Exact phrase
For example, to find out the frequency of mention of Nelson Mandela and to distinguish him from his former wife Winnie Mandela, the exact phrase "Nelson Mandela" was typed into the search area.
It was also important to use both names (e.g, "Kwame Nkrumah" rather than the single name "Nkrumah" in the search process. This was to avoid the repetition of the name "Nkrumah" that would
inevitable in a document or book on Kwame Nkrumah.
The use of both main names in the search process would bring up results that focused on first-time mention of the particular African's name.
Common Anglo-Saxon surnames
For certain Africans of European descent (such as the white South Africans and Zimbabweans), or
West Africans descended from freed slaves (such as Liberia and Sierra Leone), there was always the
complication that such common Anglo-Saxon family names as "Smith", Richards" or "Jones" would be
replicated in a general search with those of Europeans or Americans, hence exxagerating the search results.
It avoid that, as was the case with former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, the search was made
specific with such key terms as "Smith", "Ian", "Rhodesia", and "Zimbabwe".
To distinguish the Egyptian queen Cleopatra from any perfumes or jewelry that might bear her name,
the search was narrowed to the key words "Cleopatra", "Egypt", and "ancient". (Although on the other
hand, the fact that a particular person's name was given to clothes lines, perfumes, streets, or cities, by itself, reflects the popularity or legend surrounding the person, thus reinforcing the purpose of the
research --- that of finding out the best-known Africans.)
Results of the research
The research on Africa's best-known people is by no means concluded as of September 25, 2002,
when it was published on the website.
However, the list below of 700 names is as exhaustive as is reasonable to expect; certainly, it is more
comprehensive than any undertaken or any number of names published in any "Who's Who in Africa" book.
Above all, the method used by the Africa Almanac website is a first of its kind in and on Africa --- if not anywhere in the world.
The surprises were inevitable from the start.
It was the assumption of many people that the South African hero Nelson Mandela would be the number one listed person.
However, in this understandable but erroneous premise, was forgotten the fact that the Internet is a worldwide publishing medium. A man who might be a hero to millions of Africans might not necessarily
hold such a significant place in, say Bolivia or Lithuania.
On the other hand, the active and very visible secretary general of the United Nations since 1995, Koffi
Annan of Ghana, has influenced diplomacy in many countries and regions of the world at critical junctures --- from the reconciliation in Sierra Leone, to the pursuit of independence by East Timor, to
the border dispute between India and Pakistan.
Because of this, it was likely that Kofi Annan would feature even more than Nelson Mandela, and
significantly, more than his predecessor Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, who presided over the United Nations during the equally momentous years of 1991 to 1994.
Another surprise was why the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, always in the news and always controversial from any point of view, did not rank much higher than number 64.
Once again, the reasons are several. Gaddafi, who has embarked on a vigorous pan-African unity drive, is very popular across Africa, particularly Black Africa, although that is not necessarily so across much
of the Arab world, where he is sometimes perceived as a meddling hand.
Then too, in Nepal or Bhutan in Asia or in Fiji or Samoa in the South Pacific, the questions of African
unity might not weigh all that much, nor would the questions of the downed US Pan-Am airliner over Scotland in December 1988, something that is an emotional matter in America and Britain.
The other surprise was that the best-known African sportsmen were not, as many in Africa would expect, the World Cup football players like Roger Milla and Patrick Mboma of Cameroon or Nwankwu
Kanu and J.J Okocha of Nigeria.
The reasons are simple, once one's mind and horizons are expanded beyond Black Africa's focus on soccer.
In India alone, with a population of one billion people, there are more people than in all of Africa, and the favourite sport in India is cricket.
Since South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe are Test-playing nations, it would not be surprising, then, that cricket players often ranked higher than football players, if it is kept in mind that the Internet
stretches beyond Africa, into cricket-crazy Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, and the Caribbean.
Also not surprising, in this light, is the fact that, to the wider world, the best-known African athletes are three golfers --- Ernie Els, Gary Player, and Nick Price. Here again, it is fascinating for the typical
African to be made to realize that in the wider world, sports like Golf and Rugby, which are minor at best in much of Africa, draw huge crowds and sponsorship.
Finally, because this survey is based on the relatively objective and easily verifiable method of relying on the world's largest Internet search engine, should visitors to this Africa Almanac website contest
particular rankings or wonder about the omission of particular people, it is simple --- go to alltheweb.com, type in the names of anyone that you fancy to be famous or well-known, and see for
yourself if indeed your local hero really weighs as much as you always assumed.
Or you could check your own weight, as far as the world's largest publishing mechanism, the Internet, is concerned.
Looking at the overall results of the research, there will not be too many surprises, on second thought, that the well-known people are all listed.
The many other names that most of us have never heard of, will serve as a point of eye-opening enlightenment for many, about Africans many of us did not know even existed.
Without surprise, South Africa ranks by far as the nation with the highest number of news makers and achievers in Africa. The three decades from 1960-1990 in which much of Africa was absorbed by the
anti-apartheid struggle, are reflected in the Who's Who listed here.
The economic giant that South Africa is, relative to the rest of Africa, also is revealing. It is also notable
that there are about as many Black South Africans on the 700-name list, as there are White South Africans, indicating, perhaps, that apartheid did not fully crush the creative spirit of the long-suffering Black majority.
Since this research is based on the indexed material on the Internet, rather than on any subjective preference by Africa Almanac, the dominance of South Africa on this list will help answer the questions
of the many visotors to this website, who often wonder why Africa Almanac creates the impression that South Africa is all there is to Africa.
However, in proportion to their smaller population and economic sizes, the nations in Africa that excel in the number of talented people they produce, (at least according to this Africa Almanac research) are
the West African nations of Mali and Senegal.
Here below, then, is the list of the 700 best-known Africans, based on the total number of pages of
documents on the Internet's World Wide Web, real audio, video, text, chat rooms, discussion boards, and open-source e-mail.
