According to Forbes annual billionaire list, as of 2021, the world has 2775 billionaires. The United States has the most, with 724, followed by China with 698. This is a very small group of people, and the list is even smaller if we break it down by demographics. One of the smallest demographics is Black billionaires that are women, which is only made up of one individual, which is Oprah Winfrey. 

When discussing the topic of the world’s wealthiest people, the United States billionaires dominate the discussion. The discussion usually consists of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. This is no surprise because these men and several others top the list of the top ten wealthiest people on the list. Even though Oprah Winfrey is currently the only Black woman billionaire, this wasn’t so some years ago. Such individuals as Sheila Johnson, Folorunsho Alakija, and Isabel Dos Santos are Black women who were once part of the billionaire list.

We will discuss who these women are, how they made their fortune, and why, with the exception of Oprah, they are no longer billionaires. 

SHEILA JOHNSON

If you’re not familiar with Sheila Johnson, you may be familiar with the television network Black Entertainment Television (BET) she co-founded with her former husband in 1979. Sheila Johnson was born January 25, 1949, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Her parents later moved to Maywood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. She graduated from Proviso East High School and then went on to attend the University of Illinois. She met her former husband, Robert Johnson, at the university and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music performance and education.

According to Thehistorymakers.org, Sheila was executive vice president for corporate affairs at BET. She and her husband became the first Black billionaires in America when they sold the company to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion. Sheila reinvented herself after the end of her 33-year marriage to Robert Johnson. She went on to invest in multiple ventures such as sports, film, philanthropy, and the hotel business. According to Forbes, her net worth is estimated at $770 million as of 2020. It’s unclear why her net worth is not a billion dollars. We can only speculate that a divorce and taxes from the sale of BET could be some contributing factors to why Sheila Johnson is not a billionaire today.

FOLORUNSHO ALAKIJA

Folorunsho Alakija is a Nigerian businesswoman who made her wealth in the fashion and oil industries. She was born on July 15, 1951, in Lagos State, Nigeria. She attended high school in Ogun State, Nigeria, and went to London to complete secretarial studies.

According to Blackpast.org, Folorunsho Alakija returned to Nigeria after her secretarial studies to begin her career in 1974. She worked at Finbank, formerly known as the First National Bank of Chicago. She went back to London to study fashion design and soon after established her fashion company, Supreme Stitches. In 1993 she started an oil company named Famfa Limited.

In 2018 her net worth was valued as high as $1.7 billion, but according to CNBCAfrica.com, her fortune “dropped below $1 billion due to lower oil prices.”

ISABEL DOS SANTOS

Isabel Dos Santos is an Angolan businesswoman born April 20, 1973, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR. She holds Angolan nationality due to her father and Russian nationality due to her mother. She attended Cobham Hall School, a boarding school in England, and later studied electrical engineering at King’s College in London.

She made her wealth investing in multiple industries and countries. Her net worth was valued as high as $3.5 billion in 2017 before Forbes “removed her from the billionaire ranks in January 2021 following asset freezes.” Her legal issues are ongoing, and she is facing charges of embezzlement from Angola, Portugal, and some other countries. Leaked documents showed the extent of her business practices along with shady accounting. It’s uncertain if the freezing of her assets is her only consequence. No one knows if she will be able to do business once again and build back up her fortune. 

OPRAH WINFREY

Oprah Winfrey became a billionaire in 2003 and has maintained the title ever since. She was born January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S.A. Oprah Winfrey attended Tennessee State University, where she completed a degree in communication. 

She went into broadcasting after college but gained success and built her wealth from the Oprah Winfrey show. Along with being a businesswoman, she is also an author, actress, and philanthropist. 

FINAL THOUGHT

As we can see, the list of Black woman billionaires is pretty short. Even though currently Oprah is the only Black woman on the list, a few others have graced the list over the years. With the exception of Isabel Dos Santos, the other wealthy Black women’s future looks bright. We don’t know the conclusion of Isabel Dos Santos’s legal issues, but it does not look favorable. More and more Black women are climbing the ranks of wealth, and in the future there will be more Black women billionaires.