"This book is the first empirical study to provide a comprehensive, contextually grounded, and detailed portrait of African women in law, focusing on the bar, bench, and legal academia across Africa. It includes 153 interviews from six countries, 249 survey responses from 21 countries, and secondary literature from 15 countries to trace the representation of African women in the legal profession. The book has three main goals: first, to explore the history of African women in law and provide context for current developments; second, to examine their present status, highlighting demographic diversity, contributions, challenges, and survival strategies; and third, to suggest directions for future research. It introduces the HISP framework, analyzing how history, institutions, and social factors influence womens positions in law. Additionally, it introduces concepts such as exclusion versus accommodation, racehorses versus workhorses, and the womens other-bar and other-bench. The book also builds on matri-legal feminist theory to challenge existing ideas and assumptions about the study of African women. It makes two main arguments: first, that an anti-essentialist approach reveals there is no single narrative of the lived experiences of African women in law, emphasizing the importance of history and context in shaping theories; second, it uses data to show that African women have emerged from the shadows of a male-dominated field, assuming leadership roles through various strategies that overcome barriers and allow them to make meaningful contributions to law, justice, and good governance. As the first comparative study of its kind, its findings establish a baseline for future research, inspiring new questions, methodologies, and theories for studying African women in law"-- Provided by publisher.