2023: Date Unknown 1930 Chronology

1930

Pan-African Chronology

*****

 Date Unknown

*'Abd Allah II ibn 'Ali 'Abd ash-Shakur, the last Emir of Harar, died. 

*****

*Cloves Campbell, the first African American elected to the Arizona State Senate, was born in Elizabeth, Louisiana.

*****

*Nicolas Geffrard, a Haitian musician best known for composing La Dessalinienne, the Haitian national anthem, died. The piece was adopted in 1904 to celebrate one hundred years of Haitian independence. He spent part of his career working in Europe.

*****

*Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago, a South African novel by Sol Plaatje, was published. 

Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago is a South African novel by Sol Plaatje first published in 1930, and one of the first published African novels by a black African to be published in English. The novel was republished many times subsequently, including in the influential Heinemann African Writers Series. 

The novel is a political historical novel which explores the development of the Traansval kingdom, led by Matabeleland.  The novel was originally finished in 1920, but Plaatje was unable to get the novel published. The novel re-invisions the standard Euro-centric narrative of history which supported Apartheid and its racist infrastructure.

Plaatje described the novel as a romance, comparing it to the Zulu novels of H. Rider Haggard. 

*****

*Not Without Laughter, the debut novel of Langston Hughes, was published in 1930.

Not Without Laughter portrays African American life in Kansas in the 1910s, focusing on the effects of class and religion on the community. The main storyline focuses on Sandy's "awakening to the sad and the beautiful realities of black life in a small Kansas town."

^{Hughes said that Not Without Laughter is semi-autobiographical, and that a good portion of the characters and setting included in the novel are based on his memories of growing up in Lawrence, Kansas: "I wanted to write about a typical Negro family in the Middle West, about people like those I had known in Kansas. But mine was not a typical Negro family."}

A review in the New York Times on August 3, 1930 stated:  "Not Without Laughter" is very slow, even tedious, reading in its early chapters, but once it gains its momentum it moves as swiftly as a jazz rhythm. Its characters, emerging ever more clearly and challenging as the novel proceeds, gives it this rhythm. Every character in the novel, it can be said, with the exception of Tempy and Mr. Siles, is a living challenge to our civilization, a challenge that is all the more effective because it springs naturally out of its materials and is not superimposed upon them."

 Hughes' first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature. At a time before widespread arts grants, Hughes gained the support of private patrons and he was supported for two years prior to publishing this novel. The protagonist of the story is a boy named Sandy, whose family must deal with a variety of struggles due to their race and class, in addition to relating to one another.

*****

*David Oluwale (b.1930 - May 4, 1969), a British Nigerian who drowned in 1969 in the River Aire in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Oluwale's drowning was attributed to police harassment.  His death resulted in the first successful prosecution of British police officers for involvement in the death of a black person.

*****

*Jama Abdullahi Qalib (Somali: Jaamac cabdullahi qaalib, b. 1930, Hargeisa, Somalia – d. 2015, Lusaka, Zambia) was a Somali politician who was a senior member of the Somali Youth League, and served as speaker of the Somali Parliament during the Somali Republic's early civilian administration between 1960 and 1964.  He was also a Speaker of parliament 1979 – 1982. Qalib was born in Hargeisa, in northern Somalia, in 1930. He died in Lusaka, Zambia in 2015.

*****

*Margrethe Rask, a Danish physician and surgeon in Zaire who became one of the first non-Africans known to have died  from AIDS, was born in Thisted, Denmark.

Margrethe P. Rask (b. 1930, Thisted, Denmark – d. December 12, 1977, Copenhagen, Denmark), better known as Grethe Rask, was a Danish physician and surgeon in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). After setting up her own hospital in the village of Abumombazi in 1972, she transferred to the Danish Red Cross Hospital in Kinshasa in 1975. She returned to Denmark in 1977 after developing symptoms of an unknown infectious disease, which was later discovered to be AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).  Three and a half years later in June 1981 the Centers for Disease Control recognized AIDS. Rask was one of the first non-Africans (along with Arvid Noe and Robert Rayford) and was the first woman non-male to have died of AIDS-related causes.

Born in 1930 in the Danish town of Thisted, Rask practiced medicine in Zaire for a brief period in 1964 before she was recalled to Europe for training in stomach surgery and tropical illnesses, and from 1972 to 1977, first at a small local hospital in the Zairian town of Abumombazi, and then as the chief surgeon at the Danish Red Cross Hospital in Kinshasa starting in 1975.

Rask was likely first exposed to HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in 1964.  While working as a surgeon under primitive conditions, Rask would have been heavily exposed to the blood and excretions of African patients.

Rask suffered from symptoms of  AIDS starting in late 1974, including diarrhea, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, and fatigue. Although the symptoms receded temporarily following drug treatments in 1975, they later grew considerably worse.

Following a vacation in South Africa in July 1977, she could no longer breathe and relied on bottled oxygen.  She flew back to Denmark, where tests at Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet discovered she had contracted a number of opportunistic infections, such as Staphylococcus aureus (staph infection), candidiasis (yeast infection) and Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, a fungal infection of the lungs formerly known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.

Tests also showed that Rask had a nearly non-existent T-cell count, leading to a severely depressed immune system. At the time, the doctors treating Rask were at a loss to explain her disease progression which, in retrospect, came to be seen as one of the first cases of AIDS recorded outside Africa.

After numerous tests and unsuccessful treatments, Rask eventually returned home to die in her cottage on a fjord in November 1977.  However, she was called back for more tests in December and returned to the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, where she remained until she died of AIDS-related Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia on December 12, 1977.

In 1984, over six years after her death, Rask's blood was tested for HIV in Denmark. The test was negative. However, in 1987, Rask's blood was shipped to the United States, where it was tested with two different systems. Both tests were positive for HIV.

*****

*Brian Roberts, an historian who authored numerous historical and biographical works about South African history, was born in London, England.

Brian Roberts (b. 1930, London, England) authored numerous historical and biographical works around prominent persons, places and themes shaping South African history.

Educated at St Mary's College, Twickenham, and at the University of London, he qualified as a sociologist and a teacher. It was as a teacher that he went to South African in 1959. He and his partner, biographer and historian Theo Aronson,  became disenchanted with the political regime in South Africa in the late 1970s and moved to England in 1979.

Roberts' books include:

• Ladies on the Veld (1965)
• Cecil Rhodes and the Princess (1969)
• Churchills in Africa (1970)
• The Diamond Magnates (1972)
• The Zulu Kings (1974)
• Kimberley, Turbulent City (1976)
• Randolph, a study of Churchill's son (1984)
• Cecil Rhodes, flawed Colossus (1988)

*****

*Katriena Rooi, one of the last eight speakers of the Nuu language, was born in Tweerivieren, South Africa. 

Katriena Kassie Rooi (b. 1930, Tweerivieren, South Africa - d. March 3, 2012, ) was one of the last eight speakers of  the Nuu language, South Africa's last original San language. Katriena, or Kaitjie, as she was affectionately known, was born in 1930 at Tweerivieren, in what is now the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park which straddles the boundary between South Africa and Botswana. She died on March 3, 2012. Rooi was the fourth child of Khuka and Ari Kassie. Rooi, her San name, refers to the soft powder puff, made from the ear of a bat-eared fox. 

At the age of five, Rooi was taken to Johannesburg as part of the 'Bushman' display at the British Empire Exhibition.  At this time she was separated from her parents and raised by her grandparents. ǂHan Kassie, her grandfather, featured prominently in the photographs of the Empire Exhibition. Her time with her grandparents helped deepen her knowledge of traditional mythology and beliefs of the Nǁnǂe culture and language, which were in the process of dying out. She later travelled to Durban and Cape Town. Her people lost their land and all their possessions in 1937 and lived for decades in poverty and obscurity.

Sociolinguist Nigel Crawhall met Rooi in the township of Swartkop, outside Upington in the Northern Cape in 1997. oi provided important information on sites within the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, including the names of rivers, pans and gravesites that provided evidence of original occupation.

Crawhall also recalls that: "When the ǂKhomani people made their first book about their culture and heritage, Enter the Light, we asked Ouma |Una to give the book a title that summarised their experience of freedom, oppression, dispossession, violence, poverty, democracy and restitution. Rooi was not one to nurse a grudge, her heart always sought peace and reconciliation. 

On language death, Rooi observed: "If a person who speaks our language dies then our language also dies. When you cover him with sand the language is not like a plant that grows again."

*****

*Saad al-Abdullah al-Salim al-Sabah, a short term Emir of Kuwait, was born in Kuwait.

Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah (Arabic: Saʿad al-ʿAbdullah as-Salim as-Sabah) (b. 1930 – d. May 13, 2008, Kuwait City, Kuwait) was the Emir of Kuwait and Commander of the Kuwait Military Forces during a short reign of nine days (January 15-24, 2006), succeeding Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah. 

Saad was a general commander in the Military of Kuwait. In addition, Saad was the first to head the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior until February 16, 1978, and the first military officer to head the Ministry of Defense since 1964.

Saad, who was born in 1930, belonged to the Al-Salem branch of the Al-Sabah family and was eldest son of Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, who ruled Kuwait from 1950 to 1965.  Saad's mother was an enslaved Ethiopian until his father married her. He attended the Mubarakiya school in Kuwait and Hendon Police College in North London. 

Saad debuted his career as the first military officer to head the ministry of interior and ministry of defense in 1962 and 1964, respectively. He served as the general commander of the Directorate of Public Security Force and the Directorate of Police from 1961 to 1962. 

Following the formation of the third Kuwaiti government on  December 6, 1964, Saad was appointed both minister of interior and of defense simultaneously and held both posts until 1978. On February 16, 1978, he became Crown Prince and held the post until July 13, 2006.

Saad was the leader involved in liberating Kuwait from Saddam's regime. Saad refused to deal with any of Iraq's ministers attempting to compromise the security of the country during the exile of Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah. 

Saad suffered from colon disease, which led to speculation that he would refuse the Emirship. A declaration in November 2005 refuted such speculation, and Saad took office as Emir on January 15, 2006, upon Jaber's death.

However, Saad attended Jaber's funeral in a wheelchair, and his continued health problems caused some to question his ability to rule. Some members of the National Assembly expressed concern that Saad would not be able to deliver the oath of office scheduled for January 24, 2006.

On January 24, 2006, the National Assembly voted Saad out of office, moments before an official letter of abdication was received. The Kuwait Cabinet nominated Prime Minister Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah to take over as Emir.

Saad died on May 13, 2008, aged 78, at Shaab Palace in Kuwait City from a heart attack.

Married to his cousin, Sheikha Latifa Fahad Al-Sabah, Saad had five daughters, Maryam, Hessa, Jamayel, Sheikha and Fadya, and one son, Fahad. One of his daughters, Sheikha, controlled international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).  Until late August 1998, Sheikha was the executive assistant managing director for international marketing at the body. Another daughter, Hessa, was elected as vice president of the Arab-Italian chamber of commerce in October 2012. She was also the head of the Arab women's business council and representative of Kuwait in the Chamber's general assembly session.

*****

*Othman Saadi, an Algerian writer, diplomat and politican, was born in Tebessa, French Algeria.

Othman Saadi (b. 1930, Tebessa, French Algeria – d. November 30, 2022, Algiers, Algeria) was an Algerian writer, diplomat, and politician.  Saadi joined the Algerian People's Party and later the National Liberation Front (FLN). He dropped out of French school after the Setif and Guelma massacre.  He graduated from the Institut Abdelhamid Ben Badis in Constantine in 1951 and subsequently earned a licentiate from Cairo University in 1956, a master's degree from the University of Baghdad in 1979, and a doctorate from Algiers 1 University in 1986.

Following his work for the National Liberation Army in Cairo, Saadi became head of Algeria's diplomatic mission in Kuwait and was subsequently chargé d'affaires in Cairo from 1968 to 1971. He then worked as a diplomat in Baghdad from 1971 to 1974 and in Damascus from 1974 to 1977.  Saadi was elected to the People's National Assembly in 1977 from the constituency of  Tebessa as a member of the FLN. He served until 1982.

Othman Saadi died in Algiers, Algeria, on November 30, 2022.

*****

*Thayer Scudder, an American social anthropologist who focused on socioeconomic issues and infrastructure development associated with river basin development, forced relocation, and refugee reintegration, was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

Thayer Scudder (b. 1930, New Haven, Connecticut), an American social anthropologist, was an Anthropology Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).  Educated at Harvard University (AB 1952, PhD 1960), he did a post-doctorate in African Studies, Anthropology and Ecology at the London School of Economics, followed by positions with the Rhodes-Livingston Institute for Social Research in Northern Rhodesia 1956-1957 and again in 1962–1963, and a post at the American University in Cairo in 1961–1962. He joined the Caltech faculty in that year.  

Scudder's work on socioeconomic issues and infrastructure development associated with river basin development, forced relocation, and refugee reintegration has made him a world leader in these fields. Large dams are one of the world's most controversial, divisive and expensive development issues, and Scudder was a leading expert on dams and relocation effects. His 2005 book "The Future of Large Dams" covers aspects of large dams and development including economics, politics, environmental risk, energy, agriculture, and human displacement and resettlement. He has undertaken studies on sustainable resource use in Africa, India, Nepal, Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and the United States, and served on a number of independent review panels for dam projects in Africa and Asia.  Scudder was a former commissioner on the World Commission on Dams.

In addition to expertise and special interest in regional development, irrigated and rainfed agriculture, pioneer settlement, community-based natural resource management, and impacts of large-scale river basin development projects on low income populations, Scudder has focused on systematic long-term studies of low income human communities. The most classic of his long-term studies has been carried out with anthropologist Elizabeth Colson among Gwembe Tonga of Zambia. 

Author Jacques Leslie devotes a third of his narrative nonfiction book Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005) to a portrait of Scudder. The section includes a visit to the Zambian resettlement village where many Gwembe Tonga now live and follows Scudder as he inspects dam projects in Lesotho and Botswana.

*****

*Mabel Segun, a Nigerian poet, playwright and writer of short stories and children's books, was born in Ondo City, Nigeria. 

Mabel Segun (b. 1930, Ondo City, Nigeria) was a Nigerian poet, playwright and writer of short stories and children's books. She has also been a teacher, broadcaster, and a sports woman.

Born in Ondo City, Nigeria, she had her secondary school education at CMS Girl's School Lagos. She attended the University of Ibadan, graduating in 1953 with a BA in English, Latin and History. She taught these subjects in Nigerian schools, and later became Head of the Department of English and Social Studies and Vice-Principal at the National Technical Teachers' College,  Yaba (now Yaba College of Technology). Her first book, My Father's Daughter (1965), published in 1965, has been widely used as a literature text in schools all over the world, and her books have been translated into German, Danish, Norwegian and Greek. Her work is included in the anthology Daughters of Africa (1992).

Segun championed children's literature in Nigeria through the Children's Literature Association of Nigeria, which she founded in 1978, and the Children's Documentation and Research Center, which she set up in 1990 in Ibadan. She is also a fellow of the  International Youth Library in Munich, Germany.

*****

*Mohamed Serghini, a famous Moroccan poet, was born.

Mohamed Serghini (b. 1930, Fes, Morocco) is a famous Moroccan poet. Serghini is the author of several poetry collections, a novel and numerous translations. In 2004, he was awarded the Prix International de Poésie Argana.

Mohamed Serghini was born in Fes, Morocco in 1930.  After his study at the University of Al-Karaouine, Serghini continued his education in the field of language and literature in Baghdad in 1959 and, later, at the faculty of literature of Rabat and finally at the Sorbonne in Paris.  He received a 'diplome' in comparative literature in 1963, a PhD in 1970 and another PhD in 1985. Serghini taught at the faculty of literature and social sciences at Dhar Mehrez in Fes, where his poetry debut, "What have they done to your skulls", was published in 1994.

*****

*Letitia Sibeko, a South African anti-apartheid activist, was born in Mqumba (near Middledrift) in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.  

Letitia Sibeko (b. 1930, Mqumba [near Middledrift], Eastern Cape, South Africa) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She was member of the African National Congress, the ANC Women's League, as well as the Federation of South African Women. She later joined the Communist Party.

Lindiwe Letitia Hina, better known as "Letitia Sibeko", was born in 1930 in Mqumba near Middledrift in the Eastern Cape. Her father, Rufus Hina was the chief of her village. She was one of five children. She attended a high school in her local area until the junior certificate level. She met Archie Sibeko at Fort Cox Agricultural College near Middledrift. In January 1953, they married. 

Both Hina and Sibeko did not believe in the principle of lobolo (brideprice), therefore, she left home as Hina's parents were upset. Archie went to Capetown soon after their marriage in pursuit of money. They planned to buy tools, livestock and start farming. Archie lived in a migrant hostel which did not allow couples. Letitia stayed with relatives in East London while Archie established himself. They moved in together in 1955. According to Archie, 'It must have been daunting for her, a village girl...she had to get used to living in one room which served as a bedroom, living-room and kitchen. She had to learn to cook on a primus stove, to dress as they dressed in town, to shop at the market and all the other new things.' Letitia remained religious and non-political during her time in the Eastern Cape.

Ultimately, Archie Sibeko became a political activist and a trade unionist.

Letitia's political activity started when she moved to Cape Town where she joined the African National Congress, the ANC Women's League as well as the Federation of South African Women.  She participated in the Women's March in Pretoria against pass laws where she played a significant role. She was involved in the extensive planning of the demonstration, as well as the encouragement of women to sign the petition and participate in the march. She did this alongside 157 Cape Town delegates including Annie Peters, Caroline Motsoaledi, Fatima Meer, Fatima Seedat and Florence Mophosho.

In 1961, Letitia joined the then 'underground' Communist Party. She attended the FEDSAW annual conference which took place in Cape Town where she presented a speech criticizing and denouncing the Bantu education system. She was allegedly detained by the police in 1963 in order to get information on her husband, Archie Sibeko who was working "underground" against the government. Letitia acted as a courier for him. Due to influx control regulations, Letitia was expelled from the Western Cape as her husband was no longer living there. 

Archie Sibeko claimed that the last time he saw his wife was while he was in hiding just before he was smuggled out of South Africa. This meeting was organized by Archie's controller, Liz Abrahams, on a farm in Paarl.  Letitaa was detained for months after this visit as the police were following her and were suspicious. Little is known of her activity after her expulsion. It is believed that she returned to Cape Town under a different name and managed a shabeen there. Her grandparents raised her four children in the Eastern Cape. Letitia also had a number of other children in Cape Town. She dropped out of politics and died after falling ill. The whereabouts of her grave are unknown.

*****

*Winston "Spree" Simon, a Trinidadian innovator of the steelpan, was born in Laventville, Trinidad.

Winston "Spree" Simon (b. 1930, Laventville, Trinidad – d. April 18, 1976) was a Trinidadian inventor, pioneer, and musician of the steelpan.

Simon was born in Laventille, Trinidad. He is credited with the invention of the Ping Pong steelpan instrument. Simon also was part of TASPO, the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra and visited Great Britain in 1951.

Winston "Spree" Simon worked closely with Anthony Williams, who later invented the fourth and fifth soprano pan. Simon also gave Bertie Marshall significant impulses for his work in developing harmonical tuning.

The American musician and composer Van Dyke Parks celebrated the life of Winston Simon in the song "Tribute to Spree" on his album Clang of the Yankee Reaper written and first recorded by the late great Lord Kitchener.

*****

Thaddeus Spratlen, an economist, was born in Union City, Tennessee. 

Thaddeus H. Spratlen (1930 - May 18, 2021) was an American economist who was Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. He was the first African American faculty member at Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) and the Foster School of Business, and was among the founders of the National Economic Association.

Born in 1930 in Union City, Tennessee, Spratlen was sent north to Cleveland, Ohio, by his family for greater educational opportunities available to African-Americans there. He graduated from Central High School (Cleveland, Ohio) and began his college studies at Kent State University.  However, economic constraints after the death of his father led him to enroll in the United States Army, where he served as an artillery officer in the Korean War. He used the educational benefits available to him as a veteran to continue his education, earning several degrees from the Ohio State University.

Spratlen was offered a position at Western Washington State College in 1962, when the head of the search committee removed the photos of the finalists from their application materials. After eight years at that university and three years teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, he joined the University of Washington in 1972, and remained at that university for the remainder of his career. At the University of Washington, he was known for building relationships between the business school and local minority-owned businesses in Seattle, and for his mentorship of African American business students.

*****

*Antonia Stone, a champion of computer equity, was born. 

Antonia "Toni" Stone (b. 1930 – d. November 21, 2002, Watertown, Massachusetts) was an educator and pioneering activist against the growing digital divide who created the United States' first community technology center.  After 20 years as a mathematics teacher in New York City private schools, Stone changed her focus to technology education for poor communities and formerly incarcerated adults.

Stone grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. In 1952, she earned a degree from Sarah Lawrence College. 

Stone began her efforts to bridge the burgeoning digital divide between the rich and poor through her collaboration with the Fortune Society, an inmate advocacy group, to instruct former prisoners on how to use computers. In 1980, Toni Stone set up Playing to Win (PTW), a nonprofit organization dedicated to countering inequities in computer access. PTW looked to serve inmates and ex-offenders by teaching them computer skills and offering technical assistance to prisons and rehabilitation agencies. In 1983, Stone and PTW Corporation opened the Harlem Community Computing Center. This center was located in the basement of a Harlem housing project and it provided the neighborhood with public access to personal computers. Taking advantage of the success of PTW, Stone created a network of centers known as the PTWNet.

The Playing to Win Network went on to form alliances with six other technology access programs in Harlem, some parts of Boston, Washington, D. C., and Pittsburgh, by 1990. In 1992, Playing To Win was given a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in order to provide neighborhood technology access to the northeastern United States. 

Three years later, Stone changed the PTWNet name to the Community Technology Centers’ Network (CTCNet).  CTCNet led the movement for the adoption of community technology centers (CTCs), with over 1,000 centers established through the U.S. by the early 21st century.

Today, the CTCNet includes more than 600 member sites connected by the Internet. CTCNet is still working to provide computer literacy programs in Harlem. CTCs went on to be federally funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).  Additionally, they were privately funded by the Benton Foundation and AOL-Time Warner. 

In 1997, Stone left CTCNet but continued working and advising in the area of technical literacy. Stone received the Norbert Wiener Award from Computer Professional for Social Responsibility Award in 1994 and the Eugene l. Lawler Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in 1999 for her work in humanitarian application of computers. In 2001, Stone was awarded an honorary doctorate from DePaul University.  Stone also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Harvard chapter of Women in Technology.

Antonia Stone died on November 21, 2002, due to complications from myelodysplastic leukemia.

*****

*"Sugar Bush", a popular song, was composed by Fred Michel.

 

"Sugar Bush" is a popular song, composed by Fred Michel (b. in 1898) in 1930. It was translated into English by Josef Marais.  Michel sold the rights to Polliacks for a small sum of money.  A version recorded as a duet by Doris Day and Frankie Laine was the best-known recording, and appeared on the first United Kingdom Singles Chart in November 1952, peaking at number 8 in a total chart run of eight weeks. A version by Eve Boswell, was also recorded in the United Kingdom.

The song is based on a traditional South-African song, "Suikerbossie" ("Sugar Bush" in  Afrikaans).

*****

*Bukka White made his first recording.

Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White ( b. November 12, 1906, Houston, Mississippi  – d. February 26, 1977, Memphis, Tennessee) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer.

White was born south of Houston, Mississippi. He was a first cousin of B. B. King's mother (White's mother and King's grandmother were sisters).

Bukka is a phonetic spelling  of White's first name.  He was named after the African-American educator and civil rights activist Booker T. Washington. 

White started his career playing the fiddle at square dances. He claimed to have met Charley Patton, soon after, but some have doubted this recollection. Nonetheless, Patton was a strong influence on White. 

White first recorded for Victor Records in 1930. His recordings for Victor, like those of many other bluesmen, included  country blues and gospel music. Victor published his photograph in 1930. His gospel songs were done in the style of Blind Willie Johnson, with a female singer accentuating the last phrase of each line. From fourteen recordings, Victor released two records under the name Washington White, two gospel songs with Memphis Minnie on backing vocals and two country blues.

Nine years later, while serving time for assault, White recorded for the folklorist John Lomax. The few songs White recorded around this time became his most well known: "Shake 'Em On Down"and "Po' Boy".  His 1937 version of the oft-recorded song "Shake 'Em on Down" is considered definitive.  The song became a hit while White was serving time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman Farm. He wrote about his experience there in "Parchman Farm Blues", which was released in 1940.

White served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1944, after which he settled in Memphis, Tennessee, and worked outside music.  Bob Dylan covered his song "Fixin' to Die Blues", which aided a "rediscovery" of White in 1963 by guitarist John Fahey and Ed Denson, which propelled him into the folk music revival of the 1960s. White had recorded the song simply because his other songs had not particularly impressed the Victor record producer. It was a studio composition of which White had thought little until it re-emerged thirty years later.

Fahey and Denson found White easily enough: Fahey wrote a letter to White and addressed it to "Bukka White (Old Blues Singer), c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Mississippi — presuming, given White's song "Aberdeen, Mississippi", that White still lived there or nearby. The postcard was forwarded to Memphis, where White worked in a tank factory. Fahey and Denson soon traveled there to meet him, and White and Fahey remained friends for the rest of White's life. He recorded a new album for Denson and Fahey's Takoma Records, and Denson became his manager. White was at one time also managed by Arne Brogger, an experienced manager of blues musicians.

Later in his life, White was friends with musician Furry Lewis. The two were recorded (mostly in Lewis's Memphis apartment) by Bob West for an album, Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends: Party! At Home, released on the Arcola label.

White died of cancer on February 26, 1977, at the age of 70, in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1990, Bukka White was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame (along with Blind Blake and Lonnie Johnson). On November 21, 2011, the Recording Academy announced the addition of "Fixin' to Die Blues" to its 2012 list of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients.

*****

*Falaba Traore, a Malian writer, comedian, film director and librettist, was born in Bougouni, Mali.

Falaba Issa Traore (b. 1930, Bougouni, Mali – d. August 8, 2003, Rabat, Morocco) was a Malian writer, comedian, playwright, and theater and film director.  

Born in Bougouni, Mali, Traore directed an amateur theater troupe before taking over direction of the regional troupe of Bamako between 1962 and 1968. From 1969 to 1973, he created and directed the Yankadi troupe for folklore and the dramatic arts.

In 1973, Traore traveled to Germany to study cinema direction. On returning to Mali in 1976, he directed the cinema division of the Ministry of Sports, Arts, and Culture.

As a comedian, Traore played notable roles in the films of Kalifa Dienta (A Banna), of Cheick Oumar Sissoko (Nidiougou Guimba), and of Boubacar Sidibe (Le pacte social, Sanoudié, and N'Tronkélé). He worked also as a director, making his first film, Juguifolo (First Gleam of Hope), in 1979, and his last, Bamunan (The Sacred Pagne) in 1990. 

Falaba Issa Traore is the author -- the librettist -- of the operas Soundiata ou l'épopée mandingue and Dah Monzon ou l'épopée Bambara.

In 1972, Traore won the prix Afrique de Poesie de la Francophonie -- the African Prize for Poetry in French.  

Falaba Issa Traore died in Rabat, Morocco, on August 8, 2003.

*****

*Milton Turner (1930–1993) was a jazz drummer.  After graduating from Pearl High School, he attended Tennessee State University where he coincided with Hank Crawford, who he later recommended to join him in Ray Charles' band when he took over from William Peoples in the late 1950s.  In 1962, he was a member of Phineas Newborn's trio with Leroy Vinnegar, on whose solo albums he would later appear, and in the early 1960s, Turner also recorded with Teddy Edwards. He never recorded as a leader.

*****

*Rosina Umelo, an Anglo-Nigerian writer, was born in Cheshire, England.

Rosina Umelo (b. Rosina Martin, 1930, Cheshire, England) is a Nigerian writer. She is known for her short stories, children's books and her young adult fiction. She also has published under the pen name Adaeze Madu.

Rosina "Rose" Martin was born in Cheshire, England, and educated at Bedford College, University of London. She married Nigerian John Umelo in 1961, having met him on the London Underground.  In 1965, the two moved to Nigeria.  She taught Latin at Queens School, Enugu, until the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70). She became a citizen of Nigeria in 1971 through marriage. She worked as a principal and created English-language curriculum materials. Later, Umelo became a school administrator.  Umelo had six children.

Umelo collected 12 of her short stories for adults into The Man Who Ate the Money (1978), five of which won awards.  Umelo also wrote for a popular young adult series published by Macmillan, called the Pacesetters Series. Umelo also created works for young adults for the series "Heart Beats", published by Chelsea House Publishers in the 1990s.

In 1967, the Eastern Region of Nigeria, whose capital was Enugu, seceded as the newly declared nation of Biafra. The Umelo family fled from their home in Enugu to John Umelo's home village in the heart of Biafra. During the war, Rosina kept notes on her observations, which she wrote up as a narrative immediately after the war, which ended in 1970 with at least a million civilians dead. This account, called "A World of our Own," remained unpublished until 2018, when it formed the core of a book, Surviving Biafra: A Nigerwife's Story (Hurst Publishers, London), co-authored with anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird.

Later in her life, Umelo worked at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan. As of 2023, Umelo lived in Dagenham in the United Kingdom.

*****

*Clara Villarosa, an entrepreneur, author, and publisher who founded the Hue-Man Bookstores, was born.

Clara Villarosa (b. 1930). An American entrepreneur, author, publisher and motivational speaker who was the co-founder of Villarosa Media and was the founder of the Hue-Man Bookstores in Denver, Colorado, and Harlem, New York, one of the highest earning African American bookstores in the country from the 1980s to the 2010s. Her book, Down to Business: The First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women was nominated for a NAACP Image Award.  Villarosa founded the African American Booksellers Association.

In January 2016, Villarosa co-founded Villarosa Media with her daughters, Linda Villarosa and Alicia Villarosa. The company focuses on publishing new books from established black authors and classic books reissued in digital formats with print on demand (POD) capability. Its first published book was The Wind Is Spirit: The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde. In 2016, she was featured in the film, Dream Girl.

Born in 1930, Villarosa was raised in Chicago. She earned a bachelor's degree in education and psychology from Roosevelt University and a master's degree in social work from Loyola University. Following her studies, she worked until 1959 as a psychiatric social worker at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago before becoming a full-time mother. The family later moved to Denver, Colorado, where Villarosa became the chief psychiatric social worker at the Department of Behavioral Science at Denver's Children's Hospital and later director of the department. Villarosa later attended the Graduate School of Social Work Doctoral Program and College of Law at the University of Denver. She worked temporarily as the employee relations manager at the United Bank of Denver during this time and later became Vice president of Human Resources and Strategic Planning.

Villarosa opened the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore in Denver in 1984. After 16 years, Villarosa sold the Denver bookstore in 2000. She moved to New York City and opened the Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe in Harlem featuring a large collection of books by African American authors. The store was located near the Apollo Theatre and became the largest African American bookstore in the country.  It hosted events featuring former President Bill Clinton, Terry McMillan, James Baldwin, Colin Powell, Wynton Marsalis, and Toni Morrison.  Maya Angelou read at the store's opening.

In January 2016, at the age of 85, Villarosa co-founded Villarosa Media with her daughters, Linda and Alicia Villarosa. The company focuses on publishing new books from established black authors and classic books reissued in digital formats with print on demand (POD) capability. Its first published book was The Wind Is Spirit: The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde.

Villarosa was on the board of trustees for the University of Denver. Villarosa founded the African American Booksellers Association. She previously served on the boards of Colorado Small Business Development Center, the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, and the New Federal Theater. 

*****

Donald Washington, Sr., an American jazz tenor saxophonist, was born in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Donald Washington Sr. (b. 1930, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — d. December 1, 2009, Haddon Heights, New Jersey), was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. 

Washington was born in West Philadelphia in 1930 and was raised in Southwest Philadelphia. He graduated from Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School in 1948 and was a two-sport athlete, competing in swimming and basketball. 

From 1965 through 1990, he worked for Food Fair Services as a warehouse attendant. While there, he won trophies and awards on the company's amateur boxing team. However, jazz was always his life and his passion. He studied at private and public institutions, starting to play the saxophone as an elder statesman on Philadelphia's jazz scene since the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.

As a leader, Washington founded the Marlboro Men, a group that toured Haiti, Jamaica and the Virgin Islands.  He also performed with Donald Byrd, Jerry Butler, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis, Jr., B. B. King, Diana Ross, Neil Sedaka and Horace Silver. 

When not traveling, Washington jammed regularly in Saturday Nights at Natalie's Lounge in West Philadelphia. His students included Grover Washington, Jr., and George Howard. 

Washington was married twice and had nine children from his first marriage.

Washington died on December 1, 2009, in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, at the age of 79, following complications from lung cancer. 

*****

*Ali Zaky (b. 1930 – d. March 12, 2005) was an Egyptian gymnast who competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics and the 1952 Summer Olympics. 

*****