by Florence Mugambi, Librarian, Herskovits Library of African Studies
Forde receiving her African Studies certificate in 1966
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.