• Herbert Jauch

Namibia’s founding president led the fight for independence with unwavering resolve, but his legacy is complicated by economic compromises and political dominance.

• Atiyyah Khan

Rashid Vally, the visionary behind South Africa’s iconic jazz label As-Shams, forged a legacy of revolutionary jazz that defied apartheid and continues to inspire new generations of musicians, activists, and music lovers.

• Julie MacArthur

Decolonial African feminism and the revolutionary lives of three mothers of Kenya.

• Sean Henry Jacobs

The musician Mac McKenzie, who passed away in April 2024, helped pioneer a sound that captured the Mother City’s Creole heritage.

• Tinashe Mushakavanhu

Roy Guthrie was a refrigerator salesman in South Africa before he moved to Zimbabwe and established its largest sculpture park.

• Michael Burawoy

The life of Edward Webster, one of South Africa’s most distinguished sociologists, can be compared to a windmill—taking in the winds of change and turning them into a prodigious intellectual engagement.

• Khanya Mtshali

Peter Magubane was one of South Africa’s foremost resistance photojournalists, exposing the world to the cruel spectacle of the apartheid regime.

• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

A tribute to the late Kenyan poet, playwright and activist, Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo (December 12, 1942-June 30, 2023).

• Sean Henry Jacobs

Gladys Nzimande-Tsolo, who died on 27 September 2023, was a South African freedom fighter. Why has she been forgotten?

• Wamuwi Mbao

While there is much to mourn about the passing of legendary American singer and actor Harry Belafonte, we should hold a place for his bold statement-album against apartheid South Africa.

• Brooks Marmon

Tommie Sankange was the first black American public figure permanently residing in Zimbabwe who was not a missionary. Why don’t we know more about her?

• Wamuwi Mbao

South African poet Don Mattera, who died in July, was the real deal—preferring to throw his lot in with the ignored and the undervalued. Unsurprisingly, his monumental life and work is undervalued too.

• Tom Slater

The University of Edinburgh will award an honorary doctorate to Joe Schaffers, a working-class educator from Cape Town, South Africa. It will be a new benchmark for this tradition.

• Francisco Perez

Cameroonian economist Joseph Tchundjang Pouemi died in 1984, either poisoned or by suicide. His ideas about the international monetary system and the CFA franc are worth revisiting.

• Tinashe Mushakavanhu

Magaisa, who died this month, set agendas, and demanded the highest standards from the political and intellectual classes in Zimbabwe.

• Jeanne-Marie Jackson

The greatest achievement of Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu was to recast African knowledge from something lost to something gained.

• John Githongo

Late Kenyan President, Mwai Kibaki, could be a political heartbreaker and a great disappointment when he moved smoothly on from a cause.

• Justin Pearce

The death of Paulo Lara warrants an appreciation of his and his family’s contribution to preserving the documented history of Angola’s liberation struggle.

• The Fees Must Fall Collective

Oupa Lehulere, revolutionary teacher and mentor, died on November 29. His approach to theoretical study and struggle was the same: there are no shortcuts.

• Nana Ampadu

Renowned Ghanaian highlife musician, Nana Ampadu, died on September 28, 2021. In this interview from 2007, historian Jennifer Hart talks with him about the music that made him famous.