Godwin Ajala is remembered as a U.S. national hero who fought to save the lives of countless people as they escaped from the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001. He is also the only Nigerian listed among the nearly 3,000 people who died … Read MoreGodwin O. Ajala (1968-2001)
Liberian Women’s Peace Group Image Ownership: Pewee Flomoku The Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET) was one of the first female led peace negotiating teams in the region of West Africa and they organized a system of diplomacy between the Liberian, Guinean and Sierra Leonean … Read MoreThe Mano River Women’s Peace Network (2001-)
Maxine Case is an accomplished novelist from Cape Town, South Africa. Her mother, Dianne Case, is an author of children’s books and her sister Bonita Case writes as well. Her debut novel, All We Have Left Unsaid, was published in 2006 by Kwela Books. In … Read MoreMaxine Case (n.d.)
Image Ownership: Metasavend (CC BY-SA 3.0) The author Ben Okri was born March 15, 1959 in the small town of Minna in northern Nigeria. His mother, Grace Okri, was of the Igbo ethnic group while his father, Silver Oghekeneshineke Loloje Okri was an Urhobo. Ben’s … Read MoreBen Okri (1959- )
Karen Ann King-Aribisala is a Guyanese-born novelist who was raised and currently resides in Nigeria. She left Guyana as a young child, moving with her parents to Nigeria around the time of the Nigerian Civil war (1967-1970). Her father introduced her to books at an … Read MoreKaren King-Aribisala (n.d.)
With the exception of the well-publicized Operation Moses, Joshua, and Solomon Airlift of 20,000 Ethiopian Jews from that war and famine ravaged nation to Israel between 1984 and 1991, few people outside the Middle East are aware of the tens of thousands of people of … Read MoreThe Black Diaspora in Israel, 1965 to 2011
The University of Lagos was founded in 1962 in Yaba, Lagos by an Act of the Federal Parliament. Before the establishment of the University of Lagos in 1962, a teachers’ training college, Trade Center, and Yaba College of Technology were the only institutions in the … Read MoreUniversity of Lagos (1962- )
Image Ownership: Simon Fraser University Public Affairs and Media Relations (CC BY-SA 2.0) Renowned African novelist Nuruddin Farah was born in Baidoa, Somalia in 1945, a time when Somalia was still an Italian colony. His father Hassan Farah was a translator for the colonial government … Read MoreNuruddin Farah (1945- )
J.C. Vaughn, Ernest Ikoli, H.O. Davies, and Samuel Akinsanya founded the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) in 1934. Although based in Lagos, the NYM was the first Nigerian nationalist organization to promote politics outside of the capital. Furthermore, the NYM was also the first organization to … Read MoreThe Nigerian Youth Movement (1934-1951)
The University of Ibadan, founded in 1948, is the oldest university in Nigeria and the only institution founded before the country became independent in 1960. The University of Ibadan is a federally-controlled public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State. As of 2009 it had an … Read MoreUniversity of Ibadan (1948- )
