Black People who changed the world

1
Black People who changed the worldcompiled by
Eben Ofe-Boakye (2005)
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YAA ASANTEWA

• Her fight against British colonialists is a story
  that is woven throughout the history of Ghana.
• For months the Ashantis led by Yaa Asantewa
  fought very bravely and kept the white men in the
  fort. Yet British reinforcements totaling 1,400
  soldiers arrived at Kumasi.
• Yaa Asantewa and other leaders were captured and
  sent into exile. Yaa Asantewa's war was the last
  of the major war in Africa led by a woman.

3
Queen Nzingha(1582-1663)

• Angolan woman who became ruler after the death of
  her brother in 1624.
• She gave many positions of leadership in her
  government to other women. When she lead her
  troops in battle she dressed as a man.
• She maintained a powerful resistance against a
  Portuguese conquest of her country, it was only
  after her death that the Portuguese trade in
  slaves expanded.

4
Toussaint L'Ouverture (c.1743-1803)

• Was the son of an enslaved African chief in St
  Dominique (now called Haiti).
• He led a rebellion against slavery, defeated
  armies from France and Britain to establish the
  first free Black Republic in the world!
• He said, "In overthrowing me, you have cut down
  in St. Dominique only the trunk of the tree of
  liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for
  they are numerous and deep."

5
Lakshmi Bai (c.1830 - 1858)

• She became the Rani of Jhansi through marriage to
  the ruler of that region of India.
• After her husband died, British invaders said
  they would take over the government.
• 'Lakshmi led the defence of Jhansi in the Great
  Rebellion of 1857, She was an intelligent and
  brave military leader.
• It is said that she wore a turban, diamond
  bracelets, a sword and two silver pistols!

6
Rabindanath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

• Won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Here is
  an extract from a translation of his poem.
  'Gintanjali' written in 1910 'I know that the
  day will come when I'll no longer see this earth,
  and my life will leave silently, drawing the last
  curtain across my eyes... When I think of this
  end my moments, the barriers fall and I see by
  the light of death Your world with it's careless
  treasures. How precious is its most despised
  place, how precious the poorest of its people.

7
Mary Seacole (1805-1881)

• A Jamaican who became a nurse and sailed to
  England to offer her services in the Crimean War.
  
• Her offer was turned down because she was Black,
  but she set off for the Crimea anyway, and worked
  there for three years, with Florence Nightingale.
  
• Her work was later recognised and she was praised
  for her bravery.

8
Harriet Tubman (1820 - 1913)

• Harriet was born a slave in Maryland, USA. She
  set-up an 'Underground Railway', to help slaves
  escape to freedom.
• It was not a real railway, but code for a secret
  network of 'stations' (safe-houses) and
  'conductors' (volunteers, many were white Quaker
  Christians).
• The slaves were called 'passengers'. She was
  physically and mentally abused as a slave and
  eventually escaped herself to became a nurse,
  helping in the Civil- war. She also set up a
  Black Spy network reporting on the movements of
  the Southern Confederate Army.

9
Mahatma Gandhi (1869- 1948)

• Born in India. He studied law in London, and
  began his peaceful protest against injustice in
  South Africa in 1893.
• Gandhi refused to obey laws that were wrong. He
  returned to India, where he encouraged Indians to
  refuse to co-operate with British rule.
• After India achieved independence in 1947,
  Gandhi wanted peace between Hindus and Muslims.

10
Ch'iu Chin (1879-1907)

• Realised when she was very young that women in
  China had very little freedom. She spent her life
  struggling for women's rights She wore men's
  clothes and learned to ride a horse and use a
  sword. She taught at a college, published a
  newspaper and organised an army of women. She was
  arrested and beheaded. After the Chinese
  Revolution of 1911, her achievements were
  praised.

11
Marcus Garvey (1887 - 1940)

• A key figure in highlighting and fighting in
  anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles.
• He lived mainly in Kingston, Jamaica, New York
  and spent time in London where he studied and
  worked for the first Black newspaper in Britain.
• He encouraged ordinary people to organise for
  their own liberation, emphasising unity and
  giving practical help.

12
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (1891-1956), aka Bhimrao

• Ambedkar, was born into a low caste society of
  India
• Despite being born amongst the untouchables, he
  led Indias millions of excluded and oppressed to
  their human rights.

13
Kwame Nkrumah(1905-1972)

• Premier of Ghana (1957-1966), Kwame Nkrumah is
  considered instrumental in the birth of
  Pan-Africanism and the eradication of African
  colonialism, despite a turbulent record.
• Kwame Nkrumah is considered to be the
  father-figure of Pan-Africanism, liberating Ghana
  from British rule on 6th March 1957 at a time
  when most other African countries were under the
  overseas yoke.
• Nkrumah was a visionary, representing a view of
  Africa that others dared not dream about,
  espousing a United States of Africa.

14
Jesse Owens (1913-1980)

• Broke four world records for running and long
  jump when he was 22 years old.
• He won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic
  Games, held in Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler
  refused to shake hands with him.
• After retiring from athletics, he devoted himself
  to community work, especially with young people.

15
Aime Cesaire (born 1913)

• Became Mayor of Fort de France in Martinique, the
  Caribbean country where he was born.
• He is also famous as a poet. Part of his long
  poem, 'Return to My Native Land', says that, 'No
  race has all the beauty, intelligence and
  strength/ there is room for all the
  meeting-places of victory/ we know now/ that the
  sun moves round our earth lighting the piece of
  land that we alone have chosen'.

16
Rosa Parks (born 1913)

• Lived and worked in Montgomery, Alabama, USA.
  Before the Civil Rights Movement, Black people
  were not allowed to use many of the same 'public'
  facilities as White people. For example they had
  to sit at the back of the bus.
• One day when the bus was very crowded, on her way
  home from work, Rosa Parks refused to give up her
  seat at the back of the bus to a White man. Her
  arrest led to a boycott of the buses by Black
  people that lasted over a year (381 days!)
  Afterwards, the laws changed.

17
Nelson Mandela (born 1918)

• From the Tembu ruling family in Transkei, South
  Africa.
• Was expelled from college for organizing
  students, but went on to study law.
• He founded the Youth League section of the
  African National Congress Party (ANC), adopting
  militant strategies of strikes, boycotts and
  civil- disobedience against apartheid. Mandela
  was exiled, forced into hiding and imprisoned.
• He used his time in court to make political
  speeches. He said " I was made, by law, a
  criminal, not because of what I had done, but
  because of what I stood for". Sentenced to life
  imprisonment his influence continued to grow. In
  1990, aged 71 he was released and became the
  first democratically elected South African
  President in 1994

18
Fanon, Franz (1925-1961)

• West Indian psychoanalyst and social philosopher,
  known for his theory that some neuroses are
  socially generated and for his writings on behalf
  of the national liberation of colonial peoples.
• Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks (1952) reflected
  his personal frustrations with racism. The
  publication shortly before his death of his book
  The Wretched of the Earth (1961) established
  Fanon as a prophetic figure, the author of a
  social gospel that urged colonised peoples to
  purge themselves of their degradation in a
  "collective catharsis"

19
Maya Angelou (born 1928)

• Became the first African-American woman to have
  non-fiction book in the best-seller lists, in
  1970.
• It was the first volume of her autobiography,
  called 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.' One of
  her poems, 'Still I Rise', begins 'You may write
  me down in history/ With your bitter, twisted
  lies,/ You may trod me in the very dirt/ But
  still, like dust, I'll rise'.

20
Martin Luther King (1929-1968)

• From Atlanta, Georgia in the heart of Americas'
  deep South.
• He was inspired by Gandhi, and supported civil
  disobedience (non-violent struggle).
• He organised peaceful protests and sit-ins for
  equality and justice through voting rights, calls
  for better housing and education.

21
Huey Newton (1942-1989)

• Founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defence
  with Bobby Seale in 1966, after a period of
  American race riots.
• The Panthers rejected the Civil-Rights Movements'
  ideas of non- violent resistance and armed
  themselves to patrol the streets of Oakland,
  defending Black people from police brutality,
  where necessary.
• The Panthers outlined a Ten Point Programme
  calling for Black rights to food and clothing for
  children and held political education classes.

22
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay in 1942)

• Within 6 years of taking up boxing, in Kentucky,
  he had become Olympic Light Heavyweight champion.
• Cassius threw his medal away in disgust at the
  way he was still treated by segregated America.
  Another four years on (1964) he had become
  heavyweight champion of the world and converted
  to Islam, dropping his 'slave-name'. As well as
  being a sporting legend Ali upheld his
  principles.
• He refused to be made to feel inferior because of
  his race. He refused to fight in the USA's war on
  Vietnam, even when his medals were stripped from
  him. Ali won his championship status back and has
  been world champion three times.
• He is often acknowledged as the greatest boxer
  ever.

23
Angela Davis (born 1944)

• Angela grew up amongst racial tension in Alabama,
  USA, eventually becoming a member of the Black
  Panther Party.
• She became the third woman in history to appear
  on the FBI's most wanted list. She was formally
  charged with murder and kidnapping which she did
  not take part in.
• Davis spent sixteen months behind bars, until her
  subsequent acquittal of all charges. Then Davis
  ran for Vice President of the USA for the
  Communist Party!
• Today Angela lectures at the University of
  California and runs courses on Women's Studies.
  She continues to be a political and social
  activist on issues such as prison reform and
  equality for Black women of all social classes.

24
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945)

• Struggles against injustice, in Burma. She wants
  her people to have the right to elect their own
  government.
• She formed a political party never giving in to
  threats or imprisonment. She won the Nobel Peace
  Prize in 1991.

25
BOB MARLEY (1945-1981)

• Bob Marley Jamaican musician and creative genius.
  He touched the hearts and minds of millions
  worldwide
• "As a social activist, his lyrics leave an
  indelible mark on our past, present, and future
  struggles to embrace a harmonious existence
  within the brotherhood and sisterhood of man on
  this earth."  

26
Steve Biko (1946 - 1977)

• As a medical student in Natal he founded the
  all-Black South African Students' Organisation.
• He travelled around different Black campuses
  establishing solidarity and working for students
  to be "accepted on their own terms as an integral
  part of the South African community", by
  emphasising pride, self-respect, self-reliance
  and belief in the ability to achieve political
  and social justice.
• His organisation grew to a coalition of over 70
  Black Groups which stood as a national political
  party at a time when the main Black parties
  (including the African National Congress- today's
  South African government), had been banned.
• He designed 'Programmes' designed to uplift the
  Black community. He was frequently under
  observation and imprisoned for his work, where he
  was tortured and beaten to death, at the age of
  31

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Vandana Shiva (born 1952)

• Set up a Research Foundation for Science,
  Technology and Natural Resource Policy in her
  home town of Dehra Dun in the foothills of the
  Himalayas in 1982.
• She has supported the struggles of small farmers
  against multinational corporations and criticised
  the dangers of genetic engineering of foodstuffs.

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Mumia Abu-Jamal (born 1954)

• A highly respected, multi-award winning political
  journalist, known as 'The Voice of the
  Voiceless'. Whilst working as a taxi driver, in
  1981, Mumia saw a policeman beating up a Black
  man.
• Mumia intervened to try to stop it happening,
  then realised that the victim was his brother.
• During the incident the policeman was shot dead.
  Although witnesses claim that it was not Mumia
  who fired the shot, he is now a prisoner on death
  row, in Pennsylvania, USA, after a notoriously
  unfair trial.
• He continues to write and broadcast from his
  prison cell.

29
Daley Thompson

• First athlete to win Olympic, World, Commonwealth
  and European titles and hold the world record

30
Philip Emeagwali (dob.23.8.1954)

• A father of the Internet
• A supercomputer genius, he played a major role in
  making the internet a reality.
• It was his formula that used 65,000 separate
  computer processors to perform 3.1 billion
  calculations per second in 1989.