Queen Nandi was a South African Zulu Queen, mother to Shaka Zulu. She was born Nandi Ndlovukazi kaBhebe in Melmoth, a small town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in the 1760s. The word, Nandi, means The Sweet One. Her father, Bhebhe, was a minor chief. According … Read MoreQueen Nandi (1766-1827)
Bibi Titi Mohammed was a Tanzanian politician and activist. She was born in June 1926 in Dar es Salaam, then the capital of the British colony of Tanganyika. Mohammed was a member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), the party that fought for Tanzanian … Read MoreBibi Titi Mohammed (1926-2000)
Lewis Chitengwa was a Zimbabwean golfer who, in 1993, became the first black person to win the South African Amateur Championship. Chitengwa was born on January 25, 1975, to Lewis Muridzo and an unnamed mother in Harare, Zimbabwe. Chitengwa’s father was an accomplished golf professional … Read MoreLewis Chitengwa (1975-2001)
Aviation pioneer Sibongile Sambo, who was born in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, South Africa in 1974, holds the distinction of being the first woman to become a South African airline executive. Sambo founded SRS Aviation in 2004. She is a graduate of the College of Zululand, where … Read MoreSibongile Sambo (1974- )
Joseph Leabua Jonathan was the first Prime Minister of independent Lesotho. He was born on October 30, 1914, in Leribe, Basutoland now Lesotho), one of the many great-grandchildren of the polygamous King Moshoeshoe I, the founder of the Basuto nation. His parents were Jonathan Ramanemane Molapo and ‘Makatiso … Read MoreJoseph Leabua Jonathan (1914-1987)
Hage Gottfried Geingob, the third democratically elected president and the first prime minister of Namibia, was born on August 3, 1941, in Otjiwarongo, Otjozondjupa Region, Republic of Namibia. He was reared by his mother-figure Ouma Hendrina Thomas Geingob. He began his primary education in the … Read MoreHage Gottfried Geingob
(1941- )
Malawi’s current president, Lazarus Chakwera, was born on April 5, 1955, on the outskirts of Lilongwe to Ernest Person Chakwera and Mallen Mwale. His parents were subsistence farmers. Two of his brothers born before him died in infancy. His father named him Lazarus to express … Read MoreLazarus McCarthy Chakwera
(1995- )
Trevor Noah is a comedian, actor, and political commentator. Noah was born on February 24, 1984, to Robert Noah, who is of Swiss-German ancestry, and Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, who is South African and Xhosa, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Noah grew up in the racially segregated … Read MoreTrevor Noah (1984- )
Venture Capitalist Laurence (Larry) Morse was born July 2, 1951, in Birmingham, Alabama. Little is known about his years in Birmingham but beginning in 1969, he enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and graduated four years later with a B.A. degree in economics. He … Read MoreLaurence C. Morse (1951- )
