For Africans and people of African descent, the decades since the 20th century have been nothing short of taking stock of how much progress we have made.
We are in world history’s unique position of being a people whose humanity was deliberately targeted for intellectual and economic assault, more than any other people.
The times since decency was afforded to us has been a period of climbing from the depths. The journey has been fairly few patches of smooth land engulfed by massive rocky and rough swathes.
It is therefore incumbent on us to celebrate ourselves, highlighting what we have done excellently and yet, remindful of the gaps to be bridged.
There are certain individuals who embody these bits of excellence. And year in and out, any attempt to draw a list of excellent black people becomes harder.
2019 is no different. At Face2FaceAfrica.com, we found that no matter how stringent the criteria, a considerable number of great black achievers sail through.
But we did our best, maintaining that the inaugural list of Face2face Africa Faces of Global Black Excellence should comprise individuals who:
- Succeeded in a project on an international scale that had an impact on black lives, in particular, and the world at large.
- Affiliated their entrepreneurship, politics, activism, athletics, scientific achievement and arts directly to the cause of global black identity.
- Did both of the first two criteria from not earlier than November 2018.
We understand that our equally excellent audience would have favourites who may not be named. And we encourage dissenting choices which only goes to show the plethora of black champions out here.
In no hierarchical order, here is our list:
