In the following article, historian Nafeesa Muhammad describes the often lauded but understudied economic program of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Here she focuses on the economic development plans put in place under the NOI’s longtime leader, Elijah Muhammad and their impact on African American … Read MoreThe Nation of Islam’s Economic Program, 1934-1975
The Second Sudanese Civil War was an intense 22-year conflict between the central government in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The war started in southern Sudan but spread to other places including the Nuba mountains and the Blue Nile region. Two million … Read MoreSecond Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005)
Born Aquilibn Michael X. Shumate in Washington, D.C. on June 20, 1973, Aquil Abdullah would transcend racial barriers in sports and challenge religious and political bigotry. When he was six years old, his father converted to Islam and changed the family’s last name to Abdullah. Abdullah attended Woodrow Wilson High … Read MoreAquil Abdullah (1973- )
Image Ownership: Public Domain Yahya Jammeh is a Gambian politician and former military officer who was the second president of Gambia from 1994 to 2017. Jammeh ruled Gambia for 23 years after rising to power as a young army officer in a bloodless military coup … Read MoreYahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junking Jammeh (1965- )
Adama Barrow is a Gambian politician and real estate developer who is the third and current president of Gambia. Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh in the 2016 Gambian presidential election, but because the incumbent president initially refused to recognize the victory, Barrow was inaugurated at the … Read MoreAdama Barrow
(1965- )
Raphael Abraham Frank Mensah (1924-1990s), a schoolmaster and theologian, played a foundational role in bringing Mormonism to Ghana. Born in 1924 in Winneba, Gold Coast, as the British colony of Ghana was then called, he was the eldest of five children, three sons and two … Read MoreRaphael Abraham Frank Mensah (1924-1990s)
Seyyid Said, also known as Said bin Sultan, was a resourceful and energetic sultan of Oman who moved the capital from Arabia to Zanzibar in order to initiate clove production and also greatly expanded the East African slave trade. Said’s father, Sultan bin Ahmad (?–1804), … Read MoreSeyyid Said (1790–1856)
Ali Al’amin Mazrui was a Kenyan intellectual in the fields of political science, African studies, and Islamic studies. The father of the African Liberalism ideology (an economic perspective on Africa critical of western powers and Marxism/Socialism) was an often controversial figure due largely to his … Read MoreAli Al’amin Mazrui (1933-2014)
Nyamko Ana Sabuni is a Swedish politician and former government cabinet minister. She was born in Bujumbura, Burundi, on March 31, 1969. The family relocated in exile after her father, Maurice Sabuni, a left-wing politician from Congo (formerly Zaire) had been frequently jailed. The Sabuni … Read MoreNyamko Ana Sabuni (1969– )
Malik Ambar was among the tens of thousands of men, women, and children captured in Africa and sold into slavery in the Middle East and India over nearly nine centuries. His story is also an indication of the ability of some in the predominantly Muslim … Read MoreMalik Ambar (1548 -1627)
