Category: Reflections
The Tribulations of an African Humanist
Leo Igwe is the executive director of both the Center for Inquiry in Nigeria and the Nigerian Humanist Movement. It would be difficult to find a humanist activist with greater courage, determination, and persistence anywhere in the world. On more than one occasion, Igwe has been physically attacked by religious extremists. He has been pursued …
Twenty Years of African Americans for Humanism
In 1989, I attended a Free Inquiry conference at American University in Washington, D.C. It was the first time I had attended a major gathering of humanists. I was surprised to find that I was the only African American there, although I spotted a couple of East Indians. I thought this was odd, because humanism, …
A Look Back
Several months ago, a committee of Council for Secular Humanism and Center for Inquiry staff members collaborated on a list of twenty-nine conspicuous achievements from the Council for Secular Humanism’s first twenty-nine years. We compiled the original list (from which the below was gently adapted) for an online fund-raising effort, but after the work was …
Farewell to Two Black Humanist Activists
Humanists and skeptics throughout the world are mourning the deaths of two leading freethought activists, Sibanye (aka Herbert Crimes) of the Center for Inquiry/Harlem Discussion Group, and Hope N. Tawiah, who led the Rational Centre headquartered in Accra, Ghana. Sibanye—whose name means “we as one” in Swahili—died after a long illness on Tuesday, September 29, …