Black billionaires

As Forbes Billionaire List of 2011,Nigeria's Aliko Dangote with a net worth of $13.8 billion is the richest Black person in the world. The other Black billionaires on the 2011 list are South African gold magnate Patrice Motsepe with $3.3 billion, American Oprah Winfrey at $2.7 billion and Nigeria's Mike Adenuga with $2 billion.

From 2001 to 2003, Forbes listed Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, an American, as a billionaire, but dropped him after his fortune was split in his divorce from his wife. He returned to Forbes Billionaire list in 2007 with a net worth of $1.1 billion. In 2008 Johnson's wealth dropped further to approximately $1.0 billion even and in 2009 he dropped off the list again.

Nigerian petroleum executive Femi Otedola briefly emerged as a billionaire in 2009, but was not listed as one in 2010 or 2011.

Multiracial billionaires with partial Black ancestry have also been identified over the years. Michael Lee-Chin of Canada, who is of Chinese and Jamaican ancestry was on the list from 2001 to 2010, but dropped off in 2011. Saudi-Arabian billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi, of Hadhrami Yemeni and Ethiopian descent, has been on the Forbes billionaire list since 2002 and in 2011 had a net worth of $12.3 billion. Also included is Mo Ibrahim, a British billionaire of Sudanese Arab and Nubian ancestry, who has been on the Forbes Billionaire list since 2008 and in 2011 had a net worth of $1.8 billion. However as there are competing claims as to what degree multiracial individuals should be considered Black, these individuals have not been universally regarded as being Black billionaires.

Of all the Black or Afro-multiracial billionaires identified by Forbes, only Oprah Winfrey qualified for Forbes 2009's list of the world's 20 most powerful billionaires, a list which considered not only wealth, but also market sway and political clout. Winfrey was considered especially powerful because of her influence on American consumer choices and because of the pivotal role she played in electing Barack Obama president.

Billionaires in countries with high rates of Black ancestry

Nigeria

As of 2011, Aliko Dangote is the richest Black billionaire according to the Forbes Billionaire list. He is considered the first verifiable billionaire in Nigeria. However, an editor for Forbes claims that dictator Sani Abacha (who died in office in 1998) probably was a billionaire after all.

Abacha Controversy

According to Forbes, Sani Abacha, the Nigerian military leader, was probably a billionaire when he was alive but the magazine could never confirm this. Abacha's position as an allegedly corrupt dictator made his wealth unusually difficult to track and so his exact net-worth was a subject of much dispute. Abacha has been accused of siphoning off $2.2 billion in foreign assets to his family and their representatives (some have put the figure as high as $3 billion), however this fortune may have been divided among the foreign bank accounts of too many people for Abacha, or any individual in his inner circle to have ever qualified as a billionaire. In April 2002, Switzerland, which began blocking Abacha's assets in late 1999, decided that Nigeria would get back $1 billion of the money allegedly embezzled by Abacha and his family with $535 million of that sum being transferred to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel to be used "in favor of the federal government of Nigeria," the justice office said.

According to the terms of a deal reached with the Abacha family, the Nigerian government agreed to drop all criminal charges against Abacha's son Mohammed Sani Abacha and businessman Bagudu Abubakar and would also allow the Abacha family to keep $100 million which were "acquired prior to Abacha's term of office and which . . . demonstrably do not derive from criminal acts," the Office of Justice said.

"The Nigerians talk about $2.2 billion being plundered from the Treasury. They already received around $1 billion between 1998 and 2001, and now they are getting another $1 billion, which corresponds more or less to the $2.2 billion," said Folco Galli, a justice office spokesman. Nigerian officials however, continue to insist that only some of the funds that Abacha allegedly embezzled are in Switzerland and have requested assistance from the United States, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Germany to find the rest.

Current trends

Peoples of predominantly Black African ancestry constitute 8 percent of the world’s population however as the above chart shows, they were 0% of the world’s billionaires in 1999 and 2000, 0.19% in 2001, 0.20% in 2002, 0.42% in 2003, 0.17% in 2004, 0.14% in 2005, 0.13% in 2006, and 0.21% in 2007. The dearth of Black billionaires may be a reflection of poverty in Africa and the fact that in the African diaspora there are often severe disparities in wealth between those of African descent and others. For example, within the United States the median income of African Americans as a group is roughly 65 percent of that of European Americans according to the 2000 United States census.

Unverified claims

On February 6, 2003, Martin Bashir asked Michael Jackson how much he was worth. Bashir asked, "How much do you think you're worth?" Jackson replied "It's way up there." Bashir later asked, "A billion dollars?" to which Jackson replied "It's over there." Bashir asked for confirmation: "Over a billion dollars!" to which he replied "Yes." When the interview was aired in the United States, broadcaster Barbara Walters replied, saying, “As for his claim to be worth over a billion dollars,” Walters explained, “his actual worth is in the two or three hundred million range. That’s hardly bad, but it’s nowhere near a billion”. During Jackson's trial, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. said the Beatles catalogue (of which Jackson owns 50%) was worth $1 billion in 2003. There have been estimates it's now worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, but forensic accountant John Duross O'Bryan testified that the total value of Jackson's assets was $130 million. In November 2006 The Guinness Book of Records presented Jackson with eight certificates for musical achievements. Among them "The Most Successful Entertainer of All Time" and "Highest paid Entertainer of all time" (he received $125 million in album and tour sales in 1989 alone).

Jackson never appeared on Forbes Billionaire list nor was he ever ranked among Forbes 400 richest Americans, a list which has often required less than even half a billion for membership. When Forbes editor Peter Newcomb was asked in 2003 to explain Jackson’s absence from their lists he replied “MJ owes $250 to $300 million to a consortium of banks; you will see him selling his publishing company any month now, my prediction.

South Africa

According to Forbes magazine, South Africa has the most billionaires in sub-Saharan Africa. However, Patrice Motsepe is South Africa's only Black billionaire.

Zaire/Congo

There is evidence that during the 20th century, Zaire/Congo, may have had a billionaire; a Forbes editor has gone on record claiming that Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko was probably a billionaire but the magazine could never confirm it. CNN.com reported that Mobutu may have been worth as much as $5 billion, an amount almost equivalent to his country's foreign debt during the 1980s (the time the wealth was allegedly acquired). By 1989, the government was forced to default on international loans from Belgium. He owned a fleet of Mercedes-Benz vehicles that he used to travel between his numerous palaces, while many of his people starved. Meanwhile the infrastructure of Zaire virtually collapsed, and many public service workers went months without being paid. Most money was siphoned off to Mobutu, his family, and top political and military leaders. Only the Special Presidential Division — on whom his physical safety depended — was paid adequately or regularly. A popular saying that the civil servants pretended to work while the state pretended to pay them expressed this grim reality. However when one of Mobutu's Swiss bank accounts was investigated, only $3.4 million was found leading to speculation that the money was spent, or that the claims that he looted his country's fortune were politically motivated. In an effort to evade detection, the fortune may have been split among so many friends, family members, and government officials, meaning that no single individual in Zaire ever qualified as a billionaire.