‘You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. Besides, it took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen!’

These famous words of Captain Thomas Noel Isidore Sankara, President of Burkina Faso, best capture the spirit of the African revolutionary tradition: The courage to invent the future. Nonconformity. Radical organising. Confronting unjust power.

Mapinduzi is Swahili for Revolution; if you like, the “madness” that is essential to bring about fundamental change.

The objective of a true revolutionary is not to find a comfortable place within an unjust order. Or to hope that fundamental change will come about some day through a miracle or the rise of a redeemer. A true revolutionary thinks, works, suffers, sacrifices to destroy the unjust order so that all people may fully enjoy a dignified life. It is a radical commitment.

Fahamu has launched the Mapinduzi Afrika Mailing List for progressive individuals and groups throughout the pan-African world – for Africa is a global reality - to share their thoughts, experiences, events, strategies, struggles, opportunities, activities and updates in the ongoing efforts to destroy entrenched oppressive, anti-people systems.

This is an open forum. We hope that through this forum, individuals and movements in the pan-African world will be able to connect, share, dream and learn from one another to amplify the struggles for social justice – so that we can liberate ourselves from all forms of oppression. So that we can truly be free!

Viva Afrika!

Submit emails for addition to the Mapinduzi Afrika Mailing List to [email protected] or [email protected]