''Transition Magazine'' was established in 1961 by

Rajat Neogy Rajat Neogy (December 17, 1939 – December 3, 1995),Paul Theroux ''The Independent'', 15 January 1996, a Ugandan of Indian Bengali ancestry, was a writer, poet and publisher. In Kampala in 1961, at the age of 22, he founded ''Transition Magazine'', ...

as ''Transition Magazine: An International Review''. It was published from 1961 to 1976 in various countries on the

African continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and since 1991 in the United States. In recent years it has been published between twice and four times per year by

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, since 2013 on behalf of the

Hutchins Center for African and African American Research The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, also known as the Hutchins Center, is affiliated with Harvard University. The Center supports scholarly research on the history and culture of people of African descent around the world, ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

History

Upon his 1961 return to

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, Uganda, from studies in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, 22-year-old

established ''Transition Magazine: An International Review''.Julius Sigei and Ciugu Mwagiru
"Humble magazine that nurtured Africa’s thinkers"
''

Daily Nation The ''Daily Nation'' is the highest circulation Kenyan independent newspaper with 170,000 copies. History The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili language, Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hay ...

'', 1 December 2012. Unbeknownst and much to the dismay of Neogy, the magazine was partially funded by the

Congress for Cultural Freedom The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was an anti-communist advocacy group founded in 1950. At its height, the CCF was active in thirty-five countries. In 1966 it was revealed that the CIA was instrumental in the establishment and funding of the ...

, an

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

advocacy group tied to the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. ''Transition'' served as a major literary platform of

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

n writers and intellectuals during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

.Origins of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1949-50
/ref> In 1962,

Christopher Okigbo Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo (16 August 1932 – 1967) was a Nigerian poet, teacher, and librarian, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as an outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet an ...

was appointed as editor of a West African edition. In 1968, the Ugandan government jailed Neogy for

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

; the magazine had criticized President

Milton Obote Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962. Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to ...

's proposed constitutional reforms. After Neogy's release, the magazine began publication in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

from 1971. Nigerian writer

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

became editor in 1973, but in 1976 the magazine was forced to cease publication for financial reasons.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...

, previously a frequent contributor to ''Transition'' when published in Ghana, revived the magazine in 1991. Under his leadership, ''Transition'' evolved into "an international magazine about race and culture, with an emphasis on the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

". It is not clear when the journal was first published in the US, but since the Hutchins Center was established in 2013, it has supported publication of the journal. the editor is

Alejandro de la Fuente Alejandro de la Fuente is an academic and art curator. He is the Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics, Professor of African and African American Studies and of History at Harvard University. He is also Director of ...

. Soyinka is chair of the editorial board, and Gates and

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah wa ...

are named as the publishers. All back issues are available via

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

, with issue descriptions available from Issue 102 (2010) on the Hutchins website.

Former editors

Former editors include: *

* Henry Finder * Michael C. Vazquez * F. Abiola Irele * Laurie Calhoun *

Tommie Shelby Tommie Shelby (born 1967) is an American philosopher. Since 2013, he has served as the Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University, where he is the current chair of the Department of ...

* Glenda Carpio * Vincent Brown

References

External links

* {{African American press, state=collapsed Magazines established in 1961 Magazines published in Africa Political magazines published in the United States African-American magazines Harvard University Literary magazines published in the United States 1961 establishments in Uganda Mass media in Kampala Triannual magazines published in the United States Magazines published in Boston CIA activities in Africa Congress for Cultural Freedom

History

Former editors

See also

References

External links