In this book Saul draws on a series of his own occasional articles written over a span of forty years which, together with a linking narrative, serve to trace not only his own career as an anti-apartheid and liberation support movement activist in both Canada and southern Africa but also help recount the history of the various struggles in both venues in which he has been directly involved. He thus shapes a unique memoir, capped by some longer summary pieces on the global processes of empire and decolonization that he has witnessed and on the reading, listening, playing and family pleasures that have enlivened his life's passage.

John S. Saul was educated at the Universities of Toronto, Princeton and London and, on the ground, in Africa and has taught for many years both at York University (until his retirement) in Canada and in Africa: in Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. He also worked throughout these years as a liberation support and anti-apartheid activist, notably with the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa (TCLSAC) and with Southern Africa Report magazine. He had published over seventeen books including: Millennial Africa: Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, The Next Liberation Struggle: Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy in Southern Africa, Development after Decolonization: Theory and Practice for the Embattled South in a New Imperial Age, Recolonization and Resistance: Southern Africa in the 1990s, and O Marxismo-Leninismo no Contexto Moçambicano. He remains committed to an anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist politics.

John Saul's profile page

At its core, Revolutionary Traveller tries to make sense of the path taken by liberation movements in Southern Africa from the perspective of one swept up in their momentum. It is both sobering and literating to read a personal account of such large political transformations that considers the role an individual can play while acknowledging the greater role of class and national forces. -- Chris Webb, Canadian Dimension