The following are short descriptions of the women and men who have contributed to the shaping of Global African 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.
Pioneering cartographer and meteorologist Jean-Baptist Lislet-Geoffroy was born August 23, 1755 in Saint-Pierre, Réunion, a French island colony in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar and southern Africa. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, a white French engineer, and an African princess and ex-slave … Read MoreJean Baptiste Lislet-Geoffroy (a.k.a. Geoffroy L’Islet, 1755-1836)
Image Ownership: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Internationally acclaimed British-based architect David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on September 22, 1966, the son Affram Adjaye, a diplomat from Ghana, and Cecilia Adjaye, also a Ghanaian national. Because of the nature of his … Read MoreDavid Frank Adjaye (1966- )
Yapi N’Cho Blaise Didier of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), often referred to as Didier Yapi, was a prolific information technology (IT) inventor/ researcher in Africa from about 1998 until his death in 2015. Yapi was born in 1976, in the Gôh Djiboua Region (Gagnoa) in … Read MoreDidier Yapi (1976-2015)
Hans Pape and Jean Marcel Nicholas in Paris, Date Unknown Image Ownership: Public domain Expatriate, impersonator, and concentration camp survivor Jean Marcel Nicholas was born October 5, 1918 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, one of the three children of Hilderic Nicholas, a secretary of the British Embassy … Read MoreJean Marcel Nicholas (a.k.a. Johnny Nicholas, 1918-1945)
Image Ownership: DocAnciens/docpix.fr French naval hero Camille Mortenol was born November 29, 1859 in Pointe-à-Pitre, the largest city in the French island colony of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea, the son of former slave André Mortenol, a sailor, and his wife, Julienne Toussaint, a seamstress. … Read MoreCamille Sosthène Héliodore Mortenol (1859-1930)
Aubrey “Drake” Graham is a Grammy Award-winning rapper, actor, and songwriter. Drake was born on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Sandi Graham, a Jewish Canadian, and Dennis Graham, a black drummer from Memphis, Tennessee. The couple divorced when Drake was five years-old. … Read MoreAubrey Drake Graham (1986- )
Joseph Kwame Kyeretwei Boakye Danquah (Dankwa) was a Ghanaian lawyer, politician, and leader in that nation’s independence movement. He was born on December 18, 1895, to Emmanuel Yao Boakye and Lydia Okom Korantemaa in the town of Bepong in the Eastern Region of the Gold … Read MoreJ.B. Danquah (1895-1965)
Rachel Pringle Polgreen, a free mulatto woman, became infamous during the 1770s to 1780s, as the first woman of color to own a Hotel-Tavern in Bridgetown, Barbados, based on the (sexual) entertainment of transient British Naval Officers. Visitors to this hotel included numerous prominent officers … Read MoreRachel Pringle Polgreen (1753-1791)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Yahya Jammeh is a Gambian politician and former military officer who was the second president of Gambia from 1994 to 2017. Jammeh ruled Gambia for 23 years after rising to power as a young army officer in a bloodless military coup … Read MoreYahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junking Jammeh (1965- )
William Henry Ellis, an African American businessman who challenged racial constructs in the United States by “passing” as Hispanic, was born a slave to Charles and Margaret Ellis on June 15, 1864. His parents had been brought by Joseph Weisiger from Kentucky to Texas in … Read MoreWilliam Henry Ellis (1864-1923)
