Ronald Segal was born into an extremely wealthy Jewish family in South Africa on 14th July 1932. After he attended Sea Point Boys' High School he studied English and Latin at Cape Town University. Later he did a further degree at Trinity College, Cambridge.

On his return to South Africa in 1956 Segal launched Africa South. He used the magazine to campaign against the racist policies of the South African government. Over the next few years Segal became a leading figure in the anti-apartheid movement.

Segal went on a speaking tour of the United States where he argued for an economic boycott of South Africa. He also raised funds for the African National Congress and the defence fund of Nelson Mandela and others on trial for treason in Pretoria.

After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 the government introduced a state of emergency and began imprisoning anti-apartheid activists. Segal and Oliver Tambo managed to escape to England. Segal continued to publish Africa South until the government was able to cut off the money supply from his family in South Africa.

Segal was the author of several books including Political Africa (1961), African Profiles (1962), Into Exile (1963), Race War: The Worldwide Conflict of Races (1966), America's Receding Future (1968), The Struggle Against History (1974), Decline and Fall of the American Dollar (1974), Southern Africa: New Politics of Revolution (1976), The Tragedy of Leon Trotsky (1983) and The New State of the World Atlas (1984).

Segal, along with his South-African friends based in England, including Oliver Tambo and Joe Slovo, continued to campaign for the release of Nelson Mandela.

In 1982 Segal's close friend, Ruth First, was killed by a parcel bomb. In recognition of her work Segal established the Ruth First Memorial Prize for journalism.

After Segal was finally unbanned by the South African government and received a hero's welcome when he returned to his homeland in 1992. He published Islam's Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora in 2002.

Ronald Segal died of cancer on 23rd February 2008.

An incisive study of the Islamic slave trade examines the tradition in terms of a centuries-old institution that survives into the modern world, discussing the differences between the Eastern and Western trades, the extent of the slave trade, and the popularity of the Islamic faith in African-Ameri