Health risks and dangerous conditions such as malaria, pneumococcal infections, viral induced encephalopathy, and bacterial blood diseases continue to affect African populations, particularly children, across the continent. These matters also constantly keep Dr. Evelyn Gitau, a cellular immunologist from Kenya, busy in the lab and the field. Dr. Gitau believes that clinical immunity to malaria…
Fresh off a PEN/Open Book award for her 2016 story collection, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (Riverhead Books), author Helen Oyeyemi continues to emerge as a voice of global importance. At just 32 years of age, Oyeyemi is already a veteran author of six highly acclaimed books. Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria in 1984 and…
Johns Hopkins Welcomes its First Black Female Neurosurgery Resident Nancy Abu-Bonsrah is now the first black female resident at the prestigious Johns Hopkins neurosurgery department. She was born and raised in the Ashanti region of Ghana until she moved to Maryland with her parents at the age of 15. After graduating high school at Hammond High School…
America’s loss is South Africa’s gain. Writer and scholar Wole Soyinka has joined the University of Johannesburg’s faculty as a Distinguished Visiting Professor. The distinction comes after Soyinka, the first African writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, made good on a promise to cut up his green card in the event of a…
Inspiring South African activist Ahmed Kathrada passed away at the age of 87 on March 28th, but he leaves a powerful and lasting legacy. He is most known for his time working in the anti-apartheid movement with the African National Congress and his subsequent long-term imprisonment. Kathrada began activism at a very young age and worked tirelessly…
The 2017 PEN America Center Literary Awards evening touted a marvelous array of African and African-American authors among the writers recognized at this year’s gala. Celebrated at the New School’s glamorous John L. Tishman Auditorium on March 27, the winners reflect the complex tapestry of the African diaspora. The awards’ final night came with some surprises.…
Nji Collins Gbah, a 17-year-old student from Cameroon, is the latest winner of the Google Code-In Challenge, an annual contest that encourages young students around the world to show off their programming skills. Nji has certainly made his nation proud by becoming the first African to earn this prestigious award; moreover, he did so…
Go, Gabby, go!! We’re all cheering on the vivacious Brooklyn-born actress known as Gabourey Sidibe. We’re sure she’d appreciate the support, but in reality, Gabby can go it alone, because this native New Yorker is a strong, beautiful woman who leads with conviction, confidence, and spirit. Her journey has not been an easy one,…
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian-American author and feminist who desires to amplify the lives of African women through her words. Adichie was born in southeast Nigeria in 1977. Her parents were both academics at the University of Nigeria. Adichie had planned to follow in her sister’s footsteps by studying medicine at University of Nigeria.…
Looking for a great role model? Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green is a trailblazing American medical physicist known for her work relating to cancer treatment. She’s one of a small number of African American women to earn a doctorate in physics in the US and was the fourth black person ever to earn a doctorate in…
