In Memoriam: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, 1961-2009The 25th of May was Africa Liberation Day. What a day to learn of the terrible news that one of the leading proponents of Africa’s liberation – Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem - should be so tragically lost in a senseless car accident in Nairobi.
Tajudeen led Justice Africa’s work with the African Union since its early days. He combined this with his role as General Secretary of the Pan-African Movement, chairperson of the Centre for Democracy and Development, the Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, and was a fighter in the struggle to get the UN’s Millennium Development Campaign to support meaningful programmes. There was hardly a pan African initiative that took place without Tajudeen’s inimitable presence, support, humour and perceptive political perspectives. It remains a mystery to us how he managed to combine all of this with writing his weekly ‘Pan African Postcard’ that were published regularly in Pambazuka News and in several newspapers including The Monitor (Uganda), Weekly Trust (Nigeria), The African (Tanzania), Nairobi Star (Kenya) and the Weekly Herald (Zimbabwe). You could always rely on Tajudeen to draw our attention to the most significant aspects of the latest political event in Africa - just as you could rely on him to provide guidance and encouragement during hard times, restoring in us the courage for the longer struggles ahead for emancipation of the continent.
Tajudeen’s departure leaves a massive hole in all our lives. But if his life is to mean anything, we must follow his voice in the signature line of his every email – ‘Don’t agonise, Organise!’
Pambazuka News
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