African

advertisement

Black, Pauline

Black's birth mother was a teenage secretary, Jewish, and her father was a Nigerian prince, Oladosu Adenle. She was born Belinda Magnus and because her parents were unmarried her mother was... [more]

Bokassa I

Jean-Bédel Bokassa was born to a married couple, and his father was a chief. His father was murdered by the French colonial occupiers when he was six, and his mother committed suicide a wee... [more]

Bolívar, Simón

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar, “The Liberator,” was born into a wealthy Creole family in Venezuela, but his father died when he... [more]

Bonaly, Surya

Bonaly, born in Nice (but some sources say on Réunion Island), was adopted by a white French family. She began ice skating aged 10, but was already a trampoline champion (she won the world ... [more]

Braimoh, Dilly

Braimoh was born to a white Jewish mother and a Nigerian father. He never knew his mother, had only slight contact with his father, and was raised in a children's home in Surrey. He present... [more]

Brooks-Randolph, Angie

Brooks was one of nine children, and her parents were forced by poverty to place her in a foster home where she was brought up by a widowed seamstress. Ambitious to become a lawyer, she ... [more]

Brown, James

Brown was born into a poverty-stricken backwoods family in South Carolina (different sources give his year of birth as 1928 and 1933). His parents separated and when he was five he was sent ... [more]

Brown, Leslie Calvin

Brown and his twin brother, born in a Miami ghetto, were adopted at six weeks of age by a single woman. He was hyperactive as a child and labeled a slow learner. After high school he bec... [more]

Bustamante, William Alexander

Little is known for certain about Bustamante's early life, which he seems to have deliberately concealed or fabricated, but he was probably born in Jamaica into poverty, one of 13 children,... [more]

Caines, Michael

Caines is a transracial adoptee, born in Jamaica and raised in Exeter. He was trained as a chef by Raymond Blanc. In 1994 he lost his right arm in a car accident, but with hard work, dedica... [more]