Marie-Angélique Savané is a Senegalese sociologist, political activist and feminist. Spouse of the political leader Landing Savané, she had, among other things, led the journal Famille et Développement. From 1978 to 1988, she was Research Manager at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). From 1990 to 1992, she was Special Adviser to […]

Born on January 26, 1944 in Alabama, Angela Davis is marked in her youth by the racial segregation that prevails in the southern United States. Feminist activist, frequenting committed circles, she will also join the Black Panther Party. In 1969, she was a teacher at the University of Los Angeles and was dismissed because of […]

Abebe Bikila was born in Ethiopia on August 7, 1932, by a sheer coincidence, the very day the marathon of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles took place. First athlete black Africa Olympic gold medallist at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and then in 1964 in Tokyo. The Ethiopian Abebe Bikila remains the symbol […]

Aimé Césaire is a universalist poet, a committed playwright and a determined essayist, and French politician from Martinique. An anti-colonialist, Césaire becomes president of the Martinican Students’ Association in 1934 and founded the journal l’Etudiant Noir. He was also one of the founders of Negritude, and the magazine Présence Africaine. Mayor of Fort-de-France until 2001, […]

Alioune Diop arrived in Paris in 1937 as a student. Ten years later, he became a French senator, Chief of Staff of the Governor General of French West Africa (FWA). He launches the magazine Présence Africaine which will reveal the greatness of African civilization. The « Black Socrates » becomes the mentor of young intellectuals, Political leaders […]

Born in Bafata, Amilcar Cabral is an agricultural engineer trained in Lisbon who maintains good relationships with Angolan MPLA independence fighters (People’s Liberation Movement of Angola), Morocco, China and Senegal among others. In 1956, he founded in Bissau the PAIGC (The African Party of independence for Guinea and Cape Verde) and carries out an international […]

Annette Mbaye d’Erneville is a French-speaking Senegalese poet and journalist. She studied in Paris where she earned a degree in journalism as a radio reporter. « The Old Lady » as she is affectionately dubbed today has launched the project of the Henriette Bathily Women’s Museum which was once located on the Gorée island. Throughout her career, […]

Simon Kibangu was a symbol of Congolese nationalism and a figure of the African resistance and struggle against colonial oppression. He is known as Ntumua ya Nzambi’a Mpungu, Kikongo translation of ‘Envoy of Almighty God’. Although Kimbangu’s preaching has no stated political content, he nevertheless predicts the liberation of the black man on a spiritual […]

Sojourner Truth was a first-rate activist, speaker and educator in the struggle of African-Americans for the abolition of slavery and for the civil rights. Resolutely non-sectarian, she establishes a nexus between the women’s rights issues, the abolition of slavery and religious freedom. She became a strong advocate of the abolitionist cause and a staunch advocate […]

A central figure in Togolese political life who led the country towards independence, Sylvanus Olympio was, in many respects, a major player in the African independence. The first President of independent Togo, he was a a seasoned activist for African emancipation. Sylvanus Olimpio was assassinated in the first coup d’état in sub-Saharan Africa in 1963 […]