Ibrahim Traoré (born 14 March 1988) is a Burkinabé military officer and politician who has served as the interim President of Burkina Faso since the 2022 coup d'etat that ousted interim President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. At age 37, Traoré is currently the second youngest serving state leader in the World after Iceland Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir, and the youngest serving president. 

Khalid Abdul Muhammad (born Harold Moore Jr.; January 12, 1948 – February 17, 2001) was an African-American Muslim minister and activist who became a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam and later the New Black Panther Party. After a 1993 speech at Kean College, Muhammad was condemned and removed from his position in the Nation of Islam by Louis Farrakhan. He was also censured by both chambers of the United States Congress.

After being removed from the Nation of Islam, he served as the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party until his death in 2001 from an alleged brain aneurysm. He advocated black independence and stated a personal practice of anti-miscegenation.

On December 3, 2024, she was officially declared the president-elect of the Republic of Namibia, making her the first woman to hold the position. She recieved 683,560 or 57.8% of the vote defeating Panduleni Itula and McHenry Venaani. She was Inaugurated on march 21, 2025

political leader of Burkina Faso in the 1980s, was born on December 21, 1949 in Yako, a northern town in the Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso) of French West Africa. He was the son of a Mossi mother and a Peul father, and personified the diversity of the Burkinabè people of the area. In his adolescence, Sankara witnessed the country’s independence from France in 1960 and the repressive and volatile nature of the regimes that ruled throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

On August 4, 1983, Blaise Compaoré orchestrated the “August Revolution,” or a coup d’état against the Council for the People’s Safety.  The new regime which called itself the National Council for the Revolution (CNR) made 34-year-old Thomas Sankara president. As president, Sankara sought to end corruption, promote reforestation, avert famine, support women’s rights, develop rural areas, and prioritize education and healthcare. He renamed the country ‘Burkina Faso,’ meaning, “the republic of honorable people.”

On October 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara was killed with twelve other officials in a coup d’état instigated by Blaise Compaoré, his former political ally.  He was 37 at the time of his death.

Assimi Goïta (born 9 11 1980)[1] is a Malian soldier and politician who is the 7th and current President of Mali and as well as the Chairman of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People since 2021. Previously, he was the Vice President of Mali and the Deputy Chairman of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People from 2020 to 2021.[2] Goïta actively took part in the 2020 Malian coup d'état against then–President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta where Keïta was successfully removed. A year later, Goïta later took power from his predecessor Bah Ndaw after the 2021 Malian coup d'état due to corruption and after the coup, Goïta immediately declared himself President.[3] In July 2022, Goïta has announced that Mali will hold presidential elections in February 2024.

a medical doctor and activist. She is a public speaker, educator, diplomat, founder of medical clinics, and an entrepreneur. She moved to the United States after living many years in Zimbabwe. She is the CEO and founder of Bell Family Medical Centers in the United States, and served as the African Union representative to the US from 2017 to 2019. She holds a bachelor's degree in General Chemistry, a master's degree in organic chemistry, and a Doctor of Medicine degree. Chihombori was a family medicine specialist in Tennessee. She practiced medicine for 29 years in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Chihombori is outspoken about the implications of the Berlin Conference that took place in Berlin, Germany, in 1885. She lectures about the outcome of the divisions on the continent of Africa that were made. She sees these divisions as a cause of some of Africa's problems that are still in effect today. She seeks to reunite African states,[clarification needed] and the African diaspora.

Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981) is a South African politician. He is the founder and leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a communist political party known for the red berets and military-style outfits worn by its members. Malema is sometimes referred to as Juju. Before the foundation of EFF, he served as a president of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) from 2008 until his expulsion from the party in 2012. He was raised by his mother, who was a domestic worker, and his grandmother in what is now the Limpopo province. When he was nine years of age, he reportedly joined the Masupatsela (in English, often referred to as Young Pioneers or Trailblazers) group of the African National Congress (ANC). He joined the ANC Youth League in 1994 and quickly assumed local and regional leadership positions in the group. Malema was also active in the Congress of South African Students organization, becoming province chairman in 1997 and then serving as president from 2001 to 2004. In April 2008 he was elected president of the ANC Youth League by a narrow majority during a contentious group conference.

Julius Sello Malema on land return and decolonisation: " If you are propertyless white supremacists do not see you as a human being. Fight for your land. They own 72% of the land now, we own 4%, this should be overturned so that we own 72% and they own 4%. We are not saying get out of South Africa to go to the ocean or to become refugees, we are saying return the land, let us be equal. We are not afraid of billionaires or imperialists. They will not dictate to us how we fight for the liberation of our people. I don’t care about your sanctions; I will never stop fighting for black people to be equal to white people. If that makes me an international criminal, I am proud to be one. We will never back down from our fight for the return of land to the people of South Africa through expropriation without compensation.

The EFF takes this opportunity to tell Elon Musk and all of his allies, in the USA, in Israel and the right wing groups in South Africa which have mobilized Musk, to collectively go to hell. The principle remains that equality in South Africa is rooted in the return of the land to African people, and this will be achieved through expropriation without compensation.

born 30 November 1960 is a Nigerian military officer who is the president of Niger since 2025 and the president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the military junta of Niger, since 2023. He had served as the Chief of the Nigerian Presidential guard (2011–2023). He played a key role in the 2023 Nigerien coup d'état by detaining President Mohamed Bazoum. His coup triggered the Nigerien crisis, which ended in 2024.

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI) until 1964 after which he left the movement, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the African American community. A controversial figure accused of preaching violence, Malcolm X is also a widely celebrated figure within African American and Muslim communities for his pursuit of racial justice.

​was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June until September 1960, following the May 1960 election. He was the leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC) from 1958 until his assassination in 1961. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.

Shortly after Congolese independence in June 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the Congo Crisis. After a coup, Lumumba attempted to escape to Stanleyville to join his supporters who had established a new anti-Mobutu state called the Free Republic of the Congo. Lumumba was captured en route by state authorities under Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, sent to the State of Katanga and, with the help of Belgian mercenaries, tortured and executed by the separatist Katangan authorities of Moïse Tshombe. In 2002, Belgium formally apologised for its role in the execution, admitting "moral responsibility", and in 2022, they returned Lumumba’s tooth to his family. He is seen as a martyr for the pan-African movement.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr.(17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) (commonly known as UNIA), through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Garvey was ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist. His ideas came to be known as Garveyism. 

"Race first" was the adage which was widely used in Garveyism. In Garvey's view, "no race in the world is so just as to give others, for the asking, a square deal in things economic, political and social", but rather each racial group will favor its own interests, rejecting the "melting pot" notion of much 20th century American nationalism. He was hostile to the efforts of the progressive movement to agitate for social and political rights for African Americans, arguing that this was ineffective and that laws would never change the underlying racial prejudice of European Americans.

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Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

Raised in a poor Xhosa family, Biko grew up in Ginsberg township in the Eastern Cape. In 1966, he began studying medicine at the University of Natal, where he joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Strongly opposed to the apartheid system of racial segregation and white-minority rule in South Africa, Biko was frustrated that NUSAS and other anti-apartheid groups were dominated by white liberals, rather than by the blacks who were most affected by apartheid. He believed that well-intentioned white liberals failed to comprehend the black experience and often acted in a paternalistic manner. He developed the view that to avoid white domination, black people had to organise independently, and to this end he became a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968. Membership was open only to "blacks", a term that Biko used in reference not just to Bantu-speaking Africans but also to Coloureds and Indians. He was careful to keep his movement independent of white liberals, but opposed anti-white hatred and had white friends. The white-minority National Party government were initially supportive, seeing SASO's creation as a victory for apartheid's ethos of racial separatism.

Influenced by the Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and the African-American Black Power movement, Biko and his compatriots developed Black Consciousness as SASO's official ideology. The movement campaigned for an end to apartheid and the transition of South Africa toward universal suffrage and a socialist economy. It organised Black Community Programmes (BCPs) and focused on the psychological empowerment of black people. Biko believed that black people needed to rid themselves of any sense of racial inferiority, an idea he expressed by popularizing the slogan "black is beautiful". In 1972, he was involved in founding the Black People's Convention (BPC) to promote Black Consciousness ideas among the wider population. The government came to see Biko as a subversive threat and placed him under a banning order in 1973, severely restricting his activities. He remained politically active, helping organise BCPs such as a healthcare centre and a crèche in the Ginsberg area. During his ban he received repeated anonymous threats, and was detained by state security services on several occasions. Following his arrest in August 1977, Biko was beaten to death by state security officers. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral

 Deolinda Rodrigues (1939–1967) – Angola

was an Angolan revolutionary, writer, and poet. She was a member of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA, transl. 'People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola') and, in addition to seeing combat, worked for the organisation as a translator, educator, and radio host. 

Born into a Methodist family, she received a scholarship to study in Brazil, where she corresponded with Martin Luther King Jr. Fearing extradition to Portugal because of her work with the MPLA, she continued her education in the United States before returning to Africa. Rodrigues was the sole woman on the MPLA's central committee in the 1960s and co-founded the MPLA's women's wing, the Organização da Mulher de Angola (OMA, transl. 'Organization of Angolan Women'). She was also one of five women members of the Esquadrão Kamy (transl. 'Camy Squadron'), a guerilla unit tasked with reinforcing MPLA troops in Angola.

She was captured by a rival nationalist group in 1967 while attempting to reach Angola with the Esquadrão Kamy and was executed in 1968. The anniversary of her capture is celebrated as the "Day of the Angolan Woman" in Angola, and a documentary about her life was released in 2014.

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Politician and anti-apartheid activist, Treason Trialist and President of the African National Congress (ANC) Women's League

​

Date of birth

25-September-1911

Location of birth

Pretoria, Gauteng (then Transvaal), South Africa

Date of death

13-March-1980

Location of death

Orlando Township, Gauteng (then Transvaal), South Africa

Gender

Female

Lilian Masediba Ngoyi was born in Pretoria in 1911 to a family of six children, and obtained her primary schooling in Kilnerton. She later enrolled for a nurses' training course, but she eventually took up work as a machinist in a clothing factory where she worked from 1945 to 1956.

She joined the Garment Workers Union (GWU) under Solly Sachs, and soon became one of its leading figures. Impressed by the spirit of African National Congress (ANC) volunteers, she joined the ANC during the 1950 Defiance Campaign and was arrested for using facilities in a post office that were reserved for white people.

Her energy and her gift as a public speaker won her rapid recognition, and within a year of joining the ANC she was elected as president of the ANC Women's League. When the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was formed in 1954, she became one of its national vice-presidents, and in 1956 she was elected president.

In 1955, she travelled to Europe as a delegate to a conference called by the Women's International Democratic Federation, and was invited by socialist delegates to tour Russia, China and other eastern bloc countries. She became a member of the Transvaal ANC executive from 1955, and in December 1956 she became the first woman ever elected to the ANC national executive committee.

Ngoyi also gained wide recognition overseas as a radical opponent of apartheid. Together with Dora Tamana, she was arrested while trying to board a ship on her way to a conference in Switzerland without a passport. She addressed protest meetings against apartheid in a number of world centres, including London's Trafalgar Square.

On the 9th of August 1956, together with Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Theresa Williams de Bruyn, she led the women's anti-pass march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, one of the largest demonstrations staged in South African history. Holding thousands of petitions in one hand, Ngoyi was the one who knocked on Prime Minister Strijdom’s door to hand over the petitions.

In December 1956, Ngoyi was arrested for high treason along with 156 other leading figures, and stood trial until 1961 as one of the accused in the four–year-long Treason Trial. While the trial was still on and the accused out on bail, Ngoyi was imprisoned for five months under the 1960 state of emergency. She spent much of this time in solitary confinement.

Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, also known as Mbuya Nehanda, was a Svikiro or spirit medium of the Zezuru Shona people. She was also one of the leaders of the Chimurenga Uprising in the 1890s against the British South Africa Company under the leadership of Cecil John Rhodes, which was attempting to gain control of much of Southern Africa.

Charwe Nyakasikana was born in 1840 in the Chishawasha district of central Mashonaland. She was the daughter of a man named Chitaura, who was the younger son of Shayachimwe, the founder of the Hwata dynasty in the upper Mazowe Valley in the late eighteenth century. She married and had two daughters and a son, but her husband’s name has not survived.

In 1890, British colonists under the flag of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) invaded Mashonaland (in present-day Zimbabwe). They confiscated the land and livestock of the indigenous people living there in the company’s attempt to find gold. The British government had granted the company exclusive mining rights, and BSAC imposed forced labor and taxes on the local families. This scenario triggered an uprising known as the “Chimurenga” (Liberation War), a military campaign that began in March 1896 to drive the British out of the region. A crucial aspect of this first uprising was its strong connection to religion and traditional religious leaders of local communities.

Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana was a Shona spiritual leader and a medium of an ancestral spirit known as mhondoro. The mhondoro were among the most powerful spirits in the local tradition. Together with the mediums of the other two mhondoro, Mukwati in Matabeleland and Sekuru Kaguvi in western Mashonaland, Nehanda organized and led the resistance of her people until she was captured.

The first Chimurenga Uprising lasted until late 1897 when the Shona and Ndebele peoples were defeated after running out of supplies. Nehanda was charged with the murder of H.H. Pollard, a European commissar known for his cruelty. Her trial began in March 1898, and the following month, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Before she was executed, she announced to the British that her body would be resurrected to fight a second and, this time, a successful battle against them.

It is believed that Nehanda’s words, “My bones will rise again,” foreshadowed the second Chimurenga Uprising of 1964-1979, which culminated in the independence of the nation of Zimbabwe. Nehanda’s heroism became an important source of inspiration for the nationalist liberation struggle in the 1960s and 1970s. Her name is now usually prefixed with the respectful title Mbuya or Grandmother. The maternity ward at Parirenyatwa Hospital on the University of Zimbabwe campus in Harare is named after her. In May 2021, a statue of Mbuya Nehanda was unveiled in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, on Julius Nyerere Way, where the road meets Samora Machel Avenue.