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Ali Mazrui has been described as one of the most original thinkers that Africa has produced, and one of the top 100 living public intellectuals in the world today. This volume uses Mazrui's life and work as a guide towards explaining the historical impact of black public intellectuals such as Julius K. Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba and Barrack Obama. The book explores not only politics and academics, but also religion, gender, class and civil-military relations, bringing together into the black experience both Plato's concept of the \"philosopher King\" and V.I. Lenin's notion of the 'intelligentsia'

Three decades after the African National Congress (ANC) won 62.7 percent of the vote that propelled Nelson Mandela into the presidency in 1994, the ANC's vote share plummeted to 40.2 percent of the national vote in South Africa's 2024 general election (down from 57.5 percent five years previously,= and well below the 50 percent predicted by preelection polls). Against thirty years of pessimistic academic literature predicting the opposite, the ANC accepted electoral defeat. But this left the ANC in a strategic quandary. Had it reached the upper 40 percent range, easy coalitions with small parties would have passed the 50 percent threshold. But with only 40 percent, the party reached back into the early years of democracy and formed a government of national unity—a multiparty coalition that left the ANC's most significant political opponents out in the cold. ANC (and national) president Cyril Ramaphosa has sidelined Africanist parties and created a coalition with decidedly centrist parties. The \"broad church\" which has bedeviled the ANC is at an end. Multiparty coalition government has arrived in South Africa, but questions remain: Can ANC electoral decline be arrested by this sharp move towards the center? And what, if any, substantive role is there for the ANC in the future if not?

The continued relevance of Pan-Africanism is rooted in the continuity of the domestic and global forces that propelled its emergence almost two centuries ago. Far from being over, racial capitalism and neoimperial forces and conditions continue to define the global capitalist order in an even more virulent form through neoliberal globalization. The increasing securitization of Africa through building of military bases by old and emerging global powers is one main evidence of coloniality of power. The expectations of early Pan-Africanists that a just and equitable global order can be forged, which recognizes and respects global diversity and ensures complementary development, have remained largely elusive. This paper examines the above issues in the context of a changing global order, in which Africa continues to occupy a peripheral position. The overarching questions are as follows: What is the relevance of Pan-Africanism in contemporary times? In view of the ongoing reforms at the African Union, how can the organization foster a new form of Pan-Africanism that can lead to the repositioning of Africa in global affairs? These questions will be analyzed using Pan-Africanism as a theoretical framework, historicism, and archival data from the African Union as well as data from secondary sources. The paper concludes that Pan-Africanism and a reformed African Union can help reposition Africa to contribute to the remaking of the international order in ways that are inclusive, humane, and mutually beneficial.

The Portuguese engagement with the continent of Africa following the conquest of Ceuta in 1415 was framed, among numerous conditions, as a crusade (Portuguese: cruzada). However, crusading influences on Portuguese expansion are often sidelined in favour of economic motives. Unlike North and north-east Africa's connected histories with the Crusades (1095–1291) and the continual role of crusading in the following centuries, the fifteenth century offered a new arena. Kongo's adoption of Christianity in the late fifteenth century was the first time that an African power can be viewed as engaging in crusading ideology as a Latin Christian power. Significantly, Kongo was converted by Portuguese missionaries who were undertaking their own crusade. Yet, the crusading influence on Kongo's early development of its Christianity has hitherto been overlooked in Africanist scholarship. Similarly, the situation in Kongo remains a lacuna in Crusades scholarship too. This article calls for a closer discussion between the histories of Africa and the Crusades through the case of Kongo and comparative African examples, such as Benin and Ndongo, to highlight the need to better connect these histories.

This abstract explores recent publications by art historians Rosa de Jorio and Joseph Hellweg on the aesthetics and power of masks and amulets in West and Central Africa and across the Atlantic world. De Jorio and Hellweg, who are West Africanist anthropologists, provide unique perspectives on the study of power objects and their makers. De Jorio focuses on the centrality of the researcher's positionality in acquiring knowledge of art forms and aesthetics, while Hellweg examines the cultural and historical embeddedness of objects and materials. Both authors challenge traditional categorizations and highlight the relational aspects of power objects and their use in addressing social, ritual, and personal concerns. They also emphasize the agency and creativity of enslaved Africans in the production and use of amulets as forms of resistance and survival. Overall, these books offer valuable insights into the study of power objects and their significance in destabilizing hierarchies.

This paper explores the phenomenon of latent politics in South Africa during the apartheid era. The term ‘latent policy/politics’ was introduced into scientific use by Gabriel Almond. In the field of political science latent policy/politics refers to a hidden, completely or partially unobserved sphere of politics underpinned by personality factors. The political process in South Africa shows many examples of latent politics. For example, the Soweto uprisings and the wave of unrest in mid-1976 marked the beginning of the final stage of the struggle against apartheid. Furthermore, in the fall of apartheid, hidden personality factors are also apparent, and here the role of the liberation movements was of decisive importance. Organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and other historical movements of the masses like the worker movements and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) are also studied in this context. An exploration of latent politics allows inclusive disclosure of various aspects of the political process.