Folake Solanke in London, 1957 presents an unusual portrait of one of Nigeria’s most distinguished legal pioneers before the profession that would eventually define her public life.
On 3 July that year, the young Nigerian educator was photographed walking along a London street with a friend. She was 25 years old and working in Britain as a teacher of Latin and mathematics.
There was no barrister’s wig, courtroom ceremony or professional title attached to the moment. The distinction that would later make Solanke a landmark figure in Nigerian legal history still lay decades ahead.
The photograph instead captures another important stage of her life: a highly educated Nigerian woman building a professional career in Britain during the 1950s before changing direction and entering law.
Folake Solanke in London, 1957: A Teacher Before the Law
Olufolake Solanke, née Odulate, was born in Abeokuta on 29 March 1932. Her father, Jacob Sogboyega Odulate, was a pharmacist and entrepreneur associated with the manufacture of Alabukun, one of Nigeria’s best-known indigenous medicinal products.
Her early education took place in Abeokuta and Lagos. She attended Ago Oko Primary School, Emo Girls’ School and Methodist Girls’ High School in Lagos. She later spent a year at Queen’s College, Lagos, before travelling to Britain for university education.
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In 1951, Solanke entered King’s College in Newcastle upon Tyne, then part of the University of Durham. The institution later became part of Newcastle University.
She studied Latin and mathematics and obtained her bachelor’s degree in 1954. She followed this with a Diploma in Education in 1955.
The combination of Latin and mathematics gave Solanke an unusual academic foundation. One field demanded command of language, grammar and classical literature, while the other required precision, structure and logical reasoning.
After completing her education qualification, she entered teaching.
Solanke taught Latin and mathematics at Pipers Corner School in Great Kingshill, Buckinghamshire. She later moved to St Monica’s School in Essex, where she continued teaching the same subjects.
It was during this period of her professional life that the 1957 London photograph was taken.
A Young Nigerian Professional in Post-War Britain
Britain in the 1950s was becoming home to increasing numbers of students and professionals from Nigeria and other parts of the British Empire and Commonwealth.
For young Nigerians who travelled abroad for education, Britain could provide access to universities, professional qualifications and careers that later influenced political, legal, medical, academic and administrative life in Nigeria.
Solanke belonged to this generation.
By the time she was photographed in London in July 1957, she had already earned a university degree, completed professional training in education and worked as a teacher in British schools.
The photograph therefore captures more than an ordinary walk through London. It preserves a Nigerian woman participating in the professional world of post-war Britain at a time when Nigeria itself was approaching independence.
Nigeria would become independent on 1 October 1960, three years after the photograph was taken.
By then, Solanke herself was preparing for another major change.
From Latin and Mathematics to Gray’s Inn
After several years in education, Solanke decided to enter the legal profession.
In 1960, she joined Gray’s Inn in London for legal training.
Her decision marked the beginning of an entirely new stage in her career. The classroom gave way to legal study, chambers and advocacy.
After completing her legal studies, she returned to Nigeria in 1962 and joined the chambers of M. A. Odesanya in Lagos. She was formally called to the English Bar in 1963 and subsequently moved to the chambers of Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams in Ibadan.
Williams was one of the leading Nigerian advocates of his generation and became one of the earliest lawyers to hold the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria when the distinction was introduced in 1975.
For Solanke, the move into legal practice placed her within a profession still overwhelmingly dominated by men.
Over the following years, she established herself as an advocate and steadily built the reputation that would eventually lead to one of the most significant moments in the history of Nigerian women in law.
The Historic SAN Elevation of 1981
In 1981, Folake Solanke became the first woman elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The distinction represented a major breakthrough.
The rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, commonly abbreviated as SAN, is awarded to legal practitioners who have achieved distinction within the profession. Holders of the rank form part of what is commonly referred to as Nigeria’s Inner Bar.
Before Solanke’s elevation, women had already entered Nigerian legal practice, but none had reached the SAN rank.
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Her achievement therefore represented a new stage in the development of women’s participation at the highest levels of the Nigerian legal profession.
It also placed Solanke permanently among the pioneering figures of Nigerian legal history.
Stella Jane Thomas and an Earlier Legal Breakthrough
The history of Nigerian women in law began before Solanke entered the profession.
One of the most important earlier figures was Stella Jane Thomas, who was born in Lagos in 1906 and was of Sierra Leonean descent.
Thomas was called to the Bar of England and Wales at the Middle Temple on 10 May 1933.
In 1935, she was registered as a barrister at the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone and later that year at the Nigerian Supreme Court. She practised in Lagos, initially working in the chambers of her brother, Stephen Thomas.
Her career placed her among the earliest female legal practitioners in West Africa and established her as Nigeria’s first female lawyer.
Solanke’s historic achievement came almost five decades later when she became the first woman to enter the country’s senior professional rank as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
Together, the careers of Thomas and Solanke illustrate different stages in the gradual expansion of women’s presence and influence within Nigerian law.
Public Service in Western State
Solanke’s career extended beyond legal practice.
In 1972, she was appointed a Commissioner in the Western State of Nigeria. Her responsibilities included work connected with the Cabinet Office and Establishment and Training.
Her appointment placed her within the administrative structure of one of Nigeria’s most important regional governments during a period of significant political and institutional change.
She also served as Chairman of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, which oversaw broadcasting services including Western Nigeria Television and the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service.
Broadcasting had played an important role in the political and cultural development of Western Nigeria since the launch of Western Nigeria Television in 1959, widely recognised as the first television service in tropical Africa.
Solanke’s chairmanship therefore connected her career with another important institution in the region’s modern history.
Leadership Beyond Nigeria
Solanke also became deeply involved in Zonta International, a global organisation founded in 1919 to advance the status of women and encourage professional and civic service.
Her involvement eventually brought her to the organisation’s highest international office.
From 1994 to 1996, Folake Solanke served as President of Zonta International.
Her presidency made her the first non-Caucasian person to lead the organisation.
The achievement expanded her influence far beyond Nigeria and demonstrated the international reach of a career that had begun several decades earlier in British classrooms.
By this period, Solanke had become a prominent Nigerian lawyer, civic leader and international advocate for women.
International Recognition
Further international recognition followed.
In 2012, the International Bar Association presented Chief Folake Solanke with its Outstanding International Woman Lawyer Award.
The honour recognised both her professional achievements and her wider humanitarian and pro bono activities, including work involving women and children.
By then, more than five decades had passed since the young Nigerian teacher had been photographed walking through London.
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Her life had moved through several distinct professions and responsibilities: education, legal practice, public administration, broadcasting leadership and international civic service.
The transformation between the woman pictured in 1957 and the internationally recognised lawyer of later decades gives the photograph much of its historical significance.
Folake Solanke at 94
Solanke remained an important figure in Nigerian legal life into the 2020s.
On 29 March 2026, she celebrated her 94th birthday. The Nigerian Bar Association publicly marked the occasion, recognising her pioneering place in the profession.
Another significant moment followed later that year.
After the death of Professor Alfred Bandele Kasunmu, SAN, in August 2026, Chief Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, identified Solanke as the most senior living Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The development created a striking connection between two distant moments in her life.
In 1957, she was a young Nigerian teacher walking through London.
In 1981, she broke the gender barrier at Nigeria’s Inner Bar.
By 2026, more than four decades after that historic elevation, she stood among the longest-serving surviving members of the senior professional rank she had entered as its first woman.
From the Classroom to the Inner Bar
Folake Solanke’s professional journey was not a straight path from university into law.
Education came first.
She studied Latin and mathematics, qualified as a teacher and spent several years teaching before turning towards legal practice.
That sequence is one of the most revealing aspects of her career.
The woman remembered for entering Nigeria’s Inner Bar began professional life in classrooms. The legal achievements came later, followed by government service, institutional leadership and international recognition.
Her story therefore belongs not only to Nigerian legal history but also to the wider history of Nigerian professionals who studied and worked abroad before contributing to institutions at home.
The 1957 photograph captures that earlier phase with unusual simplicity.
There are no ceremonies and no visible symbols of future prominence.
There is simply a young Nigerian professional walking through London.
Conclusion
On 3 July 1957, Folake Solanke was not yet the pioneering Senior Advocate whose name would become part of Nigerian legal history.
She was a 25-year-old Nigerian teacher of Latin and mathematics who had already built a serious educational career in Britain.
Within a few years, her life would change direction.
She entered Gray’s Inn in 1960, returned to Nigeria in 1962, joined legal practice and moved into the chambers of F. R. A. Williams. In 1981, she became the first woman elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
Her career later encompassed public service in Western State, leadership within Nigerian broadcasting, international leadership through Zonta International and recognition by the International Bar Association.
The importance of Folake Solanke in London, 1957 lies precisely in that contrast.
The photograph captures her before the titles, honours and historic distinctions. It preserves the young teacher who would eventually occupy a place in Nigeria’s legal profession that no woman had occupied before her.
Author’s Note
Folake Solanke’s 1957 London photograph offers a rare glimpse of a distinguished Nigerian figure before the achievements for which she would later become widely known. Her journey from teaching Latin and mathematics to entering legal practice, breaking the gender barrier at Nigeria’s Inner Bar and assuming international leadership shows how dramatically a professional life can evolve. The photograph remains powerful because it captures neither a beginning nor an ending, but a quiet moment in the life of a young woman whose most important contributions still lay ahead.
References
Getty Images, Hulton Archive and Evening Standard, archival photograph of Folake Solanke walking with a friend, London, 3 July 1957.
International Bar Association, 50:50 by 2030: A Longitudinal Study into Gender Disparity in Law, Nigeria.
International Bar Association, Outstanding International Woman Lawyer Award, official record of Chief Olufolake Solanke as the 2012 recipient.
Zonta International, Past International Presidents, official record listing Folake Solanke as International President, 1994–1996.
University of Ibadan, University Calendar and honorary graduates records covering Folake Solanke’s public service and honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
The Law Society Gazette, Judith Bourne, West African Trailblazer, biographical history of Stella Jane Thomas.
Hallmarks of Labour Foundation, biographical profile of Chief Folake Solanke.
DAWN Commission, biographical profile of Chief Folake Solanke.
Nigerian Bar Association, public commemoration of Chief Folake Solanke’s 94th birthday, 29 March 2026.
The Guardian Nigeria, reporting on Chief Kemi Pinheiro’s August 2026 statement concerning Folake Solanke’s seniority among living Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
