How do we immortalize people who have impacted the world and made it better in a significant way?
Two photographers, Rich Allela and Kureng Dapel, show us how in a series of images in a project titled “African Queen.”
They recreated the life of a female Kenyan icon Mnyazi wa Menza, who was popularly known among her people as Mekatilili wa Menza.
Mekatilili is celebrated in Kenya for challenging oppressive colonial policies in the early 1900s.
She was fearless and was even said to have slapped one of the British colonial masters in a heated argument in August 1913, according to The Star, a local newspaper in Kenya.
Commenting on the project, Allela said it “represents the strength of womanhood, and inspires the African woman to rise above the inequality and discrimination faced every day.”
Here are some of our favorite images from the collection.