Mary Akiro Ayok

A Ugandan educator who established East Africa's first girls' boarding school to combat gender inequality in education.

Breaking Barriers

Mary Akiro Ayok (1912–1968) faced expulsion from a missionary school at 14 for advocating girls' enrollment. She later raised funds from local chiefs and British colonial officials to build Nakasero Girls' Academy in 1938, admitting girls from marginalized ethnic groups. The school's 1945 'Silent Voices' theater troupe toured East Africa to protest child marriage.

Policy Impact

Ayok's 1952 report 'Education as Liberation' influenced Uganda's 1963 Education Act mandating girls' enrollment quotas. Her 1960s correspondence with Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah inspired Pan-African girls' education initiatives. The Mary Akiro Foundation continues her work today.