Review of African Political Economy最新文献

{"title":"Foreign debt versus organised labour: reflections on the UGTT’s stance on IMF loans in post-uprising Tunisia","authors":"Dhouha Djerbi","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2251790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2251790","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY In the wake of the Tunisian uprising in 2010–2011, the IMF vowed to support democratisation efforts, promising a novel approach attuned to the needs of the nation’s most marginalised people. However, IMF loan agreements garnered controversy for their conditionalities, raising doubts about the Fund’s ‘new’ strategy and its austerity-focused plans for economic restructuring. At the centre of the debt-critical movement, the country’s leading trade union organisation – the UGTT – positioned itself as a fierce opponent to the IMF. Against the backdrop of current talks for a new bailout, this briefing revisits the UGTT’s stance on two major loan agreements that Tunisia entered into after 2010.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47762117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Restitution of looted artefacts: a politico-economic issue","authors":"Elias Aguigah","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2196715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2196715","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Current debates around restitution of looted art from Africa mostly ignore politico-economic aspects of neocolonialism, reflecting the trend in academia as well as the wider public to separate cultural from economic issues. This article first aims to show the importance of the plunder and looting of material belongings in the establishment of European colonial rule over the African continent. Building on this, the author then highlights the role that restitutions play in current international neocolonial relations and in the political economy of ethnological museums. The paper calls for a broader analysis of the political economy of postcolonial restitution to realise its anticolonial potential.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45405822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Generational populism and the political rise of Robert Kyagulanyi – aka Bobi Wine – in Uganda","authors":"Luke Melchiorre","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2245729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2245729","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyses the political rise of the Ugandan opposition leader, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, arguing that he has a deployed a novel type of generational populism – a mobilising political discourse which frames the struggle between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’ in generational terms, defining the former in relation to their status as youth, and in antagonistic opposition to an elite, which is depicted as defending a gerontocratic political order. At a theoretical level, the article broadens political science’s conception of populism, by introducing a new subtype of the political phenomenon which demonstrates the importance of intergenerational dynamics in the construction of the discursive categories of ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’. While it argues that Kyagulanyi’s success demonstrates the potential of populism in African countries to electorally challenge incumbent regimes, by helping to build political coalitions across ethno-regional lines, incorporating previously excluded social groups into the political process, it concludes by stressing that Kyagulanyi’s political project has failed to offer any real ideological alternative to the neoliberal orthodoxy that has characterised President Museveni’s Uganda over the last four decades.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43557031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soviet intelligence gathering in Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s: a review article","authors":"C. Darch","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2245649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2245649","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The wave of independence in Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s, combined with the ‘thaw’ after Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, resulted in renewed Soviet interest after two decades of ignoring African affairs. Newly established diplomatic relations with liberation movements and independent states required the rapid training of middle-level cadres who could report back accurately to Moscow, as the USSR struggled to limit US and European influence in Africa. A volume in Russian of over 400 documents from the 1960s and early 1970s excludes the Arabic-speaking north, but allows readers to understand how intelligence was gathered on the ground by Soviet functionaries attempting to interpret local politics for power centres at home. This review article focuses on the political context in which African expertise was acquired, and analyses three cases from the volume – Ghana, Congo-Léopoldville in crisis, and Namibia in the early struggle for liberation.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48106463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surviving the Covid-19 lockdown: Zimbabwe’s informal sector, 2020–2021","authors":"Vincent Chenzi, Admire Ndamba","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2246276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2246276","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY This briefing explores the strategies deployed by informal workers in Harare during Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 lockdown period. It argues that informal workers responded to the lockdown regulations by embracing survival and accumulation strategies which had broader implications for the African continent by ultimately shaping patterns of public health, inequality, authoritarianism and corruption. The briefing provides an example of the consequences when African states unthinkingly imposed unsolicited Covid-19 restrictions that had the unintended effect of devastating a vital part of their economy and with it, the livelihoods of the poorest majority.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47243288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ruth First Prize: Musa Nxele on crony capitalist deals and investment in South Africa’s platinum belt","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2264685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2264685","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135718427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Connecting people and voices for radical change in Africa","authors":"Leo Zeilig, Chinedu Chukwudinma, Ben Radley","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2264684","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2264684","url":null,"abstract":"In this section of the journal, we aim to give readers of the print journal a picture of what has been published on Roape.net over the last few months, and invite you to connect and follow the articles, blogposts, authors and debates online. Details of all the blogposts referred to here are in the reference list at the end. We warmly invite all our readers to sign up to the Roape.net newsletter and WhatsApp service at the top of the home page of the website.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135718426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From energy racism to people’s power: unpacking the electricity crisis and resistance in Orange Farm, Johannesburg","authors":"Luke Sinwell, Trevor Ngwane, Terri Maggott","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2270723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2270723","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTEnergy racism, a brainchild of racial capitalism, systemically excludes the black majority who are denied safe, reliable and clean household energy. It manifests in violent and, sometimes, deadly ways, which are often met with organised resistance from below. Drawing on a case study of Orange Farm, Johannesburg, this article explores the politics of popular resistance to the crisis of neoliberalism and cost recovery. It argues that the macro-sphere of energy production (for example, global coal consumption and Eskom) and the micro-sphere of consumption and resistance intersect within the constraints of a racialised system of capital extraction.RÉSUMÉLe racisme énergétique, fruit du capitalisme racial, exclut de manière systémique la majorité noire, qui se voit refuser une énergie domestique sûre, fiable et propre. Il se manifeste de manière violente et parfois mortelle, et se heurte souvent à une résistance organisée de la base. À partir d’une étude de cas menée à Orange Farm, Johannesburg, nous explorons les politiques de résistance populaire à la crise du néolibéralisme et au recouvrement des coûts. Cet article soutient que la macro-sphère de la production d’énergie (par exemple, la consommation mondiale de charbon et Eskom) et la micro-sphère de la consommation et de la résistance se croisent dans les contraintes d’un système racialisé d’extraction du capital.KEYWORDS: Energy racismracial capitalismcost recoveryEskomload sheddingpeople’s powerMOTS-CLÉS: Racisme énergétiquecapitalisme racialrecouvrement des coûtsEskomdélestagepouvoir du peuple Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 Eskom claims that Soweto residents owe up to R18 billion to Eskom for non-payment (see Maggott et al. Citation2022, 68).2 Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identities of participants.Additional informationNotes on contributorsLuke SinwellLuke Sinwell is Project Coordinator at the Centre for Sociological Research and Practice (CSRP), University of Johannesburg, and a Professor of Sociology. His research interests are in social movement research, including participatory democracy, the Marikana strikes of 2012–2014, and popular education.Trevor NgwaneTrevor Ngwane, the Director of CSRP, is a long-time scholar–activist who has contributed to several post-1994 social movements such as the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC) and Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF). His research interests include indigenous knowledge systems and methodologies of scholar activism. Email address: tngwane@uj.ac.za.Terri MaggottTerri Maggott, a Researcher at CSRP, is an emerging scholar–activist with research interests in feminist politics, higher education, and student movements, particularly Fees Must Fall and the People’s Education Movement of the mid 1980s in South Africa. Email address: terrim@uj.ac.za.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135718428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating the Pretoria Agreement: the limitations of presentist analysis of conflicts in Ethiopia","authors":"Jon Abbink","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2270871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2270871","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARYThis debate piece contains an assessment of the debate on the ‘Pretoria Agreement’ (or Cessation of Hostilities Agreement) concluded on 2 November 2022 regarding the armed conflict in Ethiopia. On the basis of a critical discussion of a paper by F. Gebresenbet and Y. Tariku (2023) published in the Spring issue of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE), the author here contests the short-term analysis of the authors, who miss essential points of the wider context of political conflict in Ethiopia and also scholastically misrepresent some other authors in the debate.KEYWORDS: African politicsEthiopiaarmed conflictethno-political tensions Disclosure statementThe author declares no conflict of interest.Notes1 Like the excellent piece by Fitz-Gerald and Segal (Citation2023).2 Already widely known since 2021: see www.worldmedias.net/horn-of-africa-tplf-sympathizers-use-infiltrators-for-its-destabilizing-propaganda-action/. Examples are the systematic TPLF statements on ‘food aid blockade’ and ‘man-made famine’ in Tigray (disproved by the World Food Programme Ethiopia (see Omamo Citation2022); and the ‘Tigray genocide’ meme (disproved by UN-Equality and Human Rights Commission research) and post-war reporting. See also Sheba and Pearce (Citation2022). All this does not mean that Tigray’s population did not gravely suffer in the war (like those of Afar and Amhara regions).3 And the federal government in 2020 seems to have other priorities, like building huge new government palaces; compare Hochet-Bodin Citation2023. In fact, the economy is in dire straits: see www.africaintelligence.com/eastern-africa-and-the-horn/2023/04/11/abiy-ahmed-s-loyal-allies-tasked-with-keeping-the-money-coming,109933716-eve?cxt=PUB&utm_source=AIA&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AUTO_EDIT_SOM&did=1747468.4 Still in March 2023, a faction of the TPLF led by top cadres/military leaders like Migbe Haile, Getachew Aseffa, Abraha Tesfay and others was holding out and is in a state of armed vigilance (see https://twitter.com/jbirru/status/1635480052186873857). Other TPLF leaders, some of them now in the ‘interim government’ in Tigray, prevaricate on the Pretoria Agreement.5 In this agreement between the ‘senior commanders’ of both the federal army and the TPLF armed forces, it seemed that TPLF disarmament was conditioned on withdrawal of ‘non-ENDF’ forces from the war areas – highly contested.6 A new scandal erupted in June 2023, when it was revealed the massive quantities of humanitarian aid in Tigray were stolen or disappeared – allegedly under TPLF auspices. The entire WFP leadership resigned (https://abren.org/ethiopia-wfp-controversy-leads-to-resignations/). This continued a pattern of food aid theft and diversion by TPLF during the 2020–2022 war (www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Elelx4QLHQ; www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9SjilttgYk&t=3s).7 For the complexity of the issue, see www.hornafricainsight.org/post/welkait-ethiopia-geo-strategic-importance-and-the-consequential-annexation","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136329354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"North Africa: the climate emergency and family farming","authors":"Max Ajl, Habib Ayeb, Ray Bush","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2023.2267311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2023.2267311","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTThis article examines recent international financial institution and national government policy in North Africa intended to address the climate emergency. It focuses on the role of the World Bank and general policy trends since the 1970s. These policy trends fail to understand the continuing centrality of small-scale family farming to social reproduction and food production. The article stresses the significance of historical patterns of underdevelopment, and the uneven incorporation of North Africa into global capitalism. An understanding of the longue durée is crucial in understanding why, and how, agrarian transformations have taken the form that they have, and why national sovereign projects and popular struggles offer an alternative strategy to counter imperialism and neo-colonialism. International financial institutions’ preoccupation with policies of mitigation and adaptation to climate change fails to address how poverty is generated and reproduced.RÉSUMÉCet article examine les récentes politiques des institutions financières internationales et des gouvernements nationaux en Afrique du Nord visant à répondre à l’urgence climatique. Il se concentre sur le rôle de la Banque mondiale et sur les tendances politiques depuis les années 1970. Il s’agit d’une politique qui ne comprend pas le rôle central que continue de jouer l’agriculture familiale à petite échelle dans la reproduction sociale et la production alimentaire. L’article souligne l’importance des tendances historiques de sous-développement et l’intégration inégale de l’Afrique du Nord dans le capitalisme mondial. Une compréhension de la longue durée est cruciale pour comprendre pourquoi et comment les transformations agraires ont pris la forme qu’elles ont prise et pourquoi les projets souverains nationaux et les luttes populaires offrent une stratégie alternative pour contrer l’impérialisme et le néocolonialisme. La préoccupation des institutions financières internationales pour les politiques d’atténuation et d’adaptation au changement climatique ne tient pas compte de la manière dont la pauvreté est générée et reproduite.KEYWORDS: Political ecologyclimateagrarian questionsmall-scale farmersWorld BankNorth AfricaMOTS-CLÉS: Écologie politiqueclimatquestion agraireagriculteurs à petite échelleBanque MondialeAfrique du Nord AcknowledgementsThe work in this article was made possible with support from the Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crisis (SPARC) Programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom. The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the FCDO. Thanks to Dhouha Djerbi and Aymen Amayed for their help with research and data collection.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 We find the methodology of Watts (Citation2013) useful here in taking climate change as an opportunity to bring the ent","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}