Victoria is the capital city of the Republic of Seychelles, a country made up of 115 small islands in the Indian Ocean of which 46 are uninhabited. It has been the nation’s capital since the country gained its independence in 1976. Victoria is the country’s … Read MoreVictoria, Seychelles (1772- )
Clifton R. Wharton, one of the first African-Americans to hold a professional position in the U.S. State Department, was born in 1899 in Baltimore, Maryland. Described as a “scholastic marvel,” Wharton attended English High School in Boston, Massachusetts, skipped college and was accepted to Boston … Read MoreClifton Reginald Wharton, Sr. (1899-1990)
In the following article historian Omar H. Ali explores a lesser-known aspect of the global African Diaspora, the spread of African peoples and their cultures throughout the Indian Ocean basin. Africans had become a visible part of the Indian Ocean world long before the advent … Read MoreIslam and the African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World
Thomas Sankara, political leader of Burkina Faso in the 1980s, was born on December 21, 1949 in Yako, a northern town in the Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso) of French West Africa. He was the son of a Mossi mother and a Peul father, and … Read MoreThomas Sankara (1949-1987)
The African Union (AU) is an alliance of 53 African states that aim to advance and integrate Africa as a continent. The Union was created on September 9, 1999 when the Sirte Declaration was put forward by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which proposed … Read MoreAfrican Union (2002- )
Galaye M’baye Diagne, the first African elected at the French National Assembly and to obtain a post in the French government, was born on October 13, 1872, on Gorée Island, Senegal. His father, Niokhor Diagne, was a cook, and his mother, Gnagna Anthony Preira, a … Read MoreBlaise Diagne (1872-1934)
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 17, 1823, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs apprenticed as a carpenter. By his early 20s he was an activist in the abolition movement, sharing platforms with Frederick Douglass and helping in the Underground Railroad. Black intellectual ferment of the era gave … Read MoreMifflin Wistar Gibbs (1823-1915)
John L. Waller was a career Republican and activist who played a significant role in Kansas politics. He was born to slave parents, Anthony and Maria Waller, on a plantation in New Madrid County, Missouri. Some records suggest he was born in 1851, contrary to … Read MoreJohn Lewis Waller (1850-1907)
