{"title":"Racial capitalism and capitalism in Africa: the utility and limits of Cedric Robinson’s perspective","authors":"Buhari Shehu Miapyen, Umut Bozkurt","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2075722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2075722","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY This debate discusses the analytical utility of Cedric Robinson’s perspective on capitalism and its mode of accumulation in Africa. It identifies the important uses of Robinson’s approach and the concept of racialism. The debate also explores a major limitation of his framing of the effects of capitalism in Europe and the world beyond it.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"611 - 623"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46587571","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":"Transition now? Another coup d’état in Burkina Faso","authors":"Bettina Engels","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2075127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2075127","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY The briefing explores the dynamics underpinning the coup d’état in Burkina Faso that took place on 24 to 25 January 2022. It does so by discussing the putschists’ justification to fight threats by non-state armed groups and situates the coup in the history of Burkina Faso. Since formal independence the country has been characterised by strikes, military coups and constitutional referendums. In contrast to 2015, however, when broad popular resistance forced a group of military putschists out of office after only a few days, the trade unions and mass organisations this time do not mobilise active resistance, though in principle they oppose military coups. The briefing raises questions regarding whether the ‘transition phase’ will deliver any substantial change, what might be seen as legitimate forms of regime change, and what the character of political authority is in Burkina Faso, how it might be delivered and by whom.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"315 - 326"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44641427","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":"Popular struggles and the search for alternative democracies","authors":"Bettina Engels","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2085886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2085886","url":null,"abstract":"Popular struggles in Africa are once again at centre stage in this issue. ROAPE, as stated in our remit, ‘pays particular attention to the political economy of inequality, exploitation, oppression, and to struggles against them, whether driven by global forces or local ones such as class, race, community and gender’. It is impossible to ignore the number and range of ongoing popular struggles that are taking place all over the continent. Protests are comprehensively researched and documented in South Africa, as Martin Bekker and Mondli Hlatshwayo demonstrate in their contributions to this issue; and Olayinka Ajala provides a case study from Nigeria, another country well known for its multitude of social movements and struggles. However, certain countries – particularly ones formerly colonised by England (and thus ‘anglophone’) – tend to be more visible in so-called international reporting and research, whereas others are widely disregarded.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"201 - 208"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43080900","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","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2084883","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2084883","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":"49 1","pages":"365 - 368"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48138273","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":"Improvement and change in rural Tanzania","authors":"A. Coulson","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2083311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2083311","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The reviewed book is a collection of studies of rural villages in Tanzania over periods of 20 years or more. Many of the villages changed dramatically in that period, and many of the villagers were able to improve their lives. However, the ways that assets in rural areas are treated in both Household Budget Surveys and GDP figures does not fully reflect these changes, leading, all too easily, to underestimations of the potentials for improvement in villages such as these in rural Africa.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"361 - 364"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44141727","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":"Challenges of constitutional reform, economic transformation and Covid-19 in Botswana","authors":"C. J. Makgala, I. S. Malila","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2078559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2078559","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY Botswana’s much-lauded economic boom was accompanied by a disproportionately powerful presidency, poverty, significant economic inequities, elite corruption and rising unemployment. Mokgweetsi Masisi succeeded Ian Khama as president of the long-ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in 2018. He won the 2019 election on a platform of constitutional reform and economic transformation, but the rift between Masisi and Khama appeared to dissuade Masisi from pursuing the much-touted constitutional reform. Masisi needed the ‘blank cheque constitution’ to deploy the state apparatus in his personal war of attrition with the fearsome Khama. During the Covid-19 outbreak, however, civil society put pressure on Masisi to go beyond idle customary rhetoric and make a commitment to constitutional reform.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"303 - 314"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46425131","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":"Minimal hegemony in Sudan: exploring the rise and fall of the National Islamic Front","authors":"Shahenda Suliman","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2077095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2077095","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article adopts a Gramscian approach to exploring the political economy behind the rise and fall of the National Islamic Front (NIF) in Sudan. It traces the NIF’s rise from the 1960s, with particular attention to the class character of its hegemonic project and shifting ideology. Reading its reign through the lens of minimal hegemony, it critically explores how neoliberal restructuring produced a narrow but powerful ruling bloc at the expense and marginalisation of different social groups, and how shifts in international relations intertwined with social transformations across Sudan to reproduce new forms of dependency. Paying attention to the uneven nature of capitalist development and resulting antagonisms during this period, it explores why the NIF was unable to forge an integral hegemony, ending with the crisis of authority that overthrew Bashir and the emergence of social forces that continue to contest its cultural, political and economic project.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"264 - 286"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46257213","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":"Climate catastrophe: the struggle continues","authors":"J. Bujra","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2083316","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2083316","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Climate changes are disproportionately affecting Africa. In this outstanding book, employing a political economy analysis, Jonathan Neale shows how the global crisis might be averted. A forensic examination of the way that fossil fuels are implicated, and how use of them could be diminished in favour of investing in renewable energy, is allied to a consideration of the political forces which might be marshalled against the energy corporates which profit from potential tragedy.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"355 - 360"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42275303","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":"Africa’s lion economies and their gendered impacts: lessons from Asia","authors":"Niamh Gaynor","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2047632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2047632","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY This Debate addresses the ‘Eastern turn’ in policy and direction among Africa’s fast growing lion economies. It focuses in particular on recent recommendations in the African political economy literature for a reorientation in investment towards low-wage, labour-intensive manufacturing industries. Drawing on relevant empirical studies from Asia, it argues that there are significant gendered implications to this Eastern turn which, to date, have largely been ignored in the mainstream African literature. A widening of discourse and policy in ways that move beyond ‘add women and stir’ approaches, to address broader structural constraints to women’s economic participation, is recommended.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"498 - 506"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48182965","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":"Elections, constituency consultation and political representation in Boko Haram-affected areas in Nigeria","authors":"Osaze Omoragbon, Nafisatu Irene Okhade","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2042800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2042800","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Boko Haram insurgency has taken a toll on life in North East Nigeria. This briefing explores the impact of the conflict on elections, constituency consultation and political representation in affected areas. Using data on parliamentary recess, we estimate federal legislators’ consultation time and argue that the insurgency is a setback for participatory democracy.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"327 - 338"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43952630","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}