AFRICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT, an intellectual history of the quest for freedom

262pp., paperback, London, 2021

"This is no ordinary political history. Told through Africans’ words and deeds, and a veteran’s lens from the field, it is an intellectual genealogy of independence in its many meanings. It urges us to read Black thinkers if we are to grasp humanity’s future." Shobana Shankar, Associate Professor of History, Stony Brook University, and author of An Uneasy Embrace: Africa, India and the spectre of race

"An authoritative and seminal treatise on African political thought, concentrating on selected leaders. Chan contextualises and critiques ideas about African liberation, and its hopes and contradictions in practice, often resulting in mismanagement, corruption and authoritarianism." Hasu Patel, Professor Emeritus, University of Zimbabwe, and former Zimbabwean ambassador

Stephen Chan OBE is Professor of World Politics at SOAS University of London. He has advised governments, opposition leaders and liberation movements in many parts of Africa, and negotiated on the African side of delegations to Beijing. His books include Southern Africa: Old treacheries and new deceits, Why Mugabe Won: The 2013 elections in Zimbabwe and their aftermath and Zambia and the Decline of Kaunda, 1984-1998.