Figures
Articles on historical figures, pan-African personalities, and national heroes from all over Africa.
Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow: The First Black African to Head a Major Global Institution
Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, a Senegalese academic and politician. Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1921, M'Bow grew up in a small town...
Read moreDetailsZakes Mda: The South African Literary Maverick
Zakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, a novelist, poet and playwright. He was born in...
Read moreDetailsPravin Gordhan, Veteran South Africa minister and activist against apartheid
Pravin Gordhan, who was a South African government minister for many years after beginning his political career opposing apartheid, died...
Read moreDetailsOla Rotimi (1938-2000): A Nigerian Playwright and Poet Laureate
Ola Rotimi was born on April 13, 1938 in Sapele, Nigeria. Rotimi was a Nigerian scholar, playwright, and director. He...
Read moreDetailsOliver Tambo (1917 – 1993): South African Anti-Apartheid Activist & Politician
In 1944 with Nelson Mandela and others, he cofounded the ANC Youth League, which revitalized the ANC after a moribund...
Read moreDetailsThomas Sankara: Political Leader and President of Burkina Faso (1983 – 1987)
The son of a Peul father and a Mossi, mother Thomas Sankara was born in 1949, in Yako, French colonial...
Read moreDetailsWilliam Farquhar Conton (1925 – 2003)
William Farquhar Conton was born on 5 September 1925 in Bathurst, Gambia, to the union of Cecil Conton (1885–1926) and...
Read moreDetailsSir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912 – 1966)
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was a Nigerian politician, deputy leader of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), and the first federal...
Read moreDetailsWho is Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal’s youngest president-elect?
Senegal has just elected its youngest president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the opposition leader who led the race in Senegal's presidential...
Read moreDetailsAli Hassan Mwinyi (1925 – 2024)
Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Tanzania’s second president who has died aged 98, pushed through tough economic and political reforms that transformed the...
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