Biographical information
From 1971-2000 I taught at universities in Swaziland, Zambia and South Africa. Since my return to the United Kingdom in 2000 I have been affiliated to Oxford University as a research fellow, research officer, and a research associate at the African Studies Centre. I have recently (2023) been appointed as a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg's Centre for Social Change. My book on South Africa's liberation movement in exile in Zambia, The Lusaka Years: The African National Congress in Zambia, 1963-1994, was published by Jacana in 2013. I have also written three pcket biographies for Jacana, on Chris Hani (2014), Jack Simons: Teacher, Scholar, Comrade (2016), and Oliver Tambo (2017).
Other monographs include Zion in Africa: The Jews of Zambia (IB Tauris: 1999 and new edition with epilogue 2017) An African Trading Empire:The Story of Susman Brothers & Wulfsohn (IB Tauris 2005 and paperback edition 2017), the history of an extensive southern African family trading business. In 2003 I was the co-author with Alex Duncan and Neo Simutanyi of a report for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development entitled ‘Zambia: the drivers of pro-poor Change’ - (www.sarpn.org.za). I was the historical consultant for the Gateway Jewish Museum, Livingstone, Zambia, which opened in 2013. In 2019 and 2020, I acted as historical consultant for two World Bank reports on Eswatini.
Most of my work has been historical, but I have also published widely on the interface between history, politics, social anthropology, economics and literature.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
Ph.D, Modern History, University of Edinburgh, 1970. Dissertation topic: `The Origins and Development of the African Lakes Company, 1878-1908’. Digitised copy available to download from University of Edinburgh https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/24105
MA, Area Studies (Africa), School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (major in African History, minor in Social Anthropology), 1967.
BA Modern History, University of Oxford, 1966 (MA 1970).
