The monograph "Unknown Africa: History in Biographies" features biographical sketches of four prominent Africans: scholar Ali Mazrui, writer Buchi Emecheta, sculptor El Anatsui, artist and designer Yinka Shonibare. The essays are based on the history of their success, the search for identity. The author examines the origins of their work, its gender substrate, analyzes their contribution to the development of modern science and culture. The book is written in the tradition of cultural anthropology with an emphasis on the specifics of the development of the intellectual and cultural history of Africa and the diaspora in the postmodern era.