The last emperor of Ethiopia, he reigned under the name of Haile Selassie I. Considered by most rastas as the « legitimate ruler of the earth » and the Messiah because of his ancestry, which goes back to Kings Solomon and David through the queen of Sheba, Haile Selassie received at his enthronement the titles of king […]

Jules-François Bocandé is a former Senegalese international football player who began at Casa Sport, a club in his hometown where he was spotted in 1979. In 1986, he actively participated in Senegal’s qualification for the AFCON (African Cup of Nations) in Egypt, that same year, he also became the top scorer in the French championship […]

Kwame Nkrumah takes part in the 5th Pan-African Conference in Manchester while being still a student. Back home, a graduate in economics and law, he founded the CPP (Convention People’s Party) and was imprisoned for his radicalism. Nevertheless, in 1952, he won the elections and became First Minister of the Gold Coast. In 1957, under […]

The so-called Mwalimu, the schoolmaster, founded in 1954 Tanganyika African National Union, which won the 1960 elections peacefully. Nyerere succeeded in leading his country to independence on 9 December 1961. He became Prime Minister and then from 1962 to 1985, President of the whole new Republic of Tanganyika, which in 1964 became the United Republic […]

Originally from Sudan, she experienced humiliation, physical and psychological suffering of slavery. When she was bought, she went to live in Italy where she pronounced her first vows with the Canossian Sisters in 1896. Sister Josephine lived 51 years of religious life, letting herself be led by obedience in her work humble and hidden but […]

Joseph Ki-Zerbo, historian, professor and politician from Burkina Faso, has distinguished himself by an exceptional intellectual and academic background. He has studied political science and history, at the Institute of Political Studies of Paris (IEPP) and the Sorbonne. He brilliantly earned his Aggregation in History in 1956, becoming hence the first black African to bear […]

Jomo Kenyatta is a Kenyan statesman. An independence activist, he is imprisoned from 1952 to 1961 and became Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then President of the Republic from 1964 to 1978. Kenyatta not only fought for Kenya’s independence, he also tried to make it a united nation, in spite of a very […]

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was born a slave in the French part of the island of Santo Domingo (Republic of Haiti). He took part in the general uprising of August 1791. Once slavery was abolished, in 1794, Dessalines followed Toussaint when the latter rallied against the French. He became his lieutenant. They later succeeded in defeating the […]

Huda Shaarawi is a pioneer of Egyptian feminism. She set up, in January 1920, the Wafd Central Committee, of which she was elected Chairwoman. In 1923, shortly after the death of her husband, when she returned to Egypt, she decided not to put her scarf on and continued her political struggle with her face uncovered. […]

His real name Mouhamed Boukharouba, Houari Boumediene is a colonel and an Algerian statesman. He is the 2nd Head of State from 1965 to 1976, then President of the Republic from 1976 to 1978. A professional soldier, Chief of the General Staff of the National Liberation Army from 1959 to 1962. Following a coup d’état, […]