Esther Ibanga: The Peacemaker

Esther Ibanga is a Nigerian pastor and dedicated community organizer for peace in conflict-ridden regions who has received the Niwano Peace Prize for her advocacy of peace and unity in Jos, Nigeria. She was born in 1961
in Kagbu, Nigeria, the seventh of ten children, eight of them girls. Both of her parents were very religious; her father was a policeman who won awards for his honesty and bravery, and her mother went on many mission trips as part of her involvement with her church. Ibanga earned a degree in business administration in 1983 from Ahmadu Bello University, and after serving the mandatory year in the National Youth Service Corps, she went to work for
the Central Bank of Nigeria, where she eventually gained a position as a manager. She left the bank to become the first female church leader in the city of Jos, Nigeria, in 1995.

In 2010, Pastor Ibanga founded the Women Without Walls Initiative in response to the constant state of crisis in Plateau State Nigeria since 2000. WoWWI is an NGO that includes Nigerian women from all walks of life and provides advocacy, training for women in building peace, mediation between warring parties, help for people displaced within Nigeria, assistance to the poor, empowerment of women and youth, and development projects in underprivileged areas to prevent grievances from sparking violent conflicts. Her hard work and dedication has helped to restore peace between Christian and Muslim communities in Jos North, a potentially volatile flashpoint. Her approach is to empower women, both inside and outside of Nigeria, to successfully strive to advance the status of women and children of all ethnicities, religions, and political leanings – to allow women to realize themselves as “natural agents of change”.

Pastor Ibanga was the leader of a march in February 2010 to the Jos government house in protest of the Dogon Nahawa ethno-religious crisis, in which many lives, including those of women and children, had been lost; more than 100,000 women dressed in black participated. When 276 teenaged girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists from their school in Chibok, Nigeria, WoWWI joined in the Bring Back Our Girls campaign with other women leaders. Rallies crossing religious and cultural lines were held to demand that the government expedite the girls’ release. Pastor Ibanga continues to campaign for the freeing of the 113 girls who are still held captive and speaks internationally on the issue.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media

Phoolan Devi: India’s Bandit Queen

While many Indians reviled their own elected Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, they embraced Phoolan Devi, an outlaw believed to have killed sixty people in central India’s Chambal Valley. It is difficult to separate fact from fiction in the story; the male outlaw figure is a common subject of North Indian folklore, and Phoolan’s tale has many of the same elements. This version is based on the story reported by Mala Sen, in her fascinating and assiduously researched biography of Devi.

Born in 1956 into a boatman subcaste, Phoolan’s (which means “flowerlike” in Hindi, but she was more like a steel magnolia!) first insurrection took place when she and her sister wanted to sit in the mustard field they had worked in all day to “stop and smell the mustard blossoms.” When their higher caste landlord beat them up because they wouldn’t instantly leave, Phoolan watched her sister and parents nearly bleed to death. When she refused at age ten to put up with an arranged marriage to a man twenty years older, her traditionally minded village couldn’t deal with it, and Phoolan fell victim to kidnapping by a group of dacoits; bandits to you and me. The kidnapping was just as violent as you might expect a gang of marauders to be, and she was dragged, kicked, slapped, and suffered indignities of guns aimed at her private parts and a threat to cut off her nose. It is a real testament to Phoolan’s strength that she wasn’t utterly broken by the repeated rapes. Phoolan’s family was unable to get any help from authorities, who refused to waste their time looking for their rebellious “good- for-nothing” daughter. Meanwhile, the press had a field day with the story, inventing sensational details of their own to make for a good read in the papers. One such tall tale involved Phoolan engineering her own kidnapping because she wanted to be with the dacoits.

Whatever happened, one year later, Phoolan took charge of the gang through her own strength of will and personal power. Mala Sen also reports that the gang (thanks to the execution of the rapists by Phoolan’s champion, Vikram Mallah) turned into post-Raj Robin Hoods, giving stolen money to elderly and poor Indians. Well-embroidered accounts of Phoolan Devi’s exploits were soon making her the second most famous woman in India after Indira Gandhi, who urged peaceful measures in dealing with the headline-grabbing outlaw girl.

Soon, songs about the “Rebel of the Ravines” were being composed, statues of Phoolan Devi were sold in the market next to Krishna and Kali, and millions of Indians begged for her life to be spared in the “manhunt” to bring “The Bandit Queen” in after the alleged massacre of twenty-two Hindu men by Devi’s gang. Thanks to

the national attention, Phoolan’s capture took place safely in front of thousands of witnesses, and she kept up her spirits in prison, where she gave interviews, prayed, and walked unshackled. (She spent eleven years in prison without ever being charged.) India was even more delighted when they finally saw the Phoolan Devi they’d heard so much about; she is strikingly beautiful, with dark, commanding eyes and a magnificent smile. (Phoolan’s fairy tale-like story contains a tragic footnote, exemplifying the place of women in a societal admixture of medieval and modern. In prison, she suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst and the presiding doctor performed a hysterectomy, admittedly to prevent “Phoolan Devi breeding more Phoolan Devis!”)

Her legend lives on around the globe and Mala Sen’s excellent biography has been made into an acclaimed feature film. In India and England, she has become a folk shero. At her surrender, she is reported to have said, “If I had money, I would build a house with rooms as large as the hall of this prison. But I know this is all a dream. If any woman were to go through my experience, then she too would not be able to think of a normal life. What do I know, except cutting grass, and using a rifle?”

Phoolan was freed and all charges against her were dropped in 1994. In 1996, she ran for and was elected to the Samajwadi Party, but the prejudicial odds against a lower caste woman, even an internationally famous one, were against her in the subcontinent. In August of 1997, Phoolan threatened to kill herself when the criminal charges against her were again raised. Though, tragically, she was assassinated in 2001, her colorful legend lives on.

“She was walking tall, taunting them all, answering the call…with her rifle by her side”

— a popular Indian Phoolan Devi street song

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media

Trisha Prabhu: Keeping Kids Safe Online

Trisha

Sometimes empathy and compassion can be a vehicle for change. At age twelve, Trisha was heartbroken when she read the news of Rebecca Sedwick, a thirteen-year-old who took her own life after years of cyberbullying. Having been a victim of online bullying and harassment herself, Trisha knew that something had to be done. She developed and patented “ReThink,” a technology that detects and prevents cyberbullying at the source by changing minds before posting a hateful message. ReThink’s success has been noted on a global platform and was featured on the TV show Shark Tank. In 2016, she was invited by Barack Obama to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and was the first freshman to win the President Innovation Grand Prize from Harvard University, where she is currently attending.

“I knew I’d stumbled onto a world-changing idea—and ReThink was born.”

—Trisha Prabhu

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Amanda Gorman: The Hill She Climbed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Gorman

Amanda Gorman is the definition of a history maker. Growing up in Westchester, CA, as the daughter of a middle school teacher, Gorman found a passion for writing and spoken words starting at a young age. This passion would lead to Gorman becoming the youth poet laureate of Los Angeles at only sixteen years old and then at nineteen, only three years later, she would become the first national youth poet laureate. Amanda was inspired by Malala Yousafzai’s moving 2013 speech at the United Nations and continues to gain inspiration from powerful women such as Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. Using this inspiration, Amanda continued to write her beautiful poetry through her young adult life and caught the attention of First Lady Jill Biden, who arranged for Gorman to speak at the 2020 inauguration, making her the youngest writer to ever recite a poem at a presidential inauguration. This was particularly special because much like President Joe Biden, Gorman struggled for years with a speech impediment but used that struggle to work even harder and that is what makes her the brilliant young woman she is. Amanda also has a twin sister, Gabrielle, who is also an activist as well as a filmmaker. If Amanda’s life wasn’t exciting enough, she just signed a modeling deal!

“But I don’t look at my disability as a weakness. It’s made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be”

—Amanda Gorman

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Helen Keller: A Symbol of Strength and Perseverance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

At nineteen months, Hellen Keller was diagnosed as both blind and deaf. The story of how Helen’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, rigorously taught her how to communicate is widely known. Helen was highly political, lobbying for the women’s suffrage movement, standing for labor rights and socialism, and opposing military intervention. In her travels, she brought hope to many individuals with similar disabilities and motivated real change in the world, as more opportunities and resources were provided for people who were visually impaired. She was an active member of the Industrial Workers of the World, as well as of the Socialist Party
of America.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.”

—Helen Keller

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Edna Chavez: Using Her Voice

Edna Chavez is a gun reform activist from Los Angeles. At the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC, she gave a stirring speech about the normalization of gun violence in our society. Having lost many of her own friends and family to gun violence in South LA, she addressed how students of all ages are taught in class how to protect themselves from shooters. Since then, she has spoken at other prominent events in an effort to educate people on the realities of gun violence and inspire young voters to make a difference. “For decades, my community of South Los Angeles has become accustomed to this violence,” she told the crowd. “It is normal to see candles, it is normal to see posters, it is normal to see balloons, it is normal to see flowers honoring the lives of Black and brown youth who have lost their lives to a bullet.”

“Remember my name. Remember these faces. Remember us and how we are making change. La lucha sigue [the fight continues].”

—Edna Chavez

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Bana Al-Abed: Little Advocate, Huge Inspiration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bana_al-Abed

If you give a seven-year-old a phone, they’ll most likely going to play Candy Crush. Bana, however, utilized the power of Twitter to raise awareness about the effects of the ongoing Syrian Civil War. In 2016, with the help of her mother, she tweeted a series of posts from Aleppo that documented the harrowing sieging of the city. Those tweets broke the hearts of people around the world. Now thirteen years old, Bana continues to advocate for her fellow Syrians and uses her platform to draw global awareness to the horrors taking place in her homeland.

“You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you.”

—Bana al-Abed

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Zhan Haite: Empress of Education

https://bit.ly/3yNJcmR

Zhan Haite is an educational activist in China. She bravely stood up for what she believed in despite objections from her parents and a government with a poor track record of accepting civilian criticism. She challenged the Chinese government’s practice of refusing migrant workers the opportunity to take their high school entrance exams. Thousands of students were denied the chance to improve their lives and ease the adversities wrought on them by poor economic situations. Even though the odds were stacked against her, her efforts did not go in vain—the government took steps to loosen some of the regulations that discriminated against these migrant workers.

“My idols are Martin Luther King and Aung San Suu Kyi. Both paid a heavy price in the pursuit of equality, freedom, and democracy.”

—Zhan Haite

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Amika George: Helping Girls in Need

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evoke.org%2Fcontributors%2FAmikaGeorge&psig=AOvVaw2w0rryKat3KsIGoOKPEJjG&ust=1679103593243000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA8QjRxqFwoTCPitxbvq4f0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Amika felt inspired after reading about Freedom4Girls, a charity that usually provides menstrual products to young students living in Kenya but had to forward products to Leeds (a city in the United Kingdom) because there were girls that could not afford them. Amika founded the campaign Free Periods and gathered over 200,000 signatures on an online petition. When she was seventeen, she organized a peaceful protest in which around 2,000 people dressed up in red to demand government action. The goal of the protest was to get free menstrual products for those in the free meal programs in schools. Amika also aims to dismiss the idea that periods
are shameful.

“In a patriarchal society, periods are seen as a secret because a big percentage of the people in power aren’t faced with them every month. When I think about a world that has gender equality, it’s one where periods are openly discussed.”

—Amika George

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Ahed Tamimi: Defending Her Home and Leading a Generation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahed_Tamimi

Ahed Tamimi’s life has been full of protesting and fighting for the rights of her people almost from the start. Growing up in Israeli-occupied Palestine, she has witnessed harassment and violence against her people at the hands of occupying forces her entire life. Starting out when she was just eleven years old, Ahed was making headlines through her protests and resistances against Israeli soldiers for arresting members of her family. In 2017 her fame soared after a protest she was a part of turned violent. Protesters were throwing stones at soldiers, and soldiers entered her family home. Ahed ended up slapping and otherwise fighting soldiers in a video that quickly went viral. She was arrested and served time, earning her high school degree behind bars. Ahed hopes to move forward studying law to help further protect her people in this time of unrest.

“…I always say I am a freedom fighter. So I will not be the victim.”

—Ahed Tamimi

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.