The Palestinian Freedom Fighter Who Was Also Nigerian

In 1967, Afro-Palestinian Fatima Bernawi became the first woman to be arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces after planting explosives in a theatre frequented by Israeli soldiers. Though sentenced to life, she was released ten years later, continuing to fight for Palestinian nationhood.

Written by Kai Mora

May 24, 2026

Illustration by Shalom Ojo / THE REPUBLIC.

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The daughter of a Nigerian father and a Palestinian-Jordanian mother, Fatima Bernawi spent her formative years in the African quarter of Jerusalem. Capturing the faces and lives of the Africans who live there, Andrew Courtney writes in Guardians of the Mosque that these Africans came to the Holy City as Hajj pilgrims, mainly from Chad, Sudan, Niger and Senegal. Within Jerusalem, these Afro-Palestinians have come to be identified with ethnic groups such as ‘Al Salamat, Al Housa, Al Barquo, Al Falata and Al Balata, Qanembou and Boulala.’ Within these names, one can gain a glimpse of the regions from which these Africans came, such as Al Housa and Qanembou standing for the Muslims empires in Hausaland and the city of Kanem, that were housed in northern Nigeria. However, no matter their region of origin, once in Jerusalem, these groups gathered into two compounds, Ribat al-Mansouri and Ribat Ala’ Eldin al-Busairy, which acts as a border and vanguard to Al-Aqsa Mosque, a historically and religiously significant site to all Abrahamic traditions.

As early as the Mamluk era, between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, Courtney continues:

the Jerusalem Waqf (Islamic authority) honoured the African Palestinian community with an historic role as Guardians of the Mosque, due to both their proximity to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Haram Al Sherif, and their high regard in the larger Palestinian community. Known for their integrity and courage, even today some from the community are bodyguards at East Jerusalem consulates and embassies, and for the Palestinian leadership.

In 1517, the Ottoman empire conquered the Mamluk empire and established rule from parts of North Africa into the Levant, Hijaz and Persia, persisting into the twentieth century. When resistance against Ottoman occupation began to foment in the twentieth century, Charmaine Seitz writes in the Institute for Palestine Studies’s Jerusalem Quarterly, the ‘African quarter itself was transformed into a prison for the rebels—one section for long-term incarceration and another for executions.’ When Great Britain gained control of the region after the First World War, writes Mousa Qous for This Week in Palestine, the Islamic Waqf leased the two compounds to the Africans, ‘largely because of their loyalty and dedication to guarding the nearby Aqsa Mosque.’ However, Qous continues, ‘not everyone agreed with the decision,’ as ‘four Jerusalemite families petitioned the British High Commissioner, objecting to the arrangement.’ The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, ‘whose six bodyguards were of African descent, tipped the scales with Waqf authorities and the property was leased to the Africans.’

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About the Author

Kai Mora

is a historian and PhD candidate at Harvard University.

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The Palestinian Freedom Fighter Who Was Also Nigerian