Leo Zeilig – författare

‘A remarkable volume on the vicissitudes of the revolutionary left in post-independence Africa’ Issa Shivji, Professor Emeritus at the University of Dar es Salaam

‘Twenty-first-century radicals should find new inspiration for action in this untold history’ Jean Copans, anthropologist and sociologist 

‘From the Tubu nomads of northern Chad to peasants, workers and students throughout the African continent, we see how these movements used old and new ideas to mobilize emancipatory struggles for change’ Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Professor of African and Global Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

While the revolutionary left of the 1960s and 1970s in Europe, the United States and Latin America have been the subject of abundant discussion, similar movements that emerged in Africa have received comparatively little attention. 

Yet Africa’s radical left was extremely active in these years. With pro-Soviet movements, Maoism, Trotskyism, Guevarism, Pan-Africanism and the Black Panthers, the rumble of revolution was felt across the continent. From feminist student rebels in Nigeria to pro-democracy movements in Liberia, the exciting and complex interplay between these many actors changed Africa forever. Can we see echoes of these movements in African politics today? What can we learn from the people who lived through these decades? How can revolutionary struggles on the continent today learn from this rich history? This unique collection will shed new light on Africa’s radical decades for those who are seeking new and important insights into global revolutionary history. 

Pascal Bianchini is a sociologist and independent researcher based in Senegal. Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist and the co-author of Africa’s Last Colonial Currency. Leo Zeilig is an editor of the Review of African Political Economy and is the author of several books including A Revolutionary for Our Time: The Walter Rodney Story.

Three leading Africa scholars investigate the social forces driving the democratic transformation of postcolonial states across southern Africa. Extensive research and interviews with civil society organizers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, and Swaziland inform this analysis of the challenges faced by non-governmental organizations in relating both to the attendant inequality of globalization and to grassroots struggles for social justice.

Peter Dwyer is a tutor in economics at Ruskin College in Oxford.

Leo Zeilig Lecturer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

A leading light of the anti-colonial revolts of the 1960s and ''70s, Frantz Fanon also prophetically explored the dangers of post-colonial power. Voices of Liberation: Frantz Fanon is a rich exploration of Fanon''s life and times, combining interviews with those who fought alongside him with selections from his work. This book gives and giving new insight into the extraordinary life and ideas of one of the twentieth century''s most important revolutionaries.

Leo Zeilig is a lecturer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London; Senior Visiting Fellow, South African Research Chair in Social Change; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg; and editor of Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa.

Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France is the president of the Frantz Fanon Foundation and the daughter of Frantz Fanon.

Walter Rodney was a scholar, working class militant, and revolutionary from Guyana. Strongly influenced by Marxist ideas, he remains central to radical Pan-Africanist thought for large numbers of activists’ today. Rodney lived through the failed –though immensely hopeful -socialist experiments in the 1960s and 1970s, in Tanzania and elsewhere.

The book critically considers Rodney''s contribution to Marxist theory and history, his relationship to dependency theory and the contemporary significance of his work in the context of movements and politics today. The first full-length study of Rodney’s life, this book is an essential introduction to Rodney''s work.

The human cost of Africa''s longstanding exploitation by foreign imperialist powers within the global capitalist economy are well documented, and today Africa is suffering under the disproportionate impact of the climate emergency. In this context, the imperative of anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist critique for a socialist African future has never been more urgent. Voices for African Liberation presents 38 interviews with African and Africanist socialists conducted by the Review of African Political Economy between 2015 and 2023, bringing to life older voices of liberation and lost radical histories alongside newer initiatives, projects, and activists who are engaged in the contemporary struggles to reshape Africa - to make, win, and sustain a revolutionary transformation in our devastated world.

Interviews in this collection include leading scholar-activists such as Samir Amin, Issa Shivji, and Hakim Adi, to significant national figures such as Guy Marius Sagna, Marjorie Mbilinyi, and Trevor Ngwane, to more local and less well-known activists and organic intellectuals such as Yusuf Serunkuma, Lena Anyuolo, and Bienvenu Matumo.