Transition Magazine

Transition Magazine, founded by Rajat Neogy (1938–1995), a Ugandan of Indian ancestry, was published from 1961 to 1976 on the African continent and was revived in 1991 in the United States.

History

In 1961, at the age of 22, Rajat Neogy founded Transition Magazine: An International Review in Kampala, Uganda.^[1] Transition was designed to be the literary organ of East African writers and intellectuals. It quickly became Africa's leading intellectual magazine, with the appointment of the famous Nigerian poet, Christopher Okigbo as editor of a West African edition in 1962. Transition published such diverse figures as Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, South African novelist Nadine Gordimer (Nobel laureate), Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, and Americans James Baldwin and Paul Theroux.^[2]

In 1968, the Ugandan government jailed Neogy for sedition; the magazine had criticized President Milton Obote's proposed constitutional reforms.^[1] After Neogy's release, Transition was revived in Ghana in 1971. Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka took over as editor in 1973. During Soyinka's tenure, Transition became still more contentious: the cover of one issue sported a cartoon image of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, with Karasi! ("Finish Him!") written across his face. Transition continued to make a name - as well as enemies - for itself until folding in 1976 for financial reasons.

Today

Henry Louis Gates, Jr, a student of Soyinka at Cambridge University and a frequent contributor to the Ghanaian Transition, brought the magazine back to life in 1991. Now based at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, Transition bills itself as "an anchor of deep reflection on black life and a map charting new routes through the globalized world." In 2011, Transition celebrated 50 years since the journal's founding.

Transition is edited by Harvard professor Alejandro de la Fuente, an historian of Latin America and the Caribbean who specializes in the study of comparative slavery and race relations. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of University of Pennsylvania serves as Visual Arts Editor. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah are the magazine's publishers, with Wole Soyinka chairing the Editorial Board. Transition is published three times annually by Indiana University Press.

Editorial Board

Wole Soyinka, Chairman; George Reid Andrews, David Chariandy, Teju Cole, Laurent Dubois, Brent Hayes Edwards, Carolyn Elkins, Sujatha Fernandes, Tope Folarin, Kaiama L. Glover, Kellie Carter Jackson, Biodun Jeyifo, Carla D. Martin, Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz, Achille Mbembe, Siddhartha Mitter, Laurence Ralph, and Antonio Tillis.

Former editors

Rajat Neogy, Founding Editor; Wole Soyinka, Henry Finder, Michael C. Vazquez, F. Abiola Irele, Laurie Calhoun, Tommie Shelby, Glenda Carpio, Vincent Brown.

Recent issues

• #117 New African Fiction
• #116 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
• #115 Mad
• #114 Gay Nigeria
• #113 What is Africa to me now?

References

External links

• Transition Magazine
• Transition Back Issues available on JSTOR
• History of Transition
• Hutchins Center for African and African American Research