Selections from Global African History Speeches
Black Past
Speeches delivered by people of African ancestry around the world which have contributed to the shaping of Global African history. These speeches serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources.
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Black Past · 1 January 1927
Lamine Senghor was an early Senegalese nationalist. Born in Kaolack, Senegal in 1889, he served in the French Army between 1915 and 1919 and returned to Paris in 1922. Senghor …
Black Past · 1 January 1926
John Williamson Kuyé, an early 20th Century advocate of African self-rule was in many respects part of the first wave of African nationalists. Born in Bathurst, Gambia, on November 10, …
Black Past · 1 January 1924
In the years immediately following World War I, Prince Marc Kojo Tovalou Houènou was one of a small number of French Speaking Africans to openly challenge French rule on that …
Black Past · 1 January 1919
Orishatuke Faduma, born James Davies in Sierra Leone, was a late 19th and early 20th Century African nationalist. He studied at both London University and Yale University in the 1880s …
Black Past · 1 January 1906
Pixley Isaka Seme was one of the first western-educated Africans to challenge the European colonialism then sweeping across the continent. Born in Natal, South Africa, Eme was educated at Columbia …
Black Past · 1 January 1902
Rev. Dr. Mojola Agbebi, born April 10, 1860 as David Brown Vincent in Western Nigeria, was a leading proponent of “Ethiopianism,” which advocated an African-centered Christianity. In the 1880s, as …
In 1967 Chinua Achebe, one of Nigeria’s most prominent writers, supported the secession of Biafra from the Nigerian nation. In this 1968 speech he describes why he supported the breakaway …
By 1962 Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1996) was a well-known independence leader in Nigeria. As President of the Nigerian Senate he was one of the most powerful individuals in the government of …
In 1962, Nelson Mandela, leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) the armed wing of the African National Congress, was convicted by a South African court of traveling …
Milton Apollo Obote was the first Prime Minister of Uganda from the time of its independence in 1962 until 1966 when he became President of the Republic of Uganda. In …