I was attending a conference sponsored by the University of East Africa in Dar es Salaam when the sad news of the death of Professor Potekhin came through. The world community of Africanists has suffered a great loss. The people of Africa have lost one of their most devoted friends.

Ivan Potekhin was born of a family of farmers in a small village in Siberia in 1903. No one can say what the destiny of this young Siberian peasant would have been had it not been for the Socialist revolution in Russia in October 1917. He was pulled into the revolutionary whirl and fought with arms to promote its ideals. This period in his life had a decisive role in shaping his political outlook and determining his future. From this time on, the idea of liberating man from political and social injustice became his creed. He devoted all his life to this.