Oprah Isn’t the Richest Black Woman Anymore. My Fellow Nigerian Folorunsho Alakija Is
I’d like to start this off by saying UP NAIJA!!! Ok now that I got that out of the way…
It was recently announced that Mother Oprah Winfrey, Queen of Epic Media Empires and Everything is no longer the richest Black woman in the world. Who overtook her for the title? Folorunsho Alakija, a Nigerian fashion designer and oil magnate, who is $500 million wealthier than Oprah.
And I used the word “wealthy” there because she’s not rich. That woman is WEALTHY. Rich dinnamug. If rich won the lottery, it’d be Folorunsho. The type of money that makes money as you sleep. OOP. Right there. After reading that sentence, Mrs. Alakija just made bout $10 million more. GAHTDAMB.
So there is ONE point to be made here. Apparently, a lot of Folorunsho’s money comes from oil, which might not come with high integrity. But Oprah built her wealth from ground up. She came from nothing and created this behemoth empire she now has. Folorunsho came from money. So I still want to give Oprah all the props because this isn’t to diminish her work or accomplishments. Never forget.
Folorunsho isn’t only Nigerian, but she’s Yoruba. EYYYYYYY!!!
Oh and let me help you with her name pronunciation. Folorunsho is Faw-Law-Roon-Shaw. Alakija is Ah-Lah-Kee-Jah. Take it per syllable and you’ll get it.
This news tells me what I already knew and should tell y’all some stuff you might not.
* Africa is on the rise. It’s the next frontier for innovation and technology and money and business and all that. Well, Africa has always been rich in all this but it’s rep in the media told another story. Now, it’s getting harder to ignore the truth.
* Nigerians run things. Clearly. Go somewhere. Anywhere. And you’ll see Nigerians doing epic things. ALLATAHM. Don’t argue this fact.
* Nigeria has money. For days. weeks. years. decades. Don’t let the poor Africa hype fool you. There’s DOUGH there. Monies! Gwap!
Now, I won’t go into how corruption and greed and the lack of a middle class goes to play into all this. I shan’t. I’ma let smarter people do that.
But yeah. Folorunsho Alakija is also a philanthropist and her cause is on the quality of lives of widows who often get mistreated once their husbands pass. You can read more about her on this CNN profile.
I wanna meet her. Come on and make it happen, Universe. I’ve already met Oprah (although not formally). I want Miss Winfrey to know my name one day! The day I hear “Hey Luvvie” come out her mouth, please know my life would be complete! And this will happen immediately after:
So whatcha think of this?
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25 Comments
This has given me new life AND purpose…my soul says YES to all of it!!
GLOWRAY!
You’re next in line!! Just keep working with a purpose and from the heart. Thanks for the information, too.
ha with the graphic. I knew Oprah was not the only black woman billionaire. I’m glad they finally valuated her wealth correctly. Africa has been on the rise, it’s just now people are taking notice. Just know this is only the beginning of bigger and better things for the African continent.
That is absolutely the flyest happy dance I have ever seen in my entire life.
More fun facts: I did a research essay and found out that, proportionately,African immigrants and their children perform better academically than any other ethnoracial group in America. Yes, that includes Asians. We are the “invisible model minority”. No one ever talks about it because Africans keep getting absorbed into the larger black statistic.
Long story short, we run things here too!
lets not start this please.
I’m as Naija as they come, there are reasons for this and the biggest reason is because the African Immigrants who travel out are largely middle class with extremely well educated parents. In addition in Naija, Academics is the great leveller.
There is a culture of being studious. intellect is constantly praised and elevated.
People rever you if you ‘know book’ in schools, in class, even the poor professor is well respected.
To Naija people, there is nothing like dyslexia. You will read, you will study, you will become a doctor, engineer or rich business person. You will get married, have 2.4 Children and that is all.
We are not comparing like with like. We cannot compare this with people coming from war torn populations whose main focus has been to stay alive..
We can not compare it to African Americans who have systematically. violently (for generations) and actively prevented from accessing education so as to feed the constant need for low paid, low skilled workers.
Yes, we experienced the same under colonial rule. But we largely got out country back in the late 50’s & 60’s.
Our African American brethren didn’t. They got laws enacted. And enacted laws mean BS without the will to implement them and still.
All of us, Africans + our diasporian brethren have come leaps and bounds.
Excuse my naijaness… lemme stop jare. You know we too sabi grammer.
I don talk my own.
It’s cool that you bring that up. That’s actually what my essay was about. My subject matter discussed not only the facts regarding African academic achievement, but also why this was the case compared to African-Americans,whites, and the general achievement gap. I just didn’t want to copy and paste a term paper into the comments section. But thanks for elucidating that.
Amen to alladat
Yes!!! Something positive about Nigeria. Finally.
As an American stepchild (aka African American), I’m happy for the Motherland and can’t wait for the rest of the world to get hip to the greatness of it’s people and descendents. I just wish I knew where I came from. I wanna be proud too, dammit! 🙁
“Nigerians run things. Clearly. Go somewhere. Anywhere. And you’ll see Nigerians doing epic things. ALLATAHM. Don’t argue this fact.”
YASSS, tell them! We rawk.
She doesn’t give back like Oprah and as you stated she had help from her wealthy family. TeamOprah!!
This little jig being danced at the bottom had me mesmerized for a full minute.
She looks good for a 61 year old!
luvvie, you don check ur family tree?
I’m searching right now, me and this woman get the same forehead, we must be related! :p
Yup yup! We da bess and we run this ( spoken like a Kenyan) Something else I think people should watch is Africa Straight up the documentary on Africa as it really is… Getchu a piece.. Word to Luvvie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qKUVfcXB14w
NAIJA stand up!
i wonder if she would adopt me. or at least i could be her stedman. she isn’t bad on the eyes at all.
First off..that GIF is giving me LIFE! *Leyomi DROP*
Secondly..I commend this woman a lot. IT shows that Africa as you said is indeed on the rise. I must go to there! *Liz Lemon voice*
(SN: I saw a pic of her on another site and it was HELLA Light..i prays she aint doing the skin bleaching thing doe..please for the love of Lil Kim I hope it aint for true….)
Its really hard for me to throw a celebration for her and Nigeria. I just have this weird feeling. I want to be happy for her but I can’t. Knowing a little about Nigerian politics it just feels like a joke. Some of my family over there still don’t have some of the basics…sigh…idk.
Seriously. Like I took this with a grain of salt. Like the vast majority of very very rich Nigerians, she got there by exploiting resources due to a corrupt government. I would be far happier to learn that Nigeria had a huge jump in the HDI rankings or in GDP per capita than to see that another corrupt Nigerian manages to reach the top.
It’s amazing and such a responsibility to be in charge of such wealth. Even though it is inherited I love that women are coming into their own. I hope she does amazing things for Nigeria.
Africa has wealth beyond imagining. I sincerely hope that they hold onto into and not be tricked to give up their wealth.
Now that everywhere else in the world is fully discovered Africa is now the focus of China. More and more China is reaching out to Africa countries to invest in them. Just be careful.
It is amazing to possess that kind of wealth. It’s even more amazing to build it from the ground floor.
“One time tryna double mah NAIRA!” I LOVE the idea of my money making money while I drool! Yes GAWD, Nessa! My money is LAAAAAAID like Beyonce’s lace front edges!
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