Jozi editor goes global

BOOK TELLS THE STORIES OF IMPORTANT FIGURES Will be published in US, UK, Europe, Asia, Oceania, West Indies and Nigeria.

Adekeye Adebajo’s The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets, and Philosophers is going global. Manchester University Press has acquired the rights to publish this “core teaching text” in the US, UK, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand markets, while Jamaican publishers Ian Randle Publishers will publish for The West Indies and BookCraft Africa, who publish the work of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, will launch an edition in Nigeria.

Jacana Media’s publishing director Bridget Impey says she is “thrilled that the title has found a home with such an illustrious group of publishers”.

“We know that The Pan-African Pantheon is destined to be a core teaching text, but it also manages to captivate and educate the interested lay reader,” she says.

“It is such a welcome addition to bookshelves in the time of #BlackLivesMatter.”

This book makes a unique contribution to the literature on Pan-Africanism by providing lively biographical essays of 36 major Pan-African figures by a diverse and prominent group of African, Caribbean and African-American scholars.

They examine historical and contemporary Pan-Africanism as an ideology of emancipation and unity.

The volume covers wellknown Pan-Africanists such as WEB du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Ashwood Garvey, CLR James, George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko and Thabo Mbeki, as well as popular figures not typically identified with mainstream Pan-Africanism, such as Maya Angelou, Mariama Bâ, Buchi Emecheta, Miriam Makeba, Ruth First, Wangari Maathai, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, VY Mudimbe, Léopold Senghor, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

The book also covers topics such as the history and pioneers of Pan-Africanism; the quest for reparations; politicians; poets and activists, as well as Pan-Africanism in the social sciences, philosophy, literature, and its musical activists.

This is a comprehensive and diverse introductory reader for specialists and general readers alike.

Thomas Dark, senior commissioning editor at Manchester University Press, commented: “We are delighted to have worked with Jacana Media to secure these publishing rights for this exciting and definitive work on Pan-African thinkers.

“We want to congratulate the contributors of this work.

“It is wonderful that Pan-Africanism has such a wide universal appeal.”

Manchester University Press will publish in the UK next month and in the US in May.

What experts are saying about The Pan-African Pantheon:

University of Chichester professor Hakim Adi, believes the book will make “a major contribution to our understanding of the life and work of key figures in the history of Pan-Africanism, presented by scholars from Africa, the Caribbean, the US and Europe”.

Seton Hall University professor Kwame Akonor said: “This book is a must-read for students and practitioners interested in the political, socio-economic and cultural autonomy and self-reliant development of exiled Africans and Africans on the continent.” Professor Krista Johnson from Howard University said: “This book makes a unique contribution to the literature on Pan-Africanism.

“It not only analyses Pan-Africanism as a school of thought, but connects this intellectual thinking to the lived experiences of those who practiced and promoted this worldview.

“Such a rich interrogation of Pan-Africanism as a school of thought is both timely, and will stand the test of time on bookshelves for years to come.”

Dr Patrick Gomes, former secretary-general of the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States had this to say: “This volume constitutes a remarkable piece of scholarship, given its conceptualisation, scope of thematic coverage, and fascinating range of eminent African and diaspora personalities, encompassing the scope and promise for building a new ‘people-driven Pan-Africanism’.

“This is a volume deserving to be read and re-read, reflected on, widely disseminated and debated – it is indeed a tour de force.”

Professor Adebajo is director of the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg.

He is the author of six booksand co-editor or editor of nine books on Africa’s international relations.

He holds a doctorate from Oxford University, England, and is a columnist for Business Day, The Guardian in Nigeria and The Gleaner in Jamaica.

– Citizen reporter