Transition Magazine was founded by Rajat Neogy (1938–1995), a Ugandan of Indian ancestry.
History
In 1961, at the age of twenty-two, Neogy founded Transition Magazine: An International Review in Kampala, Uganda. Transition was designed to be the literary organ of East African writers and intellectuals. Transition quickly became Africa's leading intellectual magazine, publishing such diverse figures as Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, South African novelist Nadine Gordimer (Nobel laureate), Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, and Americans such as James Baldwin and Paul Theroux. In 1968, the Ugandan government jailed Neogy for sedition; the magazine had criticized President Milton Obote's proposed constitutional reforms. After Neogy's release, Transition was revived in Ghana in 1971. Wole Soyinka (Nobel laureate) took over as editor in 1973. During Soyinka's tenure, Transition became still more contentious: the cover of one issue sported a cartoon image of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, with Karasi! ("Finish Him!") written across his face. Transition continued to make a name - and enemies - for itself until its demise in 1976.
Today
Skip Gates, a student of Soyinka's at Cambridge University and a frequent contributor to the Ghanaian Transition, brought the magazine back to life in 1991. Now based in the United States, Transition bills itself as "an international review of politics, culture, and ethnicity from Beijing to Bujumbura." Gates is philosophical about the magazine's expanded purview: "Africa is thoroughly in the world and the world is in Africa", he observes. "Transition reflects the centrality of both to each other". Transition Magazine is currently edited by Skip Gates and Kwame Anthony Appiah, with Wole Soyinka as the Chairman of the Editorial Board. Transition was published quarterly by Soft Skull Press in New York, and is now published by Indiana University Press. Beginning with the first issue of 2008, it announced it would appear three times each year in a 176-page format.
