We are proud to present our first comic book exploration—two stories of Kenyan women and eminent historical figures: Mekatilili wa Menza and Wangu wa Makeri.

We chose the story of Mekatilili because we were fascinated by how steeped her own real life events are in magic and mystery—she engaged in what read as truly superhuman endeavours. Her cross-country journeys, in particular, escaping from prison, have a special place in the hearts of many. We fell deeply in love with her freedom-seeking narrative. She is known for her direct confrontation of colonial rulers, as well as for her spirited exhortation to the people to find it within themselves to join her by subverting the oppressors in their own varied ways. She also kept up their motivation to continue this resistance, even when the British arrested her and took her far away from her home, and even after important Mijikenda places of worship were deliberately destroyed by the violent, illegitimate British administration.

How does Mekatilili fit into explorations of modern Kenyan feminisms, teaching and organizing against patriarchy, and exploring community building? She doesn’t fit neatly into contemporary frames, but her deep engagement with the people around her is a vital lesson teaching us how necessary it is to imagine victory as a collaborative, never individual, pursuit. This is key in all liberation struggles, in Kenya, Africa and everywhere. It is especially notable within feminist discourse, which in our context must continue to consider struggles against patriarchy through a lens of class and other privileges, ableism, sexual orientation, and a much wider gender analysis beyond that of cisgendered, heterosexual women.

We remain grateful to our partners in this project, the Urgent Action Fund-Africa, and the Oxfam Enough Campaign Africa; to the authors, uploaders, owners and keepers of the numerous online and offline articles, books, and reference images that gave us the skeletons we needed to build these women’s stories; to Dr. Joyce Nyairo for her detailed editorial notes; and especially to the illustrator/writer Joe Barasa for making this narrative possible. Thanks also go to Twitter reader @dwmmcreadie for corrections made on page 27.