Strong, gorgeous women!

[Lumière]

Eleni Gabre-Madhin





Living in Rwanda, at the age of 12 Eleni single-mindedly applied to a boarding school in Kenya.
When her parents, who were surprised by her action, asked her why she had done so,
she told them that she had already crafted her ten-year future plan and Kenya was the start line.

Eleni spent the first three decades of her life in six different countries, between the US,
different parts of Africa, and Europe. She grew up in various cultures, picking up her trilingual skills
in English, French & Kiswahili and becoming easily adaptable to people and cultures wherever she went.
Following the upheaval of the 1975 revolution, Eleni left her beloved country with her family once again.
It would take her almost 30 years before she returns back to her birth country.  [tigray.net]


Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin has ambitious vision -- to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia,
bringing rates and standards (not to mention trading systems, warehousing and data centers) to the trade of crops.

Gabre-Madhin left her earlier job, as a World Bank senior economist in Washington, DC, in part because she was disturbed
by the 2002 famine in Ethiopia -- after a bumper crop of maize the year before. With prices depressed,
many farmers simply left their grain in the field in 2001. But when the rains failed in 2002, a famine of 1984 proportions threatened the country.
Her dream: to build a market that protects the African farmer, who is too often living at the mercy of forces beyond his or her control.

The director of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Madhin studies market reforms, market institutions,
and structural transformation in Africa, and works to create "a world free of hunger and malnutrition."  [ted.com]

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) became operational in April 2008, with Eleni as its Chief Executive Officer.

[Lumière]

Betty Oyella Bigombe




Betty was born in Gulu, northern Uganda, in 1954, one of 11 children. She went on to university
and was eventually elected as one of Uganda's first female government ministers in 1988,
when President Yoweri Museveni appointed her "Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister",
a post in which she was tasked with convincing the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda rebels to give up their struggle.

Following the failure of military efforts to defeat the rebels, Bigombe initiated contact
with rebel leader Joseph Kony in June 1993. In that same year, she was named Uganda's Woman of the Year
for her efforts to end the violence. Despite meeting with Kony, the talks collapsed in February 1994.
Soon afterward the insurgency intensified and no significant efforts towards peace would be made for the next decade.
She also assisted in the peace efforts between Uganda and Sudan.

In 1997, she took a fellowship award at the Harvard Institute for International Development.
She then became a senior social scientist with the Postconflict unit at the World Bank and
then a consultant to the Bank's Social Protection and Human Development units.
She co-authored several articles on post-conflict peacebuilding and the impact of conflict on women and children.

Following the February 2004 Barlonyo massacre, Bigombe took a leave of absence from the World Bank
and flew to Uganda to attempt to restart the peace process. From at least March 2004 to 2005,
Bigombe was the chief mediator in a new peace initiative with the LRA, personally financing much of the logistics
of bringing Ugandan government ministers and rebel leaders together. The last meeting on April 20, 2005 fell through.
However, the failure of the Bigombe mediation is seen as laying the groundwork for the 2006–2007 Juba talks,
which are mediated by the government of Southern Sudan.

Bigombe is still regularly consulted by both Ugandan officials and LRA representatives on the course of the talks. [answers.com]

[Lumière]

African Herstories series contd..

Brenda Fassie (1964 – 2004)




She was a legendary South African pop singer widely considered a voice for disenfranchised blacks during apartheid.
She was affectionately known as the Queen of African Pop and her nickname amongst fans was Mabrr.
Brenda was born in Langa, Cape Town as the youngest of 9 children.  Her father died when she was 2,
and with the help of her mother, a pianist, she started earning money by singing for tourists.

With very outspoken views and frequent visits to the poorer townships of Johannesburg,
as well as songs about life in the townships, she enjoyed tremendous popularity.
Known best for her songs "Weekend Special" and "Too Late for Mama", she was called by Time Magazine in 2001
"The Madonna of the Townships". [wikip]

In her twenties she was already an old hand in the music industry. When rumors of drug abuse surfaced,
many argued it was because she gained too much fame too fast. In typical Brenda fashion she faced the press
and confirmed the allegations; she admitted she was a drug-addict and a lesbian.

It was around this time when a change came about in Brenda’s life. One morning she woke up in a drug-induced haze,
next to her was her close friend and lover Poppie Sihlahla, who had died of a drug overdose.
It changed Brenda’s life and she decided to get down to serious business.

[Amidst more personal problems], she released Mameza (Shout) in 1998. It became South Africa’s
best selling release of the year and went platinum on its first day of release.
Most of her albums became multi-platinum sellers in South Africa. [women24.com]

Fassie never decisively won her battle with drugs and alcohol, and her visits to the rehab clinic continued.
In April of 2004, she was rushed to hospital with breathing problems, that led to an asthma attack and then cardiac arrest.
She passed away on May 9, 2004.

Brenda Fassie tried to commit suicide three times in her life. Many of her love relationships turned sour,
she had a few run-ins with the law and a long history with drugs. It was not an easy life.
But despite all the drug problems and setbacks, no one can argue that Brenda was a star and a true musical genius.[women24.com]


Brenda Fassie - too late for mama
[youtube=425,350]http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC-JqKc1mx4[/youtube]

[ifyoucantfixit]

       Early years

Mabley was born Loretta Mary Aiken into a large family of twelve children in Brevard, Transylvania County, North Carolina. Her father, James P. Aiken, owned and operated several businesses while her mother, Mary, kept home and took in boarders. Her father died a sudden accidental death when she was eleven.[1] By the age of fifteen Mabley had been raped twice and had two children that were given up for adoption. After being forced by her stepfather to marry a much older man she despised, being encouraged by her grandmother strike out on her own, she ran away to Cleveland, Ohio with a travelling minstrel show where where she began singing and entertaining.[2]

[edit] Career

She took her stage name, Jackie Mabley, from an early boyfriend, commenting to Ebony magazine in a 1970s interview that he'd taken so much from her, it was the least she could do to take his name. Later she became known as "Moms" because she was indeed "Mom" to many other comedians on the circuit in the 1950s and 60s. She was one of the top women doing stand-up in her heyday, and recorded more than 20 albums of comedy routines. She appeared in movies, on television, and in clubs.

Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville Chitlin' circuit, earning US$10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career. She made her New York City debut at Connie's Inn in Harlem.[3]

In the 1960s, she become known to a wider white audience, playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, and making a number of mainstream TV appearances in the 1960s.

Mabley was billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World," and she tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the time, including racism, and although she was lesbian, one of her regular themes was her romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old, "washed-up geezers", and regularly got away with it courtesy of her on stage persona where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat.[4] She added the occasional satirical song to her jokes, and had a minor song hit in the 1960s with a serious plea for peace, "Everythings Gonna Be Alright."

[edit] Personal life

Mabley died in White Plains, New York from heart failure and was survived by her children, Bonnie, Christine, Charles, and Yvonne Ailey.[3][5] She is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.


.....I love love loved, her so much.........


           

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[Front-Ranger]

I also am enjoying this thread very much!

[Front-Ranger]

Jennifer Figge, first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean!!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-jennifer-figge-090208-ht,0,5398046.story


She's a 56-year-old resident of Aspen, Colorado!

[Pipedream]

Dalida (1933 – 1987), Egyptian-Italian singer, actress, goddess...  



One of her greatest hits in the 70s: Il venait d'avoir 18 ans

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX2e9Si-FLY[/youtube]

[Pipedream]

Words, just words... parole... 


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[Meryl]

Words, just words... parole... 


[youtube=425,350]

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C'est tres bien, Anke! 

[Ellemeno]

Just got caught up on the last three pages.  Thank you, everyone, and Milli, especially, for introducing me to so many wonderful African women.  I have known and loved Zap Mama for a long time, and Miriam Makeba, of course, but the rest were new to me.  Thank you all.