Popular struggles and the search for alternative democracies

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.