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A phenomenal and exception Elijah Muhammad Jr. has recently became the youngest black college student in the history of Oklahoma. This feat was achieved after he gained admission to the Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) in the United States.Elijah Muhammad Jr. comes from a peculiar family of geniuses. His sister Shania Muhammad holds the record of graduating from two American universities with two degrees at the age of 14. With the recently acquired success, Elijah Muhammad Jr. has broken her record and hopes to follow in her step. His father, Elijah Muhammad Sr. noticed his son was very attentive since he was two years old. “He was very attentive, and there were things I noticed from when he was two years old that were just different, and I was like it’s time to cultivate this,” Elijah Sr

Elijah Muhammad Jr. is not your average pre-teen. He is currently a high school senior at Prep One Collegiate Academy and enrolled in three courses at Oklahoma City Community College. The Prep One is a homeschool program organized by his father. “I’m very excited about getting scholarships because I’ve seen my sister get multiple scholarships and I was like, man, I can’t wait until I start getting my scholarships,” he expressed to Atlanta Black Star. Not only is Muhammad Jr. the youngest student to attend college in Oklahoma, he also beat out the average Black high school senior with his 17 composite ACT score. He is also the recipient of a full scholarship to Rust College, a historically Black college in Mississippi. “A hundred percent, he will be going to an HBCU walking in the legacy in his mom,” said Muhammad Sr

Elijah Muhammad Jr. is set to graduate from Oklahoma City Community College with a degree in Cybersecurity. His father briefed the public that his son will be graduating with both a high school diploma and a college degree next year. Muhammad Jr.’s interest is to become a computer scientist with interest in cybersecurity. He is taking courses including Computer Hardware, Computer Technology, and Computer Operating Systems.Elijah Muhammad Jr. explained that his classmates were shocked to see him join their classes. “A bunch of them were like, ‘How old are you?’ Once I told them my age, they all got surprised,” 

Cudjo Lewis ( 1841-1935) was a founder of Africatown, established by a group of people who were brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard the Clotilda, the last slave ship to the United States.Together with other African captives, he was brought to the United States on board the ship Clotilda in 1860.The Clotilda brought its captives to Alabama in 1860, a year before the Civil War. Even though slavery was legal at that time, the international slave trade was not, and hadn’t been for over 50 years. Along with many European nations, the U.S. had outlawed the practice in 1807.

Lewis’ journey is an example of how slave traders went around the law to continue bringing over human cargo. As for the Civil War, Lewis said he wasn’t aware of it when it first started. But part-way through, he began to hear that the North had started a war to free enslaved people like him. A few days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865, Lewis said that a group of Union soldiers stopped by a boat on which he and other enslaved people were working and told them they were free. In the spring of 1931, Zora Neale Hurston finished writing a 117-page manuscript titled “Barracoon.” It told the true story of Cudjo Lewis. It was recently published.

She was so rich that Oklahoma legislature legally declared her to be a white person. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in Oklahoma to Joseph Rector & Rose McQueen. They were African descendants of the Creek Nation Creek Indians before the Civil war which became part of the Creek Nation after the Treaty of 1866.As such, they and their descendants were listed as freedmen thus entitled to land allotments under the Treaty of 1866 made by the United States with the Five Civilized Tribes. Nearly 600 black children or Creek Freedmen minors (as they were called) were granted 160 acres of land each. This was a mandatory step in the process of integration of the Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory to form what is now the State of Oklahoma.

The parcel of land allotted to Sarah Rector was located in Glenpool, 60 miles from where she and her family lived. It was considered inferior infertile soil, not suitable for farming, with better land being reserved for white settlers and members of the tribe. The family lived simple lives but not in poverty but the $30 annual property tax on Sarah's parcel was such a burden that her father petitioned the County Court to sell the land. His petition was denied because of restrictions placed on the land.To help cover this expense, in February 1911, Joseph Rector leased Sarah's parcel to the Standard Oil Company. In 1913, the independent oil driller B.B. Jones drilled a well on the property which produced a "gusher" that began to bring in 2,500 barrels of oil a day.

Rector began to receive a daily income of $300 from this strike. The law at the time required full-blooded Indians, black adults and children who were citizens of Indian Territory with significant property and money, to be assigned "well-respected" white guardians. In October 1913, Rector received royalties of $11,567. As soon as Rector began to receive a lot of money, there was pressure to change Rector's guardianship from her parents to a local white resident.Given her wealth, the Oklahoma Legislature declared her to be a white person, so that she would be allowed to travel in first-class accommodations on the railroad, as befitted her position.Rector was already a millionaire by the time she had turned 18. She left Tuskegee with her entire family and moved to Kansas City, Missouri.

Not until recently did most commentators on African literary history believe that African societies had any form of writing tradition. Since the rediscovery of ancient manuscript collections, with some dating back to at least the 8^th century AD, this perception has gradually lost popularity.

Just about 700,000 old manuscripts from the libraries of Timbuktu still survive in present-day Ethiopia. Also, thousands of documents from the medieval Sudanese empire of Makuria, written in at least eight different languages were dug out at the southern Egyptian site of Qasr Ibrim. Thousands more old manuscripts have equally survived in the West African cities of Chinguetti, Walata, Oudane, Kano, and Agadez.

Upon the real and present dangers posed by fires, insects, and plundering, some one million manuscripts have since survived from the northern edges of Guinea and Ghana to the shores of the Mediterranean. National Geographic even estimates that 700,000 manuscripts have survived in the city of Timbuktu alone.

More than 60 libraries in Timbuktu are still owned and managed by local families and institutions, some of which are collections that survived the turbulence through the region, as well as the ravages from nature. A veritable example is the Ahmed Baba Institute, which was established in 1979 and named after the famous 16^th/17th-century scholar, considered the greatest in Africa.

Today, the institute has just about 30,000 manuscripts, which are constantly being studied, cataloged, and preserved, however, at the time of the French colonial administration of Timbuktu (1894-1959), many of the manuscripts were seized and set on fire by the invading colonialists. As a result, many families there still refuse to grant access to researchers, fearing a repeat of the French treatment. Other manuscripts were lost due to climatic effects, such as drought, which led to many people burying them and fleeing.

As the 10th most-visited website on Earth, and the largest repository of human knowledge there is, school curriculums and even entire worldviews can be formed simply through reading Wikipedia.

However, when the city of Paris has more information contained in Wikipedia than the entire African continent, there is a significant risk of young Africans beginning to perceive home as a “single story.” Further, an enormous amount of content on Wikipedia about African culture, languages, geography, and more, is written by Westerners. The inevitable lack of cultural context inherent in the everyday experiences of Africans can lead to stereotyping again turning one small part of the African story into the whole story.

The WikiAfrica Education Program, founded by the Moleskine Foundation, is an effort to foster creativity and an interest in culture in African school curriculums by teaching students how to prepare and submit, as well as edit, articles on Wikipedia. Since 2006, the WikiAfrica Program has led students contributing 40,000 submissions, including articles, and also audio clips, edits, photos, and more. Notably, many of the most detailed of these submissions were in African languages like isiXhosa.

Co-founder of the Moleskine Foundation, Adama Sanneh, an Italian-born son of a Gambian/Senegalese father, understands that creativity creates culture, and culture is the force that changes society.A self-professed nerdy kid drawn to culture, art, and philosophy during his childhood growing up outside of Milan, he started the Moleskine Foundation in an effort to try and galvanize Africans into changing power dynamics on the internet and in their daily lives.

“We aim to inspire young people from the continent and beyond, and especially African language speakers, to transform themselves from passive knowledge consumers to active knowledge producers,” says Sanneh, who then explained the startling information gap between Paris and Africa.

By 1976, Robert Nesta Marley and his Wailers band had become popular and influential in Jamaica where they had scored many hits as well as globally where Marley was viewed as reggae’s foremost exponent. However, the tension in Jamaica, his home country, was anything but tranquil. Poverty afflicted citizens while supporters of Michael Manley’s ruling People’s National Party and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party led by Edward Seaga engaged in continuous violence.

To enable a modicum of peace and heal the land, Marley offered to stage a free peace concert dubbed Smile Jamaica to be attended by both supporters of the parties. However, two days before the concert on December 3, 1976, Marley and his band were rehearsing at his home at 56 Hope Road in the neighborhood of both the governor and prime minister when three armed men made their way onto the property. The gunmen shot Marley and his wife, Rita, in what many suggest was a politically motivated assassination attempt.

“She got shot in her head,” Ziggy Marley said of his mother. “She got a bullet in her head, one inch from the brain, during the time of the assassination attempt. My father got shot in the hand.”

Either by good fortune or poor aim, the bullet aimed at Marley skidded off his chest, lodging in his arm rather while wife Rita, although shot in the head while disembarking from a vehicle, survived the hit. Marley’s manager Don Taylor sustained serious injuries from being shot in the leg. It’s believed Rita’s super dense dreadlocks blocked the bullet and minimized the impact. They were all rushed to the University Hospital and treated.

The nation was shocked about the attempt on Marley’s life at a time he had become a national treasure. Nonetheless, many ordinary folks wished to see him perform and he did perform. Fans waited over four hours before Marley, with his Wailers, arrived to a tumultuous welcome from about 8,000 people leading to the performance at the National Heroes Park in Kingston on December 5, 1976,

Ziggy Marley, who was eight at the time of the incident, notes: “This is the type of woman that my mother is. Even a bullet in her head couldn’t stop her from serving that higher purpose.”

Maseko was working as a delivery driver when he volunteered for service in the South African Native Military Corps during WWII (NMC). Later he was sent to the 2nd South African Infantry Division after finishing basic training in North Africa.Due to South African race regulations at the time, they were unable to carry firearms. They were only allowed traditional weapons such as spears for guard and ceremonial duty.Maseko served as a stretcher carrier for the allied forces in North Africa, providing medical assistance to the wounded. When his commander surrendered to the Germans at Tobruk in June 1942, he became a prisoner of war. He was forced to work on the ports at Tobruk.

Being a former miner, he made an astonishing bomb on July 21 using condensed milk tin, cordite & a long fuse. He loaded the little tin with gunpowder and placed it in the hold of a German ship near some petrol drums.He planted his bomb deep in the hold on June 21, 1942, just before they were set to leave the already overloaded ship. He lighted the fuse and dashed to the dock. An enormous explosion erupted sinking the ship instantly.He eventually escaped from the prisoner of war camp and rise to the rank of lance corporal. He was supposed to get the Victoria Cross,the highest and most prestigious millitary award but instead received a mere Military Medal.

Ugandans have always eaten a lot of bananas. Now a local start-up reckons it can extract even more value from overlooked parts of the crop. TexFad is using natural banana fiber to produce environmentally friendly items such as carpets and biodegradable hair extensions. When farmers lop off bananas from the trees, they generally leave the bulky, bulbous trunks to decompose and waste away. TexFad is extracting the fibers from parts of the trunks that farmers usually burn or throw away.

“When I looked around I saw that bananas grow abundantly in this country … we generate a lot of waste from the banana gardens,” said Kimani Muturi, TexFad’s managing director and founder. TexFad  uses of banana fibers to produce carpets and market-testing hair extension products, Muturi said. “The hair extensions we are making are highly biodegradable,” he said. “After using, our ladies will go and bury them in the soil and they will become manure for their vegetables.”

TexFad is also testing a process to make banana fibers as soft as cotton so they can be used to produce clothes. Muturi forecast TexFad will make 2,400 carpets this year, more than doubling last year’s output and boosting revenues. The firm, which has 23 employees, made about $41,000 in sales last year, its best figures since launching in 2013.

The company expects to export carpets for the first time in June, to customers in the United States, Britain and Canada. Muturi reckons the light, organic material could replace some synthetic fibers and be used to make paper products like bank notes among a range of possible applications. “Banana fiber is the fiber of the future,” he said

16-year old Aly has been propositioned for sex since he was a young boy. He's been tempted by the offers - in return for sex he could perhaps get passage to the West, live his dream of being a rap star and get a record deal. It sounds easy. But the psychologist who runs a centre for abused street kids knows different. "Those kids feel shame about their bodies. They have a feeling of aggressiveness towards adults. It's a threat to society." Senegalese law is not on his side though. On paper paedophiles can be imprisoned for 10 years yet they rarely receive such harsh treatment. Last year a Canadian paedophile admitted guilt to the Senegalese police.

He was fined $3000. Locals don't want to talk about the lively influx of sex tourists. They don't want their beautiful heritage-town to get a reputation. Nor do they want to put off tourists of any kind. It's a sad indictment of poverty that anyone with money can get exactly what they want. A paedophile victim understands how the bribes work. "He said if I told he'd get into trouble and the money transfers back home would be stopped." Some Europeans and a South African have been living in Goree for years. Everyone knows that they are paedophiles. But nobody says anything. Silence means more tourism - but for the children it means a destroyed life.

In 1862, Robert Smalls was serving as the pilot of a steam powered, Confederate ship, The CSS Planter. It was transporting large guns out of Charleston Harbor and deliver them to Union Navy forces on blockade duty. On the evening of 12th May 1862, The ship was docked and the confederate officers left the ship to spend the night on shore, leaving the slave crew on board. Rob had gotten permission to bring the crew’s families on board for the evening, as long as they were gone before curfew.Instead of the families returning to their homes at curfew, he hid them on a nearby wharf. At around 3am, ready for his master plan, he dressed in the ship’s Captain’s coat and straw hat, built up a head of steam, and cast off!

First thing first, he sailed to the other wharf to pick up the crew's families, and then they began their hazardous journey to freedom. Walking about the deck, Smalls mimicked the Captain’s mannerisms, responding with the proper coded signals at the Confederate checkpoints.Only when the ship had sailed out of gun range & began heading straight for the Union blockade, did the confederates realise what was happening and they raised the alarm.Approaching the blockade, the union navy fleet, the ship USS Onward was about to open fire on this seemingly Confederate ship, but Smalls raised a white flag replacing the red confederate flag so they held fire.

The Onwards captain, boarded the Planter and Smalls asked for a United States flag to mount on the ship. He surrendered the Planter and its cargo to the United States Navy. The people aboard the ship became free from their confederate enslavers for the first time in their lives.

On a Monday around 3pm Brian Kemsley was walking with his girlfriend at Madison Square Park in Manhattan when he saw a man trying to grab a stroller away from a woman, pictured circled. The man was asked to let go of the stroller but repeatedly reached for the baby as the terrified mother was holding another toddler. Several passerby tried to stop the man and the woman rushed away with the stroller. When the man refused to stop Kemsley, a martial arts fighter, pinned him to the ground using his jiu jitsu skills and held him there until authorities arrived. Kemsley pictured in the black shirt and blue shorts holding down the man behind the ruckus

People started to scream out of alarm and Kemsley decided to use his martial arts skills to subdue the man. Kemsley was filmed pinning down the man and keeping him there even as he resisted for about 15 minutes. 'I took him down and I held him. I pinned him so he couldn’t move…Clearly this guy, we couldn’t just let him go,' he said. 'As the situation escalated…it became pretty clear that he had mental issues. Someone else actually came and took him to the hospital,' he added.

Rangers arrived to the scene and took the man to a hospital. No one was hurt in the incident.But Kemsley says he's no hero.  'It’s not a matter of stepping in, it’s a matter of duty when you see a woman and her child screaming,' he said. Kemsley detailed the event on Facebook, saying his years of studying martial arts and jiu jitsu helped him save the day. 'The limited jiu jitsu I learned over six years ago allowed me to control a strong raging full grown man like he was a baby,' he said