Brian Raftopoulos

Professor Brian Raftopoulos is a leading Zimbabwean scholar and activist. Formally an Associate Professor of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, he moved to Cape Town at the end of March 2006 and is currently the Director of Research and Advocacy in the Solidarity Peace Trust, an NGO dealing with human rights issues in Zimbabwe. He has published widely on Zimbabwean history, labour history, historiography, politics, and economic issues. Currently he is coordinating a book on the History of Zimbabwe with a group of Zimbabwean historians, as well as working on a study of The State and the Labour Question in Zimbabwe: 1945-2005. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies. In addition, Brian Raftopoulos has been a civic activist in Zimbabwe over the last decade. He was a member of the founding Task Force of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) 1998-2000, the editor of the NCA journal Agenda from 1999-2001, as well as the first Chair of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition from 2001-2003.