Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has become Mauritius's first female president, the third on the African continent.

On June 1 the government of Mauritius named Ameenah Gurib-Fakim as the Indian Ocean island nation’s new president. Her appointment was approved by Parliament on Thursday and her inauguration takes place today.

Gurib-Fakim will become the only current African president who did not dabble in politics beforehand. She is an internationally renowned scientist and biologist, describing herself on Twitter as a “Professor, Managing Director at Cephyr, Chemist, Gardener, Photographer and Writer of books on the flora of the tropics, medicinal plants”. Asked how she became involved in politics, she said: “I did not choose politics but politics chose me.” She went on to explain that “the party [Lepep] wanted someone who had never dealt in the political arena, who had credibility locally and internationally to occupy a post which is meant to be apolitical. So I presume I fit the profile.
FTI - Mauritius is one of the richest, and least corrupt countries in Africa, a middle-income nation of some 1.3 million people with a per capita GDP of just over $9 000.
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