She’s a Gambian changemaker, a women’s rights advocate and human rights lawyer who has set the bar high as she is named the 2020 ‘African of the Year’ by Nigeria’s Daily Trust. Musu Bakoto Sawo, a National Coordinator for Think Young Women in The Gamibia and a lecturer at the Faculty of Law was praised for her “continuous commitment to ending violence against girls and women including child marriage and female genital mutilation.” said Former Botswana President Festus Mogae,who heads the seven-member award selection committee

Sawo is and was previously deputy executive secretary of Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission. The award was initiated by the Nigerian media house in 2008, with the selection of Congolese medical doctor Denis Mukwege, who won the Noble Peace Prize in 2018.

At the age of 14 Musu was married and by 21 she was sadly widowed with no inheritance. She became a victim of female genital mutilation as a child yet she was determined to earn a quality education. That education would hurl her to her current position as a university lecturer, who is also striving to address the injustices that women face daily across Africa.

By Naadiya Adams