Roger McKenzie: The Rebirth of the African Phoenix - A view from Babylon

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ORDERS SHIPPING 5 MAY 2025

Africa is a phoenix rising from the ashes of the burnt out colonial world.
This sets the background for this new book in a time of genuine challenge to the power system that has dominated the world since World War II.
The book begins by looking back at the authors first physical encounter with Africa when he visited Ghana in the early 1990’s.
The book had eight subsequent chapters.
Chapter two, called Money, will look at the crippling debt burden of African nations and will make the case for a payment strike.
Chapter three examines the important relationship that Africans have to the Land after the disruption of the relationship by enslavement and colonialism.
Chapter four, entitled Bread, will question why such an abundant continent is now forced to import most of its sustenance from abroad?
Chapter five, Water, looks at the impact of the climate emergency on Africa.
Chapter six examines the world of Work and migration on the African continent.
Chapter seven looks at the quest for Peace on the continent and the role of the western powers in causing and supporting conflict.
Chapter eight will look at the role that Culture will play in building a new pan-Africanism for the 21st Century.
Chapter nine makes the connection between the continent and the African Diaspora.
The final chapter brings together some of McKenzie’s Reflections proposes a new movement for Africans across the globe.
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What people are saying about 'The Rebirth of the African Phoenix'

For years Roger McKenzie has been a trusted advisor and a brilliant thought partner when it comes to global organizing and liberation. His thoughtful analysis informed by decades of experience and appreciation for the challenges and brilliance of working people around the globe are what is needed today.

—From Dr Toni Lewis - founder member of the Global African Workers Institute

Roger McKenzie’s research and writing are putting modern Pan-African Marxism on a solid theoretical footing, following — and developing - a trail that was blazed by the likes of Walter Rodney, Claudia Jones, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah and W.E.B. Du Bois.

Marx famously said that “the philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point, however, is to change it.” Roger is no ivory tower theoretician, and his intellectual output is closely linked to real-world social movements for socialism, for liberation, and against imperialism, racism, war and ecocide. As such, he joins a global renaissance of Pan-African thought and activism, grounded in historical materialism and the struggle for a better world, epitomised in Africa itself by the new wave of resistant states in the Sahel,
and in the West by groups such as the Black Alliance for Peace.

— Carlos Martinez Author of ‘The East is still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century by Praxis Press and co-editor of Friends of Socialist China’

Roger’s deep knowledge and commitment to Africa and a lifetime of anti Racism and trade union solidarity makes him well placed to write this historical and future analysis.

— Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington North

Roger McKenzie powerfully reminds us that Africa
and its people are not just central to our past but essential to our collective future. This timely work challenges us to confront the legacies of colonialism, inequality, and division, and calls for a new multilateralism rooted in justice, solidarity, and self-determination. McKenzie’s vision is clear: a reborn Africa will be the heart of a fairer, freer world. A must-read for all who believe in true
global liberation.

— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Afrikan Reparations

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Biography

Roger McKenzie is the international editor of the Morning Star.

Roger is the author of African Uhuru: The fight for African freedom in the rise of the Global South (now on it's fourth reprint)

Roger has a long history of activity within the labour and trade union movement and is well known internationally as a leading anti racist campaigner and trade union organiser.

He is a founding member of the Global African Workers Institute.

Before joining the Morning Star Roger worked for 11 years as the assistant general secretary of Unison.

Roger is a member of the National Union of Journalists and is a member of its National Executive Committee.