Max Yergan: Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior

Abstract

As the title of this provocative work suggests, Max Yergan certainly is one of the more intriguing figures of the previous century. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, during the worst of the unlamented Jim Crow era in the late nineteenth century, this African American intellectual joined the staff of the Young Men's Christian Association (ymca). In that post he was able to tour the planet, camping variously in India and East Africa. Then, in 1921, he traveled to South Africa, where he may have made his most significant contribution. There he became close to Govan Mbeki, father of that nation's current president and certainly a man who ranks with W. E. B. Du Bois as one of the leading activist intellectuals that the Pan-African world—nay, the planet—has produced. According to the author, “Mbeki actually became a protégé of Max Yergan” (p. 139). It would have been helpful if the author had informed the reader about Mbeki's larger significance, for, like Du Bois, Mbeki was a member of the Communist party of his homeland. Yergan was unique in that he was close to the party in both nations, a connection that sheds light on why he is viewed as one of the more important figures of the African diaspora.