Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:18:19.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ivan Potekhin—Man, Scientist, and Friend of Africa

The Journal of Modern African Studies has lost a valued member of its Editorial Advisory Board with the death of Professor Ivan Potekhin. The following memoir is written by a personaifriend and colleague from the Soviet Union:

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

George Skorov
George Skorov
Affiliation:
International Institute of Educational Planning, Paris
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

I was attending a conference sponsored by the University of East Africa in Dar es Salaam when the sad news of the death of Professor Potekhin came through. The world community of Africanists has suffered a great loss. The people of Africa have lost one of their most devoted friends.

Ivan Potekhin was born of a family of farmers in a small village in Siberia in 1903. No one can say what the destiny of this young Siberian peasant would have been had it not been for the Socialist revolution in Russia in October 1917. He was pulled into the revolutionary whirl and fought with arms to promote its ideals. This period in his life had a decisive role in shaping his political outlook and determining his future. From this time on, the idea of liberating man from political and social injustice became his creed. He devoted all his life to this.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , November 1964 , pp. 444 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)