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26 May 2009 Dr. Raheem Tajudeen, the general
secretary of the Global Pan African Movement has been
killed in a car accident.
According to one of his best friends, Gulu LC V
chairperson Norbert Mao, Tajudeen died at around 1:00
am in a motor accident while rushing to Jomo Kenyata
international air port.
His flight to Rwanda had been set for 3:00 am.
A Nigerian national, he joined the Millennium
Campaign in March 2006 as deputy director for Africa
after serving as director of Justice Africa, a
non-profit organisation based in London.
Abdul-Raheem was a regular commentator on African
affair.
His essays and articles appeared in books and his
weekly column on African issues "Tajudeen's Postcard",
was published online and in print.
His career spanning over 20 years, was
international in scope, including the post of director
of the London-based human rights and peace
organisation, Justice AFRICA.
He was general secretary of the Pan-African
Movement; chairman of the Centre for Democracy and
Development, based in Abuja and London.
He was a New Vision columnist for more than ten
years. He has also been a lecturer at Makerere
University.
Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem who died in a tragic car
accident on his way to Jomo Kenyatta airport, Nairobi,
in the early hours of 25 May was a pleasant, colourful
and larger-than-life figure. Many will remember his
smile and great charm and the gap in his front teeth
which gave his smile a special quality.
He was more than one thing - a consummate
conversationalist, a thoroughbred intellectual, a
dedicated father, a comrade and a fighter for people's
rights - but above all else he was the frontline
carrier of the pan-Africanist banner.
History has a way of throwing up ironies. And
Taju's death - on Africa Day - is one of them. Death
robbed Africa of Dr. Abdul- Raheem Tajudeen Africa's
famous columnist on African issues read by millions in
Africa and globally in different media houses.
Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a Nigerian national, was
based in Nairobi, Kenya where he was conducting his
work of the all Africa Conference of Churches, one of
the Campaign's key partners in the global project to
promote the Millennium Developments Goals in Africa.
Gulu LC5 Norbert Mao one of his great friend says
Tajudeen's death has robbed Africa of a pan African
who was so resourceful.
The late joined the Millennium Campaign in March
2006 as the Deputy Director for Africa after serving
as the Director of Justice Africa, a non-profit
organization based in London.
Mao says his death was a big blow on the millennium
Development Goals since his contributions will be
missed.
Tajudeen holds Doctor of Philosophy degree from
Oxford university and was appointed the General
Secretary of the Pan African Movement Secretariat in
Kampala, Uganda.
He was acting deputy Director Africa for United
Nations Millennium campaign that meant to ensure that
civil society voices continue to be hared in the
global effort against poverty and injustice.
David Mafabi who worked with the late describes him
as a man who was so passionate of his continent
The late was Chairperson of the Centre for
Democracy and Development, based in Abuja and Lagos;
and of the Pan-African Development Education and
Advocacy Programme based in Kampala and Abuja.
Tributes To Tajudeen
PT Zeleza, Editor, The Zeleza Post:
Tajudeen Abdul Raheem: A Giant Is Lost On African
Liberation Day
Today, May 25, is African
Liberation Day. It is a singular tragedy that on such
a day the Pan-African world should lose one of its
luminaries, Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Rahman. He died in the
early hours of this morning in a car accident in
Nairobi on his way to the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport to board a flight to Rwanda.
Tajudeen's untimely passing is
indeed a great tragedy to the Pan-African world. A man
of great passion and intellect, Taju, as he was
called by his friends, had unflinching commitment to
Africa and its future, and through words and action
believed in the liberation and regeneration of the
continent and its peoples from the shackles of
imperialism and Africa's own unproductive internal
histories and corruptions of power. I first met
Tajudeen in the mid-1990s when he was invited to give
a talk at the Center for African Studies at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which I
directed at the time. I keenly followed his career and
unflinching pursuit of Pan-African solidarity. Readers
of this site will remember his participation in the
eSymposium on the "Meaning and Implication of the
Obama Phenomenon." My deepest condolesnces to his
family, friends, and comrades in the struggle for
Pan-African liberation.
From Pambazuka: Tajudeen Abdul Raheem: A Giant Is
Lost On African Liberation Day By Firoze Manji
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!'
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