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.
Merlene Joyce Ottey is a Jamaican-born but now Slovenia-based track and field sprinter. She is ranked fourth on the all-time list over 60 meters (indoor), sixth on the all-time list over 100 meters, and fourth on the all-time list over 200 meters. Her world indoor record for 200 meters of 21.87 seconds, … Read MoreMerlene Joyce Ottey (1960- )
Idrissa Akuna “Idris” Elba is a British actor best known for his roles in The Wire and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a miniseries or television film, for which he … Read MoreIdrissa Akuna “Idris” Elba (1972- )
William Richard Tolbert Jr. was the twentieth president of Liberia from 1971 to 1980, when he was killed in a coup led by then Liberian Army Sergeant Samuel Doe. Tolbert was trained as a civil servant when he entered Liberia’s House of Representatives in 1943 … Read MoreWilliam Richard Tolbert Jr. (1913-1980)
Helvécio Martins, accountant, teacher, and the first black general authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 27, 1930. His father, Honório Martins, was a trader of animal hides and later an office … Read MoreHelvécio Martins (1930–2005)
Joseph Wafula Sitati, petroleum manager and the first man of black African descent to become a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was born in Bungoma, Kenya, on May 16, 1952. His parents were … Read MoreJoseph W. Sitati (1952– )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Leopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith is the world’s first black flight attendant. Smith was born in Cameroon which, at the time, France controlled. Smith was a princess of the royal Douala family of Cameroon. She was offered a rare after-school employment opportunity … Read MoreLeopoldine Emma Doualla Bell Smith (1939– )
Image Courtesy of LDS Church News David William Eka, engineer, elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), first president of the Aba Nigeria stake, was born in Etinan, Nigeria, on May 20, 1945. His father, William Udo, was a carpenter, and … Read MoreDavid W. Eka (1945– )
Many particulars regarding the birth, career, and death of the man of African origin known as Yasuke are cloaked in mystery. The few Portuguese and Japanese sources that mention his brief presence in Japan and as a Samurai omit essential details, leaving him a shadowy … Read MoreYasuke (ca. 1555-?)
Fencing champion and multiple Olympic medalist Laura Flessel-Colovic was born November 6, 1971, in Pointe-à-Pitre, the largest city on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, one of four children of Edouard Flessel, a meteorologist, and Marie-Éva Flessel, a school teacher. Self-described as a tomboy in … Read MoreLaura Élodie Flessel-Colovic (1971- )
Internationally renowned chef Rougui Dia’s Muslim parents, a housemaid and a mechanic, arrived in France from a village of N’Ganno in Senegal, a former French colony in West Africa. She grew up with her six brothers and sisters in the old working-class city of Neuilly-Plaisance … Read MoreRougui Dia (1976- )
