Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, PC, PhD (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikiwe or Zik, was a prominent Nigerian nationalist and statesman who served as the first President of Nigeria from 1963 to 1966, holding the presidency throughout the Nigerian First Republic. He is popularly considered a driving force behind the nation's independence and came to be known as the "father of Nigerian Nationalism".

Born to Igbo parents in Zungeru, present-day Niger State, Azikiwe learned to speak Hausa, the main indigenous language of the Northern Region at an early age. He later lived in Onitsha, his parental homeland where he was raised by his aunt and grandmother and learned the Igbo language. A sojourn in Lagos exposed him to the Yoruba language and he was in college, he had been exposed to different Nigerian cultures. Motivated to get a university education, he traveled to U.S. and attended various colleges including Storer College, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Howard returning to Africa in 1934 to start work as a journalist in the Gold Coast. In British West Africa, Azikiwe was an important advocate of Nigerian and African nationalism, first as a journalist and later as political leader.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nnamdi_Azikiwe

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (/mænˈdɛlə/;[1] 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

A Xhosa, Mandela was born to the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, British South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. After the National Party's white-only government established apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites, he and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was appointed President of the ANC's Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial. Influenced by Marxism, he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 and led a sabotage campaign against the government. In 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial.


Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

Kwame Nkrumah PC (21 September 1909[a] – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary. He was the first prime minister and president of Ghana, having led it to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.[2]

After twelve years abroad pursuing higher education, developing his political philosophy, and organizing with other diasporic pan-Africanists, Nkrumah returned to Gold Coast to begin his political career as an advocate of national independence. He formed the Convention People's Party, which achieved rapid success through its unprecedented appeal to the common voter. He became prime minister in 1952 and retained this position when Britain declared Ghana independent in 1957. In 1960, Ghanaians approved a new constitution and elected Nkrumah president.

His administration was both socialist and nationalist. Thus it funded national industrial and energy projects, developed a strong national education system, and promoted a national (and pan-African) culture. Under Nkrumah, Ghana played a leading role in African international relations during the decolonization period.

He was deposed in 1966 by the National Liberation Council which, under the supervision of international financial institutions, privatised many of the country's state corporations. Nkrumah lived the rest of his life in Guinea, of which he was named honorary co-president.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Nkrumah

Chinua Achebe (/ˈtʃɪnwɑː əˈtʃɛbɛ/,[1] born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic.[2] His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his best,[3] is the most widely read book in modern African literature.[4] He won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007.

Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his studies to English literature at University College (now the University of Ibadan).[5] He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for his novel Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist"; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid some controversy.

When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a supporter of Biafran independence and acted as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990, after a car accident left him partially disabled.

A titled Igbo chieftain himself,[6] Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections.

Upon his return to the United States in 1990, he began an eighteen-year tenure at Bard College as the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature. From 2009 until his death, he served as David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe

Good heroes.

Emperor Haile Selassie I worked to modernize Ethiopia for several decades before famine and political opposition forced him from office in 1974.
Synopsis
Born in Ethiopia in 1892, Haile Selassie was crowned emperor in 1930 but exiled during World War II after leading the resistance to the Italian invasion. He was reinstated in 1941 and sought to modernize the country over the next few decades through social, economic and educational reforms. He ruled until 1974, when famine, unemployment and political opposition forced him from office.

https://www.google.com.ng/search?source=hp&ei=SlVsWpuiEIHGwQKjiLaIBQ&q=haile+selassie&oq=hail&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.1.1.0l5.202.7381.0.8413.12.9.3.2.2.0.878.5606.5-4j4.9.0....0...1c.1j4.64.mobile-gws-hp..0.12.4947.3..41j0i131k1.648.BoqoY-ZvIxQ#imgrc=EBrU9yZoGGr77M:

You have listed 5 people and I still can't find Thomas Sankara.


I would have expected him to be far above the likes of Azikwe, Mandela and Chinua Achebe.

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (French pronunciation: ​[tɔma izidɔʁ nɔɛl sɑ̃kaʁa]; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987.[1][2] Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara"

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: Akinwándé Oluwo̩lé Babátúndé S̩óyinká, pronounced [wɔlé ʃójĩŋká]; born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature,[2] the first African to be honoured in that category.

Wole Soyinka
Soyinka, Wole (1934).jpg
Born Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka[1]
13 July 1934 (age 83)
Abeokuta, Nigeria Protectorate (now Ogun State, Nigeria)
Occupation Author, poet, playwright
Nationality Nigerian
Period 1957–present
Genre Drama, novel, poetry
Subject Comparative literature
Notable awards Nobel Prize in Literature
1986
Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award
2009

Robert Gabriel Mugabe (/mʊˈɡɑːbi/;[1] Shona: [muɡaɓe]; born 21 February 1924) is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He chaired the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) group from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, although after the 1990s self-identified only as a socialist. His policies have been described as Mugabeism.

Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti- apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the ...
Children: 5, including Hlumelo Biko
Occupation: Anti-apartheid activist
Spouse(s): Ntsiki Mashalaba
Partner(s): Mamphela Ramphele

@ OP I do not know your criteria for this list,but if it is pan Africanism and the fight for the emancipation/enlightenment of the black race,your list is incomplete,and you can not categorically say the greatest Africans because I do not know the criteria you used, these men were great in their own right


Julius Kambarage Nyerere(TANZANIA)

Ahmed Sékou Touré(Guinea)

Patrice Lumumba(Congo)

Gamal Abdel Nasser(Egypt)

OTHER PEOPLE WORTHY OF MENTION

Stephen Bantu Biko(south Africa)

Fela Anikulapo Kuti(Nigeria)

Amílcar Cabral (Guinea Bissau)

Agostinho Neto (Angola)

Sylvanus Olympio(Togo)

Eduardo Mondlane(Mozambique)

Mtcheeew this list is incomplete without MUHAMMADU BUHARI from nigeria

Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia and his wife, Empress Tayitu should be on the list. I say this before they lead Black Africans to victory against Europeans. This victory was the main reason for the birth of Pan-Africanism and Ethiopianism movements throughout the Black community in the world.

Ghaddafi
Maryam Makeba

Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo.

Baba OBJ..80yrs old. The Chairman of World Ex-President.

Mohammadu Buhari.. Born in Daura during stone age he attended no school but claim to have PhD in cow breading technology; ..
He died and woke up during his tenue as Nigerians president instead of him to go to hell he is still leaving with other nigerians which earn him the name ZOMBIE
He has written so many books but all where used to feed his cattle during the Benue exodus. in 2019 he was sacked from office where he built a colonoy for his cattle.

Great men worthy of emulation

Where are Idi Amin Dada and Gadhafi in your list abi you believe the Western propaganda about them

Mind you, those men to me are greater than Zik and had Africa's interest more than everyone except Nelson Mandela.

Thomas Sankara is my number one in the list.

I would prefer a leader in the mold of Nnamdi Kanu, a kind of leader who truly exists in same realm of struggle as his subjects. Not the likes of Buhari who has been feeding fat on Nigerian resources for over 50 years and has never offered a single good in return. This fool of a president I'm talking about has been earning salaries, pensions and other emoluments too numerous to mention. Yet the block head doesn't own even a nylon mini factory. People must wake up to boot out this expired tozo from aso Rock, else.. Haaaaaa