Sean Jacobs
Sean Jacobs is a South African-born scholar and writer, trained in political science and culture and media studies. He spent 20 years at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (2005–09) and The New School (2009–26), where he became a tenured full professor, before becoming an independent author this year. He is writing a biography of NEA Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim and recently published a major essay on him in the New York Review of Books. His fellowships and prizes include Harvard, New York University, Fulbright, Commonwealth, Ford, Shorenstein, ACLS/Luce, Open Society, and Shuttleworth. He founded and long edited Africa Is a Country and recently launched Eleven Named People, inspired by Eric Hobsbawm, exploring the intersections of sport and politics globally. His book Media in Postapartheid South Africa (Indiana University Press, 2019) and writing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and the London Review of Books have brought his work to a wide audience.
Songs of Liberation, his essay on the pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, appeared in the New York Review of Books in June 2026. He is now writing Ibrahim’s biography.
Eleven Named People takes its name from Eric Hobsbawm’s line that the imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people. It is free to read and subscribe to.
Books
- Media in Postapartheid South Africa: Postcolonial Politics in the Age of Globalization – Indiana University Press – 2019
- The Encyclopedia of South Africa (co-edited) – Lynne Rienner – 2011
- Shifting Selves: Post-Apartheid Essays on Mass Media, Culture and Identity (co-edited with Herman Wasserman) – Kwela Books – 2003
- Thabo Mbeki’s World: The Politics and Ideology of the South African President (co-edited) – University of Natal Press / Zed Books – 2002
Essays & Criticism
- Songs of Liberation – NYRB – 2026
- Fela Kuti and the Nigerian Left – LRB – 2026
- Chop-Chop Spirit: Festac ’77 Revisited – LRB – 2024
- From Protest to Power – LRB – 2024
- AKA, 1988–2023 – LRB – 2023
- A Human, Not a Myth – Jacobin – 2018
- Patrice Lumumba (1925–1961) – Jacobin – 2017
South African Politics
- Why South Africa Needs a Democratic Socialism (with Benjamin Fogel) – Jacobin – 2019
- From Zuma to Ramaphosa (with Benjamin Fogel) – Jacobin – 2018
- Zuma Is Not the Only Problem (with Benjamin Fogel) – Jacobin – 2017
- South Africa’s Coming Two-Party System – Jacobin – 2016
- South Africa Turns on Its Immigrants (with Dan Magaziner) – The New York Times – 2015
- After Mandela – The Nation – 2013
- The Unfinished Revolution – The Nation – 2004
- Things Fall Apart (with Jessica Blatt) – The Nation – 2002
Sport & Politics
- Eleven Named People – Substack – 2026
- Culture Vultures Want a Piece of Democratic Socialism (with Ryder Glickman) – Jacobin – 2026
- The “Progressive” NBA Still Loves Israel (with Christina Wong) – Jacobin – 2024
- What Muhammad Ali Believed – Jacobin – 2016
- It’s Time to Kick Israel Out of Soccer (with Aubrey Bloomfield) – The Nation – 2016
More of Sean’s writing can be found at Africa Is a Country, where he has published more than 500 pieces, and at Eleven Named People.
