Matilda Lansana Minah V

Matilda Yayu Lansana Minah (born 25 March 1935) is Paramount Chief of the Pujehun District in Sierra Leone. She became chief in 1985 after the death of her father, and was elected to parliament in 2018. She is outspoken on women's rights, agriculture and education.

Biography Minah was born on 25 March 1935 in Sierra Leone. She graduated as a teacher in 1961.

In 1987, her brother was murdered by members of the All People’s Congress, and in 1991 she was arrested during the Sierra Leone Civil War and imprisoned for almost a year. After release she travelled to Germany for medical treatment and then returned to Sierra Leone in 1993, living in the city of Bo, close to the Gondama refugee camp where many of her chiefdom's subjects were living. After the end of the war, Minah continued her work as chief with a particular focus on development and education for women.

Alongside Paramount Chief Teresa Vibbi, she has spoken out about how women in the north of Sierra Leone need to be acknowledged as landowners and have greater involvement in political life. She was a member of the eighteen women who make up the Women's Caucus of Parliament, and has called for the Sierra Leone parliament to have a 30% quota of women.

Awards

United Nations Women's Guild (2010)