Global Africa: Profiles in Courage, Creativity, and Cruelty

This book of essays, written over the last three post-apartheid decades, offers unique profiles of 104 pan-African figures, drawn primarily from Africa’s 1.4 billion-strong population and its estimated 250 million-strong diaspora across the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean, alongside global Western figures engaging with African issues, assessed from an African perspective. Covering a diverse array of historical and political figures, technocrats, activists, writers, public intellectuals, musical and film artists, and sporting icons, the essays provide a multidisciplinary exploration of their significance while acknowledging the enduring legacies of slavery and colonialism. At the same time, the book captures the zeitgeist of the post-apartheid era, arguing that Africa’s liberation struggles were mirrored in the Caribbean and the American civil rights movement, with all three movements involving citizens of global Africa.