Within the visual cannon of world history, African women have been ceaselessly pigeonholed into negative stereotypes and damaging caricatures or omitted altogether. In reality, African women have been critical to the development of the continent but have simply lacked access to platforms to share their unique stories. In response to the nature of this misrepresentation and underexposure, AWB is committed to taking control of future narratives and outlining what it means to be an African woman in the world today.

The Women Amongst Us is an AWB exhibition highlighting the cultures and values of everyday African women across the continent and diaspora. Imagine: the industrious saleswoman fanning the flames of roasted produce in Takoradi’s beachfront shops; the woman holding center court in the lower house of Rwanda’s national legislature; the working-class woman navigating alleyways in Marrakesh after office hours; and the female athlete fighting for the right to run her race as a woman in South Africa.