ABSTRACT Literature identifies increasing hybrid political regimes in the post-Cold War era, such as electoral authoritarianism, illiberal democracy and competitive authoritarianism. These regimes hide their non-democratic activities behind democratic practices like elections, which are generally short of being free and fair. This article argues that there has been a political transition to competitive authoritarian regimes in Nigeria since the inception of Buhari under the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015. The literature on competitive authoritarianism discusses various mechanisms these regimes use to remain in power, including suppressing the media, censoring social media and dominating the legislative arm of government, with some discussing government influence on the judiciary. By examining the 2019 and 2023 elections, this article argues that EV is a critical tool in Nigeria’s competitive authoritarian system. There are several traditional methods of manipulating the electoral process – such as controlling the media, influencing the judiciary, or leveraging state resources to sway voters – but if they prove to be insufficient, the incumbent deploys violence to tilt the electoral playing field in its favour. This violence, often involving the use of security forces and political thugs, serves as both a deterrent to opposition supporters and a direct means of influencing election results.

ABSTRACT Nollywood is a rich cultural zone, especially with the rise of epic blockbusters in the 2020s. Some of these include King of Thieves: Ogundabede (2022), Aníkúlápó (2022), Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman (2022), Mami Wata (2023), Jagun Jagun: The Warrior (2023), Orisa (2023), Ageshinkolé (2022), House of Ga’a (2024) and Lísàbí: The Uprising (2024). Using African feminisms as a conceptual lens, I interrogate how female characters are portrayed and note that Nollywood, although maturing and creating more nuanced female characters, is still tethered to patriarchal stereotypes of power distribution privileging men above women. I further argue that, although powerful women assert powerful personalities to a certain extent, thus demonstrating agency, their power is curtailed in the socio-cultural, domestic and political arenas, which ultimately creeps into the production culture of epic films, thus complicating women’s truest emancipation.

ABSTRACT While browsing for Algerian literature, I unexpectedly came across a list of so-called Algerian writers: Albert Camus (born in Attaref), Bernard-Henri Lévy (Beni Saf), Robert Merle (Tebessa) and Hélène Cixous (Oran). These names befuddled me; it seems, if you are a French intellectual, being born in Algeria is enough to claim the ‘Algerianity’ of your work. This article attempts to answer the question, ‘What is Algerian literature?’ One could argue it is writing in Arabic produced by an Algerian national. But this is not all. We cannot ignore Algerian literature’s links to French, which unleashes a debate on identity, language and culture. I cite selected Arabic-writing Algerian authors from the colonial and post-independence periods to demonstrate how this literary tradition persisted and evolved through colonial rule and beyond. Further, this article will seek to explore Algerian literature in French specifically by considering Kateb Yacine and Malek Haddad, prolific figures of Algerian combat literature. The research findings indicate that Algerian authors writing in Arabic and French defend their identity through counter-hegemonic narratives. With a strong sense of national consciousness, they were committed to uncompromising literature that sought to demythologise the archetypical propaganda of ‘l’Algérie, c’est la France’.

ABSTRACT Resilience-thinking has become a dominant adaptation vision in the Anthropocene. The concept has spread through policy governance, spurred by the need to utilise existing systems to understand and develop critical approaches to adapt and ‘bounce back' in the face of climate crises. We analyse how African indigenous peoples are recognised as the epitome of resilience, yet such claims characterise the re-colonisation of indigeneity and do not address the long histories of colonial violence nor the asymmetrical power relations in resilience policy. Framed as the ‘Age of Man', the Anthropocene obfuscates the roles of race, colonialism, capitalism and patriarchal oppression, erasing racialised histories of extractive imperialism. Drawing from decolonial theory, we argue that through ‘Africanising indigeneity’, indigenous African ontologies can legitimise decolonial struggles in the Anthropocene. In essence, by re-imagining decolonial struggles as emancipation, de-Westernisation and recognition of African indigenous knowledge systems, we contend that it becomes possible to (re)conceptualise and decolonise the Anthropocene. We conclude that for indigeneity to become more valuable in resilience governance and knowledge production, it needs to be better approached and reconceptualised within a critical and pluriversalistic/pluralistic frame, stressing its strengths for a decolonisation project – as a set of contemporaneous struggles and a source of alternative futures.

ABSTRACT The enslaved Black female body was a significant site of sexual exploitation during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and fated to a long passage of sexual assault. Slavery was rife with various sexual aggressions like rape on the enslaved Black woman by both Black and white heterosexual men. In addition, to facilitate their sexual perversions, the white slave masters ‘whiten’ the Black identities of the female slaves by revoking the slaves’ African names and imposing on them white Euro-American names. This ‘whitened’ identity becomes a fetish for the slave masters as they fixate on the misrepresented Black female bodies to satisfy their sexual fantasies. Though scholarship has grappled with the issue of sexual violation in the slavery arena, (Foster 2019; Jennings 1990, Oduwobi 2017), the subject has not received the fullest attention. For instance, there exist significant gaps on the question of the psychosexual motivations which drive the white slave masters to ‘whiten’ and fixate on their Black female slaves. Situating the present paper in the period of proto-colonialism, the long period of European and African commercial interrelations when slavery thrived, this study adopts Frantz Fanon’s psychoanalytical framework on colonial sexuality as well as Freudian libido theory to discuss the interplay of sexuality and identity between the Black slave raider and the slave master with the enslaved Black woman, as well as the relationship between the white slave master and the Black enslaved woman. The study focuses on two Ghanaian neo-slave narratives: Joseph Baiden’s Seeds of Slavery (2018) and Manu Herbstein’s Ama (2002) and concludes amongst others that the quest to ‘whiten’ the enslaved Black woman is borne out of the slave master's irrepressible obsession with the Black female body.

Transitional justice ideas, processes, and institutions offer post-conflict and tormented societies the glimmer of hope of a more stable future erected upon values of the rule of law, accountability, justice, post-conflict reconstruction, and development. Societies wracked by violence see transitional justice as offering the tools to midwife a democratic, rule-of-law state. Broadly speaking, transitional justice can be said to be concerned with how societies address legacies of past human rights abuses, mass atrocity, or other forms of severe social trauma, including genocide or civil war, in order to build a more democratic, just, and peaceful future. Epistemically, the field of transitional justice is variegated, comprising theoretical debates, the comparative assessment of domestic accountability schemes, international criminal justice, the study of truth commissions, and ethical-legal debates concerning the morality of compromise on accountability for gross and systemic violations of human rights. Several subthemes to the discipline suggest the absence of complete coherence in its characterization and praxis. The focus of this article on transitional justice in Africa domesticates the exploration of the subject matter in the African experience. Transitional justice in the African context takes on a special character and orientation. While the core objective of transitional justice praxis in Africa remains similar to transitional justice orthodoxy in the international context—namely, the fight against impunity and the push for accountability and post-conflict reconstruction and development—the emerging consensus points to the effective realization of socioeconomic justice, gender justice, and the right to development as equally critical, if not central, to the redress of past injustices. Instrumental to the successful delivery of this broadened set of objectives is a combination of traditional and nontraditional frameworks embedded in a wide range of laws, policies, institutions, and community norms and customs. In combination, they present the rough contours of an African model and mechanism for not only dealing with the legacies of conflicts and violations of human rights, but also addressing governance deficits and developmental challenges in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063. This article is structured around a number of themes aimed at deepening appreciation of the field of transitional justice in Africa, namely: Transitional Justice Laws, Policies, and Norms; Transitional Justice Accountability Systems; criminal accountability in Africa’s transitional justice praxis; Human Rights, Democracy, and Governance; Decolonization and Postcoloniality; Conflict and Transitional Justice; Transitional Justice Goals and Outcomes; Reimagining the Field of Transitional Justice; and journals publishing on transitional justice.

Commodity trade has always been a fundamental feature of African economies. From precolonial trade routes, to the export of cash crops under colonial rule, to the growth of commodity markets after independence, such commerce heavily shaped the development path of the African continent. Commodity trade not only affected economic and social structures within Africa but also influenced the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world. The forces of globalization and colonial rule reinforced Africa’s specialization in the export of primary commodities, with persisting long-term effects. Throughout history, episodes of economic growth in Africa have often been linked to booms in the prices of commodity exports. Given such importance, commodity trade in Africa is the subject of a large literature. This review mostly focuses on trade during the colonial period, but several references extend the coverage to the precolonial and post-independence periods. The necessarily selective choice of references in this chapter includes both classical and newer works. The main inclusion criterion used here is to select economic history articles or books relevant to African commodity trade that are highly cited (at least three citations per year since publication, according to Google Scholar). Moreover, only published works are considered, thus excluding working papers. To facilitate the reader, two main principles have been used to organize this literature: geography and commodity/topic. References are initially classified according to geographical region. First, general Africa-wide references are presented. Such references are further subdivided into subsections according to their main topic: general overviews of commodity trade, studies that focus on the production of commodities, and analyses of the mechanisms and structure of trade. Subsequent sections focus on the regions of Western, Eastern, Northern, Central, and Southern Africa. In the case of West Africa, general references are presented first. Then, more specific studies are divided into subsections according to the main exported commodities (cocoa, cotton, groundnuts, and palm oil, accounting for about two-thirds of the export value under colonial rule) and imported goods. The chapter ends with a list of databases that are available to researchers interested in quantitative analyses of African commodity trade. Datasets include information on total imports, exports, and bilateral trade flows, at the country or commodity level, covering the period from around 1800 to the present.

ABSTRACT In the early twentieth century, scholars studied the Nuer social organisation and described it as a system of interconnected patrilineal lineages, clans, tribal segments, and tribes. They viewed the Nuer society as lacking centralised political institutions and complex social structures. However, this observation was based on the Nuer of the nineteenth century, who had weak ties to their common origin and history, allowing for intermixing with neighbouring peoples, mainly Dinka and Anuak. Over the twentieth century, factors such as globalisation, colonialism, and civil wars caused the Nuer society to undergo significant changes. They transitioned from a genealogically segmented pastoralist society to an ethnic group. However, this ethnic identity is currently facing challenges and fragmentation due to displacement and increased mobility. This paper examines how the Nuer have defined boundaries between themselves and others throughout history, depending on the cultural and structural contexts that shape their identity, through an in-depth analysis of literature, oral history, historical research, and interviews.

ABSTRACT Amid increasing displacement incidents worldwide, there is growing interest in understanding the social character of indigenous food practices among displaced populations resettled in new locations. This study examines the decade-long impact of displacement on indigenous food practices of a community in southern Zimbabwe that was uprooted from its ancestral homeland due to the construction of the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam and the subsequent floods of February 2014. Viewing foodways as ‘hybrid’, ‘dynamic’ and shaped by indigenous food memories, the study challenges the prevailing notion that indigenous foodways are inherently static – mere vestiges of cultural identity and rootedness. Instead, it demonstrates that socio-ecological displacement makes this view specious as foodways are constantly in flux and negotiated in the face of new influences. Qualitative data for the study was obtained through key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Findings revealed that foodways of the displaced Tugwi-Mukosi community had evolved and transformed within a decade of resettlement in Chingwizi. Households were now relying on new food practices through acculturation and experimenting with new survival strategies. The study draws attention to some of the processes through which socio-ecological displacement fundamentally alters indigenous dietary identity.

ABSTRACT The article explores the challenges of protected area co-management within the context of land restitution. Co-management has been used to resolve land claims in protected areas, as well as to reconcile conservation objectives and land rights. It also focuses on the re-emergence of traditional authorities, engaging with debates around the role of chiefs in a democratic South Africa. Some scholars argued that chiefs are still relevant and can play a role in a democratic dispensation. Others challenged the relevance of chiefs in a democratic era given their hereditary nature. Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve serves as case study. Chiefs were denied any special designation beyond being citizens in a protected area management arrangement, where newly elected institutions were set up to collaborate with the state. They regained authority and relevance around such management within a decade of the 2001 restitution agreement. The study uses qualitative data collection and ethnography. It contends that co-management failures resulted in increased poverty and community unrest, culminating in the reassertion of chiefs’ authority, followed by the re-alignment of state conservation with traditional leadership. It shows that chiefs, despite not democratically elected, may still represent the interests of their subjects, advocate for local rights, and stand against marginalisation of local voices. It concludes by highlighting the nuanced and evolving role of chiefs in balancing community interests with conservation imperatives on ancestral land.