Review of African Political Economy

Review of African Political Economy

@roapejournal.bsky.social

Since 1974 the Review of African Political Economy has provided radical analysis of trends, issues and social processes in Africa, adopting a broadly materialist interpretation of change. Check out our longer bio at https://roape.net/about-roape/

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Review of African Political Economy
@roapejournal.bsky.social

In editorial of ROAPE’s issue 189, Bettina Engels and Elisa Greco argue that the green ‘transition’ does not represent a break with capitalism but a renewal of its old extractivist logic, turning Africa into a source of cheap labour and critical minerals for the Global North. buff.ly/OWTeKjT

buff.lyMining in contemporary African underdevelopment | ROAPEOne of the defining characteristics of capitalism is its remarkable ability to emerge from every crisis even stronger.[1] History has shown time and again that war and militarisation serve…
Review of African Political Economy
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Assessing the current state of play in Ugandan politics, @yusufserunkuma.bsky.social argues that Museveni’s son General Muhoozi offers a useful way forward in the transition to life after Museveni. roape.net/2026/10/23/l...

roape.netLife after Museveni | ROAPEI have argued before that moving forward, Uganda will need General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of current President Yoweri Museveni. Or a person like Gen. Kainerugaba. This is not necessarily about the m...

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Joshua Kirshner
@joshkirshner.bsky.social

check out our paper on "Changing labour dynamics in the decarbonisation process in Mozambique’s coal frontier" in this issue

Review of African Political Economy @roapejournal.bsky.social

🚨Volume 53 Issue 189 of ROAPE is now OUT. Mining in Contemporary African Development Issue Editors: Bettina Engels and Elisa Greco Full table of contents below👇🏿 mailchi.mp/d5b06eecd179...

Review of African Political Economy
@roapejournal.bsky.social

In this introduction to their new book, African Labour and Liberation, the authors argue that African workers’ struggles remain the key force against imperialism & ecological destruction, & central to building socialist transformation across the continent. roape.net/2026/10/14/a...

roape.netAfrican Labour and Liberation | ROAPEAfrican Labour and Liberation brings together the experiences of workers, trade unions and labour movements across the continent to ask what they can tell us about work, power and liberation today. We...
Review of African Political Economy
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We republish Nigel Gibson’s article from ROAPE’s special issue 186, which celebrated the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth. Gibson revisits Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary thought in light of the Sudanese revolution and its counter-revolution. buff.ly/0dNBADp

buff.lyFanon’s continuing presence and revolutionary Sudan | ROAPEEach generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it. – Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 1968 I do not come with timeless truths … Every human problem…
Review of African Political Economy
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Join the online book launch of the African edition of 'What is the Real Marxist Tradition?', 18:30 GMT 22 Oct. Discuss Marxism's impact in Africa & explore new & radical perspectives for the continent’s political social movements & struggles. roape.net/2026/09/30/w...

roape.netWhat is the Real Marxist Tradition in Africa? | ROAPEJohn Molyneux’s classic statement of Marxist theory and practice What is the Real Marxist Tradition? was first published in 1984. The short book provided an incredibly sophisticated description of Mar...
Review of African Political Economy
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Rich Mallett argues that for Uganda’s boda boda workers ‘financial inclusion’ schemes promise ownership & entrepreneurship but in practice turn the dream of being your own boss into a precarious & often temporary escape from exploitation. roape.net/2026/09/25/t...

roape.netThe price of becoming your own boss in Uganda’s boda boda industry | ROAPEIt is said that Uganda’s vast motorcycle-taxi industry employs more men than any other sector outside agriculture. In Kampala alone, Uganda’s rapidly expanding capital city, estimates suggests there c...
Review of African Political Economy
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In the current moment, developing & deepening our understanding of US-led #imperialism is an urgent task for radical forces everywhere. In this spirit, ROAPE offers a curated selection of ten open-access publications on the topic from our archives: roape.net/2026/09/16/c...

roape.netCharting the evolution of US-led imperialism, 1974-2026 | ROAPEIn 1990, Indian Marxist economist and political commentator Prabhat Patnaik asked ‘Whatever has happened to imperialism?’. His point was not that it had disappeared. To the contrary, he argued, “the d...
Review of African Political Economy
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African workers are deeply entrenched in a global system of migrant-labour exploitation & trafficking. Their experiences – from Gulf households to Myanmar’s scam compounds – expose the same recurring problem: what does a right to leave mean if workers cannot safely use it? roape.net/2026/09/09/a...

roape.netAfrican migrant workers who cannot return | ROAPESomebody in Kampala or Accra or Harare sees a job advertisement. Customer service, or something in IT, somewhere abroad. The pay is better than anything available at home. The recruiter is responsive ...
Review of African Political Economy
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Writing for roape.net, Abiola Isikalu argues that Burkina Faso is extending state control over citizens by treating education & mobility as security threats, conditioning belonging on perceived loyalty rather than actual conduct. roape.net/2026/09/02/b...

roape.netBefore there is anything to punish: Burkina Faso’s new citizenship question | ROAPEOn July 16, 2026, when addressing the Forces vives in Yagha Province, Burkina Faso’s transitional president Captain Ibrahim Traoré referred to a statistic that seemed to take even him by surprise. “Th...
Review of African Political Economy
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We break our annual shutdown to bring this urgent piece of writing from ROAPE's Leo Zeilig. "Professor Arday is dead. Murdered. Yet again another Black person has been killed – pilloried in a public execution orchestrated by a profoundly racist press & organised fascists" roape.net/2026/08/24/t...

roape.netThe murder of Professor Jason Arday  | ROAPEOn Sunday 16 August I joined the vigil for Professor Arday in London’s Trafalgar Square in the summer’s heat, packed tight with thousands of protestors marking their respect, holding bunches of flower...
Review of African Political Economy
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In our last post before our August shutdown, Stephanie Kitchen & David Mills argue that since the 1990s, donors & multinational publishers have entrenched an extraverted academic publishing economy across Africa. roape.net/2026/08/07/t...

roape.netThe extraversion of African academic journals | ROAPEThere is a long history of donor funding for African universities, research and publishing, going back to the colonial period, and the foundation of the International African Institute in 1926. The cr...
Review of African Political Economy
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Malick Doucouré argues that the recent anti-LGBT crackdowns in pro-Pan-African governments are about elites manufacturing unity against a fake external threat to absolve their failure to fix the economy. He argues it's time to reclaim the Pan-Africanism of Nkrumah & Sankara. buff.ly/hOFlOzV

roape.netThe homophobia of Pan-African regimes | ROAPEWest Africa has experienced a series of significant geopolitical developments in recent years, with the potential to reshape both its political landscape and economic trajectory. These are, in many…
Review of African Political Economy
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In this new blog for roape.net, Shevonne Henry & Erick Mwale argue Africa’s informal sector, not the traditional industrial working class, is emerging as the continent’s most important revolutionary force. roape.net/2026/07/29/b...

roape.netBeyond Marx | ROAPEThe winter-beaten streets of the Johannesburg Central Business District are lined with informal traders this morning and they’re selling everything you can imagine – fruit, vegetables, cuts of meat, d...

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Etanga Development Foundation
@etangadevelopment.bsky.social

Replying to @roapejournal.bsky.social

This question of who holds symbolic power in conservation is one we sit with daily. In Etanga we start by asking who owns the herd and whose knowledge names the land, before anyone draws a plan. Community first, or it is not conservation.

Review of African Political Economy
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In this editorial, ROAPE's Ray Bush introduces Issue 188. Bush argues that US warmongering is intimately connected to events on the African continent, driving up energy costs, worsening Africa’s debt & hunger crises, & reinforcing its structural dependence. roape.net/2026/07/22/w...

roape.netWar | ROAPEThe imperialist war waged by the USA and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the continued genocide in Gaza and the attempt to dismember Lebanon have far-reaching consequences for Africa. The...
Review of African Political Economy
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Offering his reflections on the first chapter of ‘The Big Conservation Lie’, James Mulei raises questions of symbolic power in the domain of wildlife conservation. roape.net/2026/07/16/o...

roape.netOf heroes and hero worship? Some musings on the first chapter of 'The Big Conservation Lie' by John Mbaria and Mordecai Ogada | ROAPEAs I read the opening chapter of The big conservation lie, I found myself less interested in the catalogue of failures it presents than in the conditions that make those failures persist without…
Review of African Political Economy
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In the final instalment on cashew capitalism, Klas Lundström Martínez argues that Guinea-Bissau’s colonial cashew monoculture created a permanent system of economic dependency, with women’s invisible labour holding the entire economy together. roape.net/2026/07/13/c...

roape.netCashew capitalism - part two | ROAPEThe dominant cashew economy had established patterns that outlasted independence in 1974. By then, Amílcar Cabral was already dead, assassinated by Portuguese agents in Conakry the previous year. He n...
Review of African Political Economy
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Peter Cole traces how Soweto’s Black students ignited a nationwide revolt against apartheid in June 1976, reshaping South Africa’s political future. roape.net/2026/07/08/s...

roape.netSoweto students rise up against apartheid | ROAPESoweto was a Black “township,” the South African term for an all-Black (or Indian or “Coloured”) suburb whose residents’ primary purpose was to serve the needs of the nearby white population, in this ...
Review of African Political Economy
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In the 1st of a 2-part instalment, Klas Lundström Martínez argues Guinea-Bissau’s ongoing crisis is shaped by circumstances rooted in the colonial era & the country’s failed attempts to break with its historical role as a cheap commodity producer for the Western world. roape.net/2026/07/06/c...

roape.netCashew capitalism - part one | ROAPEAn independent Guinea-Bissau was supposed to become an egalitarian society that rejected colonial structures. Instead, its economy rests on a ‘cashew capitalism’ whose foundations lie in colonialism’s...

Review of African Political Economy reposted

ExcelAfrica
@excelafrica.bsky.social

#Cameroon

Review of African Political Economy @roapejournal.bsky.social

60 years since Osendé Afana (1930-1966) was assassinated fighting Cameroon's neo-colonial state. Loic Gapin's blog revisits his 1966 book on how imperialism stifled African development — and why the problem hasn't gone away. buff.ly/XGyYjRK

roape.netThe visionary political economy of Osendé Afana (1930-1966) | ROAPEThis year is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Osendé Afana (1930-1966), the Cameroonian Marxist economist and national liberation leader who died fighting a guerrilla insurgency against…
Review of African Political Economy
@roapejournal.bsky.social

60 years since Osendé Afana (1930-1966) was assassinated fighting Cameroon's neo-colonial state. Loic Gapin's blog revisits his 1966 book on how imperialism stifled African development — and why the problem hasn't gone away. buff.ly/XGyYjRK

roape.netThe visionary political economy of Osendé Afana (1930-1966) | ROAPEThis year is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Osendé Afana (1930-1966), the Cameroonian Marxist economist and national liberation leader who died fighting a guerrilla insurgency against…
Review of African Political Economy
@roapejournal.bsky.social

Writing for roape.net, Onwubiko Agozino argues for penal abolitionism through a return to the original Ubuntu African philosophy of forgiveness that appears to be reserved for the rich and powerful today. roape.net/2026/06/24/c...

roape.netCorruption and penal abolitionism  | ROAPECorruption studies tend to focus on developing countries even though corruption is a global system. Marx concluded that corruption, violence, slavery – in short, force – is the primitive or primary fo...
Review of African Political Economy
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In this book review published in ROAPE’s journal issue No.187, Pascal Bianchini provides a glimpse into Fanny Pigeaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla’s volume titled De la démocratie en Françafrique – Une histoire de l’impérialisme electoral.

buff.lyFrench neocolonialism in Africa: a history of electoral imperialism (De la démocratie en Françafrique - Une histoire de l’impérialisme electoral) ROAPEThis well-written and well-argued volume revisits French political history, especially its colonial (and neocolonial) aspects, which are a blind spot for many historians and political scientists. The…
Review of African Political Economy
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In this blog, Jeffrie Quarsie invites us not to dismiss the claim that France is sustaining the Jihadist terrorist insurgency in the Sahel, which it once promised and failed to suppress. He points to France’s self-interested and treacherous role in the region. buff.ly/RHAPeFy

roape.netIs France funding terrorism in the Sahel? ROAPE |In this blog, Jeffrie Quarsie invites us not to dismiss the claim that France is sustaining the Jihadist terrorist insurgency in the Sahel, which it once promised and failed to suppress. He points to…
Review of African Political Economy
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Introducing an open access special issue on reparations & global health, Lebohang Liepollo Pheko argues that if the 19th century was the era of abolition & the 20th century of decolonisation (however incomplete), then the 21st century must be the era of repair. roape.net/2026/06/10/t...

roape.netThe body keeps the score | ROAPEBefore there was a Commission, there were generations who died too young – not because of bad genes, but because of stolen land, unpaid labour, and a minority world that extracted everything it could ...
Review of African Political Economy
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In this obituary, Jabu Nala-Hartley remembers leading South African labour militant, trade unionist and socialist David Hemson. ROAPE's Peter Dwyer interviewed David in 2024 - the link to those videos is also available in the post. roape.net/2026/06/03/h...

roape.netHonouring a fallen warrior | ROAPEWhen someone recently asked me if I was alright, I almost gave the familiar answer: “Yes, I’m fine.” But the truth is, I was not. Because how can any of us be fine when our movement has lost David Hem...
Review of African Political Economy
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In our latest blog, Heike Becker introduces a new edited volume for Voices of Liberation by HSRCPress, which covers the militant life and legacy of Namibian liberation leader Andimba Toivo ya Toivo (1924-2017).

buff.lyAndimba Toivo ya Toivo – A Namibian Struggle Icon ROAPE |When Andimba Toivo ya Toivo died at the age of 92 in June 2017, Namibia saw an unprecedented outpouring of grief for the country’s much loved liberation stalwart. Thousands attended memorial services…

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UMN Political Science
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Professor August Nimtz discusses how his travels to Tanzania played a crucial role in his journey from Pan-African nationalism to radical socialism, and his views on Cuba today, Black Lives Matter, and the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, with @roapejournal.bsky.social roape.net/2026/05/11/t...

roape.netThe African roots of August Nimtz’s radical education ROAPE |ROAPE interviews legendary Minneapolis-based African American socialist August Nimtz. In the conversation, Nimtz shares how his travels to Tanzania in the 1970s played a crucial role in his intellectu...