MIKE BENEDI

First president of Kenya and prominent independence leader. Born into dominant Kikuyu culture, Kenyatta became its most famous interpreter of Kikuyu traditions through his book Facing Mount Kenya.

Source:http://africanhistory.about.com/od/biography/a/bio-Kenyatta01.htm

 
 
Francis Arinze, (born 1 November 1932) is an Igbo Nigerian[1] Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, having served as prefect from 2002 to 2008. He is the current Cardinal Bishop of Velletri-Segni (succeeding Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI) since 2005. Arinze was one of the principal advisors to Pope John Paul II, and was considered papabile before the 2005 papal conclave, which elected Benedict XVI.

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4445821.stm

Abdoulaye Wade (born May 29, 1926)[2] is the third and current President of Senegal, in office since 2000. He is also the Secretary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and has led the party since it was founded in 1974.[3][4] A long-time opposition leader, he ran for President four times, beginning in 1978, before he was elected in 2000

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdoulaye_Wade

Ahmed Sekou Toure was born in Guinnea in 1922. The son of a poor Muslim farmer, Toure was educated in the Kor'an at an early age and went on to a French Technical School in Conakry at the age of 14. After just a year at the school, he was expelled in 1937. This however did not deter the determined Sekou Toure who eventually took his examinations and passed. In 1941, he got a job at the Post and Telecommunications (PTT) Service. His leadership skills saw him ascend to the post of Secretary-General of the PTT Workers' Union. His success with the Labour Union Movement propelled him into politics and in 1946, together with other African nationalists like Houphouet-Boigny founded the Rassemblement Democratique Africaine (RDA). In 1956, he was elected Guinnea's deputy to the French National Assembly and Mayor of Conakry(Guinnea's Capital).

Sekou Toure is most remembered for his bold move in 1958, when he led Guinnea out of the French Community after winning a landmark referendum for independence. This was a serious blow to then French President Charles De Gaulle who saw other African nations follow Toure's example by bowing out of the French Community and opting for independence. Sekou Toure was therefore a very instrumental figure in Africa's independence struggle, especially French-speaking Africa. But Sekou Toure, in addition to being a great politician, was also an accomplished poet. He is on record as having proclaimed to De Gaulle, We Prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery.

Guinnea gained independence from France in 1958 with Sekou Toure as President. He was a Marxist, and during the early years of his Presidency, leaned towards the Soviet Bloc for aid. This is quite understandable given the fact that much of the Capitalist West was very much against him for abandoning France. Guinnea suffered economically under Socialist policies and in 1978, Sekou Toure abandoned Marxism, spearheaded economic liberation and re-established trade with the Capitalist West. Running unopposed, he was re-elected Guinnea's President in 1982. He died in 1984 while seeking the position of Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Ahmed Sekou Toure is definitely among the bravest of brave African warriors who fought hard for Africa's independence and will always be remembered as a true African Hero.

Source:http://kenya740.tripod.com/sekoutoure.html

Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa

Born: 18 June 1942, Idutywa in Transkei, South Africa

In Summary: President of South Africa, first deputy president in the new Government of National Unity.

Thabo Mbeki was born in Idutywa in Transkei on June 18 1942. Both his parents were activists, and his father, Govan Mbeki, was a leading figure in the activities of the African National Congress (ANC) in Eastern Cape. The young Mbeki joined the ANC Youth League at the age of 14 and became active in student politics.

After his schooling at Lovedale Academy was interrupted by a strike in 1959, he completed his studies at home.

He moved to Johannesburg where he came under the guidance of Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe and was elected secretary of the African Students' Association (ASA). The ASA collapsed following the arrest of many of its members at a time when political movements were folding under increasingly severe attacks from the state and Mbeki went on to study economics via correspondence with London University.

Mbeki left South Africa for Tanzania in 1962 under orders from the ANC, after his father was arrested at Rivonia and sentenced to life imprisonment. From Tanzania he moved to Britain where he completed a Masters degree in economics at Sussex University in 1966.

He Remained active in student politics and played a prominent role in building the youth and student sections of the ANC in exile. He worked at the ANC's London office with the late Oliver Tambo and Yusuf Dadoo before being sent to the Soviet Union for military training in 1970.

Later in 1970 Mbeki went to Lusaka to become the assistant secretary of the Revolutionary Council. Over the next five years Mbeki was active in Botswana. In 1973 and 1974 he was in Botswana holding discussions with the their government about opening an ANC office there.

By 1975 Mbeki was acting ANC representative in Swaziland. Appointed to the ANC's national executive committee in 1975, he served as ANC representative to Nigeria until 1978.

On his return to Lusaka, he became political secretary in the office of Oliver Tambo, and then director of information. From this position he played a major role in turning the international media against apartheid. His other role in the 1970s was in building both the ANC in Swaziland and underground structures inside the country.

During the 1980s Mbeki rose to head the department of information and publicity and coordinated diplomatic campaigns to involve more white South Africans in anti-apartheid activities. In 1989 Mbeki headed the ANC's department of international affairs and was involved in the ANC's negotiations with the former government.

After South Africa's first democratic election in April 1994, Nelson Mandela chose Mbeki to be the first deputy president in the new Government of National Unity. The National Party withdrew from the Government of National Unity in June 1996 and Mbeki then became the sole deputy president.

At the 50th Conference of the ANC at Mafikeng, from 16-20 1997, Thabo Mbeki was elected as the new President of the African National Congress.

Thabo Mbeki was elected President of South Africa on 14 June 1999 and was inaugurated as President on 16 June 1999.

Source:http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/mbeki-t.htm

(born Sept. 1909, Nkroful, Gold Coast [now Ghana]—died April 27, 1972, Bucharest, Rom.) Ghanaian nationalist leader who led the Gold Coast's drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana. He headed the country from independence in 1957 until he was overthrown by a coup in 1966.

Source:http://www.biography.com/articles/Kwame-Nkrumah-9424127

Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis.[1] He was subsequently imprisoned and murdered...