Dr Abdullah Abdurahman led the African Political Organisation (APO) – the leading coloured party of the early 1900s. He was a friend and ally of Sol Plaatje, Walter Rubusana, Mahatma Gandhi and W.P. Schreiner, and a leading advocate of black unity. Upon his death in 1940 Cape Town ground to a halt. This biography lifts Dr Abdurahman from the obscurity into which he has so unjustly sunk.

Join author, Martin Plaut, senior research fellow at the University of London to celebrate the launch of Dr Abdullah Abdurahman: The first elected black South African politician, a deeply researched history.

Why was Dr Abdullah Abdurahman, the first person of colour to be elected to political office in South Africa, written out of the country’s history?