The following are short descriptions of individuals, places and events which have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
Peter Abrahams Image Ownership: Public Domain Twentieth century African novelist and journalist Peter Henry Abrahams was born in Vrededorp (near Johannesburg), South Africa, on March 19, 1919. Abrahams’ father, James Henry Abrahams Deras was the son of former Ethiopian landowners who had taken him across … Read MorePeter Abrahams (1919–2017)
Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist, author, and 2011 Nobel Prize winner was born on February 1, 1972. She grew up in Bong County in central Liberia. In 1990, when Leymah was 17, she left for the capital, Monrovia, just before the nearly decade old civil … Read MoreLeymah Gbowee (1972- )
Acclaimed African writer Bessie Head was born on July 6, 1937, at Fort Napier Mental Institution in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Her mother, Bessie Amelia Emery (from the wealthy South African Birch family) had suffered from mental illness and was confined there at the time. Bessie … Read MoreBessie Head (1937-1986)
Image Ownership: Simon Fraser University Public Affairs and Media Relations (CC BY-SA 2.0) Renowned African novelist Nuruddin Farah was born in Baidoa, Somalia in 1945, a time when Somalia was still an Italian colony. His father Hassan Farah was a translator for the colonial government … Read MoreNuruddin Farah (1945- )
Image Ownership: Library of Congress Life (CC0) African novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan author, educator and playwright. With the publication of his first novel, he became a critically-acclaimed author at the age of 29. His work is also published under the pseudonym James … Read MoreNgugi wa Thiong’o (AKA James T. Ngugi) (1938- )
African author Camara Laye was born on January 1, 1928 in the city of Kouroussa, Guinea, then a colonial possession of France. Laye (which is actually his first name, but is used as a preceding name, to keep in tradition with regional customs) was born … Read MoreCamara Laye (1928-1980)
Hadrian’s Wall, named after Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD), was built between 122 and 128 AD as the frontier fortification for the northernmost region of the Roman Empire, near what is the current border of England and Scotland. During their time on the island of … Read MoreAfricans at Hadrian’s Wall
The slave ship Zong departed the coast of Africa on 6 September 1781 with 470 slaves. Since this human chattel was such a valuable commodity at that time, many captains took on more slaves than their ships could accommodate in order to maximize profits. The … Read MoreThe Zong Massacre (1781)
Susana Baca, recording artist and the first Afro–Peruvian to sit as a Cabinet Minister, was born in 1944 in Chorrillos, a seaside district of Lima, Peru, to a working class family. Her father was a chauffeur and her mother worked as cook and laundress for … Read MoreSusana Baca (1944- )
In the following article University of Oregon historian Carlos Aguirre describes the self-taught poet, writer, and folklorist Nicomedes Santa Cruz, one of the understudied black intellectual leaders in Peru and Latin America. Nicomedes Santa Cruz was, without a doubt, the most important black intellectual in … Read MoreNicomedes Santa Cruz: A Black Public Intellectual in Twentieth-Century Peru
