The 8th of March marks the International Women’s Day, celebrated across the world. This day was created to amplify the voices of women and demand gender equality. The United Nations Women (UN Women) and the United Nations is spearheading this year’s celebration under the theme DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. Since the advent of computer technology to present day virtual reality and artificial intelligence, women have scaled the heights of the digital world. This digital space has created a niche for the language services industry that has had women occupying leadership spaces in the localization industry. The accomplishments made by women in the digital space have surpassed the expectations of many, even though historically they were neither recognized nor appreciated. T
his article however looks into the pioneers of female leadership in ancient Africa as the transition from which women leadership emerged, thus encouraging female leadership in all fronts, including the digital space and localization. Female leadership in ancient Africa is an important point of reference, not only for encouraging women in localization but as an important aspect of localization itself when advancing the discourse on gender and transformative localization.
Queen Amanirenas, circa 40 B.C.
She was the ruler of the Kingdom of Kush 40 B.C. to 10 B.C. in the Nubian region, what is present day Sudan. Amanirenas led an army of 30,000 to attack the Romans when the Emperor Augustus, who had captured Egypt, tried to invade Kush. She captured three cities that were ruled by the Romans in this attack. Nonetheless, Kush was later captured by Rome and the capital was destroyed while thousands were sold into slavery. Amanirenas continued to lead her people into retaliated attacks until both sides agreed to negotiate the end of the war in 24 B.C. which finally came to fruition five years after the beginning of the war. Amenirenas’s resistance against the Romans is recognized throughout the Nile Valley, widely across Africa and beyond.
Queen Nzinga Mbande c. 1583 – 1663
Nzinga was known as a military strategist who was skilled and also a proficient politician. She ruled the Mbundu people, presently Angola. She took over leadership in 1626, after her brother (the then King) committed suicide due to excess pressure from the Potuguese encroachment into Angola. Prior to being the queen, upon her brother’s request, Nzinga engaged the Portuguese in a bid to negotiate peace. Her strategic skills saw her form an alliance with Portugal which would enable her to fight rival African enemies and stop them from capturing people for slaves. Nzinga twisted the plot by capturing these African aggressors with the help of the Portuguese army and giving them to the Portuguese who would in turn give her weapons and an agreement barring the Portuguese from slave raids on her people.
When the Portuguese failed to honor their side of the bargain, she joined forces with their enemy, the Dutch and managed to fight them back. For decades, she held off the Portuguese by leading her troops and being at the forefront of the battles, even as late as her sixties. The Portuguese never managed to capture Nzinga and she passed on peacefully in her 80s after decades of defending the Mbundu people from colonizers.
The Dahomey Amazons 1600s to 1890s
Gender equity has for a long time been seen as a western value. The Dahomey Amazons, often called the women warriors, were amongst the pioneers of gender equity when European invasion in Benin disregarded the rights of women and girls by banning female education and political leadership.
The Dahomey Amazons were a military unit that comprised women warriors from the Kingdom of Dahomey, presently Benin. They were known to have influence on the socio-political leadership of the Dahomey Kingdom. The fierceness in the battlefield was recognized far and beyond. The aggressively resisted French invasion and their skills in battle caused the French to recognize their audacity in combat. They continued to battle European invasion until they were outnumbered and their weapons became lesser and eventually they were wiped out in large numbers.
In honor of the legacy left by the women warriors of the Dahomey Kingdom, a film, The Woman King, has been developed with the hope to preserve history of women leaders of ancient Afric as well as give a glimpse into the activities of this military group at the height of their existence. This also contributes to the discourse of film adaptations and media localization where language and cultures are translated from language and culture to another with the aim of reaching a wider audience. For historical events like this, it is important that when doing media localization, the adaptation process does not interfere with the original intended meaning of the event.
Queen Nanny( c. 1685 – c. 1750)
She was taken into slavery in Jamaica after being kidnapped in Ghana. She led the Jamaican Maroons who were Africans who had formerly been enslaved and were fighting for their freedom from the British. She successfully led the Maroons into battles that saw many enslaved people freed. Eventually the British had no alternative but to grant the Maroons freedom by signing a peace treaty. The Jamaican government recognized Queen Nanny’s efforts by giving her “Right of Excellent” award and having her portrait on the Jamaican $500 dollar bill.
This is just but to mention a few as many more have been documented and can be easily found online or on scholarly articles.
What lessons can women in localization pick from these women?
Having such stories in the limelight will continue to empower women and encourage those aspiring for leadership positions as well as those already leaders. It also defines the discourse on gender-transformative localization that champions for paradigm shifts in the place of women in various spaces often male dominated. Even though there is effort to empower women and girls, even more has to be done to achieve or secure this empowerment. According to the UN, women make up only 22% of artificial intelligence workers globally, a global analysis of 133 AI systems across industries found that 44.2 per cent demonstrate gender bias and a survey of women journalists from 125 countries found that 73 per cent had suffered online violence in the course of their work.
All these point to the work and effort that women still have to put in order to secure their places in the world and for their voices to not only be heard but acted upon. These conversations are backed by Women in Localization who encourage women to speak up and speak out their challenges in the field. This can be found here.
The greatest lesson therefore is that even though there is a precedent for female leadership in Africa, there is still much work to be done to cement the achievements of women in all aspects beyond localization and the digital space.
