Transcript Black People who changed the world

Black People who changed the world
compiled 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.
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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.
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Toussaint L'Ouverture (c.17431803)
• 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."
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Harriet Tubman (1820 - 1913)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (18911956), aka Bhimrao
• Ambedkar, was born
into a low caste
society of India
• Despite being born
amongst the
untouchables, he led
India’s millions of
excluded and
oppressed to their
human rights.
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Kwame Nkrumah(19051972)
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Premier of Ghana (19571966), 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 PanAfricanism, 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.
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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
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young people.
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 meetingplaces of victory/ we know
now/ that the sun moves round
our earth lighting the piece of
land that we alone have chosen'.
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Rosa Parks (born 1913)
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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.
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Nelson Mandela (born 1918)
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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 17
President in 1994
Fanon, Franz (1925-1961)
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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"
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Maya Angelou (born 1928)
• Became the first AfricanAmerican woman to have nonfiction 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'.
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Martin Luther King (19291968)
• From Atlanta, Georgia in
the heart of Americas'
deep South.
• He was inspired by
Gandhi, and supported
civil disobedience (nonviolent struggle).
• He organised peaceful
protests and sit-ins for
equality and justice
through voting rights, calls
for better housing and
education.
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Huey Newton (1942-1989)
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Founded the Black Panther Party
for Self Defence with Bobby Seale
in 1966, after a period of American
race riots.
The Panthers rejected the CivilRights Movements' ideas of nonviolent 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.
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Muhammad Ali (born Cassius
Clay in 1942)
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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.
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He is often acknowledged as the
greatest boxer ever.
Angela Davis (born 1944)
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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.
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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.
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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."
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Steve Biko (1946 - 1977)
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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, selfrespect, 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)
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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
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from his prison cell.
Daley Thompson
• First athlete to
win Olympic,
World,
Commonwealth
and European
titles and hold
the world
record
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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.
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