The Abdulhay Ahmed Saloojee Trust was established to honor the legacy of a remarkable activist and thinker who dedicated his life to the struggle for justice and equality in South Africa.
Abdulhay Ahmed Saloojee was born in India in 1927 while his family was already settled in Johannesburg. By the age of 15 he was already active in the Transvaal Indian Congress. He later enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand where he furthered his political interest and was one of the founding members of the Progressive Forum, an affiliate of the Unity Movement of South Africa.
The Progressive Forum attracted the attention of the state security apparatus and Saloojee was interrogated on numerous occasions and warned in terms of the suppression of Communism Act to cease his political involvement.
Through our memorial lectures and other initiatives, we aim to continue the important conversations about democracy, social justice, and liberation that were so central to Abdulhay’s work.
The memorial lectures
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2025: Israel Dutra
Resistance to the Far Right and Struggles for Democracy: Lessons from Brazil
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2024: Radhika Desai
The Rise of the Authoritarian Right in the World and South Africa
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2023: Robin D.G. Kelley
Post-liberation Politics and the Struggle for Democracy
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2019: Michael Löwy
Struggles for Democracy in Latin America – Lessons for South Africa’s forthcoming elections?
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2018: Adam Hanieh
Where to with Liberation Struggles in the Middle East?
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2017: John Pilger
The War Against Democracy