25 May is Africa Liberation Day. What a day to learn the terrible news that one of the leading proponents of Africa's liberation – Tajudeen Abdul Raheem - should be so tragically lost in a senseless car accident in Nairobi. Messages have been pouring in from across the world as we all fail to hold back our tears at this loss.
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. Quite 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), has always been a mystery to us. 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. We all need to grieve the loss of this giant of a man. But if his life is to mean anything, we must follow his call in the signature line of his every email – 'Don't agonise, Organise!'
As part of our tribute to Tajudeen, comrade, brother and fighter of Pan-Africanism, Pambazuka News invites you to send messages of condolence and tributes, please send these to editor-at-pambazuka-dot-org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
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Its a sad day for Africa, and the tragic of the story is that when Dr Tajudeen visited KTN news station as part of the guest prior to the G-) meeting in London. He did not miss word as he used to while talking about bad governance and did mention things to do with bad road as a major cause of road accident across the continent. But what moved all us in the newsroom and the viewers at large is the way is drew significance between the fact that the political elite across Africa have turned into driving big cars at the expense of the impoverished African tax payer as a way of protection against the bad road. I will stand to be corrected; this was probably the last interview he ever had in a studio setting before his tragic end.
Its a sad day in that bad governance in Africa has claimed a passionate and gifted African who had dedicated his life to the cause of the Africa poor. A man who could have been among the most senior UN officer at New York, but one who opted to work for the better of his within his Africa despite countless opportunity.
For the better part that I meet Dr Tajudeen is the last three years, he had changed my life in different ways, above all to think about to search for an Africa solution within Africa. Strong believer in the inherent ability of the African despite the odds, a fact in was able to put across through his writings, interactions with who ever he met, through his charismatic nature and not forgetting his laughter.
Africa is now poorer without Dr Tajudeen Abdul Raheem. I put him in the same category as late Julius Kabarage Nyerere, Lat Hastings Okoth-Ogendo, Leopold Sedor Senghor, and others.
For how will Africa continues to lose its best so tragically
Patrick Mugo Mugo Senior Media Researcher, KTN Coordinator, African Media Initiative- an MDGs advocate NGO