o.a.u.

Prime Minister Obote, head of the government of the sovereign state of Uganda, is an astute politician, who has moved to his present post with vigorous determination in less than five years. He is also considered by many observers, as one of the most skilled...

Togo was granted internal autonomy by the French authorities on October, 1956. In the elections of 1958 that were supervised by the United Nations, the CUT party of the late President Sylvanus Olympio won 32 of the 36 seats in the Togolese National Assembly. Mr...

If there is a true nationalist Tunisian leader, who fought till the last fiber of his being, to rid Tunisia of foreign exploitation and domination - it is president Habib Bourguiba. Born in a small fishing village near Tunis in 1903, he went to a French Lycee and read...

Dr. Julius Nyerere, President of the Republic of Tanganyika is one of the most able, modest, and democratic minded statesmen Africa has ever produced. He is man who is hailed by contemporary historians and politicians, as being a leader of superb qualities, wide...

Marshal Farik lbrahim Abboud, President of the Supreme Council, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and President of the Republic of the Sudan was born in 1900 at Mohamed-Gal near the Red Spa. Educated in the Department of Engineering at Gordon Memorial College in...

Mr. Abdella Osman, President of the Republic of Somalia, was born in 1908 in the town of Beledwein. He completed his formal education in Mogadishu and then served his country, which was then under Italian administration, in a variety of offices and responsibilities...

Sir Milton Margai, the 65-yearold Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, was born at Gbangbatoke of a family of eighteen children of whom he is the eldest. He is a very deeply religious man, belonging to the Evangelical United Brethren Church, in whose schools he was...

President Leopold Sedar Senghor was born on October 9, 1906, in the fishing village of Joal, Senegal. He began his primary and secondary school education in Dakar, and then went to Paris for further studies. There, he obtained a degree in Education with distinction,...

President Groire Kayibanda, head of state, head of the government and commander-in-chief of the national army of the Republic of Rwanda, was born in the town of Kitega in 1924. After studying the Humanities and Philosophy in Usumbura College, he became a school...

Men are not alike in capacity or in character. People who work hard are reasonably praised and respected. Some men are endowed with energy and imaginative wisdom that they distinguish them from others. One such person is Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Many call him an...

Mr. Hamani Diori, President of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of the Republic of Niger, was born in 1916 at Soudoure in Western Niger. A graduate of Ecole Normale in Dakar, he began his career as a teacher in Niamey, Maradi,...

King Hassan II, Head of State of the Kingdom of Morocco, and the son of late King Mohammed V, was Loin on July 9th, 1927 at the city of Rabat. He accomplished most of his early Arabic and Western education under private tutors in Morocco. Later on, he obtained a...

Mauritania's first premier, Mr. Mokhtar 0uld Daddah was born in 1924. He studied in the school of interpreters in St. Louis, Senegal, and in the School of Oriental Languages in France. He is not only a French Senegalese trained lawyer, but also an Arabic Scholar. The...

Mr. Modibo Keita, President I the Republic of Mali, is one of the most powerful and able leaders West Africa has ever produced. He presents a figure of immense astuteness, dignity, and respectability. He deeply saturated in French culture and knows Africa's problems...

Mr. Philibert Tsiranana, President of the Malagasy Republic was born on October 18, 1912 at Anahidrano, in Majunga province. He often recalls how he used to till the soil on his grandfather's piece of land at Majunga, and looked after goats as a child. He completed...

His Majesty King ldris I of the United Kingdom of Libya was born on March 13, 1890. He is the grandson of the late Mohammed Ali Ben es-Senussi, who was the founder of a powerful Moslem fraternity known as "Senussiya". In 1917, Britain, Italy and the Senussi chiefs...

President William V. S. Tubman, The Head of State, Chief Executive, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, National Standard Bearer of the Party, was born in November 1895 at Harper in Eastern Liberia to an old African-American family. He was educated at Cape Palmsa...

The celebrated West African statesman, President Houphouet Boigny of the Ivory Coast, was born on October 18, 1905 in the village of Yamoussockro, not many miles from the birthplace of President Kwame Nkrumah, just across the border Boigny, in the Baoul language...

Sekou Toure, President of the Republic of Guinea, is a dynamic politician, who traces his ancestry from Emperor Almamy Samory Toure, the great national hero of the Guineans, who heroically fought against the French until 1898. One of seven children of a farmer, he...

Dr. Nkrumah, President of the Republic of Ghana, First Citizen and Founder of the State, was born in a small village in Western Ghana in 1909. He was educated in a Catholic Mission school, and became a pupil teacher. Later on, he joined Achimota College and received...

Mr. Leon M'Ba, chief of state, and President of the Gabon Republic was born in 1902 in Libreville. He studied in a Catholic school and wound up in the College de Sainte Marie. President M'Ba is extremely intelligent, able and at the same time far-sighted. Like many...

No observer of present day Ethiopia can fail to be inspired by the high ideal, vigilance, dedication, and far-sightedness of Emperor Haile Selassie I; architect and builder of the nation.A descendant of the oldest and longest line of royalty in recorded history, Ras...

President Gamal Abdel Nasser was born in January 1918 at Benimor in Upper Egypt. He was educated in Cairo, and after one year's reading of Law at the University, he transferred to the military academy in 1937. He began his military career as sub-lieutenant at...

Mr. Fulbert Youlou, the stocky, jovial and friendly President of the Republic of the Congo, was born on June 1, 1917 at the town of Moumbouolo, to the west of Brazzaville. At the age of 12, he entered a seminary at Brazzaville. Proving himself a good and intelligent...

President Francois Tombalbaye, who serves his country as President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense and Justice, was born at Bedaya in 1918. The deep scars on his face bear his tribe's distinguishing marks. After the Second World War, he became a businessman....

Mr. David Dacko, President of the Central African Republic was born in 1930, at Bouchia in the district of M'Baiki in the southern part of the Central African Republic. He was educated up to secondary school level in Bambari, and then in the Republic of the Congo...

President Ahamadou Ahidjo of the Cameroon, was born in 1924 in Garoua in the Benoue region. After primary and secondary schooling, he attended the Ecole Superieur d'Administration in Yaounde. From then on, he worked in the telegraph office and during World War II he...

His Majesty Mwami Mwambusta IV of the Kingdom of Burundi was born in the town of Murwvya in 1912. At the age of three, when his father Mutaga died, he succeeded him to the royal thrown, and ruled through the aid of a regent council. Both the Germans and the Belgians...

H. E. Maurice Yameogo, President of the Council of Ministers and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Upper Volta, was born in 1921 in the town of Koudougou. After completing his secondary school studies at Pabret, he began his career as a teacher. Of the...

Mr. Hubert Maga, President of the Republic of Dahomey, was born at Parakou in 1910. He was educated up to secondary level in Dahomey and then became a teacher.  As the headmaster of a school, indeed as a teacher too, he was vigorously interested in youth problems and...

Mr. Ben Bella, the symbol of Algerian Independence, hope and pride, was born 46 years ago, in Marnia near the Moroccan border. He is a tall athletic man, well known in those turbulent years, not only as a soccer player, but also as the hot shot captain of a local...