Time Magazine has named South African comedian Trevor Noah and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnagagwa among the “100 most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of 2018”.
Each person in the list is profiled by another famous name.
Noah, the presenter of The Daily Show in the US, is hailed as “a fantastic storyteller” and “a defier of rules” by actress Lupita Nyong’o who will star as his mother in an upcoming biopic.
But President Mnangagwa receives a less glowing profile from Zimbabwean protest leader Evan Mawarire, who calls him “careful” and “patient”, adding: “The undeniable paradox of Zimbabwe’s moment of healing is that the doctor was once the butcher.”
Other Africans recognised by Time include Ghanaian-American Virgil Abloh who has been appointed as Louis Vuitton’s menswear director and South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Kenyan campaigner Nice Nailantei Leng’ete is also named in Time’s “most influential” list. Her fight against FGM began in her childhood, when she persuaded village elders to drop the practice.
Time says she has since saved an estimated 15,000 girls across Kenya from being cut, thanks to her work with Amref Health Africa and Safe Hands for Girls.
Painter Kehinde Wiley, whose father is Nigerian, also makes the list. He recently painted former US President Barack Obama official portrait which hangs in Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.
Actress and producer Issa Rae, who has described her upbringing with a Senegalese father as “halfrican”, was also recognised. BBC News
