Prof. Issa G. Shivji is an author and one of Africa’s leading experts on law and development issues. He has served as an advocate of the high court and the court of Appeal of Tanzania since 1977 and an advocate of the high court in Zanzibar since 1989.

He has taught and worked in universities all over the world, including the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Warwick, the University of Hong Kong, and El Colegio De Mexico. He is a retired Professor of Public Law and the first holder of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam.

He has published over a dozen books, including “Class Struggles in Tanzania” (1976), “The Concept of Human Rights in Africa” (1989), and “Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism: Lessons of Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union” (2008)     

He graduated from the University of East Africa in 1970 and immediately joined the Faculty of Law, University of Dar es Salaam where he was a professor of law until his retirement in 2006.