Interesting people from Africa

Sefi Atta is an award winning Nigerian author. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She was educated there, in England and the United States. Her short stories have appeared in journals like Los Angeles Review and Mississipi Review and have won prizes from Zoetrope and Red Hen Press. Her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC. She is the winner of PEN International's 2004/2005 David TK Wong Prize and in 2006, her debut novel Everything Good Will Come was awarded the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.
www.sefiatta.com

Nigerian-born filmmaker Zina Saro-Wiwa is on a mission. She's out to change the way the world sees Africa, and she's using her latest film to do it. The film is called "This is My Africa," and it explores the perceptions of 20 people, black and white, who love the continent. As Saro-Wiwa tells Isha Sesay, it's a 50-minute crash course in African culture.

Miko Alexis Rwayitare is known as the father of African telecommunications and is credited with making the first ever mobile call on the continent when he launched Telecel in the DRC 1987. Rwayitare went on to build a number of successful mobile networks on the continent. He died on 25th September 2007

Nigerian Ndidi Nwuneli is the founder and managing partner of LEAP Africa, a leadership training and coaching organization which is committed to empowering, inspiring and equipping a new cadre of leaders in Africa. She initially returned to Nigeria as the pioneer executive director of FATE Foundation Nigeria, a non-profit organization which promotes entrepreneurial development among Nigerian youth, which she saw as the way forward for Nigeria. An ex-McKinsey Management Consultant, Ndidi holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from Wharton School. She was selected as a 2003 Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Ghanaian Patrick Awuah, made his money on Microsoft stock options during his time spent working for the organisation in the US. And this was how we was able to realise his vision to create a world-accredited liberal arts college in Ghana, West Africa. Patrick’s mission was to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa and to cultivate within them the values of life-long learning, concern for others and the courage to think in a bold and enterprising way. In 2002, he opened the doors to the Ashesi University in Ghana where he says he has been; “thrilled to see the spark in our students and their parents as they have encountered this new way of learning”.

Since 2003 Dr. Bukola Saraki has been the Governor of Kwara State, one of the better known of the 36 states that make up the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Saraki has been widely recognized as one of Nigeria's new generation of leaders. He is perhaps best known for a somewhat controversial but much needed initiative to rejuvenate the agricultural sector for which Kwara is famous and reduce the countries reliance on imports of basic foodstuff – Nigeria imports 90% of its foodstuff on which is spends US$3billion. In 2005, Saraki invited a group of Zimbabwean commercial farmers who had lost their land under Mugabe’s regime, to start a commercial farming project in Kwara State. The project is transforming agricultural practices and is already making a significant impact on the agro-allied industry in the state.

Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Chief Albert John Lutuli (died 1967) was Africa's first winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for peace. He was president of the ANC until his death. Lutuli was a profound thinker, a man of lofty principles and a statesman. He was a true African nationalist.

Whilst still a schoolboy he noticed a scientific phenomenon - that, counterintuitively, hotter water freezes faster than cooler water (under certain conditions). In the face of overwhelming scepticism and ridicule, he continued to ask questions. The phenomenen is named after him and he co-wrote the paper on it. For more info, google or see http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html.