CULTURETECHLENSKofi Kingston
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07858 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6986.
Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981, in Kumasi, Ghana), billed as Kofi Kingston, moved with his family from Ghana to the United States as a child. WWE's early billing presented him as Jamaican — a character presentation the company later replaced with his actual Ghanaian origin, and this record follows the reality. Across a long WWE career, much of it in the tag team division including The New Day with Big E and Xavier Woods — one of WWE's most popular and decorated tag teams — he built toward the night fans named “KofiMania”: at WrestleMania 35, on April 7, 2019, after eleven years with the company, WWE's title history records him winning the WWE Championship in the match against Daniel Bryan — the first African-born world champion in WWE history.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981, in Kumasi, Ghana), billed as Kofi Kingston, moved with his family from Ghana to the United States as a child. WWE's early billing presented him as Jamaican — a character presentation the company later replaced with his actual Ghanaian origin, and this record follows the reality.
The record
- Also known as: Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah, Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah
Notes
Firsts disposition: ASSERTED: first African-born world champion in WWE history (WrestleMania 35, April 7, 2019). Early 'Jamaican' billing is identified as character presentation, superseded by his actual Ghanaian birth. Photo: CLEARED — 'Kofi Kingston by Gage Skidmore.jpg' (2018), CC BY-SA 3.0 per Commons API extmetadata. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): KofiMania is the modern era's defining championship story, and its first is clean: African-born, Ghanaian, and stated in exactly those terms. Staged 2026-11-03 in packet W (professional wrestling), temp id — merge assigns the next sequential CTL-E id. No CTL-SPE roster id exists for professional wrestling — the AAES roster's wrestling shelf holds only Olympic wrestling and Bobo Brazil (CTL-E-6902). See the packet memo's roster-addition proposal.
Sources
- WWE. “Kofi Kingston.” Superstar profile, wwe.com. (primary source · build store)
- WWE. “Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston, WrestleMania 35 results.” wwe.com. (build store)
- WrestleTalk. “KofiMania explained.” wrestletalk.com. (build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Kofi Kingston at San Diego Comic-Con, 2018
Kofi Kingston at San Diego Comic-Con, 2018 — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Record CTL-E-6986 · Combined Graph record U-07858 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
Cite this record
Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Kofi Kingston (CTL-E-6986).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6986/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Kofi Kingston (CTL-E-6986) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6986/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Kofi Kingston (CTL-E-6986).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6986/
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