Portrait of the Mother Continent

Described as ‘the first empirical study to offer a comprehensive and contextually rich portrait of African women in the legal profession’, this book is immaculately researched and woven together. 

Professor Dawuni has put an immense amount of effort into capturing the voices and views of black female lawyers across Africa, whether they be at the bar, on the bench or in academia. The challenges they have had to face to gain respect and progress in what can still be a very masculine profession are encapsulated in illuminating interviews. These accounts are backed up by an impressively deep set of data for the 54 individual countries and the continent as a whole. Africa is, of course, very diverse and some countries are more progressive than others when it comes to opportunities for women to advance in the legal profession. Credit is given to those nations that have shown a strong growth in the numbers of women rising up the ladder, while also acknowledging that further progress is necessary.

The accounts from some of those who have risen up the ranks, such as Florence Mumba and Effie Owuor, the first female high court judges in Zambia and Kenya respectively, make fascinating reading and are some of the best parts of the book, but Dawuni also makes it clear how much work is still to be done.

Some of the tales of sexist and obstructive attitudes will also be familiar to British female lawyers; problems with sexism in African law are far from unique. But this book is tremendous in its depth of research and quality of writing.

Lee Wall is a senior associate at Irvings Law, Liverpool