hajiya_gambo_sawaba

Nigerian feminist educator who established the first women's university in West Africa

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba (1924-2018) was a pioneering Nigerian educator who transformed women's education in West Africa. In 1980 she founded the Zaria Women's College - later upgraded to Zaria Women's University - the first institution of higher learning exclusively for women in the region. Her advocacy led to the 1985 Education for All policy that mandated girls' enrollment in primary schools across Kaduna State. Sawaba's Women's Empowerment Network trained over 10,000 female teachers between 1975-1995.

She famously led the 1982 'Back-to-School March' that enrolled 200,000 girls in northern Nigeria's schools. Her 1987 book Educating Our Daughters became a foundational text in African feminist pedagogy. Sawaba's legacy includes the annual Gambo Sawaba Leadership Prize awarded to female education innovators across Africa. Her work influenced similar initiatives in Senegal and Mali through the West African Women's Education Collective she co-founded in 1990.