Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2023-11-27

For the last three decades Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events and with the most significant personalities to impact the black diaspora: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama’s victory, entering New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina or interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. He has witnessed how much change is possible and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations.  

Dispatches from the Diaspora is an unrivalled body of work from a unique perspective that takes you to the frontlines and compels you to engage and to ‘imagine a world in which you might thrive, for which there is no evidence. And then fight for it.’ Reflecting on three decades of his remarkable career as a journalist, Dispatches from the Diaspora is a powerful collection of his writings on race, racism, and Black life and death. A vital and richly researched blend of reportage, memoir and polemic, it invites us ringside with Younge during some of the most history-defining events of the last century.  

Further information about the event can be found here - https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/dispatches-diaspora-nelson-mandela-black-lives-matter