Tomaseina Traore

Pioneering West African educator and women's rights advocate who founded schools in French Sudan (modern Mali)

Tomaseina Traore (1898-1975) was a visionary educator and social reformer from French Sudan (now Mali). Born into a family of griots, she defied cultural norms by becoming one of West Africa's first female schoolteachers. In 1925 she established the École Française de Ségou, the first girls' school in the region with a modern curriculum. Her innovative approach blended French education with local traditions, graduating over 800 students who became teachers, nurses, and administrators across West Africa.

During the 1930s she pioneered adult literacy programs using a bilingual French/Bambara curriculum, reaching thousands of rural women. Her 1948 publication Les Femmes de l'Afrique Noire (Women of Black Africa) challenged colonial stereotypes through ethnographic research. As a founding member of the African Women's Union, she advocated for women's suffrage and land rights until her death in 1975. Traore's legacy lives on through the Tomaseina Traore Foundation which continues her educational mission in Mali today.