Ahmed Ben Bella
1918 – 2012
Algerian

Prime minister and president. A romantic revolutionary, he found success to be disillusioning.

Contemporaries
1906–1996Sir Laurens van der Post
Born 1938Ngugi wa Thiong'o
1906–1949Hassan al-Banna
1915–1997Joseph Wolpe
Born 1931Desmond Tutu
1917–2009Helen Suzman
1893–1958Johannes Strijdom
Born 1944Mongane Serote
1906–2001Léopold Senghor
1891–1975Haile Selassie I
1918–1981Anwar Sadat
1883–1955José Ortega y Gasset
1922–1999Julius Nyerere
1909–1972Kwame Nkrumah
1918–1970Gamal Nasser
1930–1997Sese Mobutu
Born 1937Haile Mengistu
1918–2013Nelson Mandela
1925–1985Alex La Guma
1899–1976Kazi Islam
1937–1986Bessie Head
1942–1993Chris Hani
1925–1982Ruth First
Born 1944Buchi Emecheta
1951–1990Samuel Doe
1866–1951Robert Broom
Born 1939Breyten Breytenbach
Born 1927Sydney Brenner
1921–1996Eddine Bokassa
Born 1945Allan Boesak
1932–1973Abebe Bikila
1946–1977Stephen Biko
1925–2003Idi Amin