Africa Books

Book review
Speaking Truth to Power: Selected Pan-African Postcards

Pambazuka Press, Oxford, UK; 2010; 253 pp; £14.95

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a tireless activist, writer and public speaker, was killed in a road accident in Nairobi, Kenya, on 25 May 2009. His untimely death at the age of 48, which ironically came on African Liberation Day, stunned many across the continent and the world. This posthumous book is a collection of his "pan-African postcards," weekly commentaries originally posted on the Pambazuka website. The topics range from the importance of empowering women and Africa's poor to the role of the African diaspora and the construction of the African Union. They include hard words of criticism for both African autocrats and the bureaucrats of the international financial institutions who help finance them.

"Tajudeen did not hesitate to speak the truth to those in power," Salim Ahmed Salim, a former secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity, commented in the book's preface. Mr. Abdul-Raheem's words reflected his actions. He opposed military dictatorship in his native Nigeria, led the Pan-African Movement headquartered in Uganda, helped found the London-based group Justice Africa and in 2006 became the Africa director of the UN Millennium Campaign, to build support for the Millennium Development Goals.

 

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