Comrade Edwin Madunagu’s 80‑Year Long March

By SOLAR Collective

May 15, 2026 marked the 80th birthday of Edwin Ikechukwu Madunagu, a mathematician, journalist, Marxist theorist, archivist, teacher, agitator, and organiser who has been a steadfast voice for workers, students, women, peasants, and the oppressed for more than five decades.

Born on May 15, 1946, in colonial Nigeria, Madunagu grew up amid the continent’s anti‑colonial awakening. He began formal schooling in 1952, attending five primary schools, including St. Bartholomew’s Primary School in Iganga, Ilesha, Osun State. He completed secondary education at Okongwu Memorial Grammar School in Nnewi, Anambra State, and Obokun High School in Ilesha, finishing in 1964. He worked as a junior mathematics teacher before enrolling at the University of Ibadan in September 1966 to study mathematics.

During his university years, Madunagu was introduced to Marxist thought through the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and revolutionary thinkers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These ideas shaped his lifelong commitment to social justice, leading him to view poverty as a political condition, inequality as a systemic problem, and exploitation as a structural reality. Through essays, political analyses, lectures, pamphlets, and newspaper columns, he challenged military rule, corruption, imperialism, ethnic chauvinism, and capitalist exploitation, earning a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most influential radical writers and public intellectuals.

Madunagu’s writings demanded critical reflection, prompting readers to question power and themselves. He became a central figure within the Nigerian Left, influencing revolutionary debates across campuses, unions, civil society organisations, and socialist movements. To supporters, he was a principled Marxist; to governments, a dangerous adversary.

In his personal life, Madunagu shared a partnership with Benedicta, known as “Bene,” a respected feminist activist, scholar, and revolutionary organiser. Together, they established a home in Calabar that served as a hub for activists, students, intellectuals, and organisers from across Nigeria and beyond. Their joint activism focused on women’s rights, democratic freedoms, and social justice, and their union became one of the most respected revolutionary partnerships in Nigeria’s progressive history.

During Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Madunagu emerged as a persistent critic of state repression, neo‑liberal economic policies, and attacks on democratic struggles. He faced harassment, intimidation, and detention, but these experiences reinforced his conviction that the struggle for justice requires courage and sacrifice.

Recognising the importance of memory in sustaining revolutions, Madunagu helped found the Socialist Library and Archives (SOLAR). The project combined decades of archival work by Madunagu and Bene with donations from Curtis Joseph and recoveries from Eskor Toyo’s family. SOLAR received substantial support from comrades such as Kayode Komolafe, Chido Onumah, Kole Shettima, Sola Olorunyomi, Femi Falana, SAN, Eno Edet‑Traore, and the late Biodun Jeyifo, who chaired both the Board of Advisers and the Board of Trustees. In 2021, the collection was formally transferred to the Nigerian Left as a permanent intellectual resource. SOLAR preserves Marxist literature, feminist writings, labour history, and anti‑colonial struggles, safeguarding intellectual traditions often omitted from mainstream history.

In his later years, Madunagu continued to organise, mentor, document, and educate new generations. A key initiative was the Conscientising Nigerian Male Adolescents (CMA) programme, which challenges toxic masculinity, gender‑based violence, sexism, and social irresponsibility among young men. For Madunagu and his comrades, revolutionary politics extends beyond state power to transforming human relationships and social consciousness, promoting responsibility, equality, critical thinking, and respect.

The loss of his partner, Benedicta, on November 26, 2024, at the age of 77, was a profound personal blow. Two years later, on February 11, 2026, the late Biodun Jeyifo, a scholar, Marxist intellectual, and long‑time comrade, died at the age of 80. Jeyifo and Madunagu had first met during the Civil War in 1968 at the University of Ibadan and later co‑founded the Revolutionary Directorate (RD) within the Anti‑Poverty Movement of Nigeria (APMON) in 1975, choosing a revolutionary leap over gradualism.

At eighty, Madunagu remains one of the last great witnesses of Nigeria’s revolutionary Left tradition. He has consistently refused silence, chosen commitment over comfort, and preserved memory while fighting for the future. His life illustrates that revolutionary politics is an enduring endeavour rather than a fleeting moment.

Madunagu’s writings, including The Philosophy of Violence (1976), The Political Economy of State Robbery (1984), and Understanding Nigeria and the New Imperialism (2006), serve as a manual for popular struggle. He has opposed military regimes, including those of Generals Babangida and Abacha, risking personal liberty and safety. His vision calls for the abolition of private property and the collective ownership and use of the means of production for the common good, with free education as a fundamental right.

As he turns eighty on May 15, 2026, comrades, students, workers, intellectuals, and activists will gather not only to celebrate a birthday but to honour a lifetime of resistance. Madunagu’s charge to younger generations is clear: study the past critically, surpass it, and refuse neutrality in the face of exploitation.

The SOLAR Collective includes Kayode Komolafe, Sola Olorunyomi, Chido Onumah, Uwe Edeke, Unoma Madunagu‑Agrinya, Ikpeme Friday, Ikenna Edwin Madunagu, Uyi Ekpo Bassey, Aniefiok Umoh Okon, and Chiamaka Okafor‑Onumah.

•The SOLAR Collective is a group of friends of Madunagu.

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