JOURNALIST / ACTIVIST
MACKIE J. MCLEOD III
SUCCUMBS

November 26, 1947 - October 9, 2005

Mackie J. McLeod III, a political activist and progressive journalist who covered Africa and African-American affairs, died from complications of kidney disease on October 9th in Washington, DC. He was 57.

Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, McLeod lived and worked all over the world. His interest in African politics began with his travels in the 1970s to Dakar, Senegal, where he studied relief and development issues and volunteered with the United Nations Development Program as it aided the refugees of the Sahelian drought. He would eventually come to know the continent well, and throughout his career he was deeply engaged in U.S. policy toward Africa. Policy makers in the public and private sectors in the US and Africa relied on his expertise. In the 1980s McLeod played a strategic role in the growth of the anti-apartheid movement in Boston and Washington, and from that period through the end of the decade he initiated the African development programs of a number of firms, both businesses and non profits.

McLeod's parents, who were civil rights activists, raised a family of three boys in Roxbury and Randolph, MA. In his early twenties, McLeod left the United States for Africa with his wife, Zubaida Price, whom he met when he was twenty while both were producing the program On Being Black for WGBH. Returning to Boston in the late 1970s, Mr. McLeod worked as a broadcaster concentrating on politics for several local media outlets, including WILD, WBUR, WBCN and WGBH. He wrote trenchant commentary on contemporary African politics for the news magazine Dollars and Sense and other publications. He served as public relations director for the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and later advised the Washington, DC chapter of the ACLU on media.

Although he was involved in a broad range of domestic issues, including the antiwar movement, civil liberties and black political representation, McLeod's attention never drifted far from Africa. In the 1980s he served as the public relations director for Grassroots International, a Boston-based nonprofit that addressed famine in West Africa. In 1987, McLeod traveled often to southern Africa on fact-finding and relief missions on behalf of the Mozambique Support Network, a U.S.-based group that supported the FRELIMO government against the attacks by rebel forces supported by South Africa. In 1990, McLeod and his wife moved to Harare, Zimbabwe, where they managed programs for the American Friends Service Committee.

By the early 1990s, when South Africa was undergoing the political transformation that would in 1994 lead to the election of Nelson Mandela, Mackie McLeod had amassed a broad range of experience in development work on the continent, particularly in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Anticipating the post-apartheid period, many American companies were opening up offices in South Africa, and the McLeods provided a vital liaison between the two cultures. The family moved to Johannesburg in 1992, and as executive director of the Lotus Information Technology Education Fund, McLeod helped define the best practices in social investment for American corporations operating in South Africa. In addition to his wealth of experience in Africa, McLeod brought to the work an enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology and his enormous gifts as a teacher and trainer. He introduced the world of computers to hundreds of young South Africans and helped develop Lotus's initiatives among small businesses and educational institutions in under served regions. He once told a reporter that in this work -- applying development tools to the transmission of information technology skills -- he had found his calling. He felt that there was much to do in the new South Africa "for people interested in contributing their skills, as I am."

McLeod attended San Francisco State College and the Fellows Program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He returned to the United States when his health began to decline in the late 1990s, and he and his wife came to live with their daughter, Zambia, who was born in Africa.

Blessed with a sharp wit and an encyclopedic knowledge of world politics, McLeod was a global citizen and a Pan-Africanist who moved with ease between Soweto and Roxbury. His daughter Zambia recalls his mantra: "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." He thought of himself as a producer of "information for public inspiration" and believed that "an informed person is an active person." He urged young people to get involved if they wanted to change the world.

McLeod leaves his wife of 37 years, Zubaida Price McLeod, his daughter Zambia McLeod Davis, a son-in-law Willie Davis, a grandson, Miles Dakari Davis, all of Silver Spring, MD, and brothers David McLeod of Chicago and Gearey McLeod of Los Angeles. Family and friends will gather to remember the life of Mackie J. McLeod III on November 26, 2005 at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC.