Africa’s got talent! For the latest evidence of this, one need not look further than US news magazine Time’s 2021 list of the most influential 100 individuals on Planet Earth in various spheres of human endeavour.

The African game changers – and those with roots on the continent – who made the list include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian-born director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), who was named alongside US President Joe Biden and his Chinese opposite number, Xi Xinping. An economist, Okonjo-Iweala made history in March when she became the first woman – and the first African to boot – to lead the 164-nation body, which oversees world trade.

Her tenure started at a watershed moment, what with Covid-19 wreaking havoc across the globe, particularly in vaccine-starved developing nations. Only about one-quarter of the planet’s eight-billion people have been vaccinated against this new scourge.

The WTO head honcho has stated, quite forcefully, that she wants to see a swift end to this state of affairs through equitable vaccine access. Time journalists captured her determination when they wrote: “Our conversations with her have been as informative as they are energising. This is partly because, despite the challenges, she knows how to get things done – even between those who don’t always agree – and does so with grace and a smile that warms the coldest of rooms.”

Representing the music world is Benin’s Angelique Kidjo, a four-time Grammy Award winner with 13 musical albums under her belt. Time says of her: “Her ability to blend cultures, creating a soulful sound that is out of this world, makes working with her and listening to her so special. It doesn’t matter where you are – you hear her, and you become alive. She electrifies people.”

Senegalese scholar and writer Felwine Sarr, together with French art historian Benedicte Savoy, also features on the list, with Time noting that the pair has made a crucial contribution to restitution. The magazine adds that their much-discussed ‘Sarr-Savoy Report’, commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron and published in 2018, is testament to the fight against colonial legacies of violence. Besides its urgent message concerning the restitution of African and Asian artworks to their countries of origin, it provides a framework to guide the emergence of new institutions and spaces that decentre the power dynamic and objectification created by the West.

Kenyan Phyllis Omido made the list by dint of her environmental activism. Many moons ago, she learnt that her baby boy, like others near a Mombasa lead-smelting plant where she worked, had fallen victim to lead poisoning. Driven by a desire to secure justice for her son and other victims, she quit her job and led community efforts to have the plant closed, an objective that was achieved after 12 years, in 2014. Last year, a landmark $12-million settlement was made to the victims. Sadly, the Kenyan government is appealing the ruling.

British actor Daniel Kaluuya, who has Uganda blood in his veins, also managed to catch the eyes of the Time selection team. His career breakthrough came in 2017 after starring in the popular horror film, Get Out, which garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Earlier this year, he clinched an Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in Judas and the Black Messiah.

Also representing the arts is French actor Omar Sy, the scion of West African immigrants.

Elon Musk, the Pretoria-born founder and CEO of SpaceX, is also on the list. His company and a civilian crew made history a fortnight ago with the successful launch of a spaceflight mission that orbited the Earth for three days.

Other African game changers that attracted Time’s attention are Cameroonian virologist John Nkengasong and Ethiopian-born entrepreneur Sara Menker.

We salute these great Africans.