The trends in higher education's post-pandemic recovery and towards sustainability are not new concepts and are still being discussed in various contexts. Evidence shows that higher education suffered greatly from the pandemic due to closures of institutions. Hence, more post-pandemic studies are necessary to understand its effects and how sustainability can be a reference framework towards the path for future resilience. Our research uses collaborative autoethnography complemented with content analysis as a methodological approach to explore resilience and sustainability in African higher education in two countries, Tanzania and South Africa. Specifically, we explore female academic's resilience and sustainability in higher education institutions by contrasting two African countries that approached the pandemic very differently. Tanzania did not have a lockdown, while South Africa had a lockdown which was imposed for at least a year. Our post-Covid reflection using a collaborative autoethnographic approach provides unique insights into resilience and sustainability in higher education, in both countries and in the broader African context.