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Sean Jacobs

As seen in: City Press, News24, LSE Connect, London Review of Books, Mail & Guardian, The AIAC Podcast, Africa Is a Country, DOWN BEAT, The Elephant, On Line Opinion and
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Articles

Fela Kuti and the Nigerian Left

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By Sean Jacobs
| London Review of Books Verified
Fela Kuti in Lagos, c.1983 (William F. Campbell / Getty) Recent major exhibitions, one in Paris in 2022 and another in Lagos in December 2025, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys last month, cast Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì as a singular cultural icon, an eccentric genius or global rebel shaped by Pan-Africanism and the Black Atlantic, while downplaying how deeply he was formed by left radical currents in Nigeria.
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Can we engage with power without being corrupted by it? Sean Jacobs reviews Mahmood Mamdani’s new book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State

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By Sean Jacobs
| The Johannesburg Review of Books
Sean Jacobs reviews Slow Poison by Mahmood Mamdani, a rich and textured account of Ugandan and postcolonial African politics, and a layered personal history. Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State Mahmood Mamdani Wits University Press, 2025 What lessons can we draw for intellectuals and academics on the margins of the corridors of power?
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She could translate lived experience into art and return it with dignity-Sean Jacobs on Zöe Wicomb

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By Sean Jacobs
| The Johannesburg Review of Books
Sean Jacobs honours the late Zöe Wicomb (1948—2025). Zöe Wicomb was a significant influence on me, a presence in my life, and someone I cared about and greatly appreciated. It was a bonus that we became friends. As I remarked at a memorial event for her held at Clarke’s Bookstore in Cape Town in early November 2025, although I’d known of Zöe Wicomb for much of my adult life and admired her genius as a novelist and academic from afar, I only met her in person in early 2006.
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