Woni Spotts

Spotts was born in 1964 in Los Angeles to Betty (née Mosley) and Roger Spotts.{{Cite web |date=January 30, 2020 |title=Meet Woni Spotts - An African-American Woman who traveled the whole world |url=https://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2020/01/30/meet-woni-spotts-an-african-american-woman-who-traveled-the-whole-world/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Deadline News |language=en-GB}} Her mother was a singer, dancer, and pianist and her father was a composer and arranger.

In 1979, when she was 15, Nolan Davis,{{Cite web |last=Udodiong |first=Inemesit |title=Woni Spotts tells us how she became the world's most travelled black woman |date=July 10, 2019 |url=https://www.pulse.ng/bi/lifestyle/woni-spotts-tells-us-how-she-became-the-worlds-most-travelled-black-woman/957ktmb}} a friend of her father's, offered her work as the subject of a documentary he was producing that involved significant overseas travel.{{Cite web |last=Rivera |first=Dane |date=July 22, 2019 |title=Woni Spotts, The First Black Woman To Visit Every Country, Opens Up |url=https://uproxx.com/life/woni-spotts-every-country-on-earth/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Uproxx |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Vassell |first=Nicole |date=July 30, 2019 |title=The Black Woman Who Travelled The Entire World |url=https://www.pridemagazine.com/the-black-woman-who-travelled-the-entire-world-woni-spotts/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Pride Magazine |language=en-US}} By 1982, she had visited more than 160 countries.{{Cite web |last=Atisu |first=Etsey |date=June 16, 2019 |title='People of African descent are the original people on earth,' says the world's most traveled black woman |url=https://face2faceafrica.com/article/people-of-african-descent-are-the-original-people-on-earth-says-the-worlds-most-traveled-black-woman |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Face2Face Africa |language=en}} During this time she kept detailed records as part of her work on the documentary.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Ann |date=August 2, 2019 |title=Meet the First Black Woman to Travel to Every Single Country and Continent |url=https://tnj.com/meet-the-first-black-woman-to-travel-to-every-single-country-and-continent/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=The Network Journal |language=en-US}} She resumed her travels in 2013 and completed them in 2018.{{Cite web |title=Jessica Nabongo Disputes Woni Spotts' Claim of Being the First Black Woman To Visit Every Country |url=https://matadornetwork.com/read/jessica-nabongo-disputes-woni-spotts-claim/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Matador Network |language=en-US}} Most of her travel was not documented via social media.

Travel blogger Jessica Nabongo disputed that Spotts had visited every country, saying in 2019 that she herself was the first Black woman to do so, a claim that was broadly accepted and publicized. Tori Omega Arthur, writing in the journal Social Media + Society, characterised Nabongo's dispute of Spott's claim as presentism, as it is based on the fact that since Spotts began her travels, multiple countries have changed borders and/or names.

According to Arthur, Spotts' accomplishment was overlooked because much of her travel was done in the 1970s and 80s, almost none of it was publicized in social media, and that only after Nabongo's claim and Spotts' dispute of it was Spotts' earlier accomplishment recognized. Uproxx noted that in mid-2019, after Spotts had completed her visits but before Nabongo had completed hers, Nabongo had "branded herself" around the idea of being the first Black woman to visit all countries. Essence wrote that because Spotts was "of a certain age" and had not made branding deals, she was effectively silenced by the same publications that championed the achievement of the younger, more media-savvy Nabongo.{{Cite web |last=Pointdujour |first=Danielle |date=December 6, 2020 |title=Has Travel Become More About The Influence Than The Actual Experience? |url=https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/travel/has-travel-become-more-about-the-influence-than-the-actual-experience/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Essence |language=en-US}} Melan Magazine said Spotts' claim had "caught all of us by surprise, especially as our attention was on another Black woman who was on a very public mission to achieve this same feat."{{Cite web |last=Joses |first=Joy |date=July 11, 2019 |title=I am the first Black woman to visit every country in the world: Woni Spotts |url=https://melanmag.com/2019/07/11/first-black-woman-to-visit-every-country-woni-spotts/ |access-date=April 3, 2023 |website=Melan Magazine |language=en-GB}}

Arthur wrote that consensus had developed after 2019 that Spotts was the first Black woman to visit every country. In 2023 Spotts was declared the "World's first Black woman to visit every country" by the World Records Union.{{Cite web |date=June 5, 2023 |title=Top 500 Constant World Records (P.446) Woni Spotts (USA): The world's first black woman to visit every country |url=https://worldkings.org/news/recognized-records/worldkings-top-500-constant-world-records-p-446-woni-spotts-usa-the-world-s-first-black-woman-to-visit-every-country |access-date=2024-08-10 |website=Worldkings |language=en}}

• Black Travel Movement

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite news |last=Pieper |first=Dietmar |date=June 20, 2019 |title=(S+) Als Frau alleine um die Welt |language=de |work=Der Spiegel |url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/als-frau-alleine-um-die-welt-a-9583ccca-519e-4a99-8b3a-58d30543f933 |access-date=April 3, 2023 |issn=2195-1349}}

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Category:People from Los Angeles

Category:1964 births

Category:21st-century African-American women

Category:20th-century travelers

Category:21st-century travelers

Category:Living people