ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: The Afropolitan intellectual who had the continent’s best interests at heart
Thandika Mkandawire was not afraid to chide African leaders for their failures as well as the World Bank and IMF
05 April 2020 - 21:32
Thandika Mkandawire, who died on March 27 aged 79, was the ultimate Afropolitan intellectual. He was not only a dyed-in-the-wool pan-Africanist but a cosmopolitan citizen of the world.
Born of a Malawian father and Zimbabwean mother, he grew up in both countries before spending the rest of his life in the US, Zimbabwe, Senegal and Europe. As a young firebrand who came of age under colonial rule, Mkandawire was involved in Malawi’s independence struggle. He was arrested in 1960 after protesting against British prime minister Harold Macmillan’s visit to Blantyre on his “Wind of Change” tour of Africa...
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