João da Cruz e Sousa (November 24, 1861 — March 19, 1898) was a Brazilian poet and journalist, famous for being one of the first Brazilian Symbolist poets ever. he has received the epithets of “Black Dante” and “Black Swan”. He is […]
Talented and Gifted Black People
Category: INTELLECTUALS
Austin Clarke
Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke, CM OOnt (born July 26, 1934), is a Canadian novelist, essayist and short story writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He has been called “Canada’s first multicultural writer” Biography Born in St. James, Barbados, Clarke had his early education there and taught at […]
Anton Wilhelm Amo
Anton Wilhelm Amo or Anthony William Amo (1703 – ca. 1759) was born in what is now Ghana, taken to Europe, and became a respected philosopher and teacher at the universities of Halle and Jena in Germany. He was the first Sub-Saharan African known to […]
Dorothy Height
Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010)[1] was an American administrator, educator, and a Civil Rights and Women’s Rights activistspecifically focused on the issues of African American women. Some issues she worked on are unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness.[2] She was the […]
Daniel O. Fagunwa
Daniel Olorunfẹmi Fagunwa MBE (1903 — December 9, 1963), popularly known as D.O. Fagunwa, was a Nigerian author who pioneered the Yoruba language novel. He was born in Oke-Igbo, Ondo State, a chief of the Yoruba, Fagunwa studied at St. […]
Samuel Ajayi Crowther
Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809 – 31 December 1891) was a linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Born in Osogun (in today’s Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria), Rev. Dr. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was a […]
Chinua Achebe
Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe (born 16 November 1930) popularly known as Chinua Achebe (pronounced /ˈtʃɪnwɑː əˈtʃɛbeɪ/;[1]) is a Nigerian[2] novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus[3], Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the […]
Ahmad Baba al Massufi
Ahmad Baba al-Massufi al-Tinbukti, full name Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Takruri Al-Massufi al-Timbukti (October 26, 1556 – 1627), (also known as Ahmed Baba Es Sudane or Ahmed Baba the black) was a medieval West African writer, […]
Massa Makan Diabaté
Massa Makan Diabaté (1938 – January 27, 1988) was a Malian historian, author, and playwright. Biography Born in 1938 in Kita, Massa Makan Diabaté was the descendant of a long line of West African poets (griots).[1]. His uncle, Kélé […]
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (born 1955 in Harare) is a Malawian historian, literary critic, novelist, short-story writer and blogger at The Zeleza Post -.[1] He is currently (2009) president of theAfrican Studies Association.[2] He has most recently been named as the […]
Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden (3 August 1832 – 7 February 1912) was a Sierra Leone Creole and Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, andpolitician in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Because Blyden was an intellectual force in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, historians regard him […]
Thomas Mofolo
Thomas Mokopu Mofolo (December 22, 1876- September 8, 1948) is considered to be the greatest Basotho author. He wrote mostly in the Sesotho language, but his most popular book, Chaka, has been translated into English and other languages. […]
Prof.Miriam Were
Miriam K. Were (born 1940) is a Kenyan public health advocate, academic, and recipient of the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize. Academic experience With a degree in Natural Sciences and postgraduate Diploma in Education, Were taught […]
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (pronounced [ŋɡoɣe wa ðiɔŋɔ]; born January 5, 1938[1]) is a Kenyan author, formerly working in English and now working in Gĩkũyũ. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism […]
Mwana Kupona
Mwana Kupona binti Msham (born on Pate Island, died c. 1865) was a Swahili poetess of the 19th century, author of a poem known as Utendi wa Mwana Kupona (“the book of Mwana Kupona”), which is one of […]
Ali Mazrui
Ali Al’amin Mazrui (born February 24, 1933 in Mombasa, Kenya) is an academic and political writer on African and Islamic studies and North-South relations. He is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute […]
Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo
Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo (26 December 1891, Wasuta – 21 July 1969) was a Ghanaian minister of religion, playwright and educator, founder of Zion College, the first secondary school in Ghana’s Volta Region. Life Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo was the son […]
Joe de Graft
Joe Coleman de Graft (April 2, 1924 – November 1, 1978) was a prominent Ghanaian writer, playwright and dramatist who was appointed the first director of the Ghana Drama Studio in 1962. Joseph Coleman de Graft, or Joe […]
Raphael Armattoe
Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe (12 August 1913 – 22 December 1953)[1] was a Ghanaian doctor, author, poet and politician. He was nominated for the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize and was a campaigner for unification of British […]
Ayi Kwei Armah
Ayi Kwei Armah (born 1939) is a notable Ghanaian writer. Early life and education Born to Fante-speaking parents, and descending on his father’s side from a royal family in the Ga tribe, Armah was born in the port […]
Lenrie Peters
ِِ Enrie Leopold Wilfred Peters (September 1, 1932 – May 28, 2009)[1]) was a Gambian surgeon, novelist, and poet. Background Peters was born in Bathurst (now Banjul) to Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters and Kezia Rosemary. Lenrie Sr. was a […]
René Maran
(Fort-de-France, Martinique, 8 November 1887 – 9 May 1960) was a French Guyanese poet and novelist, and the first black writer to win the French Prix Goncourt (in 1921). Biography Born on the boat carrying his parents to Fort-de-France where […]
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin (17 August 1936—25 February 2006) was Poet Laureate of Ethiopia, as well as a poet, playwright, essayist, and art director. Biography Born in Boda, near Ambo, Ethiopia, While still at elementary school he wrote a play called […]
Sahle Selassie
Sahle Selassie (c. 1795 – 22 October 1847) was a Meridazmach (and later Negus) of Shewa (1813–1847), an important noble of Ethiopia. He was a younger son of Wossen Seged. Sahle Selassie was the father of Haile Melekot and Darge Sahle Selassie […]
Achille Mbembe
Achille Mbembe is a philosopher and political scientist.[1] He was born in Cameroon in 1957. He obtained his Ph.D. in History at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1989. He subsequently obtained a D.E.A. in Political Science […]
Jean Marc Ela
Jean-Marc Ela (27 September 1936–26 December 2008) was a sociologist, Diocesan Priest, Professor and author of many books on theology, philosophy, and social sciences in Africa. His most famous work, African Cry has been called the […]
Mongo Beti
Alexandre Biyidi Awala (30 June 1932 – 8 October 2001), known as Mongo Beti, was a Cameroonian writer. Life Though he lived in exile for many decades, Beti’s life reveals an unflagging commitment to improvement of his […]
Esther Kamatari
Princess Esther Kamatari (born 1951) is a writer, model, and exiled Burundian princess. Esther Kamatari grew up in Burundi as a member of the royal family. Following independence in 1962, the king was overthrown in a militarycoup d’etat, and the monarchy abolished in […]
Malidoma Patrice Somé
Malidoma Patrice Somé (born 1956) is a West African writer. He was born in Dano, Burkina Faso, among the Dagara. At the age of four he was kidnapped byJesuit missionaries, to be raised in their boarding school, and given an […]
Titinga Frédéric Pacéré
Titinga Frédéric Pacéré (born 1943) is a Burkinabé solicitor, writer, poet and griot and founder and curator of the Musée de Manega museum in Burkino Faso. He studied in Abidjan. He has written over twenty books and published 60 volumes and has […]
Joseph Ki-Zerbo
Joseph Ki-Zerbo (June 21, 1922 – December 4, 2006, Burkina Faso) was a Burkinabé politician and writer. He spent his youth in Toma where he grew up in a rural context inside a big family. Ki-Zerbo […]
Bernadette Sanou Dao
Bernadette Sanou Dao was born on the 25th of February 1952 in Baguinda (Bamako, Mali). At the age of 11, she returned to Burkina with her family. She undertook her secondary schooling at the […]
Bessie Head
Bessie Emery Head (July 6, 1937 – April 17, 1986) is usually considered Botswana‘s most important writer. Bessie Emery Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a wealthy white South African woman and a black […]
Unity Dow
Unity Dow (born 23 April 1959) is a judge, human rights activist, and writer from Botswana. She came from a rural background that tended toward traditional values of the African kind. Her mother could not read English, and in […]
Paulin J. Hountondji
Paulin Hountondji (b.1942) is a Beninese philosopher and politician. Hountondji was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, graduating in 1966, and taking his doctorate in 1970 (his thesis was on Edmund Husserl). After two years teaching in France and in the Congo […]
Mário Pinto de Andrade
Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade (August 21, 1928 – August 26, 1990) was an Angolan poet and politician. He was born in Golungo-Alto, in Portuguese Angola, and studied philology at the University of Lisbon and sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris. While there, […]
Henry Louis Gates
Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, andpublic intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received […]
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870)[1] was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in […]
Dr. Philip Emeagwali
Dr. Philip Emeagwali ‘Father of the Internet’ Philip Emeagwali was born on August 23, 1954, in Akure, Nigeria, the son of James Emeagwali, a nurse’s aide, and his 16-year-old wife, Agatha. In April 1967, he […]
Rev Sharpton
Alfred Charles “Al” Sharpton, Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and radio talk showhost.[1][2] In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts his own […]
Bill Morris
William Manuel Morris, Baron Morris of Handsworth, OJ (born 19 October 1938), generally known as Bill Morris, was general secretaryof the Transport and General Workers’ Union from 1992 to 2003, and the first black leader of a British trade union. Early […]
Igiaba Scego
Igiaba Scego is an Italian writer (Rome, 1974), of Somali origin. Biography After graduating in Foreign Literature at the First University of Rome (La Sapienza), she obtained her doctorate in pedagogy at the Third University […]
Malorie Blackman
Malorie Blackman, author of literature and television drama for children and young adults. She has used science fiction to explore social and ethical issues. Her critically and popularly acclaimed Noughts & Crosses series uses the setting of a fictional dystopia to […]
Elijah Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Poole October 7, 1897 — February 25, 1975) was an African American religious leader. He was the leader of the Nation of Islam organization from 1934 until his death at age 77. Muhammad was […]
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (pronounced /ˈmælkəm ˈɛks/; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz[1] (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز), was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist.[2][3][4][5]To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate […]
Ben Carson
Dr. Benjamin S. “Ben” Carson, Sr., M.D. (born September 18, 1951) is an American neurosurgeon and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. Background and education Benjamin […]
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan (born Louis Eugene Walcott; May 11, 1933) is the National Representative of the Nation of Islam. He is an advocate forblack interests, and a critic of American society. Farrakhan has been both widely praised and […]
Princess Angela
Princess Angela of Liechtenstein (3 February 1958 in Bocas del Toro, Panama) is the wife of Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein. Princess Angela is the only black woman in a reigning European dynasty. Early life Angela was born Angela Gisela Brown, […]
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918 died 5- December 2013)[1] served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in […]
Warith Deen Mohammed
Warith Deen Mohammed (born Wallace D. Muhammad; October 30, 1933 – September 9, 2008) was an African American Muslimleader and the son of Clara and Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1933 to 1975.[1][2] He became […]
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou (pronounced /ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/;[1] born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 – 28 May 2014)[2] was an American autobiographer and poet who has been called “America’s most visible black female autobiographer” by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She […]
