For over 30 years, Willy Mutunga has blazed the trail in starting many important public conversations about remaking Kenya and the wider world into a better society. As a public intellectual, he has consistently challenged convenient stereotypes in an effort to bring down the social barriers erected by fear and ignorance, and led in persuading individuals and communities to re-examine widely held prejudices and to start difficult dialogues. Between 2006 and 2011, Mutunga wrote a weekly col...

This collection of essays reflects on the life and work of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who celebrated his 80th birthday in 2018. Drawing from a wide range of contributors, including writers, critics, publishers and activists, the volume traces the emergence of Ngugi as a novelist in the early 1960s, his contribution to the African culture of letters at its moment of inception, and his global artistic life in the twenty-first century. Here we have both personal andcritical reflections on the differe...

Democracy in South Africa turns twenty on 27 April 2014. In A Rumour of Spring, Max du Preez investigates and analyses the progress and lack of progress the country has made during these twenty years. A Rumour of Spring looks at the legacies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki in an attempt to understand how we got here, and examines Jacob Zuma’s presidency to better understand where we are.In the context of blatant corruption, populism and tragedies such as the Marikana massacre, th...

Essential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. Key themes in current thinking about Africa's history are illustrated with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent.

For 30 years, the African National Congress, led by Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, was the core of opposition to the white supremacist apartheid regime in South Africa. After organizing strikes and founding the armed military wing of the ANC, Mandela spent 27 years in jail before emerging as a worldwide symbol of human freedom.

A memoir of Mandela's time in office as the first president of a democratic South Africa, completed and expanded with his personal notes and speeches."I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes respons...

One of our greatest political minds "challenges us to think more independently and more deeply about the human consequences of power and privilege" (Norman Solomon, author of Made Love, Got War).Renowned interviewer David Barsamian showcases his unique access to Chomsky's thinking on a number of topics of contemporary and historical import. Chomsky offers insights into the institutions that shape the public mind in the service of power and profit. In an i...

Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o has been a force in African literature for decades: Since the 1970s, when he gave up the English language to commit himself to writing in African languages, his foremost concern has been the critical importance of language to culture. In Something Torn and New, Ngugi explores Africa's historical, economic, and cultural fragmentation by slavery, colonialism, and globalization. Throughout this tragic history, a constant and irrepressible force was Europhon...

'The world is full of information. What do we do when we get the information, when we have digested the information, what do we do then? Is there a point where ye say, yes, stop, now I shall move on.' James Kelman here offers something of why a book such of this is in front of the public. The State relies on our suffocation, that we cannot hope to learn 'the truth.' But whether we can or not is beside 'the point.' Finally, there is no 'point.' We must grasp the nettle, we assume control an...

The battle for Mangaung will be lost and won on different fronts, as was the case at Polokwane. Astute political observer Aubrey Matshiqi takes a sharp look at the various players, from the intelligence community to the courts, the alliance and the media, as he casts his searchlight on the 'deep state', moral bankruptcy and bad leadership. A sobering, razor-sharp analysis of the uncomfortable 'Zuma moment'.

From those who insist that Barack Obama is Muslim to the European legislators who go to extraordinary lengths to ban items of clothing worn by a tiny percentage of their populations, Gary Younge shows, in this fascinating, witty, and provocative examination of the enduring legacy and obsession with identity in politics and everyday life, that how we define ourselves informs every aspect of our social, political, and personal lives.Younge -- a black British male of Caribbean descent...

When Barack Obama became America's 44th -- and first black -- President, the world rejoiced. Obama remains the most popular government leader anywhere -- except in his own country. There, his approval ratings have plummeted, his opponents have thwarted him at nearly every turn, and his own supporters are restive. Though he won re-election, his second term is becoming an uphill slog.What did he do wrong? How did he squander all that popularity and promise? In a witty and highly perso...