Fighting for Africa

Fighting for Africa captures the commitment and contributions of two men who dedicated their lives to the fight to free Africa from colonialism and racism. Ambassador Dudley Thompson, though born in the West Indies, became a British barrister. Thompson lived in Africa, where he provided essential legal services to Jomo Kenyatta when he was a defendant in the infamous Mau Mau trials of the 1950s and when Kenyatta became the president of independent Kenya. In addition, Ambassador Thompson drafted theconstitution for newly independent Tanzania and served as legal advisor to its president, Julius Nyerere. Bill Sutherland, born in the United States, took an early stand against war and militarism in the 1940s and, as a result, was imprisoned by the United States government with other peace advocates of the period, such as David Dellinger. Upon release from prison, Bill Sutherland emigrated to pre-independence Gold Coast, where he worked as an advisor to President Kwame Nkrumah. Both men were very instrumental in the early Pan-African movement and participated in the 1945 conference in Manchester, England. There they worked with such Pan-African greats as Amy Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, and George Padmore. Fighting for Africa is a seminal text for college, university, and legal audiences in that it chronicles the development of the concept of Pan-Africanism and applies its tenets to the processes of de-colonization and nationalism (nation-building) in Africa. The text will be indispensable to students and scholars throughout the African Diaspora who desire a clear understanding of Pan-Africanism as both a philosophy and practicum.

Robert Johnson, Jr. is a professor of Africana studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, a playwright, and an attorney. He has published extensively in the field of African-American history, most notably Race, Law and Public Policy: Cases and Materials on Law and Public Policy of Race, 3rd Edition; Shona (with Gary N. Van Wyk); Why Blacks Left America for Africa: Interviews with Black Expatriates, 1971-1999; Nantucket's People of Color: Essays on History, Politics and Community; and Returning Home: A Century of African-American Repatriation.