When we tell the story of independence in Ghana, we often tell it through a singular lens. We picture a man at a podium. We hear the voice of Kwame Nkrumah echoing through time. We see the photograph. The raised hand. The headline.
We remember the speeches.
We remember the men on podiums.
We remember the photograph of Kwame Nkrumah declaring freedom.
But revolutions are ensembles; built by women who organized in markets, who mobilized in villages, who hid pamphlets in cloth, who raised funds through trading networks, who resisted in ways that rarely made it into textbooks.
This March, like every other one where we celebrate both Ghana’s heritage and International Women’s Day (IWD), we pause to ask:
What happens when women give and history forgets to give back? What does it mean to give a nation your labour, your organizing, your courage and not be credited in the final act?
This year’s IWD theme ‘Rights Justice and Action for All’ also includes actively fighting against erasure.
Hannah Cudjoe did not simply “support” independence. She mobilized women across the country, raised funds, built grassroots political networks, and sustained the movement when it needed structure.
Theodosia Okoh designed the Ghanaian flag, a symbol that continues to define our national identity. Her work literally stitched meaning into the fabric of the nation, effectively contributing to our national consciousness and the creative identity of Ghana.
Long before colonial rule ended, Yaa Asantewaa led the War of the Golden Stool, refusing British authority and demonstrating that resistance was not gendered.
Across the continent, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti mobilized thousands of women against colonial taxation in Nigeria. Wangari Maathai would later remind us that environmental justice and political freedom are inseparable.
Women did not “assist” liberation movements. They engineered them and continue to.
And yet, when the curtain fell, the applause followed familiar patterns of selective recognition and erasure. When history was written, the ink did not always carry their names; women, gender non-conforming people and the poor are constantly left out.
Intersectionality teaches us that womanhood is not singular. It is layered, by class, by ethnicity, by sexuality, by disability, by faith. It is Black. It is Muslim. It is Queer. It is Rural. It is Urban and Working class. It is Intellectual. It is Market Women and Artists. It is Mothers. It is Revolution.
The women who funded rallies from market stalls.
The women who hid activists in their homes.
The women whose queerness could not be named publicly, but who still resisted.
The women whose labour made political participation possible for men.
Revolutionary movements were intersectional long before we had the language for it and must continue to be even now in 2026 as we pursue of ‘Rights, Justice and Action for All’. How do you effectively bring ALL people to a place of equitable access, to universal rights and dignity?. How do we judiciously ensure that their stories, contributions and lived experiences are equitably represented in the annals of history and in the rooms of power and policy formation?.
Freedom may have been negotiated in boardrooms. But it was sustained in kitchens, farms, classrooms, and marketplaces.
This IWD, we are challenged to “ Give to Gain.”
Historically, women have given to build nations.
Now we must give credit, platforms, resources, and authorship in return.
Giving today in pursuit of Justice for ALL looks like:
- Funding women-led initiatives.
- Archiving women’s political contributions.
- Teaching girls that they were always part of the story.
- Commissioning research on overlooked women freedom fighters.
- Amplifying artists and thinkers shaping contemporary liberation movements.
This is structural work which cannot exist without systemic intention. This International Women’s Day, we invite you to go beyond celebration and into engagement.
Read her work.
Buy her art.
Cite her research.
Teach her history.
Fund her ideas.
Nations did not become what they are today just because rich men willed it into being; Ghana did not become independent because one man declared it so.
It became independent because thousands organized.
Many of them were women.
At Drama Queens, we believe the stage must reflect the truth., We acknowledge that women did not just participate in history; they shaped it.
This International Women’s Day, we are not adding women to history. We are restoring them to it.
We have attached a few resource links (including fiction, music, film and academia) to get you started.
Ashikishan gives Naa Dedei Aryeetey’s perspective on the Independence struggle. Naa Dedei like many of the other market women contributed their time and money often at personal risk and loss of life
This IWD playlist provides a soundscape in which Miriam Makeba defies language colonialism in The Click Song and Nelly Uchendu renders the OG yearners anthem with Love Nwantiti. We hear about Hannah Cudjoe and wrap it up with Gay Sex.
In Ghost Coast Girls we learn about Ama Nkrumah who mobilised and organised towards independence from Sekondi Takoradi
And if you are looking for resources in academia we’ve got you Here is a digital archives of Academia and Publications and another of African Writers .
Here is the the UN Women’s 2026 Statements
We leave you with Letters of Joy by Marilyn N. Eban Collective 2025 fellow. Letters of Joy is a reminder to center Joy and claim it as an active practice in girlhood
We hope these resources are as well received as it was delightful to put together. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on all of it maybe even at our next Speakeasy this March.
XOXO Drama Queens