Last year in February, of the University of St Andrews passed away after a short struggle with cancer. Ian was a world-renowned scholar in the fields of African Studies, International Relations and Global Political Economy. Besides his remarkable academic achievements, Ian was an extremely passionate educator as well as a kind, humorous and supportive colleague and friend to many of us. This is a modest attempt to pay tribute to an inspiring intellectual and true friend of Africa.

Together with his twin brother Eric, Ian grew up on the Isle of Man, before the family relocated to West London where he spent his teens and would become a die-hard Brentford FC supporter 鈥� in his words a 鈥�100% local club鈥�. Whilst there were few points of contact to Africa on the small Crown dependency in the Irish Sea, Ian, early on, developed an interest in Africa, as he heard stories from his grandmother whose parents had lived in South Africa, and where a large network of relatives still live.

After reading History and Politics at what was then the Leicester Polytechnic, Ian used a gap year in 1991-92 for his first travel to southern Africa 鈥� obviously at quite a formative time for the region. This trip clearly left a firm impression on him, as he would return to the region throughout his life. However, first he joined Jo, the love of his life whom he met in South Africa, when she took up Ph.D studies at the University of Hong Kong in 1994. Ian enrolled himself for a Master鈥檚 there. His 368-pages M.Phil thesis on China鈥檚 foreign policy vis-脿-vis Africa laid the cornerstone for one of his research specialisations and arguably also for a new sub-discipline, China-Africa studies. One of his first academic articles, an output from his M.Phil research, was published in the Journal of Modern African Studies and has since been cited 357 times (Taylor ). Exactly 18 years later, Ian became co-editor-in-chief of this prestigious journal, together with Ebenezer Obadare.

In 1996, Ian moved to South Africa (Jo followed several months later) to pursue Ph.D studies at Stellenbosch under the supervision of Philip Nel. With his Ph.D research, Ian delved deeply into South African foreign policy and into the gradual neoliberalisation of the post-apartheid African National Congress and, by extension, the South African state (Taylor 2001). At the time, Stellenbosch鈥檚 political science department gathered a group of scholars who had become rather disillusioned about remaining inequities in the post-Cold War global order, and who were inspired by the work of critical political economists like Susan Strange, Robert Cox, Stephen Gill and William Robinson as well as by critical Africanists such as Timothy Shaw, Patrick McGowan and Craig Murphy (Nel forthcoming). As his Ph.D supervisor reflects, it was within this intellectual habitat that Ian developed a 鈥渄istinctive Coxian and Gramscian theoretical approach鈥� which 鈥渁llowed him to link the dynamics of ideational factors with the material interests of actors 鈥� an ideology critique in the original sense of the phrase鈥� (Nel forthcoming). Ian became an eminent voice of the Stellenbosch School of critical global political economy (Vale ). As Professor Extraordinary, he would regularly return to his alma mater and continue to inspire generations of students there and at other (African) institutions.

Tit-for-tat 鈥� after finishing his Ph.D, it was again Ian鈥檚 turn to 鈥榝ollow鈥� his wife. The two moved on to the University of Botswana where Jo had been offered a teaching position and where their first child, Blythe, was born in 2004. Ian took up a lectureship in Gaborone and was soon promoted to senior lecturer. Amongst his students was Kennedy Kamoli, who would, in 2014, stage a coup d’茅tat in Lesotho 鈥� an occurrence that Ian, with his typical humour, often referred to as his only 鈥榗laim to fame鈥�. It was during his time in Gaborone that Ian, together with his close friend Fredrik S枚derbaum, launched a 鈥榮econd wave鈥� of critical research on African regionalisms in the tradition of the New Regionalism Approach (see Taylor ; S枚derbaum and Taylor ). Concurrently, Ian published a rigorous critique of the neoliberal underpinnings of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) (see Taylor , ) as well as several influential contributions on Africa鈥檚 international relations and conflict dynamics (see, for instance, Taylor and Williams ; Taylor ).

In 2004, Ian was appointed to a faculty position in the School of International Relations at St Andrews where he worked as a Professor of International Relations and African Political Economy until his untimely death. Amongst both students and faculty in St Andrews, Ian鈥檚 office was legendary for the colourful book walls he had erected around his desk. No doubt, his office hosted the biggest private Africana library in Scotland. But there were also thousands of books on China, political economy, history, political though, etc. Ian was a polymath. He was post-disciplinary (before it became fashionable) and eclectic (though not arbitrary) in the selection of theories and sources that he used to explain and critique developments on the continent and beyond.

Once established, Ian published an immense body of works which includes, amongst others, monographs on China-Africa relations (Taylor , , ), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Taylor and Smith ) and on the International Relations of Africa (Taylor ), as well as Oxford鈥檚 Very Short Introduction to African Politics (Taylor ). He offered a much-needed discursive corrective to the overenthusiastic narrative about the transformative impact of so-called emerging powers in global governance (Taylor ) and famously argued that the BRICS countries were diversifying Africa鈥檚 dependency instead of diminishing it (Taylor , see also ). Numerous critical interventions in article form, such as the ones on state capitalism and Africa鈥檚 oil sector (Taylor ), the (neo-)coloniality of the Communaut茅 Financi猫re Africaine (Taylor ) and China鈥檚 Belt and Road Initiative in Africa (Carmody, Taylor and Zajontz ), have attracted much attention in scholarly circles and beyond. Ian had become 鈥榦ne of the most authoritative academics鈥� on Sub-Saharan Africa鈥檚 International Relations, as he was once called in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Anesi : 171).

Throughout his career, Ian remained steadfast and loyal to his political ideals of a more equitable and just world. He was a radical 鈥� a very gentle radical. He never compromised on his convictions of what is right and what is wrong. What he most certainly considered wrong was the enduring systematic exploitation of Africa by external actors and economic interests. At the same time, he would never let African political and economic elites escape from their responsibility for the fate of their people. Not only his neo-Gramscian training and his appreciation of the complexity of state-society relations but also his familiarity with the political thought of thinkers like Claude Ake, Samir Amin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Am铆lcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, David Rodney and others prevented him from reductionist or Eurocentric assumptions about Africa鈥檚 role in the international system and global political economy.

Ian was an extremely hard-working academic who was marked by his humility and proud of his working-class background. In contrast to some other leading scholars, he really listened when others spoke. He incorporated silenced voices, not least from Africa, into his work and actively engaged in diversifying thought at the institutions he taught at by embracing previously unheard or ignored ideas. Throughout his life, he remained a keen 鈥渟tudent of Africa鈥�. He visited 44 African countries. Whenever he found himself guest lecturing at Addis Ababa University, he would check Ethiopian Airlines鈥� vast route network and book a flight to one of the few African destinations he had not been to. Wanderlust and curiosity were innate to Ian. His untimely death hindered him from completing his personal 鈥淎frica journey鈥�. Yet, he fully accepted his fate and was immensely grateful for the help he received from medical staff and for the love from family and friends. It was obvious that his firm belief in God gave him faith no matter what would come. May his soul rest in peace.

Dr Tim Zajontz is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Freiburg, Germany and a Research Fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He tweets at .

鈥淚an Taylor Collection鈥� in Addis Ababa

Ian鈥檚 family and friends are currently organising the transfer of Ian鈥檚 personal library (of about 8,000 books) to the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) at the Addis Ababa University where Ian was a visiting professor. Please consider supporting this initiative by donating .

References:
Anesi, F. 2012. 鈥楤ook reviews鈥�, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 25(1): 171-190.
Carmody, P., Taylor, I. and Zajontz, T. 2022. 鈥楥hina鈥檚 spatial fix and 鈥榙ebt diplomacy鈥� in Africa: constraining belt or road to economic transformation?鈥�, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 56(1): 57-77.
Nel, P. forthcoming. 鈥楢fter Ian Taylor鈥�, Contemporary Voices: The St Andrews Journal of International Relations.
S枚derbaum, F. and Taylor, I. (eds.) 2003. Regionalism and Uneven Development in Southern Africa. London: Routledge.
Taylor, I. 1998. 鈥楥hina鈥檚 Foreign Policy towards Africa in the 1990s鈥�, Journal of Modern African Studies, 36(3): 443-460.
Taylor, I. 2001. Stuck in Middle GEAR: South Africa鈥檚 Post-Apartheid Foreign Relations. Westport: Praeger.
Taylor, I. 2002. 鈥楾he New Partnership for Africa鈥檚 Development and the Zimbabwe Elections: Implications and Prospects for the Future鈥�, African Affairs, 101(404): 403-412.
Taylor, I. 2003a. 鈥楪lobalization and regionalization in Africa: reactions to attempts at neo-liberal regionalism鈥�, Review of International Political Economy, 10(2): 310-330.
Taylor, I. 2003b. 鈥楥onflict in Central Africa: Clandestine Networks and Regional/Global Configurations鈥�, Review of African Political Economy, 30(95): 45-55.
Taylor, I. 2005. NEPAD: Towards Africa鈥檚 Development or Another False Start? Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Taylor, I. 2006. China and Africa: Engagement and Compromise. London: Routledge.
Taylor, I. 2009. China鈥檚 New Role in Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Taylor, I. 2010. The International Relations of Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Continuum.
Taylor, I. 2011. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). London: Routledge.
Taylor, I. 2014a. Africa Rising? BRICS 鈥� Diversifying Dependency. Oxford: James Currey.
Taylor, I. 2014b. 鈥楨merging powers, state capitalism and the oil sector in Africa鈥�, Review of African Political Economy 41(141): 341-357.
Taylor, I. 2016. ‘Dependency redux: why Africa is not rising’, Review of African Political Economy Volume 43(147): 8-25.
Taylor, I. 2017. Global Governance and Transnationalising Capitalist Hegemony: The Myth of the 鈥淓merging Powers鈥�. London: Routledge.
Taylor, I. 2018. African Politics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, I. 2019. 鈥楩rance 脿 fric: the CFA zone in Africa and neocolonialism鈥�, Third World Quarterly, 40(6): 1064-1088.
Taylor, I. and Smith, K. 2007. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. London: Routledge.
Taylor, I. and Williams, P. 2002. 鈥楾he Limits of Engagement: British Foreign Policy and the Crisis in Zimbabwe鈥�, International Affairs, 78(3): 547-565.
Vale, P. 2002. 鈥楾he movement, modernity and new International Relations writing in South Africa鈥�, International Affairs 78(3): 585-593.