We see you, Mama, just as we see them too

Mothers’ Day is one of the days I now look forward to for many reasons. One of those reasons is that while I support and honour mums in my work everyday, the world joins me in that celebration at least once every year - depending on what part of the world you are, or whoever is counting the days 🙂. And this year is no exception. My heart opens up with joy as I write this love letter to you and the one hundred remarkable mothers of African descent who wake before dawn and sleep after midnight, who whisper bedtime stories after board meetings, who give of your hearts as well as you give to your callings. 

Can you feel that gentle but persistent force that moulds our nations, our homes, our very souls? The force you’ll find in voices that sing lullabies you may never hear through record labels, in hands that sign corporate deals, calm weary bodies and then braid daughters' hairs. You’ll feel it in hearts big enough to hold both professional ambition and boundless motherly love. Can you feel the life that African mothers continue to give? No, I’m not talking about only those who gave birth to us, but also you and the ones who are birthing our future through their children and their work. The ones we’ve chosen to honour today - through our calls, status updates, text messages, and gifts - even the gift of the Umi100 honours list.

These women have learnt to bring their whole selves everywhere they go. They refuse the false choice between nurturing others and nurturing their dreams. Instead, they embrace the beautiful, messy, powerful wholeness of being both mother and change-maker. They teach us that change is whatever we define it to be, and we don’t have to lose our essence in that definition.

This year as is our wont, the Umi100 honours list wraps its arms around these mums and whispers: we see you, we feel you, we celebrate the revolutionary act that is your daily and ‘ordinary’ life.

Close your eyes for a moment. Feel the weight of the invisible crown that sits upon your head each morning as you rise - the crown of motherhood that the world often fails to see, yet you carry with quiet dignity. Now imagine that crown suddenly illuminated, its gems catching light, its worth finally acknowledged. And the light that beams is so bright, you can see the path that lies ahead.

This is what we do when we speak the names of mums aloud, including these mums: Catia Mondlane from Mozambique, a single mum who created a remedy for skin irritations through her organic skin care products, Abena Osei-Asare of Ghana, whose fingers have crafted national budgets and wiped children's tears. Wissal Fehmi of Tunisia who makes pastries with the same care she puts into helping her daughter eat healthy. Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Sierra Leone, whose voice has commanded city halls and sung indigenous lullabies. These women and their ninety-seven sisters who are all 2025 Umi100 honourees represent 27 countries across our continent. Each name is a heartbeat. Each story is a song that deserves to be heard. Even if it’s first heard and danced to among other Umi mums (Umi means life-giver, it’s who we are as mothers).

Sense the determination in Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah's steps as she leads Namibia while still answering to the sweetest title: Mum or Mêmê or Mama (oh, no, it’s definitely not Madame President. Or is it?). Allow your heart to break and then wholly mend alongside Adepeju Jaiyeoba, who transformed her grief into birth kits that save countless Nigerian mothers. And with Victoria Haihambo of Namibia, who recently lost her husband of 14 years to cancer, but somehow turned the pain into creating a foundation in his honour. Taste the progress being brewed by Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela, South Africa's first black female brewmaster, while fermenting values in her children. Take a deep breath in knowing that Adjany Costa of Angola protects the air and water that will nurture generations she may never meet.

What flows through all these women is not just excellence in their fields (which is so important) but the sacred rhythm of nurturing. An inhale of calling in their professions, and the exhale of maternal love and care. Their bodies hold this beautiful tension that many mothers I know deeply feel, and they’ve shown us that a woman need not be divided against herself. Motherhood and leadership, motherhood and service, are not weights on opposite sides of a scale but wings on the same bird; the perfect balance for flight.

Now, let me be clearer. These women are not distant idols to be admired from afar. Rather, they are mirrors reflecting possibilities you may have felt in your bones but couldn't give a name to. That itching at the center of your soul that you long to reach in and scratch. Each honouree whispers through her life: "you were made to be whole."

Feel the different textures of their journeys against your skin - the kente-like boldness of Bozoma Saint John's corporate brilliance interwoven with authenticity and motherly devotion; the delicate ankara-like smoothness of Diana Mbogo's engineering innovations and gentle bedtime routines; the wax-resistant embroidery of Nelly Agbogu making a name for herself between school runs.

They move through worlds as diverse as we are - studios and market stalls, board rooms and theatres, courtrooms and classrooms, hospital wards and parliaments. You might recognise some names instantly, as they shine their light so bright it casts shadows. Others work in beautiful - and sometimes deliberate - obscurity, their impact felt first by their children, then rippling outward through communities transformed by their quiet persistence.

We didn't choose any of the Umi100 honourees for the zeros in their bank accounts or the number of cameras that follow them. We chose them because when we placed our hands over our hearts and asked, "Who embodies this beautiful whole? Who refuses to shrink either her calling or her maternal love?", these hundred names rose to the surface, their pulses synchronizing with a deeper truth about womanhood and motherhood.

They are not superhuman. Neither are they wonder-women (sorry folks, let’s not create feeble pedestals). Far from that. They are gloriously, imperfectly human. And in their humanity lies the most powerful gift they offer: the permission to bring your full self to every room you enter, to live undivided, to mother and to lead with your entire being.

And this moment, I say to them, just as I say to you reading: let your shoulders drop for a moment and release the breath you've been holding. I see you, and I know the weight you carry.

The women we celebrate do not stand effortlessly where they are. Neither did they get there smoothly. Their journeys are mapped in sleepless nights, in tears shed in bathroom stalls between meetings and in empty rooms, in the ache of missed school gatherings, in prayers whispered over feverish children before rushing for another work engagement, and also in career-advancing opportunities they had to forgo for the people they love the most. I know you can feel in your own body the familiar tension they've held; the guilt that sometimes visits uninvited, the exhaustion that settles into your bones, and the sometimes faint resolve that gets you past that moment.

Many of them have navigated workplaces that raised eyebrows at pregnancy announcements. They've pumped breast milk in supply closets. They’ve held on through days when their spouses were away for lack of parental leave. They've taken conference calls while making dinner. They've faced the question people ask in an unconscious manner: "But who is raising your children?" Their response, unspoken but lived: "I am, along with those I trust. Always. In every moment. Through every achievement."

Many have rocked babies through power outages and political instability. They've helped with homework by candlelight and lamps during fuel shortages. They've created homemade remedies when medicine was scarce. And when the world offered no safety net, they wove their own - from friendships, playpods, extended families, and communities of women who understood without explanation.

Their success doesn't mean the mountain isn't steep, or the climb isn’t difficult. It means they've climbed it, carrying children on their backs. And in that climb, they've carved steps for you, for us, for those who choose to follow. Their achievements aren't a reason to shame other women or demand the same impossible resilience from all mothers, but a reason to smooth the path, to build a world where such extraordinary strength isn't required for ordinary flourishing. Or as the novelist and 2024 Umi100 honouree, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recently alluded, we need to challenge the culture of shame and give women the freedom to make choices without judgment or pressure.

Now, place your palm over your heart. Feel its steady rhythm. Now imagine that beat multiplied by millions - that’s the collective pulse of African mothers rising together. This is not just a celebration; it's an awakening.

It is an awakening to move beyond admiration into action. To transform the world that these women have navigated so that their daughters and yours might walk with lighter steps. To honour the hands that rock cradles and write policies, recognizing that both shape our future with equal power. To create workplaces where a mother's wisdom is treasured, where her unique capacity for nurturing connection and driving progress is valued as the asset it truly is. To celebrate the woman who leads a corporation and the one who leads a community garden with the same reverence, knowing that each cultivates growth in her own way. To continue to join arms across generations, creating circles of support where knowledge flows like mother's milk between experienced women and new mothers finding their way - and for this, we are eternally grateful to our Umi mentors. To dream boldly of a word where we no longer talk about the (illusion of) ‘balance’ a mother achieves because we've built a world that no longer requires impossible choices.

And each time you place your palm over your heart, remember this awakening. Let's transform our dining tables, our boardrooms, our parliaments and religious halls into spaces where a mother's full humanity is not just accommodated but embraced as vital to our flourishing as a whole.

Let’s soften our gazes and look beyond today. In the distance, do you see it? The future taking shape in the most intimate spaces of our lives – at home where mums like the Umi100 honourees help with both homework and strategic planning calls; in bedrooms where they whisper dreams and prayers into sleeping ears; in living rooms where they are living examples of how power and tenderness can live in the same body, as they leave no one untouched.

Our sons, learning that women's voices carry authority and wisdom. Our daughters, internalizing the truth that their bodies can create not just babies but businesses, art, policies, science, softwares and designs. And they can legitimately choose which to create and which not to.

This is the world blooming before our eyes, where a mother's multidimensional capacity is finally recognized as her unique strength, not her limitation. Where success is measured not by how well a woman separates her identities but by how beautifully she integrates them.

Now, feel the warmth spreading through your chest as I write directly to you now:

To the hundred women who have now joined the Umi100 hall of love, we wrap you in light, grace and compassion. Your midnight worries and early morning triumphs, your divided attention and your multiplied love, your strategic mind and your nurturing heart - all of you is seen, is honoured, is loved, and is worthy. And all of you are. May the light this honour shine on your path illuminate the way for countless others. The world may know your titles, but your children know your heart. Today, we honour both.

And to you - yes, you - the mother reading these words who may never see her name on any list but who pours herself out daily in ways we don’t see, place your hand where it hurts, where you've felt the stretch of trying to be everything to everyone. Feel my hand covering yours. Feel the hands of all mothers who came before you, steadying your tired shoulders. You are writing the future with every boundary set, every kiss you land on the forehead of those that call you mum, every moment of presence you summon when your reserves seem empty, and every way you choose to show up to yourself and the world.

Love,

Moyinoluwa and Damola

PS: The complete list of the Umi100 honourees awaits you at www.umiformothers.com/umi100. Join us in this embrace of remarkable women showing us how motherhood and excellence aren't opposing forces but the same life-giving energy flowing through different outlets.