Personality Profile

Malik Ambar (1548–13 May 1626) was a Siddi military leader and the prime minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in India’s Deccan region. Malik was born in the Adal Sultunate, in present-day Ethiopia, and was sold as a child and brought to India as a slave. While in India, he created a mercenary force of up to 1500 men. His headquarters …

Hussein Hasan (Somali: Xuseen Xassan) was a well-known Somali poet and warrior of the Eidagale Isaaq clan, renowned for his military superiority and fiery temper. Hussein belonged to the Eidagale’s Rer Guled branch and was the great grandson of the 1st Isaaq Sultan Guled Abdi. War within the Eidagale Tensions were high between the Rer Guled and another Eidagale subclan. …

The Kingdom of Axum existed in modern-day Ethiopia from 100AD to about 970AD. It was a prosperous kingdom until it was destroyed by a queen driven by rage and revenge. Queen Gudit or Yudit is said to have invaded the kingdom from the south, destroying not only the city but also its countryside, including churches and monasteries, as well as …

Ewuare (also known as Ewuare the Great or Ewuare I) was the Oba (king) of the Benin Empire from 1440 to 1473. Ewuare became king after a violent coup against his brother Uwaifiokun that destroyed large partBenin City. Following the war, Ewuare rebuilt much of Benin’s city, restructured political systems in the kingdom, widened the kingdom’s territory, and promoted the …

Almamy Suluku (1820 – 1906) was a Sierra Leonean Limba ruler who used political strategy to keep his independence as long as possible. Almamy Suluku was born in 1820 in Kamabai, Biriwa country, in Northern Sierra Leone Province. He was the son of Sankailay, a great Limba chief of the Biriwa country, which had Bumban as its capital. Suluku rose …

Queen Shanakdakhete took the Throne of Kush Empire in ancient Nubia from 170 to 150 BC. The Queen ruled with absolute power in the Meroë Empire as well as a result, the Queen became someone known as the Lord of the Two Lands. The Queen also exercised power without the support of a king, which was unusual for the time. …

Amanirenas was the second Queen of the Kush Kingdom, which existed in what is now Sudan. Between 40BC and 10BC, she ruled over the Meroitic Kingdom of Kush in Nubia. She was popularly known as Queen Mother or Kandake, the Nubian people’s title for a ruling queen. She is one of the most well-known Meroitic Kush Queens. The Kingdom of …

Ronald Edward Frederick Kimera Muwenda Mutebi II (born 13 April 1955) is the current Kabaka (king) of Buganda, a constitutional kingdom in modern-day Uganda. He is the Buganda’s 36th Kabaka. He was born at Mulago Hospital in Kampala. He is the son of Kabaka of Buganda Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Muteesa II, who reigned from 1939 to …

Ladi Kwali, OON, MBE (c.1925– August 12, 1984) was a Nigerian potter. Ladi Kwali was born in the village of Kwali in the Gwari area of Northern Nigeria, where pottery was an indigenous female custom. Her aunt taught her how to coil pottery as a child. She fashioned large pots from clay coils, pounded from the inside with a flat wooden paddle, for use as …

Badu Bonsu II was a Ghanaian king and chief of the Ahanta who was innocently executed in 1838 by the Dutch, who controlled the Dutch Gold Coast at the time. Rebellion against the Dutch We all know King Badu was ruling his people in his land without outsiders interrupting the peaceful living the Ghanaian people at that time. King Badu …