Pan African Solidarities: Insights from Africa and America, a Discussion with Abdul Mohammed

Photo: Afewerk Tekle Glass, Africa Hall, Alan Johnston, June 6, 2010 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The podcast series “African Voices, African Arguments” features African scholars, writers, policy makers and activists on issues of peace, justice and democracy, and is produced by World Peace Foundation and presented in partnership with African Arguments and The Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University.

In the first episode of the series, “Pan African Solidarities: Insights from Africa and America, a Discussion with Abdul Mohammed,” World Peace Foundation Executive Director, Alex de Waal interviews Abdul Mohammed, one of Africa’s leading public intellectuals.

Abdul Mohammed is one of Africa’s leading public intellectuals. He was a student activist in the 1970s. He came to the United States as a refugee and worked on refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. In 1985, he returned to Africa, first to Sudan, and subsequently to Kenya, where he was a pioneering humanitarian activist and founded the NGO InterAfrica Group. In 1991, Abdul returned to his native Ethiopia where he has lived ever since, active as a civil society leader. He was the UNICEF representative to the African Union, and worked for the UN in Sudan.  In Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa and across the continent, Abdul has engaged in a range of initiatives on agendas of humanitarian action, opening up Africa’s politics for more inclusive, democratic participation, and building an African system for peace and security. For the last ten years Abdul has been chief of staff and senior political advisor to the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan and South Sudan, and the Horn of Africa.

African Arguments is a pan-African platform for news, investigation and opinion that seeks to analyse issues facing the continent, investigate the stories that matter, and amplify a diversity of voices.

The Institute for Global Leadership is an incubator of innovative ways to educate learners at all levels to understand and engage with difficult global issues. They develop new generations of effective and ethical leaders who are able and driven to comprehend complexity, reflect cultural and political nuance, and engage as responsible global citizens in anticipating and confronting the world’s most pressing problems.