This is an important book that offers a careful and nuanced historicized analysis of the ironies and complexities of the ‘RhodesMustFall’ (RMF) movement, which started at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2015. Despite its title, #RhodesMustFall, this book is only partially about the RMF student movement itself. But it provides a deep understanding of the historical and current socio-economic issues in South Africa, including the efforts and challenges to enhance equality from racial and economic divisions. Foregrounding issues on Sir Cecil John Rhodes, a British colonial imperialist in Africa, and the RMF movement at UCT, Nyamnjoh broadly explores the notion of citizenship in Africa. In his discussion, he poses a question about who belongs where to articulate issues relating to a true citizen, an autochthon or an authentic son/daughter of a native soil, and a foreigner or outsider.

After painting a picture of Cecil Rhodes in Chapter 1 and discussing the RMF movement in connection to issues of race and inequality in Chapter 2, Nyamnjoh goes further in Chapter 3 and talks about the narrow understanding of belonging and nationhood in relation to xenophobic or Afrophobic attacks in South Africa. Then, in Chapter 4, he illustrates UCT's responses towards the RMF movement. Chapter 5 brings lessons from RMF and other related discussions to talk about race, injustices and inequalities propagated under colonialism and apartheid, of which Rhodes and his contemporaries were forerunners. Nyamnjoh presents a fictionalized account of himself in Chapter 6 to argue for friendliness, intimacy and mutuality in defining notions such as citizenship and nationality, insider and outsider, family and stranger. Chapter 7 concludes the book by summing up the author's key point that there is a need to reconceptualize citizenship in ways that create political, cultural, social and economic space for excluded nationals and non-nationals alike, both as individuals and as collectivities. In this way, Nyamnjoh reflects on how Rhodes, a foreigner, dispossessed the land and resources of the native sons and daughters of South Africa. This and the lessons behind the xenophobic/Afrophobic attacks against other black Africans from different countries demonstrate how history shapes the present and the future.

Nyamnjoh's comments on the reconceptualization of citizenship are credible. Similarly, other studies have called for universities to enhance citizenship or the notion of Ubuntu to promote a sense of compassion and understanding of different human experiences among students. For instance, Walker and Loots’ study, ‘Social citizenship formation at university: a South African case study’Footnote ¹ presents universities as a space for the formation of citizenship capabilities and democratic citizenship values. Acknowledging the historical complexities in South Africa, Nyamnjoh argues that enhancing citizenship does not mean abandoning the past for the present but instead innovatively blends the past with the present in the interests of the future.

However, Costandius and Bitzer's Engaging Higher Education Curricula: a critical citizenship education perspective Footnote ² shows that the execution of processes and policies towards anti-racism, equality and citizenship in South Africa has been slow, complex and ambiguous. Nyamnjoh also indicates that it is not easy to achieve Ubuntu and trust considering the deep wounds and traumatic experiences that are still causing division in post-apartheid South Africa. Therefore, the book left me questioning South Africa's current position after six years of the RMF movement. For example, in 2019, we witnessed another xenophobic attack in Johannesburg, which raises concerns about the direction and implications of citizenship in South Africa. Is it evident then that the execution of equality or citizenship is ambiguous, as Costandius and Bitzer indicate? What is to be done within these complexities to achieve a broader understanding of citizenship and humanity? In #RhodesMustFall, Nyamnjoh also shows that xenophobic attacks usually begin in black South African informal settlements. Still, one might ask how do we – or should we – disseminate knowledge and understanding of togetherness to these masses in the townships? These are some of the questions that left me puzzled.

Overall, for a foreigner in South Africa like myself, this book offered an excellent introduction to the contemporary history of the country. I was particularly fascinated by how Nyamnjoh made his argument, drawing from various sources such as oral statements, novels, films and academic works. His primary argument on conviviality and humanity in defining citizenship in Africa reminds me of Julius Nyerere's education philosophy, which called for mass mobilization, total liberation, freedom, equality, and building a human-centred socialist society. Nyamnjoh, therefore, reminds us that we can all choose a better future by including ‘a fellow’, ‘sisters’, ‘brothers’ or ‘one of us’ in our shopping basket as Africans.