About the Book
Thabo Mbeki is one of the most important political figure of his generation and a dominant figure in South African politics for 14 years. A pan-African philosopher-king whom spent two decades in exile, as president of Africa�s most industrialised sate, he set out a sweeping vision of an African Renaissance. As a key liberation leader in exile, Mbeki was instrumental in his party�s anti-apartheid struggle. During the South African transition, he helped build one of the world�s most respected constitutional democracies.
As president, despite some successes, he was unable to overcome South Africa�s inherited socio-economic challenges and his disastrous AIDS policies will remain a major blemish. He will, however, be remembered more as a foreign policy president for his peacemaking efforts in Africa and building of continental institutions such as the AU and NEPAD. This book seeks to rescue Mbeki from South African parochialism and to restore him to the pan-African pantheon.
About the Author
Dr Adekeye Adebajo is Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town and Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, both in South Africa. A former Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, he is the author of The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War and editor of Africa�s Peacemakers: Nobel Peace Laureates of African Descent. He is a columnist for Business Day (South Africa) and the Guardian (Nigeria).
