Independence is usually remembered as a date. Nigeria has 1 October 1960. Kenya has 1963. Ghana has 1957. The dates are easy. The people are harder, and they are the part worth keeping.
CelebIsland members have been building tribute pages for the men and women who made those dates possible. Here are six of them, with what is actually on record rather than what gets repeated.
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Born 16 November 1904 in Zungeru, died 11 May 1996 in Enugu. Known across the continent as Zik of Africa. In 1937 he founded the West African Pilot and turned a newspaper into a nationalist instrument, at a time when the printed page was the only mass medium available to a colonised population. He co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in 1944, served as Premier of the Eastern Region from 1954 to 1959, became Governor-General in 1960 and first President of Nigeria in 1963. Visit the Nnamdi Azikiwe tribute page.
Obafemi Awolowo
Born 6 March 1909 in Ikenne, died there on 9 May 1987. He founded and led the Action Group and became the first Premier of the Western Region, serving from 1954 to 1960. What he did with that office is the reason the name survives. He introduced free primary education for all in the region, funded largely from cocoa revenue, and in 1959 established the first television service anywhere in Africa. He later served as Federal Commissioner for Finance from 1967 to 1971 and wrote Path to Nigerian Freedom. Visit the Obafemi Awolowo tribute page.
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
Born in December 1912 in Bauchi. A teacher before politics, he rose through the Northern People's Congress, became Chief Minister of the Federation in 1957 and led Nigeria into independence on 1 October 1960 as its first Prime Minister. Abroad he pushed for the formation of the Organisation of African Unity and worked to build ties between English speaking and French speaking Africa. He was killed in the military coup of January 1966. Visit the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa tribute page.
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
Born 25 October 1900 in Abeokuta, died 13 April 1978 in Lagos. She founded the Abeokuta Ladies Club, which grew into the Abeokuta Women's Union, and organised market women against a colonial tax system that charged girls from the age of fifteen while men paid from eighteen. The protests of 1949 forced the Alake of Egbaland from his throne and won women seats on the governing council for the first time. She campaigned for Nigerian women's right to vote. She was also the mother of Fela Kuti, which is how many people first hear the name, and the smaller half of the story. Visit the Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti tribute page.
Dedan Kimathi
Born 31 October 1920 in Nyeri District, Kenya. He became a leading figure in the Mau Mau uprising against British rule, helping to build formal military structures within the Kenya Land and Freedom Army and convening a war council in 1953. British forces captured him on 21 October 1956 and he was hanged at Kamiti prison on 18 February 1957, six years before Kenyan independence. A statue in his honour now stands on Kimathi Street in Nairobi. Visit the Dedan Kimathi tribute page.
Marcus Garvey
Born 17 August 1887 in Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica, died 10 June 1940 in London. He never governed a country. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914 and built it into the largest mass movement of people of African descent in the twentieth century, published the Negro World newspaper, and launched the Black Star Line as a Black owned shipping venture. His argument for racial pride and self-reliance reached the men above long before any of them held office. Visit the Marcus Garvey tribute page.
Why these pages exist
Every page named here is a fan or tribute page run by CelebIsland members. None of them is official, none is affiliated with the person or their family or estate, and each one says so on the page itself. They are here because a platform built in Africa should carry African history as more than a date.
Every fact above was checked against at least two independent references before publication.
