An omnibus collection of concise and up-to-date biographies of four influential figures from modern African history. Chris Hani, by Hugh Macmillan Chris Hani was one of the most highly respected leaders of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and uMkhonto we Sizwe. His assassination in 1993 threatened to upset the country's transition to democracy and prompted an intervention by Nelson Mandela that ultimately accelerated apartheid's demise. Wangari Maathai, by Tabitha Kanogo This concise biography tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who devoted her life to campaigning for environmental conservation, sustainable development, democracy, human rights, gender equality, and the eradication of poverty. Josie Mpama/Palmer: Get Up and Get Moving, by Robert R. Edgar Highly critical of the patriarchal attitudes that hindered Black women's political activism, South Africa's Josie Mpama/Palmer was an outspoken advocate for women's social and political equality, a member of the Communist Party of South Africa, and an antiapartheid activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa, by Roy Doron and Toyin Falola A penetrating, accessible portrait of the Nigerian activist whose execution galvanized the world. Ken Saro-Wiwa became a martyr and symbolized modern Africans' struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power, and environmental exploitation.

Hanged by the Nigerian government on 10 November 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa became a martyr for the Ogoni people, a human rights activists and a symbol of modern Africans' struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power and environmental exploitation. Though he is rightly known for his human rights and environmental activism, he wore many hats: writer, television producer, businessman and civil servant, among others. While the book sheds light on his many legacies, it is above all about Saro-Wiwa the man, not just Saro-Wiwa the symbol. Roy Doron and Toyin Falola portray a man who not only was formed by the complex forces of ethnicity, race, class and politics in Nigeria, but who drove change in those same processes. Like others in the Jacana Pocket series, Ken Saro-Wiwa is written to be accessible to the casual reader and student, yet indispensable to scholars.