, director, and performer active in theater and storytelling. She has taught and contributed to policy processes engaging different aspects of culture, arts, theater, and performance for over three decades. Her research explores Kenyan cultural history and actors as critical reflectors of the Kenyan nation. She has facilitated programs as research and communication officer for the African Peacebuilding Network Hub of the African Leadership Centre, based in Nairobi, where she also teaches. Her recent research focuses on women’s participation in peace building and leadership from the African perspective. She has chaired the board of trustees of the Uraia Trust (a civic education program) and the Kenya Cultural Centre Governing Council (2009-12)