Kofi Atta Annan, born on April 8, 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana, served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) between 1997 and 2006. He was the first person of African descent to hold that post. Annan grew up in Kumasi but attended Mfantsipim School, … Read MoreKofi A. Annan (1938-2018)
Nationally acclaimed poet Tyehimba Jess was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1965. His father worked in the City’s Department of Health and served as vice president of Detroit’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His mother was a teacher and a nurse who founded a nursing school … Read MoreTyehimba Jess (1965- )
Dr. Thomas Mensah is a world-renowned Ghanaian-American inventor and chemical engineer. Mensah is most well-known for his pioneering innovations in fiber optics and nanotechnology, though he has found success in other fields of science and throughout his career. Though he frequently travels, Mensah lives in … Read MoreThomas Mensah (1950- )
The Anglo-Ashanti Wars were five conflicts that occurred between the Ashanti Empire and the British Empire and which ultimately resulted in the Ashanti Empire being incorporated into the British Gold Coast Colony (now the nation of Ghana). The First Anglo-Ashanti War began when the Ashanti claimed territory disputed with the … Read MoreThe Anglo-Ashanti Wars (1823-1900)
If you have flown on a commercial airliner in recent years, chances are you benefited from the engineering and computer science expertise of Walt Braithwaite. During his almost four decades at The Boeing Company (Boeing), Braithwaite helped transform the field of aerospace design from a manual time-consuming process to … Read MoreWalt Braithwaite (1945- )
Charles Ward Chappelle was an American engineer and businessman best known for his award-winning long-distance airplane in 1911 and his tenure as president of the African Union Company from 1913 to 1930. In January of 1911, Chappelle presented at the First Industrial Aero Show, a showcase of aircraft and … Read MoreCharles Chappelle (1872-1941)
David L. Lewis is a twice Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. He was born on May 25, 1936 in Little Rock, Arkansas to John Henry Lewis, Sr., a Yale Divinity School graduate and college president, and the former Alice Urnestine Bell, a public school math teacher. He … Read MoreDavid Levering Lewis (1936- )
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- )
In the article below independent historian Kyle Haddad-Fonda describes the Asian-African Conference popularly known as the Bandung Conference which was the first significant gathering of independent and soon-to-be independent nations in Asia and Africa. From April 18 to April 24, 1955, delegates from twenty-nine countries … Read MoreThe Asian-African (Bandung) Conference: Fact and Fiction
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)
