Meet the only four Chief Justices in Africa who are women

Mathilda Twomey

Mathilda Twomey is the first female judge in the history of Seychelles and the first female Chief Justice of the island country. She started her career in law by being called to the bar at Middle Temple, London. She started out as a barrister, then worked in the Attorney General’s Chamber while working in her private chambers as an attorney-at-law in Seychelles in 1987. During the drafting of the constitution of the Third Republic between 1992-1993, Twomey was one of the selected members of the Constitutional Commission.

In April 2011, she made history as the first female judge of the country after she was sworn in as a non-resident judge of the Seychelles Court of Appeal. On August 18, 2015, she achieved another feat by becoming the first woman to be appointed Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Seychelles after she was sworn in at the State House. Her appointment to the office made her the third Seychellois to occupy the position in the history of a country that previously hired judges of different countries on a contract basis.