Tag: African Achievers

Cynthia and Jasmine Kudji: Ghanaian mother and Daughter Graduate from Medical School in same Year

By Briefly

Ghanaian-born Dr Cynthia Kudji and her daughter, Jasmine, have etched their names in the history books by becoming the first mom and daughter duo to graduate from medical school in the same year and be matched at the same institution in the United States for their residency.

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Meet three Kenyans who have excelled as engineers in the US after topping national exams at home

by Elizabeth Mwarage | The Star

Students who top Kenyan national examinations make news headlines every time results are announced. Herman Mutiso, Jessy Mbagara, and James Rotich were among the top students over 10 years ago. The trio were admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where they studied different fields of engineering.  They eventually got jobs in Silicon Valley in California.

Now in their early thirties, they share a common story of hard work, perseverance, determination and vision.

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Facebook names Kenyan Maina Kiai into content oversight board

By AFP

Facebook has named Kenya’s human rights advocate Maina Kiai into the board that will decide on what content to allow or remove from the world’s largest social media platform. Mr Kiai is a director of Human Rights Watch’s Global Alliances and Partnerships Programme. He is also a former United Nations special rapporteur.

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David Adefeso: the Nigerian-born wealth manager who is dating Tamar Braxton

By Ebimo Amungo

David Adeyemi Adefeso has a growing profile in America, not least because he is the boyfriend of singer and  reality television star, Tamar Braxton, but also because he is a Certified Public Accountant,  a Harvard Business School  trained wealth management adviser and owner Sootchy Inc, a company that finding solutions to one of America’s most intractable problems, Student Loans.

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Sharon Njeri Wambu |Kenyan-American teen accepted into 11 top US universities

By Hilary Kimuyu | NAIROBI NEWS

A Kenyan-American teenager has been accepted into 11 prestigious universities in the US after she completed high school. Sharon Njeri Wambu, whose parents immigrated to the US from Kenya, received acceptance to 11 top universities including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Cal Poly Pomona, and Vanderbilt.

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Evelyn Woodsen Atieno | Meet Kenyan Woman Behind a Popular US Magazine

Evelyn Woodsen Atieno is the publisher of Afinity Magazine. Her story has been told by major US media outlets including Vice and Huffington Post. Unknown to many, however, Atieno moved to the United States at the age of four with her parents from Kenya.

By MARTIN SIELE  | Kenyans.co.ke

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Top 10 influential migrant Africans in the United States

 In celebration of Black History Month, WorldRemit, a leading fintech company and provider of international money transfer services, has launched the inaugural Top Ten Most Influential Africans in the Diaspora list. WorldRemit launched this list to honor and recognize the contributions Africans have made in America.

By Claudine Moore

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Life in New York and the year ahead: 10 questions with Zozibini Tunzi, South African Miss Universe

In December 2019, Zozibini Tunzi’s life changed when she became the third South African to win the Miss Universe title. She now spends most of her time in New York.

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ABDI WARSAME APPOINTED CEO OF MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY.

HE  BECOMES FIRST SOMALI TO LEAD  GOVERNMENT AGENCY.

By MUKHTAR M. IBRAHIM


Abdi Warsame made history in 2013 when he became the first Somali in Minnesota elected to the Minneapolis City Council.

Soon, he will step into another big role. On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s board unanimously voted to appoint him as the new CEO and executive director of the city’s sprawling public housing system, making him the first Somali to lead a government agency in Minnesota.

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South Sudanese refugee turns harrowing experience into remarkable new video game in America

After 22 years in a refugee camp, Lual Mayen has designed a game to share his epic journey with the world.

By Anthony DiFlorio/Video by Danny Welch

Lual Mayen was 14 years old before he even saw a computer for the first time.

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Kenyan-born MSNBC news anchor Ali Velshi who is making waves in America.

By DERRICK OKUBASU | Kenyans.co.ke

Kenyan-born news anchor Ali Velshi who was born in Nairobi in 1969 before his family moved to Canada in 1971 has worked diligently and climbed the corporate ladder to host his own show on MSNBC called Velshi & Ruhle, complete with an office on the esteemed NBC headquarters in New York.

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Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed Ali wins Nobel Peace Prize

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia has won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, the awards committee announced in Norway on Friday.

He was recognised for starting peace talks with Eritrea and establishing a peace agreement to end the long stalemate between the two countries.

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Jessica Nabongo | Ugandan-American becomes first black woman to visit every country in the world

By Lilit Marcus | CNN

Some people set records by jumping the highest or running the fastest. But for Jessica Nabongo, a UN employee turned travel blogger, it’s by becoming the first black woman to visit every country on Earth. She set out to visit all 193 countries in the world in 2016, and on October 6 arrived the last on her list, Seychelles, according to a post on her Instagram page. She also clocked up a couple of what the UN calls “non-observer status” territories, taking her total to 195, reported CNN.

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I’m ‘extremely proud’ of my early education in Nigeria – Chancellor of North Carolina Central University

By Bunmi Fatoye-Matory

Johnson Akinleye, Ph.D., became the 12th Chancellor of North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in 2017. NCCU is a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) based in Durham, North Carolina.

Prior to his appointment, Mr Akinleye served as the provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at NCCU among other administrative positions in the UNC system. Since assuming his position in 2017, Mr Akinleye has worked to expand the university’s academic partnerships, including new agreements with community colleges, as well as introduced NCCU Online, a robust online, distance-education program. He also created K-12 initiatives and implemented a security strategy to increase safety for campus constituents.

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Uganda’s Winnie Byanyima to lead UNAids

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has announced the appointment of Ugandan Winnie Byanyima, as the next executive director of UNAids. Her appointment followed “an open and wide-ranging search”, UN chief Antonio Guterres said. Winnie Byanyima heads UK charity Oxfam.

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All-girls robotics team from Ghana wins World Robofest Championship in the U.S.

By Ismail Akwei

An all-girls robotics team from Ghana has won the senior division of the World Robofest Championship in the United States. They won the topmost position by beating teams from the United States, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea and dozens of others.

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Yale University honors Nigerian Chimamanda Adichie, Zimbabwean Strive Masiyiwa, and Kenyan Elephant activist, Cynthia Moss with doctorates

Yale University presented honorary degrees to 11 individuals who have achieved distinction in their fields at its 318th graduation ceremony recenty. Among the honorees were Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie, Zimbabwean owner of Econet Wireless, Strive MAsiyiwa and Cynthia Moss, an American who has dedicated her life to the welfare of Kenya’s Amboseli elephants.

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Nigerian-born doctor wins ‘brain tumor research’ award in US

Chibawanye Ene, a Nigerian-born doctor, has won the 2019 Ronald L. Bittner Award on brain tumor research.

According to the Applied Radiation Oncology, a quarterly journal on cancer, Ene received the award at the 2019 American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) annual scientific meeting which held from April 13 to April 17 in San Diego, US.

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Nigerian Graduates With 4:00 CGPA From Texas A&M, Joins US Army Reserves

By Ngere Ify Davies

A young Nigerian man is being celebrated by his friends on social media after he bagged his masters degree at a prestigious university. The young man had graduated as the overall best student in his school.

Nnanna Edmund graduated with a 4:00 Cumulative Grade Point Average from the Texas A&M University Kingsville in the Uniteds States.

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Three Africans listed as Time Magazine Next Generation Leaders

By AT editor

The Time Magazine portrait of Swedish climate champion Greta Thunberg got lots of attention on social media, but she was just one of 10 people named as Next Generation Leaders – and three of them have ties to the African continent.

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Kenyan wins $1 Million prize as best teacher in the world

Peter Tabichi who teaches at a school with just one computer and gives most of his money to the poor took home the Global Teacher Prize.

A Kenyan science teacher from a remote village who gave away most of his earnings to the poor and tutored students on the weekends won a $1 million prize that honors one exceptional educators from around the world.

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Ghanaian Professor installed as Principal of University of Toronto – Scarborough

A Ghanaian Professor, Wisdom Tettey, has been installed as the Vice President and Principal of the University of Toronto-Scarborough in the largest city of Canada.
He is the first Black person to head the campus.
His installation took place at the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto amidst academic pageantry with the blasting of Ghanaian traditional song in the background.
The ceremony was well attended by dignitaries and academia including the Vice Chancellor, academic staff, students and family members/representatives from the Toronto Ghanaian community.

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Ottawa professor who died in Ethiopia plane crash remembered for public outreach

Ottawa professor Pius Adesanmi, one of the 18 Canadians killed in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash, is being remembered as a public intellectual whose outreach to Africans across the globe shaped the way Canada is seen abroad.

The Nigerian-born scholar was on his way to a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, when the jet went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa airport, killing all 157 aboard.

The death of the director of Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies sent shockwaves through the academic community and on social media, where Adesanmi was mourned by a “cult following” of more than 40,000 Twitter users, said Nduka Otiono, a fellow Carleton professor and Adesanmi’s friend of 25 years.

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Who is Denis Mukwege, The Congolese Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has selected two recipients for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, including Christian gynecologist Denis Mukwege, who has dedicated his life to caring for victims of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mukwege, nicknamed “Dr. Miracle” for his specialized procedures, received the award alongside Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi activist who survived being kidnapped and raped by ISIS members in Iraq. This profile by The National gives insight into the the man. Continue reading “Who is Denis Mukwege, The Congolese Nobel Peace Prize Recipient”

Elon Musk: The Most Famous African in America

by Ebimo Amungo

Many people think that there are only black Africans in America, but the truth is that there is a sizable number of Caucasians, Indians and Chinese and people from other races who call Africa home. The most famous of them is Elon Musk, the visionary founder Paypal, Space X and Tesla who is a native-born African in America.

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The Most Famous African in America is a White Man

by Olumide Ebimo Amungo

Many people think that there are only black Africans in America. But the truth is that there is a sizable number of Caucasians, Indians and Chinese and people from other races who call Africa home but who have emigrated from the continent to America and other developed nations. The most famous of them is Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur who is a native-born African in America.

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Leaders laud ex-UN chief Kofi Annan at Ghana state funeral

United in sorrow, world leaders and international dignitaries came to Ghana to pay their last respects to the late United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan who was honored with a state funeral, as many lauded him as an exceptional man and leader.

Annan died on Aug. 18 in Bern, Switzerland at age 80. The grandson of tribal chiefs, he was the first black African to become the U.N. leader and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Continue reading “Leaders laud ex-UN chief Kofi Annan at Ghana state funeral”