Amani Mohamed

Pioneered women's education in East Africa through innovative rural schools

Amani Mohamed (1915-1998) was a visionary educator from Tanzania who established the first network of girls' schools in rural East Africa. Born in a nomadic Maasai community, she defied cultural norms by walking 200 miles to attend missionary school at age 12. After training as a teacher in Kenya, she returned to Tanganyika (modern Tanzania) in 1941 to found the Masai Girls' Vocational Institute, which combined traditional skills with modern education.

Her schools pioneered mobile classrooms that followed pastoralist communities, ensuring girls didn't miss education during seasonal migrations. By 1960, her network educated over 3,000 girls annually, teaching literacy, midwifery, and agricultural science. Amani's approach influenced UNICEF's later rural education policies and inspired similar programs across Kenya and Uganda. Her 1965 publication <《Bridging Cultures: Education for Nomadic Girls》 became a foundational text in multicultural pedagogy.