Chasing Freedom: Simukai Chigudu in Conversation with Gary Younge

As a member of the first generation born after the end of colonial rule in Zimbabwe, Simukai Chigudu had heard stories about his grandfather’s M**der by the Rhodesian regime, and of how his father was imprisoned and tortured as a student activist before joining the bloody war of independence as a guerrilla soldier. Chasing Freedom traces the tangled threads of personal and political history to give a new perspective on race, class, identity and the heavy legacy of colonialism. It is an intimate reckoning with the ghosts of the past that haunt our politics and our psyches in ways we cannot always see.

Simukai Chigudu is associate professor of African politics at the University of Oxford and fellow of St. Antony’s College. He was previously a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is one of the founding members of Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford, a campaign to decolonize the university – and remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College.

Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. Formerly editor-at-large at The Guardian, he has written seven books, most recently Pigeonholed: Creative Freedom as an Act of Resistance (Faber, 2025). Winner of the 2023 Orwell Prize for Journalism and the 2025 Robert. B. Silvers Prize for Journalism, he has written for the New York Review of Books, Granta, GQ and New Statesman, among others, and made radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Your ticket includes a complimentary glass of wine.

Tickets: £10 General Admission / £8 Foyalty Member / £25 Book and Ticket, inc. a copy of Chasing Freedom (RRP £20)
Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Foyles Bookshop, 107 Charing Cross Road