Hannibal, Abram Petrovich Gannibal -- Eritrea - Cameroon
Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also 
known as Hannibal or Ganibal or Ibrahim Hannibal or Abram Petrov, was brought to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great and became major-general, military engineer, governor of Reval and nobleman of the Russian Empire. He is perhaps best known today as the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, who wrote an unfinished novel about him, the Negro of Peter The Great.
His origins are uncertain, some suggest he was born in 1696 in a village called "Lagon," in present day Eritrea, located "on the northern side of the Mareb River, others claim it to correspond to nearby Loggo Chewa further west in Eritrea. Others suggest he was born in the Sultanate of Logone-Birni on the Logone River, in Cameroon, south of Lake Chad, however all agree he was enslaved and taken to Russia. At the age of seven, Gannibal was taken to the court of the Ottoman Sultan at Constantinople.
Based on the year, the Sultan was either Mustafa II (reigned 1695–1703) or Ahmed III (reigned 1703–1730). Gannibal's sister Lahan was taken into captivity at the same time but died during the voyage. In 1704, after one year in Constantinople, Gannibal was ransomed and brought to the Russian capital by the deputy of the Russian ambassador, on orders from his superiors. Emperor Peter the Great adopted Gannibal and raised him together with his own children. Gannibal was baptized in 1705, in St. Paraskeva Church in Vilnius, with Peter the Great as his godfather and Gannibal assumed his name, Petrovich, he then became his valet on Peter's various military campaigns and journeys.
When the Czar visited France in 1716, Hannibal who was fluent in several languages stayed on in Paris to further his education in engineering and mathematics at a military school. Two years later, he joined the French army and fought for Louis XV in the war against Philip V of Spain. It was during his time in France that Gannibal adopted his surname in honour of the African general Hannibal. It is rumored that Gannibal was met on his return to Russia by Peter himself, in 1725 Peter the Great died, leaving the black artillery lieutenant in the charge of the royal advisor Prince Menshikov. He disliked Hannibal and assigned him to Siberia and later to the Chinese border where his task was to measure the Great Wall.
After Peter's daughter Elizabeth became the new monarch in 1741, Hannibal was allowed to officially return from his exile although he had done so clandestinely in 1731. He became a prominent person at her court, rising to the rank of major general and became superintendent of Reval (Tallinn, Estonia) a position he held from 1742 to 1752. During his military career he oversaw various projects such as the construction of the Ladoga Canal and Russian fortresses. It is rumoured that the great general Alexander Suvorov owed his career as a soldier to Gannibal, who convinced Suvorov's father to let his son pursue a military career. Abram Petrovich Hannibal died on 14 May 1781, he was one of the leading pioneers of his country and probably the first outstanding engineer in Russian history.
Gannibal’s first wife was Evdokia Dioper, a Greek woman with whom he had a daughter. He later married Christina Regina Siöberg, daughter of Swedish army captain Mattias Johan Siöberg, a descendent from noble families in Scandinavia and Germany. Christina had ten children, one of his sons named Osip was the grandfather of the poet Alexander Pushkin. Gannibal's oldest son Ivan, became a naval officer who helped found the city of Kherson in 1779 and attained the rank of General-in-Chief, the second highest military rank in imperial Russia.
There are British aristocrats that descend from Gannibal, including Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster and her sister, Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn. George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven, a cousin of Elizabeth II of Great Britain, is also a direct descendant, being the grandson of Nadejda Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven.