28. 1950-1990 - Decolonizing Women
While the efforts to break free from colonization began long before, following World War II, colonies around the world ramped up their efforts to gain independence. The long journey toward decolonization involved social reform, peaceful and violent protest, and, as always, women were everywhere in this history.
How to cite this source?
Remedial Herstory Project Editors. "28. 1950-1990 - Decolonizing Women" The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2025. www.remedialherstory.com.
Trigger Warning: This chapter references rape and sexual assault.
Women in the mostly colonized Global South worked to decolonize, fight poverty caused by imperialism, and even to protect the planet. Women played especially vital roles in the decolonization movements in India and Africa, participating in various ways to challenge colonial rule and fight for independence, including political engagement, activism, and intellectual contributions.
Global South (n.), the nations of the world which are regarded as having a relatively low level of economic and industrial development, and are typically located to the south of more industrialized nations.
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Decolonization Prior to World War II
Efforts to gain independence had existed from the earliest days of colonization, with rebel groups - big and small - grating against colonial authorities throughout the European empires. Even seemingly small actions like keeping cultural traditions, language, and beliefs alive were acts of rebellion. Yet, there were also revolutions that led to decolonization, famously including the American (1775-1783), the Haitian (1789-1804), and Egyptian Revolutions (1919-1922).
Perhaps one of the most powerful examples was that of the Ashanti Empire – now part of modern-day Ghana. There, Yaa Asantewaa was the queen mother. In 1900, she led the Ashanti war known as the War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War, against British colonialism.
Ashanti is a southern region of modern Ghana, named after the clans of Ashanti people who had formed their own kingdom in 1670. The region had grown rich and powerful, trading gold and slaves with the British, Dutch and Danes. When Yaa Asantewaa was born in 1840, the British had assumed control of the other Europeans’ Gold Coast forts. By 1870, they had ransacked the Ashanti capital, building their own palace to rival the king’s and demanding huge taxes of the Ashanti people.
During her brother's reign, Yaa Asantewaa saw the Ashanti Confederacy go through a series of events that threatened its future, including civil war from 1883 to 1888. After the king was deported, the British governor-general of the Gold Coast demanded the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Ashanti nation and their most prized possession. This request led to a secret meeting of the remaining members of the government to discuss how to secure the return of their king and avoid surrendering the stool, and with it, their independence.
There was a disagreement on how to go about this. Yaa Asantewaa was the Guardian of the Golden Stool at this time as the queen mother, and she addressed the meeting with her now famous speech:
How can a proud and brave people like the Asante sit back and look while white men took away their king and chiefs, and humiliated them with a demand for the Golden Stool. The Golden Stool only means money to the white men; they have searched and dug everywhere for it. I shall not pay one predwan to the governor. If you, the chiefs of Asante, are going to behave like cowards and not fight, you should exchange your loincloths for my undergarments.
For added emphasis, she seized a gun and shot it in front of the men.
The men were suitably roused, and Yaa Asantewaa was chosen by a number of regional Ashanti kings to be the war-leader of the fighting force. This is the first and only example for a woman to be given that role in Ashanti history. The subsequent Ashanti-British War of the Golden Stool was led by Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa with an army of 5,000. She proved an effective leader, ordering each village to build a defensive stockade and winning back the capital by siege – preventing British troops from receiving their supplies. Beginning in March 1900, the rebellion laid siege to the fort at Kumasi where the British had sought refuge. The fort still stands today as the Kumasi Fort and Military Museum.
The experience of seeing a woman serving as political and military head of an empire was foreign to British colonial troops in 19th-century Africa, showing how the supposedly “savage” Africans were actually ahead of British “civilization” in many ways. An Ashanti song remembers her with the lyrics, “The woman who fights before cannons/You have accomplished great things/You have done well.”
After several months, however, the Gold Coast governor eventually sent a force of 1,400 to quell the rebellion. Her success was at an end, and in 1901, the British overwhelmed the 5,000 Ashanti troops and won the War of the Golden Stool. During the fighting, Queen Yaa Asantewaa and her advisers were captured and sent into exile to the Seychelles. She died in 1921, leaving a legacy as a successful farmer, an intellectual, a politician, human rights activist, queen, mother and a military leader.
While this revolution had been unsuccessful, it had still been eye-opening to the evolving relationship between colonized people and their oppressors. Following World War I, there was a greater international discussion about how colonization and inevitable wars for independence could continue to provide unwelcome opportunities for international warfare, and thus, perhaps decolonization was the ultimate effort toward peace. Yet, this required colonizers to make sacrifices that many continued to resist. After World War II, in which many colonial subjects had fought with the Allies, the concept of decolonization could no longer be sidelined. As the war illustrated the moral failings of colonizers, their inability to protect their colonies, and empowered bitter colonies to resist. Colonized nations started demanding independence from the colonial powers. Starting in 1947 with India, 1957 with Ghana in West Africa, and into the early 1960s, almost every colonized country achieved independence. Wherever these efforts took root, women enabled the process.
During the era of decolonization, men predominantly emerged as leaders in name in the various fights for independence as well as the governments formed in the wake of independence. However, women were equally significant contributors to this struggle. Behind an influential male leader, there was often a strong and resilient woman - if not many. These women were well-educated, knowledgeable about European culture, and acutely aware of the disparity between their colonizers’ professed values and its practices. They challenged the notion that colonial rule was beneficial for their people's progress and fought for their rights and independence.
Education played a crucial role in the decolonization process, and women recognized its transformative power. They actively supported and participated in educational initiatives, particularly through government and missionary schools. They advocated for equal access to education for all, breaking down barriers and empowering individuals, especially women, to actively participate in the decolonization movement.
Nana Yaa Asantewaa
Illustration captioned, “General revolt of the Blacks. Massacre of the Whites,” from an 1815 book.
Gold Coast (n.), a region on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa that extended from Ghana to the Volta River, known for the trade of gold.
A drawing depicting battle in the Anglo-Ashanti War.
Tanzanian activist Bibi Titi Mohamed.
Decolonization of India
There had long been resistance to British colonization in India, but after World War I ended in 1919, Indian leaders began fighting for their freedom from the British Empire. They were not successful in achieving this until after the end of WWII, which saw both Indian participation and resistance, and their arguments included the Indian service in the World Wars along with the hypocrisy of the Allied messaging about oppression while maintaining populations like their own as colonies.
India had two major ethnic groups: Hindus (who were the majority) and Muslims (who were the minority). While many Hindus wanted a united India after British rule, some Muslims, especially leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, were concerned about being a minority in a majority Hindu nation. In 1947, Lord “Dickie” Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India and cousin to the king of England, arrived in India to settle the exit plan. Prime Minister Clement Attlee and his cabinet set a deadline for Mountbatten, giving him until June 1948 to facilitate an agreement between the major political party leaders in India, aiming for collaboration within a unified federation.
As the state of affairs became increasingly hostile, Mountbatten abandoned this last opportunity for the British Imperial Raj to leave India as a single, independent government. Instead, he opted to follow the desires of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and divide British India into separate dominions of India and Pakistan - a decision known as “The Partition.” Mountbatten’s wife, Edwina, played an interesting role in partition. She had an affair with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India and leader of the independence efforts. The affair played a significant role in history as Edwina convinced Nehru to accept dominion status for India in 1947, speeding up the process. Their affair continued long after the Mountbattens returned to England after the Partition.
Refugees on a train during the Partition.
Edwina Mountbatten with Prime Minister Nehru.
Dominion Status (n.), the state of being a largely self-governing country under the umbrella of the British Empire/Commonwealth.
Indira Gandhi with her husband and children.
Pluralism (n.), a condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist.
Indira Gandhi with American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962.
While this was looked at as the fastest solution, the quick decision and poorly drawn partition lines in North India's significant provinces, Punjab and Bengal, cut through the homelands of millions of people whose communal and familial lines could not be divided so easily. For Indian women, division led to millions of deaths due to communal and religious violence as people moved to the “correct” side of the border. Women, with limited power, suffered greatly from gender-based violence. Widespread sexual assault occurred during the Partition, including rapes, public humiliation, mutilation, and marking of bodies with opposing religious symbols.
In one particularly tragic incident in the Thoa Khalsa village, around 90 women jumped into a well in March 1947 to avoid confrontation with the enemy. For some, it may have been a personal decision, but others might have felt compelled due to the unique circumstances. Equally tragic, some Sikh women, whose religion was not given a designated land, were tragically killed by their own relatives to prevent them from adopting a different religion. Other women, facing pressure and with little control, might have taken their own lives.
Later on, women who survived the violence were denied agency during the Central Recovery Operation (1948–1956) by the governments of India and Pakistan. This operation aimed to return abducted women to their families, but the women themselves often had limited say in the matter. Some had already converted, married, and built new lives and their return may not have been desired.
Almost a decade later, Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, became the first female prime minister of India, serving for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984. Throughout Gandhi’s reign, India continued to grapple with poverty, pluralism, inequality of wealth and education, and continuing provincial and communal violence; the worst of which erupted in Punjab.
It has been said that Indira Gandhi’s “soft-spoken, attractive personality masked her iron will and autocratic ambition, and most of her Congress contemporaries underestimated her drive and tenacity.” While it is not unusual for men to underestimate the political acumen of women, Gandhi proved one of the most influential Indian leaders – for better or for worse. She undoubtedly made history by becoming the first female leader of her independent nation. She appeared to defeat seemingly more conservative branches of governments, improved the economy (albeit at a high cost to public well-being), and led India to decisive victories in controversial but still celebrated wars abroad.
However, Gandhi’s initial promise as a pioneering feminist icon was dampened by her administration’s policies which increasingly punished the most vulnerable in society and abused their power at the expense of the lives of their own citizens. For example, Gandhi’s troubling policies of forced sterilization for certain women in her society is a paradoxical degradation of her fellow women despite her own feminist achievements. She also played a disastrous role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which will always cast a dark shadow over her reign, and eventually led to her assassination in 1984.
However, India is - at least according to recent statistics on women’s education, employment, and domestic violence - the most patriarchal society in the world. So, while her career was by no means spotless, Gandhi deserves some credit for rising above the gender norms of her society and achieving a position of power which, at the time, even women in supposedly more progressive Western countries had not achieved. Perhaps India’s conflict between the worshiping empowerment and patriarchal degradation of women is perfectly embodied in the figure of Indira Gandhi. Today, she is a controversial and complex figure, but she undoubtedly deserves her place as one of history’s most influential female politicians.
Decolonization of North Africa
India was the first major nation to achieve their independence, but they were far from the first to try, and they would be far from the last. In 1957, Queen Yaa Asantewaa’s dream for an Ashanti free of British rule was realized. They were the first African nation in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve this feat, as they joined with a few other kingdoms to form independent Ghana. Yet, this region of West Africa was only one of dozens of African nations that sought the same. The French colonies in northern Africa moved swiftly in the aftermath of World War II to point out the hypocrisy of the Western Allies’ ongoing African oppression amid an apocalyptic war for freedom from oppression.
The end of World War II was widely celebrated. For those proudly waving French flags in the streets of Paris, the surrender of Germany’s armed forces meant that freedom from fascist violence and repression was their new reality. Press photographers captured flocks of French women smothering a soldier with kisses, or proudly donning dresses made up of red, white, and blue fabric—colors representing the land of liberté, égalité, fraternité [Liberty, Equality, Fraternity] and its victorious allies: the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Countless published images from this day show crowds of beaming faces holding up issues of Libres and L’Humanité with headlines that read “Victoire! L’Allemagne Hitlérienne a capitule sans conditions!” [“Victory! Hitler’s Germany Surrendered without Conditions!”]
Across the Mediterranean and not photographed by press on VE Day, however, were less commemorative Algerians, Tunisians, and Moroccans - many of whom were soldiers in European campaigns against fascism - protesting continued French colonial rule over their country. In the small towns of Sétif and Guelma, thousands of Algerian men, women, and children took to the streets and marched in the town centers. In Oran and Algiers, clashes broke out between marchers and the police. While wreaths were placed on local war memorials and banners of the Allied countries were held high in France, Algerians waved handmade flags with a red star and crescent placed on a green and white background – a design unique to the struggle of liberation. Voices shouting “Long live free and independent Algeria!” and choruses of “Min Djibalina” [“From Our Mountains”], echoed throughout the colonized land, demanding the attention of their colonial oppressor. When French police ordered Algerians to take down flags and cease marching, scuffles between groups quickly escalated to deadly shots fired by authorities. In response, emotionally charged protestors attacked European businesses and homes, and riots continued for hours.
Tensions continued over the following weeks and months and anticolonial activists were met with state slaughters across the entire Constantine region and its countryside. French army forces and civilian militias composed of Europeans deliberately targeted Algerian nationalists to dampen the insurgence of the resistance following the end of WWII. Because of the violence, 102 Europeans' lives were lost, but several thousands of Algerians indeed dwarfed those numbers.
This occurrence of Algerian resistance met with French backlash is not exceptional, as most Algerians remained apprehensive and recognized the French as universally Islamophobic and imperialist. Taking advantage of the disorder caused by WWII, Algerian activists used the shifts of power in France as a catalyst for declaring an all-out war and the creation of new resistance factions. Anti-colonialist organizations and Muslim feminist groups - some with the support of European women activists - deliberately emerged to address new issues of religion, education, and societal roles facing Algerian women.
Women’s views and roles during the fight for independence are historically undermined because of the initial dominance of masculine ideology, yet their participation in the war's ending was integral. Made famous by Frantz Fanon and Pontecorvo’s film The Battle of Algiers (1966), women combatants or moudjahidines joined the armed resistance of the National Liberation Front (FLN). While women’s liberation was secondary to the FLN’s achieving independence in 1962, gender played an important role in carrying out acts of resistance. Fanon describes how wearing the veil, or haïk, was a tool of warfare. It served as a symbol of protecting religious customs native to Muslim Algerians in an increasingly Islamophobic colonial regime. Fanon praised the haïk for its revolutionary value as it allowed moudjahidines to smuggle bombs and travel unnoticed by French soldiers in the Casbah, the city center of Algiers. Yet, even with these new roles, women were expected to preserve traditional moral standards. While men’s efforts in the war were given a platform and voice, women created their own inventions of selfhood and survival.
Similar patterns played out in Morocco. Many women participated actively in the 1953-56 armed resistance against French colonizers, achieving their independence in the end. In oral histories, Moroccan women recall missions they went on for the resistance effort. One woman explained that she regularly transported category seven weapons - those being missiles and missile launchers. Another described how her loose clothing enabled her to hide weapons and that due to emphasis in Muslim culture on modesty, women’s bodies were rarely searched. They also smuggled messages for the resistance, sometimes to male leadership in prison.
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Women in the FLN.
Modern Algerian women wearing haïk during a political demonstration.
Decolonization of South Africa
Similar protests and uprising were occurring from the northernmost to the southernmost part of Africa. In the nation of South Africa, desires for independence had long been brewing. South Africa was colonized first by the Dutch East India Company from 1652, and permanently by the British from 1806. After the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902), the British gave South Africa dominion status as the Union of South Africa, in which political rights were given exclusively to white men. Division and oppression was sown all the more deeply in 1948, as apartheid - a system of political, social, and economic oppression - was instituted. This, and the ongoing effects of the development of mining in South Africa from the late 19th century, devastated African families.
In rural areas, men moved to work on the gold and diamond mines, and in the cities, women were left to manage the homestead. However, in cities, women faced discrimination from white government authorities who opposed their permanent presence, and even policies forbade African women to move to the cities unless they worked for white households. The government viewed them as a threat to their vision of a white population with temporary Black labor in urban areas. Life for women in cities was a struggle, but they managed to carve out a place for themselves, often finding informal work such as housekeeping or selling goods. Some resorted to illegal activities like brewing beer to make ends meet.
Most stayed in the rural areas looking after the children, working in fields to produce food for the family, and spending a significant amount of time fetching water since rural villages lacked a water supply. Yet, when food became scarce in rural areas, many women had to move to cities in search of work, leaving their children with grandmothers. Poverty played a major role in transforming their identity from mothers and caregivers to workers in cities where they were not welcomed.
The 1960s brought significant changes to Africa. While many African countries challenged and overthrew colonial rule, the white government in South Africa tightened its control over the Black population. In this unique case, it was not the matter of a foreign oppressor, but a domestic one.
Black people, including through organizations like African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), protested against them. The Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 was a pivotal moment in the fight against apartheid, leading to a state of emergency, ANC and PAC bans, and an armed struggle against the apartheid government. In 1961, male leaders in independence organizations were arrested and charged with treason, and in 1963, prominent figures like Nelson Mandela were sentenced to life imprisonment, effectively silencing them.
Federation of South African Women gathering in 1954.
Women like Frene Ginwala, Dorothy Nyembe, Ruth First, and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela played crucial roles in the anti-apartheid struggle. Ginwala helped establish and manage an underground network of safehouses to help political activists hide from police and escape the country when necessary. Dorothy Nyembe, jailed during anti-apartheid struggle, faced harsh treatment during imprisonment, but remained dedicated and loyal to the cause. Ruth First faced detention and exile after the Sharpeville Massacre, and was ultimately assassinated by the Apartheid government in 1982.
These women’s resilience and courage were essential in dismantling the oppressive regime and paving the way for a more inclusive South Africa. Speaking to the spirit of women independence fighters, Florence Maleka said, "Women of South Africa, we pledge ourselves to intensify the struggle until apartheid has been eradicated, until the last bastion of colonialism and imperialism on the African continent has been overthrown and until South Africa is a free, democratic, non-racist and non-sexist country that truly belongs to all who live in it." For some women, that meant that the diplomatic and peaceful path was not the only one they could contribute to.
Women increasingly joined Umkhonto we Sizwe - the paramilitary wing of the ANC - fighting alongside men in the armed revolutionary struggle. The United Democratic Front (UDF) was formed on August 20, 1983, advocating for non-racialism and supporting the ideals of the Freedom Charter. Women played a central role in UDF structures and campaigns at every level. Women such as Cheryl Carolus and Amy Thornton galvanized the youth and helped create intergenerational and wide civic alliances. Albertina Sisulu was elected as one of the three co-presidents, even while in jail at the time. The UDF Women's Congress addressed discrimination and prejudices against women, fighting against the patriarchal society's power dynamics where women were treated as second-class citizens, expected to fulfill specific roles and often subjected to domestic violence without recourse to justice.
Nelson Mandela is arguably the most prominent figure in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, yet he owed much of his success to the support of his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. She played an instrumental role in mobilizing support, providing solace to families affected by apartheid, and amplifying the voices of the oppressed. She endured years of confinement and played a significant role in the ANC Women's League, serving as a figurehead while her husband was imprisoned.
However, not unlike Gandhi, she illustrates the fact that women in power can be as complex and complicated as their male counterparts. Her legacy was tainted by her calls to set apartheid collaborators on fire and being implicated in a reign of terror that resulted in violence and the murder of several people in South Africa, including 14-year-old Stompie Seipei. She herself would be found accountable for human rights violations committed by her personal security detail, masquerading as a football club, at a time when they were fighting against the human rights violations of the Apartheid government.
In the 1990s, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the multitude of rights violations that occurred during apartheid. Tutu begged Madikizela-Mandela to apologize for her crimes before the commission, which she begrudgingly did. Gender double standards are evident, as no male politician was asked to apologize in the same way. She continued to be a member of the National Assembly through much of her life, and until her death in 2018 despite ongoing indications of criminal activity and corruption. While much of her reputation is muddied, some argue that her use or condoning of violence merely matched what the government was using against her people, and she was willing to cross the same lines that male leaders in sociopolitical uprisings had crossed countless times before her.
Apartheid (n.), a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.
South African women protesting “pass laws,” where dompas (passports) limited where Black citizens could live, work, and travel.
Bastion (n.), an institution, place, or person strongly defending or upholding particular principles, attitudes, or activities.
Paramilitary (adj.), (of an unofficial force) organized similarly to a military force.
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1984 poster of Viola Hashe speaking at a 1952 rally during the "Defiance Campaign".
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Double Standard (n.), a rule or principle which is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups.
Conclusion
The lives of women in the Global South continue to be diverse and measured by the long history of colonialism and decolonization. The decolonization and dismantling of European empires opened up broad opportunities in social, political, and economic spheres across the globe, but does not mean that those changes were universally progressive - especially as it relates to women. Much remains to be done for women, and women’s rights are the greatest humanitarian issue of the modern era.
We must continue to ask - how has colonization affected populations in the long term? How will the global community work together to repair the damages of colonialism? What role will women leaders play in this work?