The West African Youth League (WAYL) was a political organisation founded by Bankole Awoonor-Renner, Ellis Brown, I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson and Robert Ben Wuta-Ofei in the Gold Coast in 1934.
[1][2] The group was a major political force against the colonial government in West Africa, especially in the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone.
[3] The League was the first political movement in the region "to recruit women into the main membership and the decision-making bodies of the organisation".
[4] Mary Lokko served as Wallace-Johnson's assistant for a time beginning in 1936, becoming likely the first woman in West Africa to hold a position in a political organization.
After attempting to revive the organisation in 1944, Wallace-Johnson took it into the Pan-African Federation set up in Manchester, United Kingdom.