New African asked you, the readers, to nominate your greatest Africans of all time – both Continental and Diasporan (or people of African descent) – in all walks of life. The aim was to come up with your Top 100 Greatest Africans of all time. You have spoken and we publish here your choice.

Since last December when we first announced the poll, we have had a very exciting time. Your nominations flooded in. Analysing them has been an eye- opener. The total shows Nelson Mandela as your No.1 Greatest African of all time, followed closely by Kwame Nkrumah, and Robert Mugabe in third place. Mugabe’s high score is particularly interesting, given that in the last four years a high profile campaign in the media has painted him in bad light. The nominations in the other categories are equally fascinating.

Overall, the results point out certain characteristics about Africans. Why did politicians dominate the poll? Do people tend to vote for men as only a few women were nominated? Or is there a paucity of women to vote for? Over 95% of the nominations were of recent heroes (mostly from the post-independence era). Have people forgotten Africa’s history? Must this worry us, as a people?

Greatest Africans 1-25 (pdf)

Greatest Africans 26-49 (pdf)

Greatest Africans 50-74 (pdf)

Greatest Africans 75-100 (pdf)