Overview

This book of 100 essays written over the last three post-apartheid decades provides profiles of pan-African figures, mostly from Africa and its diaspora in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean. It covers the most important figures of “Global Africa” — and some important non-African personalities — encompassing diverse historical and political figures, technocrats, activists, writers, public intellectuals, musical and film artists, and sporting figures. These include: Cecil Rhodes, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin, Barack Obama, Margaret Thatcher, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Adebayo Adedeji, Martin Luther King Jr., Wangari Maathai, Ruth First, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Bell Hooks, Buchi Emecheta, Ali Mazrui, Edward Said, Angela Davis, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Burna Boy, Asa, Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Eusébio, Diego Maradona, Viv Richards, Jonah Lomu, Hakeem Olajuwon, and many others. Print edition not for sale in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Full Product Details

Author:   Adekeye Adebajo
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   1.820kg
ISBN:  

9781032667126

ISBN 10:   1032667125
Pages:   470
Publication Date:   12 February 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction I. HISTORICAL FIGURES 1. Cecil Rhodes’s Crumbling Legacy 2. Was Mahatma Gandhi a Racist? 3. Revisiting Woodrow Wilson’s Liberal Legacy II.POLITICAL FIGURES 4. Kwame Nkrumah: Africa’s Philosopher-King 5. Albert Luthuli: The Nobel Black Moses 6. Nelson Mandela: Pan-African Prophet 7. Thabo Mbeki: Africa’s New Philosopher-King 8. Thabo Mbeki: Remembering the Renaissance Man 9. Thabo Mbeki’s Xenophobia Denialism 10. Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela: The Policy Wonk and the Patriarch 11. Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma: The Lion and the Jewel 12. Kenneth Kaunda: Farewell to Zambia’s Founding Father 13. The Fall of Robert Mugabe 14. F.W. de Klerk: A Nobel without Honour? 15. Olusegun Obasanjo: The Emperor’s New Clothes 16. Jerry Rawlings: The Death and Deification of ‘Junior Jesus’ 17. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: The Iron Lady of Liberia 18. Meles Zenawi: Philosopher-King or Pragmatic Autocrat? 19. Abiy Ahmed: Ethiopia’s Nobel Intellectual Soldier 20. Mobutu Sese Seko: The Sick Man of Africa 21. Idi Amin: The Making of a Warrior God 22. Daniel arap Moi: A Ruthless Dictator 23. Paul Kagame and Wole Soyinka: The President and the Playwright 24. Qaddafi’s Monarchical Delusions 25. Obama, Clinton, and Africa 26. Obama’s Six Deadly Sins 27. Obama, Gandhi, and Egypt 28. Obama’s Africa Legacy 29. Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Donald Trump and Boris Johnson 30. Trump’s African ‘Shithole’ is Commonplace in America 31. Margaret Thatcher’s Black Mischief 33. The Trial of Tony Blair 34. The Strange Reappearance of Nicolas Sarkozy 35. Madeleine Albright: Remembering the First Female American Secretary of State 36. Colin Powell: The Reluctant Jamaican-American Warrior III. TECHNOCRATS 37. Boutros-Ghali’s Huge Contribution to Egypt and the World 38. Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Afro-Arab Prophet, Pharaoh, and Pope 39. Kofi Annan: African Prophet or American Poodle? 40. Adebayo Adedeji: Farewell to Africa’s Cassandra 41. Adebayo Adedeji and Jean Monnet: The Fathers of African and European Integration 42. Raúl Prebisch and the Building of Latin America 43. Ibrahim Gambari: The Aristocratic Scholar-Diplomat 44. Lakhdar Brahimi: An Algerian Troubleshooter 45. Augustine Mahiga: A Tanzanian Peacemaker 46. Margaret Vogt: Africa Loses an Unflagging Peacemaker 47. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Nigeria’s Iron Lady 48. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: A Super-Technocrat in Geneva 49. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma: The Alchemist 50. Naledi Pandor: South Africa’s New Diplomatic Troubleshooter 51. Mamphela Ramphele: Defender of the Status Quo at UCT 52. Eloho Otobo: Farewell to a Pan-African Peacebuilder IV. ACTIVISTS 53. Remembering Martin Luther King Jr 54. John Lewis: The Last of the Mohicans 55. Wangari Maathai: Kenya’s Earth Mother 56. A Wreath for Saro-Wiwa 57. Denis Mukwege: Ennobling ‘Doctor Miracle’ 58. Ruth First’s Pan-African Martyrdom 59. Mahlangu’s Moving Martyrdom 60. Kaye Whiteman: Ode to an Obituarist 61. Tor Sellström: A Cosmopolitan Swedish Freedom Fighter V. WRITERS 62. A Tale of Two Continents: Dickensian Africa 63. Chinua Achebe: Farewell to Africa’s Griot 64. Soyinka’s Horseman: Who’s Afraid of Elesin Oba? 65. Wole Soyinka v. Caroline Davis: The CIA Controversy 66. James Baldwin: The Strange Persistence of Racism 67. Remembering Maya Angelou 68. Toni Morrison: America’s Black Bard 69. Bell Hooks: The Iconoclastic Feminist Scholar-Activist 70. Buchi Emecheta: Africa’s Literary Mother Courage 71. John Pepper Clark: Africa’s Protean Pioneer VI. PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS 72. Ali Mazrui: Farewell the Trumpets for Prophet of Pax Africana 73. Edward Said: Pioneer of Post-Colonial Studies 74. Abiola Irele: The Last Prophet of Négritude 75. Chris Wanjala: Kenya’s Pan-African Griot 76. Thandika Mkandawire: The Afropolitan Intellectual 77. Raufu Mustapha: An Organic Intellectual 78. Angela Davis: A Life of Struggle 79. Three Prophets of Reparations: Randall Robinson, Hilary Beckles, and Ade Ajayi VII. ARTISTS 80. Abami Eda: Fela’s Enduring Legacy 81. Bob Marley: Rebel with a Cause 82. Michael Jackson: The Strange Disappearance of the Moonwalker 83. Burna Boy: The Afropolitan Troubadour 84. Asa: Nigeria’s Songbird 85. Measuring Sidney Poitier’s Life 86. Cynthia Erivo: Building Bridges to the Diaspora VIII. SPORTING FIGURES 87. Muhammad Ali: King of the World 88. Pelé: The Greatest Footballer of All Time 89. Eusébio: The King is Dead, Long Live the King! 90. The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Diego Maradona 91. George Weah: The Genius of King George 92. Samuel Eto’o: Cameroon’s Indomitable Lion 93. The Ivorian Pearl: The Life and Times of Didier Drogba 94. Africa’s Golden Generation: Salah, Mané, and Aubameyang 95. The Golden Age of West Indian Cricket 96. Jesse Owens’s Race 97. Jonah Lomu: Rugby’s First Global Superstar 98. The Greatness of Rafa Nadal 99. The Age of Hakeem 100. Flaming Flamingo: The Life and Times of Israel Adebajo Notes Index

Reviews

‘This is a powerful, precise, passionate, and painful anthology that will stand the test of time for its truthfulness. It is a work that erupts like a monument to the sacrifice and heroism of that humanity which flows through black civilization like the never-ending Nile in the night.' - - Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, University of the West Indies ‘With his quintessentially Pan-African worldview, Adekeye Adebajo has deftly rendered the kaleidoscopic landscape of African achievement. It is not without crippling threats and disappointing reversals. But resistance to tyrants and female empowerment make visible the resilience to bounce back.’ - - Professor Pearl T. Robinson, Tufts University, Massachusetts ‘Immensely fluent, readable, and accessible. Adekeye Adebajo’s scholarship is impeccable, his reading of multiple sources is evident, and the historical perspective he provides is essential for an analysis of the contemporary era. This book is unique in its scope and broad canvas. I do not know of a collection of profiles that is similarly expansive.’ - - Maureen Isaacson, Former books editor, the Sunday Independent, South Africa

Author Information

Adekeye Adebajo is senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) in South Africa. He is the author of eight books including The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War; and editor/co-editor of 10 books including The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets, and Philosophers. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University in England where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and is a columnist for Business Day (South Africa), the Guardian (Nigeria), and the Gleaner (Jamaica).

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