Spanning a period of almost forty years of a remarkable career, these seminal essays centre around the life and work of Abulrahman Mohamed Babu. Writer, revolutionary and politician, Babu led the 1964 Zanzibar revolution and was a cabinet minister in Tanzania until 1972 when he was imprisoned by President Nyerere. He was eventually released six years later and then moved to London where he taught at Birkbeck College. A committed Marxist, he was a passionate believer in a socialist, people's Pan-Africanism.