Tell no lies; claim no easy victories - Amilcar Cabral, 1965 African news making headlines in the U.S.A. today is dominated by disaster: wars, famine, HIV/AIDS. Americans who respond from Hollywood stars to ordinary citizens are learning that real solutions require more than charity. This book provides for the first time a panoramic view of U.S. activism on Africa from 1950 to 2000, activism grounded in a common struggle for justice. It portrays organizations, individual activists, and transnational networks that contributed to African liberation from colonialism and from apartheid in South Africa. In turn, it shows how African struggles informed U.S. activism including the civil rights and black power movements. Intended for activists, analysts, students, researchers, teachers, and anyone concerned with world issues, the authors draw on interviews, research and personal experience to portray the history and stimulate reflection on international solidarity today. The book includes an overview of the half century, short vignettes that feature key actors or events, photo documentation, and five chapters: The 1950s: Africa Rising by Lisa Brock, professor of history at Columbia College, Chicago and author of Between Race and Empire. The 1960s: Making Connections by Marianna (Mimi) Edmunds, teacher and film producer whose work includes ten years with 60 Minutes. The 1970s: Expanding Networks by Joseph F. Jordan, director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). The 1980s: The Anti-Apartheid Convergence by David Goodman, author of Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa and co-author of the bestseller Static. The 1990s: Seeking New Directions by Walter Turner, San Francisco Bay area activist, teacher and radio journalist with KPFA/Pacifica Radio.
William Minter is the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin (http://www.africafocus.org). He has been a writer, researcher, and activist since the mid-1960s, focusing particularly on southern Africa and international issues. He studied at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria in 1961-62 and taught in Tanzania and Mozambique at the secondary school of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in 1966-68 and 1974-76. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology and a certificate in African studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Minter worked as a writer, editor, and researcher at Africa News Service (now http://allafrica.com) in Durham, N.C. in 1973 and 1976-82. Based in Washington since 1982, he has combined personal research and writing with contract work for a number of organizations, including policy analysis, writing, and development of computer-mediated communication tools. This has included work for Africa Action and its predecessor organization, the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), from 1992 through fall 2003, and for the affiliated Washington Office on Africa (WOA), from 1992 to 1997.
