Ronald Segal


Ronald Michael Segal was a South African activist, writer and editor, founder of the anti-apartheid magazine Africa South and the Penguin African Library.

Life

Ronald Segal was born on 14 July 1932, into a rich South African Jewish family. He was educated at Sea Point Boys' High School, before studying at the University of Cape Town and then Trinity College, Cambridge.
Returning to South Africa in 1956, he founded the anti-apartheid magazine Africa South. After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, he went into exile with Oliver Tambo, and settled in England, continuing his anti-apartheid political activity and pursuing activity as a writer. Segal's best-known work is The State of the World Atlas, which he co-founded with Michael Kidron, another South African-born Jew, who shared most of his political views.
After Segal was unbanned from South Africa, he visited the country several times, receiving a hero's welcome on stage alongside Mandela, Tambo and Slovo in 1992. Segal died on 23 February 2008.

Works

Tokolosh of the Townships, 1960 Political Africa: A Who’s Who of Personalities and Parties, 1961African Profiles, 1962Into Exile, 1963Sanctions against South Africa, 1964The Anguish of India, 1965The Race War: The Worldwide Conflict of Races, 1966America’s Receding FutureThe Americans: A Conflict of Creed and Reality, 1969The Struggle Against History, 1971Whose Jerusalem? The Conflicts of Israel, 1973Decline and Fall of the American Dollar, 1974Southern Africa: New Politics of Revolution, 1976Leon Trotsky: a biography, 1979The State of the World Atlas, 1981The Black Diaspora, 1995Islam's Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora, 2001