Mansa Musa, fourteenth century emperor of the Mali Empire, is the medieval African ruler most known to the world outside Africa. His elaborate pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in 1324 introduced him to rulers in the Middle East and in Europe. His … Read MoreMansa Musa (1280-1337)
Many Europeans have long exhibited a fascination with the African continent. However their knowledge of Africa was often incorrect or incomplete. In the following article University of Cincinnati historian John K. Brackett describes the Italian idea of Africa during the 15th and 16th Centuries. An … Read MoreAfrica and Africans in the Imagination of Renaissance Italians (1450-1630)
Antillean author Maryse Condé was born on February 11, 1937, in Pointe-á-Pitre, Guadeloupe, where her parents were members of the island’s black middle class. After a childhood she describes as “not at all interesting,” Condé left Guadeloupe at sixteen to complete her formal education in … Read MoreMaryse Condé (1937- )
U.S. Ambassador Orison Rudolph Aggrey was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, the son of James Emman Kwegyir, an African immigrant who became an American college professor, and Rose Rudolph (Douglass) Aggrey, an African American woman. He earned a B.S. degree from Hampton Institute, where he … Read MoreOrison Rudolph Aggrey (1926-2016 )
Henry Washington, slave, loyalist, and colonizer, was born in Africa, perhaps in the Senegambia (present day Senegal and Gambia). Transported as a slave to America, he was bought by George Washington in 1763 to work on a project for draining the Great Dismal Swamp in … Read MoreHenry Washington (ca. 1740-ca. 1801)
Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Albert and Fanny Dunham. She was of mixed heritage with African, Madagascan, Canadian-French and American Indian ancestry. Dunham was raised in Joliet, Illinois and didn’t begin formal dance training until her late … Read MoreKatherine Dunham (1909-2006)
Ira Frederick Aldridge was the first African American actor to achieve success on the international stage. He also pushed social boundaries by playing opposite white actresses in England and becoming known as the preeminent Shakespearean actor and tragedian of the 19th Century. Ira Frederick Aldridge … Read MoreIra Aldridge (1807-1867)
