1 Zimbabwean named in most influential Africans for 2015

The year 2015 saw powerful alliances mode or broken, elections won and lost, influential positions obtained or denied, the battle against Ebola largely won, economies boom and other stumble, business deals secured whilst others crumbled, innovation and creativity redefined by African geniuses, sporting history was made and new faces and heroes of the field emerged. It is also the year African leaders took even bigger steps in pushing the AU's Agenda 2063 amid heightened civil activism demanding a better Africa. New Africa looked back and highlighted the men, women and movements that shaped 2015 in all these fields and Zimbabwe a country of +13 million only contributed one individual. Danai Gurira.

Danai Gurira is an emerging playwright with a degree from the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Danai Gurira is well known for her role as Michonne on the highly-rated TV show, Walking Dead. But Gurira's influence extends beyond that; her play Eclipsed will begin another 4-month stint on New York's Broadway in 2016, having completed a short stint off- Broadway this year.

The play, a harrowing tale about 3 Liberian sex workers during the civil war, has drawn the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Stevie Wonder and transfixed audiences with its dark and affecting subject matter. Danai is also the co-founder of a Zimbabwe-based theatre organisation - the Almasi Arts Alliance - whose mission is to promote African dramatic artists, through training, mentorship and assisting access, as well as to build the dramatic arts industry in Africa, and take those artistic voices to America.