In the following article, Collins Edigin, a historian at the University of Benin, describes the rule of the Obas of Benin, a continuous dynasty that began in the 13th Century and is one of the oldest in the world. The kingdom of Benin was one of the most important states of the forest region of West Africa. It was renowned for its well-established system of government its and artistic sophistication. During the reign of the Obas (the second ruling dynasty), the kingdom grew from a small community of a few villages into a powerful empire that carried out extensive trade with the Portuguese and ..read more

Aoua Kéita was a Malian independence activist, politician, feminist, writer, and midwife. Born on July 12, 1912, in then Bamako, French Sudan to Karamogo Kéita, a member of the colonial hygiene service and Miriam Coulibaly, Aoua was one of the few African girls allowed to enroll in the first girls’ school in Bamako. She graduated from the École des filles and the Orpheliat des Métisses boarding school, which normally catered to well-off mixed-raced girls, in 1928, going on to complete her degree in midwifery at the Ѐcole de Médecine de Dakar in 1931. A member of the Franco-African elite, she w ..read more

Writer Gary Younge was born in January 1969 in Hertfordshire, England, to Barbadian parents. He grew up in the town of Stevenage, which had a very small Black population at the time. Gary and his two elder brothers, Pat and Wayne, were brought up by their mother, Reba, after his father, Patrick Younge, deserted the family home when Gary was an infant. Stevenage was Younge’s hometown until his late teens, but he would visit London to socialise with Black youth groups in his mother’s attempts for her children to have a ‘secure footing’ in their racial identity. Racism in the UK was blatant in th ..read more

Amar’e Stoudemire is an American-Israeli professional basketball player and coach, actor, and entrepreneur born in Lake Wales, Florida on November 16, 1982. After a successful career in the National Basketball Association, he moved to Israel to explore his Jewish identity. Stoudemire was born to Hazell and Carrie (née Palmorn) Stoudemire on November 16, 1982. The couple divorced when he was young. Carrie remarried Artis Wilmore, with whom she had a son, Marwan. His mother did agricultural work. His father died of a heart attack when Stoudemire was 12, and his mother served prison time for pett ..read more

Master guitarist, paralanguage hummer, and singer Joseph T. Spence was born on August 3, 1910, in Small Hope, Andros Island, Bahamas. Spence had one sister, Edith Pinder, who sang with him, and four half-brothers. However, there was no available information regarding the names of his parents or any offspring. His father was a preacher. When Spence was nine, his uncle, a flutist living in the United States, brought him his first guitar. Spence learned the instrument independently, and by 14, he was playing for dances with a polyrhythmic guitar style and a soothing guttural counterpoint vocal so ..read more

Offiong Ekanem Ejindu is a Nigerian architect, philanthropist, and businesswoman born in Ibadan, Nigeria in June 1962 to Professor Sylvester Joseph Una and Obonganwan Ekpa Una. Princess Fifi, reputedly a billionaire, is an influential philanthropist, “ranked as one of the African female pioneers in the fields of Architecture and Business,” as well as the great-granddaughter of King James Ekpo Bassey, a traditional ruler crowned by representatives of Queen Victoria in 1893 in Cobham Town, part of Calabar, Nigeria. Ejindu educational training began at the Senior Staff Primary School of the Unive ..read more

Writer Gary Younge was born in January 1969 in Hertfordshire in England to Barbadian parents. He grew up in the town of Stevenage, which had a very small black population at the time. Gary and his two elder brothers, Pat and Wayne, were brought up by their mother, Reba, after his father, Patrick Younge, deserted the family home when Gary was an infant. Stevenage was Younge’s hometown until his late teens, but he would visit London to socialise with Black youth groups in his mother’s attempts for her children to have a ‘secure footing’ in their racial identity. Racism in the UK was blatant in t ..read more

Amar’e Stoudemire is an American-Israeli professional basketball player and coach, actor, and entrepreneur born in Lake Wales, Florida on November 16, 1982. After a successful career in the National Basketball Association, he moved to Israel to explore his Jewish identity. Stoudemire was born to Hazell and Carrie (née Palmorn) Stoudemire on November 16, 1982. The couple divorced when he was young. Carrie remarried Artis Wilmore, with whom she had a son, Marwan. His mother did agricultural work. His father died of a heart attack when Stoudemire was 12, and his mother served prison time for pett ..read more

Master guitarist, paralanguage hummer, and singer Joseph T. Spence was born on August 3, 1910, in Small Hope, Andros Island, Bahamas. Spence had one sister, Edith Pinder, who sang with him, and four half-brothers. However, there was no available information regarding the names of his parents or any offspring. His father was a preacher. When Spence was nine, his uncle, a flutist living in the United States, brought him his first guitar. Spence learned the instrument independently, and by 14, he was playing for dances with a polyrhythmic guitar style and a soothing guttural counterpoint vocal so ..read more

Madam Yoko, born Soma in the Gbo Chiefdom, was the head of the Mende people of Sierra Leone. She ruled the extensive Kpa Mende Confederacy for decades before her death. Also known as Mammy Yoko, she and three brothers were raised by their warrior father in the outlands of the West African country. Madam Yoko’s rise to power is attributed to cunning, beauty, fortuitous marriages, and membership in Sande, a women’s initiation society. The society initiates girls into adulthood and includes ritual dancing and female genital mutilation. The title of madam is bestowed upon graduation. Historically ..read more