In 2025, for International Women’s Day, we published a broad celebration of female creators and leaders across Africa’s comic and animation industry. It was an important gesture; a recognition of presence in a field where labour often exceeds visibility.

But celebration alone is not enough. Industries are not only built by participation. They are shaped by influence, by direction, by those who alter the grammar of possibility within a system. So, this year, we narrow the lens by introducing The10, a curated editorial spotlight on ten women across Africa whose work is actively shaping the African comic and animation ecosystem, structurally, creatively, commercially, and culturally.

This is not a ranking. It is not a competition. And it is not a claim to exhaustiveness. It is an act of documentation.

Across the continent and within the diaspora, women are doing more than creating stories. They are building publishing pipelines. Launching independent studios. Designing distribution models. Mentoring emerging artists. Archiving history. Negotiating intellectual property. Bridging local narratives to global platforms. Yet the infrastructure of recognition often lags behind the infrastructure of labour.

In young and evolving creative industries — particularly in African comic and animation spaces that are still consolidating markets, data, and institutional memory — visibility becomes currency. It influences partnerships, funding conversations, invitations, and future opportunities. Who is cited matters. Who is documented matters. Who is consistently named matters. The10 exists within that reality.

Why ten?

Because constraint demands editorial clarity. It forces intention. It compels us to ask harder questions about impact, consistency, and influence rather than defaulting to volume.

Each woman featured in The10 represents a vector of movement within the ecosystem, whether through storytelling innovation, industry-building, policy influence, business architecture, or cultural preservation. The list is not about acclaim; it is about trajectory.

If last year’s International Women’s Day feature was a panoramic view, The10 is a close study. It reflects our commitment not only to cover the industry, but to critically engage with it; to identify patterns, shifts, and the individuals accelerating them.

The10 will be published on International Women’s Day. But before we unveil the list, we are opening the floor. Who should be on TheACE10? Which women are not just participating in the ecosystem, but redefining it? Who is building systems that will outlast headlines?

Nominate them on TheYellowList. Tag them. Make your case. Because in an industry still writing its own history, documentation is power. And power, when acknowledged deliberately, becomes momentum.

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AI Use at TheACE
TheACE uses artificial intelligence tools to support research, drafting and analysis across Africa’s creative industries. All content is verified, edited and approved by our human editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity and responsible storytelling. AI assists our work; it does not replace human judgment.