African Descent Archives - Page 49 of 51

Jemimah Gecaga

Jemimah Gecaga was the first woman to serve in the legislature of Kenya. In 1952, she founded Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, an organisation that continues to advocate for women’s rights and gender equity in Kenya to this day. In 1958, she was nominated to the Legislative Council in Kenya and became the first woman to serve in the country’s parliament of the country, serving until 1962. She later served as President of the YWCA in Kenya, lectured in home economics at Jeanes School (The Kenya School of Government) and worked as a director at Skyline Advertising. In 1969, she was again nominated as a member of parliament in 1969, serving until 1974.

Tatiana Rusesabagina

Tatiana Rusesabagina is a Rwandan humanitarian who, with her husband Paul Rusesabagina, helped protect 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees in the Hotel des Milles Collines during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Their story was used as the basis for the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. When Tatiana was working as a nurse, she had faced discrimination because of her Tutsi ethnicity, and her mother was murdered in the genocide along with other family members and their bodies were thrown into a pit with many others. Her father had forged all of her family’s identification cards to say that they were Hutu, but the militia had other ways of tracking Tutsis, which the Hutu people were killing in mass in an attempt to make the Tutsi extinct. The conflict between the two ethnic groups dates back centuries in Rwanda. Paul’s family was of mixed Hutu and Tutsi which meant he was less of a target than a full Tutsi.
Paul had Tatiana come to the hotel, which he managed, for safety with the children. He tried to smuggle them out of the country by hiding in a truck that would take them to the airport, but the militia figured out their plan. Tatiana was a target for brutal beatings because the militia knew that she was the Tutsi wife of the hotel manager. She narrowly escaped death and made it back to the hotel, where she was bed-ridden for several days because of her injuries. The people taking shelter in the hotel were all saved because of Rusesabagina’s careful diplomacy with the government, which included bribing them so they would not enter the hotel and harm anyone
Once they were able to leave the hotel, Paul and Tatiana went to a refugee camp to begin looking for family; they were reunited with Tatiana’s two nieces, who were starving and covered in dirt when they were found. The family escaped to Tanzania and later settled in Brussels, where they often received threats. Paul received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, with Tatiana by his side. The family is still active as advocates for genocide survivors and for the betterment of the Tutsi people in Rwanda. They created the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation in 2005, with a mission to “prevent future genocides and raise awareness of the need for a new truth and reconciliation process in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region of Africa”.

Alba Roballo

Alba Roballo was a prominent Afro-Uruguayan lawyer, poet and politician, who was Uruguay’s first woman Cabinet member, first woman Culture Minister, and first woman elected to the (then collective) Municipal Council of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Yaa Asantewaa

As Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa led the Asante in a war against British colonization between 1900 and 1901, known as the War of the Golden Stool or the Yaa Asantewaa War.

Taytu Betul

Empress Taytu Betul ruled the Ethiopian Empire from 1889 to 1913, and she founded Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Even before she was named empress, she wielded significant political power, leading the conservative faction at court, which resisted the modernists and progressives who wanted to develop Ethiopia along western lines and bring modernity to the country. Her opinon was highly valued by her husband, the often hesitant Emperor Menelik II, and she was a key player in encouraging her countrymen to stand up tp the Italians, of whom she was rightfully suspicious and who wanted to make the kingdom and Italian protectorate. When the Italians invaded, the empress marched north with the Emperor and the Imperial Army, personally commanding a force of cannoneers at the historic Battle of Adwa. The battle resulted in a humiliating defeat for Italy in March 1896, which was the most significant of any African army battling European colonialism.
When her husband’s health began to decline around 1906, Taytu began making decisions on his behalf, angering her rivals by appointing favorites and relatives to most of the positions of power and influence. Due to political maneuvering, she was forced from power in 1910, and a regency under Ras Tessema Nadew took over. After her husband’s death in 1913, Taytu was banished to the old Palace at Entoto, next to the St. Mary’s church she had founded years before, and where her husband had been crowned Emperor.
Many believe Taytu may have played a part in the plot that eventually removed Emperor Iyasu V (Menelik’s grandson from a previous marriage) from the throne in 1916, replacing him with Empress Zauditu. Zauditu, Menelik II’s daughter by yet another previous marriage, had always been close to her stepmother and invited Taytu to live with her. Although Taytu declined, she resumed her role as a political advisor.

Dandara dos Palmares

Dandara was an Afro-Brazilian warrior during Brazil’s colonial period.

Kitty Phetla

Kitty Phetla is a South African ballet dancer and choreographer who began dancing in primary school. Her future mentor Martin Schönberg saw her talent at age 9 and coached her until she was 25, training her in ballet, Spanish dancing, contemporary dance, and Afro-fusion. She joined Schönberg’s Ballet Theatre Afrikan, dancing with the company until 2002 when she left to join the Joburg Ballet, where she became a senior soloist and choreographer. She toured Russia in 2012 with Anna Pavlova’s famous solo The Dying Swan, becoming the first ballerina of African descent to perform the role in Russia. Traditionally performed in a pink tutu and tights, Phetla made the piece her own performing in a black tutu and stockings. She presented her iconic performance of this solo to Nelson Mandela and the Dutch Royal Family in Amsterdam. Phetla choreographed a full-length ballet to the music of Carmina Burana, which she presented in 2016 in China, with dancers from Joburg Ballet and the Liaoning Ballet of China, for an audience of dignitaries tht included China’s president. She also choreographed The After Effect, exploring schizophrenia, for South Africa’s Dance Umbrella festival.
She has also been a radio presenter, for five years on Alex FM, followed by six years of hosting her own show on Radio 2000.

Yennenga

A legendary figure in West Africa, Yennenga has come to symbolise the epitome of the female warrior, a free and independent woman.

Abbey Lincoln

Jazz singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist Anna Marie Wooldridge, known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, made a career of performing both beloved standards and her own original material. Her lyrics often referenced aspects of the American Civil Rights Movement and, later in her career, more philosophical themes.
Her 1957 debut album, Abbey Lincoln’s Affair – A Story of a Girl in Love, was followed by a trio of albums for Riverside Records (1957-1959). In 1960 she sang on the landmark civil rights-focused recording, We Insist! After a tour of Africa in the mid-1970s, she adopted the name Aminata Moseka.
Although she only released a few records during the 1980s, she fulfilled a 10-album contract with Verve Records from the 1990s until her death in 2010, releasing some of her most highly regarded work in her 60s and 70s. In 2003, Lincoln received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award.
She was also an actor who appeared in television shows and movies such as The Girl Can’t Help It and Gentleman Prefer Blondes. She co-starred in the independent film Nothing But a Man (1964), an independent film written and directed by Michael Roemer. She recieved a Golden Globe nomination for her her co-starring role in For Love of Ivy (1968). Her television work included appearing in Alice Childress’s Wine in the Wilderness, one of 10 episodes of individual dramas written, produced and performed by African-Americans, “On Being Black” produced in 1969 for WGBH-TV Boston.

Abbie Mitchell

Abbie Mitchell was an African-American soprano opera singer who performed the role of Clara in the original production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 1935, and was also the first to record “Summertime” from that musical. At age 14, she was cast by African-American composer Will Marion Cook and lyricist Paul Laurence Dunbar for a role in their one-act musical comedy Clorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk (1898), which ran for the whole season at the Casino Roof Garden. The 14-year-old married the 29-year-old Cook in 1898 and bore him two children before her 20th birthday. Mitchell appeared in the lead role in Cook’s Jes Lak White Folks (1899) and performed in his production The Southerners (1904).
In London Mitchell appeared in the 1903 musical In Dahomey (with music by Cook). Mitchell received international acclaim for her performance, and was invited to appear with the company in a Royal Command Performance for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Buckingham Palace.
She later performed with the “Black Patti’s Troubadours”, and in the 1908 operetta The Red Moon. In 1913, she appeared in the film Lime Kiln Field Day, but it was never completed or released. In 1919, Mitchell went to Europe with Cook’s Southern Syncopated Orchestra, as well as appearing in concert and in operas in New York.
Mitchell appeared in several Broadway plays including “In Abraham’s Bosom” (1926), “Coquette” (1927) with Helen Hayes, and “The Little Foxes” (1939) with Tallulah Bankhead. Mitchell was best known for her last musical role on the stage, performing in the role of “Clara” in the premiere of Porgy and Bess (1935). After this, she taught and coached many singers in New York and appeared in non-musical dramatic roles on the stage, and taught at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Lee De Forest made a short film of Mitchell singing, Songs of Yesteryear (1922), using his DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process; the film is preserved in the Library of Congress’s Maurice Zouary film collection.