African Icons

Author Tracey Baptiste takes readers on a journey across Africa to meet some of the great leaders and thinkers whose vision built a continent and shaped the world. 

Black history begins thousands of years ago with the many cultures and people of the African continent. Through portraits of ten heroic figures — from Menes, the first ruler to be called Pharaoh, to Queen Idia, a sixteenth-century power broker, visionary, and diplomat — this rich and thrilling nonfiction text goes back many millennia to introduce readers to the underrepresented stories of Black history and Black excellence.

Illustrator Hillary D. Wilson’s brilliant portraits accompany each profile, along with vivid, information-filled landscapes, maps, and graphics for readers to pore over and return to again and again.