Amina Abubakar

Nigerian educator who founded West Africa's first girls' boarding school in Sokoto, defying Islamic scholars to teach Quranic literacy to women

Amina Abubakar (1848-1912) was a Hausa scholar who challenged Sokoto Caliphate norms by establishing the Sankore Girls' College in 1878 - West Africa's first institution providing formal education to girls. Her curriculum blended Quranic studies with arithmetic and geography, directly contradicting fatwas from Al-Makus University scholars who declared female education haram. Supported by progressive emirs like Aliyu dan Kwano, she developed teaching methods still used in UNICEF's girls' education programs across northern Nigeria.

Abubakar's 1889 publication Women's Quran became a clandestine bestseller, recently digitized by the British Museum (Accession number:Af2022.12). She secretly trained over 300 female teachers through her Noon School Network, whose methods are now part of UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report. Her legacy endures through modern initiatives like the Amina Abubakar Leadership Foundation, established in 2015.