Yewubdar Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was an Ethiopian nun and musician. Her music reflected a life that experienced a number of unexpected moves as well as a devotional commitment to Christian orthodoxy. Yewubdar was born in Addis Ababa December 12, 1923 to Kessaye Yelemtu, relative of … Read MoreEmahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (1923-2023)
Thomas P. Bostick was the 53rd Chief of Engineers of the United States Army and commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Bostick is the only African American graduate of the academy to serve as Chief of Engineers and commanding general of the … Read MoreThomas Paul Bostick (1956- )
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 -)
Hilarius Gilges is the most well-known Afro-German activist who fought against the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party in the early interwar period. The son of a textile worker named Maria Stüttgen and an African boatman working on the Rhine, Gilges was … Read MoreHilarius Gilges (a.k.a. Lari Gilges, 1909-1933)
Charles Angelo Savarin is a former Member of Parliament and current President of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Savarin was a Senator in Parliament during the interim government (1979-1980), during the first term of Dame Eugenia Charles’s Administration when the Dominica Freedom Party (1980-1985) had the … Read MoreCharles Savarin (1943- )
Nicholas (“Nick”) Brown is the first African American to serve as United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington. Born in San Francisco to a career military officer, Brown also lived in Augsburg, Germany as a child. He attended high school in Steilacoom, Washington, … Read MoreNicholas W. Brown (1977- )
Professor Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and Professor of African and African American Studies and current Chair of the History of Science Department at Harvard College. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science Department, an S.M. … Read MoreEvelynn M. Hammonds (1953- )
Diébédo Francis Kéré is a Burkinabe architect internationally known for his innovative, often sustainable, and collaborative work. He is the first African to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. Kéré was born on April 10, 1965, in … Read MoreDiébédo Francis Kéré (1965- )
The first president of Sao Tome and Principe, two islands in the Gulf of Guinea, was Manuel Pinto da Costa. He was born in Agua Grande on Sao Tome Island on August 5, 1937. At that time Sao Tome and Principe was a Portuguese colony. … Read MoreManuel Pinto da Costa
(1937- )
Sylvanus Olympio was the first president of Togo and also served as prime minister. He was born on September 6, 1902, in Lome, Togoland, then a German colony. Olympio’s grandfather had emigrated from Brazil in the mid-19th century. Young Sylvanus was one of 30 children. … Read MoreSylvanus Olympio (1902-1963)
