Queen Amina was a warrior and ruler of Zaria, a Hausa city-state in what is now Northern Nigeria. She ruled for 34 years from 1576 until her death in 1610. Queen Amina was born Aminatu around 1533, a member of the royal family. Her grandfather … Read MoreQueen Amina (1533-1610)
Stella Chinyelu Okoli is a Nigerian pharmacist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and current CEO of Emzor, a pharmaceutical company she started in 1977. Okoli was born on July 30, 1944, in Kano State to Felix Ebelechukwu and Margaret Modebelu. She attended All … Read MoreStella Chinyelu Okoli (1944- )
Dr. Lisa DeNell Cook is an economist and a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She is the first African American woman to sit on the Board. Cook was born in 1964 and raised in Milledgeville, Georgia. She is one of three daughters of … Read MoreLisa D. Cook (1964- )
Taofeek Kunle Owonikoko, a physician-scientist, was born in 1968 in Iseyin, Oyo, Nigeria. He attended elementary and high school in Oyo where his academic discipline was directed by his father, a Yoruba businessman, to be either a physician or an Islamic cleric. Owonikoko is the … Read MoreTaofeek Kunle Owonikoko (1968 -)
Polish freedom fighter, jazz musician, and British citizen August Agboola Browne was born in British-controlled Lagos, Nigeria, on July 22, 1895. He was the son of Jozefina and Wallace Browne, a longshoreman. Browne traveled to London as a young man and found work in a … Read MoreAugust Agboola Browne (1895-1976)
In August of 1925, Ladipo Solanke, a Nigerian law student, and Herbert Bankole-Bright, a Sierra Leonean doctor, founded the West African Students’ Union (WASU) in the Camden Town section of London, England. WASU eventually become a powerful influence in both British and West African politics … Read MoreWest African Students’ Union (WASU)
In June 2021, Dr. Chibundu Onuzo exemplified the range of her talents when she released a music video entitled “Good Soil” to accompany the publication of her third novel, Sankofa. Dr. Onuzo is an author, singer, pianist, playwright, screenwriter, regular contributor to The Guardian, and … Read MoreChibundu Onuzo (1991- )
The current President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, was born on December 17, 1942, in Daura, Katsina, Nigeria. His parents were Mallam Hardo Adamu and wife, Zulaihat. He was the 23rd child of his father. At the age of 19, Buhari enrolled in the Nigeria Military … Read MoreMuhammadu Buhari
(1942- )
Akwaeke Emezi is part of a small but growing number of transgender Nigerian writers whose unique perspective and the rapidly growing audience for their novels have garnered them international literary acclaim. Emezi identifies as transgender and as an ogbanje. Transgender people do not identify with … Read MoreAkwaeke Emezi (1987- )
Nwanyereuwa was an Igbo woman from southeastern Nigeria who became famous because of her leadership in the Aba Women’s War in 1929. Nwanyereuwa’s exact birth and death dates, as well as her exact place of birth are unknown. However, by 1929, she had become an … Read MoreNwanyereuwa (??? – ???)
