Rajat Neogy (December 17, 1938 – December 3, 1995),
[Paul Theroux, "Obituary: Rajat Neogy", The Independent, 15 January 1996,][ California Death Index: Rajat Neogy] a
of
Bengali people ancestry, was a writer, poet and publisher. In
Kampala in 1961, at the age of 22, he founded
Transition Magazine, which went on to become one of the most influential literary journals in Africa.
[Julius Sigei and Ciugu Mwagiru, "Humble magazine that nurtured Africa’s thinkers", Daily Nation, 1 December 2012.] In the words of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "he (Neogy) believed in the multi-cultural and multifaceted character of ideas, and he wanted to provide a space where different ideas could meet, clash, and mutually illuminate.
Transition became the intellectual forum of the New East Africa, and indeed Africa, the first publisher of some of the leading intellectuals in the continent, including
Wole Soyinka,
Ali Mazrui and
Peter Nazareth."
[Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "Asia in My Life", Chimurenga, 15 May 2012.]
Biography
Neogy was born and grew up in Kampala, Uganda. He studied anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he also worked as a scriptwriter for the
BBC.
After returning to Uganda in 1961, Neogy founded
Transition, which soon came to be considered the leading journal of free expression in Africa. In 1962, he also played a leading role in organising the influential 1962 Makerere Conference for African Writers of English Expression, which brought together African and African American writers including Ngũgĩ, J.P. Clark and
Langston Hughes.
However, the success of
Transition also placed Neogy under new political pressure. In 1967, it was revealed that
Transition had indirectly received CIA funding through the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a cultural body which aimed to sponsor anti-communist writing across the developing world. Neogy claimed that he had been unaware of the source of CCF funding, but he was strongly criticised by members of Uganda's ruling
Milton Obote regime.
In 1968, after
Transition published a long editorial critical of the Ugandan government's authoritarianism, he was charged with sedition and spent months in detention before being acquitted and released.
Leaving Uganda, he moved to
Ghana in 1970, where he resumed publishing
Transition with
Wole Soyinka taking over as editor.
Neogy then settled in the United States.
Neogy died aged 57 at his home in San Francisco, where he had lived for two decades.[Eric Pace, "Rajat Neogy, 57, Founder of Journal on Africa", The New York Times, 11 December 1995.]
Born a Hindus, Neogy would eventually convert to Islam, at first he wanted to do it publicly at the Kibuli mosque but his friend Ali Mazrui dissuaded him, telling him that it would be better to convert privately.
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