This book, Abu Mayanja MP: The intellectual star of Uganda's "Struggle" for independence and the search for a liberal democratic state, 1929-2005, is a biography of a brilliant African politician, a history of a country and a continent told through the lens and activities of an individual politician. The book breaks new ground in how Uganda and Africa have been viewed by academic and popular opinion. Mayanja's life sheds light on the last days of colonialism and the early postcolonial history of Uganda and other African countries. First, although Africa, particularly Uganda, is viewed by popular imagination through the images of dictatorial and corrupt African leaders like Amin, Obote, Mubotu, Bokassa, Bongo and others, there were, and still are, voices of reason who advocated for the advantages of good governance. Secondly, it shows that it is not only heads of states who influenced the political direction of postcolonial states in the period just before and after independence. Other actors shaped the opinions of the masses and influenced how laws were formed and implemented. Thirdly, Mayanja is one of those public intellectuals who stood up to autocracy and what he thought should be done through words and actions. He analysed political and social issues at a higher conceptual level than almost all his contemporaries He was indeed the "intellectual star" of Uganda's "struggle" for self-rule and the nine years that followed independence. His ridiculing of those in power for their failure to know or understand governance issues landed him in prison and denied him full participation in governing the Uganda postcolonial state. But he left deep footprints on Uganda's and East African political thought. Had his suggestions for managing postcolonial Uganda been followed, the country would not have suffered as severely as it has since 1966.

Reading the life narratives and literary texts of South Asians writing in East Africa, Gaurav Desai builds a new history of Africa’s encounter with slavery, colonialism, migration, nationalism, development, and globalization. Rather than approach literature and culture from a nation-centered perspective, Desai connects the medieval trade routes of the Islamicate empire, the early independence movements galvanized in part by Gandhi’s southern African experiences, the invention of new ethnic nationalisms, and the rise of plural, multiethnic nations to the fertile exchange taking place across the Indian Ocean.

This book explores the lasting legacy of the controversial project by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, funded by the CIA, to promote Western culture and liberal values in the battle of ideas with global Communism during the Cold War. One of the most important elements of this campaign was a series of journals published around the world: Encounter, Preuves, Quest, Mundo Nuevo, and many others, involving many of the most famous intellectuals to promote a global intellectual community. Some of them, such as Minerva and China Quarterly, are still going to this day. This study examines when and why these journals were founded, who ran them, and how we should understand their cultural message in relation to the secret patron that paid the bills.