http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...0100356C139833
Mandela has Mugabe on his tail
August 26 2004 at 10:51AM
London - Zimbabwe's controversial president, Robert Mugabe, is the third-greatest African of all time.
This is according to a survey for New African magazine announced earlier this week.
The survey further showed that only Nelson Mandela and former Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah were regarded as greater leaders than Mugabe.
The New African called Mugabe an "interesting" choice because "a high-profile campaign in the media has painted him in bad light".
The London-based magazine said responses flooded in after the survey was launched in December to nominate the top 100 most influential Africans or people of African descent.
Heroes of independence movements in Africa and African-American figures in the United States figure prominently on the list.
Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first post-colonial prime minister, ranks sixth, followed by United States civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
Pele, the legendary Brazilian soccer star, comes in 17th, followed by Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley, numbering among those called "diasporans" by New African.
Radical civil rights leader Malcolm X, at ninth, is a rank above United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, from Ghana, who comes just ahead of US boxer Muhammad Ali.
Few women made the cut. The highest-ranked female, at 12th, is Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Others include the dynamic duo of tennis, US sisters Venus and Serena Williams (together ranked 73rd), and ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti at number 81.
The magazine noted that most of the top 100 were from Africa's post-colonial period.
"Have people forgotten Africa's history? Must this worry us, as a people?" it asked.
The list appears in the August-September issue of New African, which has a circulation of about 30 000 across dozens of countries. - Sapa-AFP
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The complete list can be viewed on the homepage of the "New African" magazine: http://www.africasia.com/newafrican/na.php?ID=385
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