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News Brief
Damola Durosomo
Nov. 13, 2018 05:38PM EST
Giannis Antetokounmpo. Image via Wikimedia..

Here are the Young African Visionaries Who Made the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 List

Get familiar with some of the names on the 2019 list.

Forbes magazines yearly 30 Under 30 list is here, and just like last year, a number of young African visionaries have made the list.

The list recognizes accomplished young people in the areas of media, art & style, food & drink, education, science, music, sports, healthcare and a number of other industries.

Here's how the magazine described this year's selection process:

The list features 600 trailblazers in 20 industries. Choosing these honorees among thousands of nominees is long and daunting, a three-layer process that relies on the knowledge and authority of our wide-reaching community, skilled reporters and expert judges. The final product: a collection of bold risk-takers putting a new twist on the old tools of the trade

This year's arts & style section includes 20 year-old Nigerian born fashion designer Taofeek Abijako, the creator of the menswear brand Head of State+, as well as 28-year-old Nigerian artist Kayode Ojo.

Ghanaian-American computer scientist and digital activist Joy Buolamwini (28) represents in the enterprise and technology section. She's the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, which identifies biases in algorithms. While 29-year-old Sally Nuamah, a Ghanaian-American professor at Duke University earned a spot in the education section for her accomplishments in the field.

The Nigerian co-founders of Helium Health, a company turning hospitals across West Africa digital were recognized in the healthcare portion of the list. The 25-year-old Nigerian founder of Lightning Labs, Olaoluwa Osuntokun (25), is named in the finance section.

Malawian-American policy advisor, Michelle Mbekeani (29) also made this year's list. Born in Libya to Sudanese parents, senior copywriter at Droga5 Nedal Ahmed (29), makes the list in the marketing and advertising section.

Shamrock Frimpong (27), the Ghanaian social entrepreneur behind the Cocoa360 is also included on the list.

Twenty-three year-old Nigerian-Greek basketball player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks is also on the list.

Congrats to all the young honorees! You can see the full list here.

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Interview

Interview: Wavy The Creator Is Ready to See You Now

The multidisciplinary Nigerian-American artist on tapping into all her creative outlets, creating interesting things, releasing a new single and life during quarantine.

A trip canceled, plans interrupted, projects stalled. It is six months now since Wavy the Creator has had to make a stop at an undisclosed location to go into quarantine and get away from the eye of the pandemic.

The professional recording artist, photographer, writer, fashion artist, designer, and evolving creative has been spending all of this time in a house occupied by other creatives. This situation is ideal. At least for an artist like Wavy who is always in a rapid motion of creating and bringing interesting things to life. The energy around the house is robust enough to tap from and infuse into any of her numerous creative outlets. Sometimes, they also inspire trips into new creative territories. Most recently, for Wavy, are self-taught lessons on a bass guitar.

Wavy's days in this house are not without a pattern, of course. But some of the rituals and personal rules she drew up for herself, like many of us did for internal direction, at the beginning of the pandemic have been rewritten, adjusted, and sometimes ditched altogether. Some days start early and end late. Some find her at her sewing machine fixing up thrift clothes to fit her taste, a skill she picked up to earn extra cash while in college, others find her hard at work in the studio, writing or recording music.

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