Review Of African Political Economy Research Articles

Knowledge production for liberation: the Review of African Political Economy 50 years on

This article recalls the germination of a radical left journal on Africa and its development over the last five decades. Its purpose was always a political one: to support through research and debate both the struggles that were then still being waged for independence from colonial and settler colonial rule and the continuing struggles against neocolonialism. There was always a tension between support for movements and regimes and taking a critical position towards them. There was tension, too, between academia’s ‘quality’ criteria and a radical left analysis relevant for those on the continent seeking socialist transformation. There continues to be a tension between a journal produced in the global North and the challenges from engaged scholars on the African continent concerning who produces knowledge, from where, for whom, and in which language. The journal’s purpose continues to be the production of knowledge in the service of the struggle against global capitalist imperialism and its uneven development, which threatens persistent poverty and inequality for most of the citizens of the African continent. However, for it to be a journal of African liberation it must address the challenges from engaged scholars on the continent itself.

Evaluating the Pretoria Agreement: the limitations of presentist analysis of conflicts in Ethiopia

SUMMARY This 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.

Debating the implications of the Pretoria Agreement for Ethiopia: countering attempts to silence alternative voices

SUMMARY Following an earlier piece by the authors debating the importance of the Pretoria Agreement (or Cessation of Hostilities Agreement) concluded in November 2022, this piece sets out their formal response to and rebuttal of blog comments received on Roape.net (Gebrehiwot et al. 2023), and also of comments in a debate piece by J. Abbink (2023) published in this issue of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE). The authors here contest the views put forward as lacking engagement with their arguments and mischaracterising their views.

Abdul, G., A., & Sehar, S. (2015). Conflict management and organizational performance: A case study of Askari Bank Ltd. Research Journal of Finance and Accounting. 6(11), 201. Adhiambo, R., & Simatwa, M. (2011). Assessment of conflict management and resolution in public secondary schools in Kenya: A case study of Nyakach District. International Research Journal 2(4), 1074-1088. Adomi, E., & Anie,

The Constitution of Kenya specifically recognizes the freedom of association to form and belong to trade unions. However, despite the adoption of the Labour Relations Act, union practice is still hampered by excessive restrictions. The EPZ companies are labor intensive requiring a large amount of labor to produce its goods or service and thus, the welfare of the employees play a key role in their functions. This study sought to determine the effect of trade union practices on employees’ welfare at export processing zones industries in Athi River, Kenya. The specific objectives sought to determine the effect of collective bargaining agreements, industrial action, dispute resolution and trade union representation on employees’ welfare at export processing zones industries in Athi River, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive research design. Primary data was collected by means of a structured questionnaire. The target population of the study was employees in EPZ companies in Athi River, Kenya with large employees enrolled in active trade unions. The unit of observation was the employees in the trade unions. The findings indicated that collective bargaining agreements had a positive and significant coefficient with employees’ welfare at the EPZ industries. Industrial action had a positive but non-significant effect with employees’ welfare at Export Processing Zones industries. Dispute resolution had a positive and significant coefficient with employees’ welfare at the EPZ industries. Trade union representation had a positive and significant coefficient with employees’ welfare at the EPZ industries. The study recommended that trade union should avoid the path of confrontation but continue dialogue through the collective bargaining process and demands should be realistic in nature with what is obtainable in the related industry. An existence of a formal two way communication between management and trade unions will ensure that right message is properly understood and on time too. Keywords: Collective Bargaining Agreements, Industrial Action, Dispute Resolution, Trade Union Representation, Employees Welfare & Export Processing Zones

The African hero in Mozambican history: on assassinations and executions – Part I

SUMMARY ‘A gun shot in the middle of a concert [is] something vulgar, [yet] something which is impossible to ignore’, writes Stendhal, the greatest of political novelists. The same is true of death – especially of death by assassination and death by execution – in the political analysis of Africa. For, as argued here in two linked texts, one in this issue of the Review of African Political Economy, ROAPE, and a second in the following issue of ROAPE, such intrusions of planned and orchestrated deaths are seen to have provided key moments in African politics (and, not least, in Mozambican politics), albeit moments that have too seldom been allotted the theoretical attention they warrant or debated with the seriousness they deserve. In this Part I (and its subsection 1) of the present contribution to the Debate section of ROAPE, different ways of approaching this matter are first reflected upon. Then, in subsection 2, some of the issues so raised are exemplified with reference to the first of the two most pertinent assassinations in Mozambican history, the assassination in 1969 (in Dar es Salaam) of Frelimo’s first president, Eduardo Mondlane. In Part II of this essay (to appear in the next issue of ROAPE), the discussion of Mondlane and his assassination will be complemented by a reflection on the assassination in 1986 of his immediate successor as Frelimo president (and the eventual first president of Mozambique), Samora Machel. Several other related matters will also be discussed in this Part II, matters I will anticipate at the end of this first part (below). But such sections, too, will help us to bring into focus the main theme of this two-part article and of the subsequent debate it seems to stimulate, which are: just what difference can the several assassinations and executions that have scarred Mozambican history be thought to have made to the shaping of longer-term outcomes in the country’s history; and what, more generally, can we hope to learn from such a closer examination of the ‘what ifs’ of history?

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The role of multinational oil corporations (MNOCs) in Nigeria: more exploitation equals less development of oil-rich Niger Delta region

We, the Editors and Publisher of Review of African Political Economy, have retracted the following article:Oluwaniyi, Oluwatoyin O. 2018. “The Role of Multinational Oil Corporations (MNOCs) in Nigeria: More Exploitation Equals Less Development of Oil-rich Niger Delta Region.” Review of African Political Economy 45 (158): 558-573. doi:10.1080/03056244.2018.1546687.The above-named Review of African Political Economy article has been retracted and should not be cited. Following publication of the above article in print and online, it has been determined that the paper has been previously published elsewhere.The Editors together with the publishers of the journal, Taylor & Francis, note that we received, peer-reviewed, accepted, and published the article on the basis of warranties made by the author regarding its originality and provenance.We have been informed in our decision-making by our publishing ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on retractions.The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.

African Marxist discourses on the cusp of “globalization”: a preliminary review

ABSTRACTFounded in 1974, the Review of African Political Economy, ROAPE, represented a focused attempt at “devising…strategy for Africa's revolution” and provided a forum for various discussions among African progressive activists and intellectuals of different stripes in the final quarter of the twentieth-century. With a metropolitan location, ROAPE's primary method was to mediate those discussions largely in terms of the international machinations of capitalism. In a 1985 retrospective, the review reflected on the shortcomings of this method. What is significant about these two moments in ROAPE's existence is the coincidence of the exhaustion of the kind of Marxist analysis it promoted with the ascendancy of a new political critique. Inflected with postmodernism and “the cultural turn,” this new political critique is also concerned with questions of diaspora, racial and other minority identities, and its relationship to capitalism is not always one of antagonism. It also eschews specific political affiliations, being forged through the complex historical. The WISER Review and the subsequent Salon of the Johannesburg Workshop on Theory and Criticism are representative of this political critique. This essay examines both formations as necessary but limited interventions, and assesses their value as theoretical attempts to understand realities on the African continent.

Biobased Economy and Climate Change—Important Links, Pitfalls, and Opportunities

Industrial BiotechnologyVol. 13, No. 2 Industry ReportBiobased Economy and Climate Change—Important Links, Pitfalls, and OpportunitiesMichael CarusMichael CarusSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Apr 2017https://doi.org/10.1089/ind.2017.29073.mcaAboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byThe E factor at 30: a passion for pollution prevention1 January 2023 | Green Chemistry, Vol. 25, No. 5Environmentally Conscious Technologies Using Fungi in a Climate-Changing World8 February 2023 | Earth, Vol. 4, No. 1Bioplastic production in terms of life cycle assessment: A state-of-the-art reviewEnvironmental Science and Ecotechnology, Vol. 780Toughened Renewable Bio-polyester Blends Achieved through Crystallization Retardation by Acetylated Cellulose Fibers31 December 2022 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15 years of ‘War on AIDS’: what impact has the global HIV/AIDS response had on the political economy of Africa?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Review of African Political Economy on 21st August 2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03056244.2015.1064370.

‘African Peasants and Revolution’ revisited

This short essay begins by revisiting John Saul's landmark article in the first issue of the Review of African Political Economy in 1974, which was, inevitably, very much of its historical moment. The author suggests that Saul used an ideal-typical conception of ‘peasants’ combined with a particular view of ‘incomplete’ capitalism established by colonial rule in Africa and continuing since political independence. He then proposes, in highly selective and abbreviated fashion, an alternative approach to understanding the social conditions of existence of African ‘peasants’ and the politics of Africa's agrarian questions. He illustrates his argument with special reference to the current moment of globalisation and neoliberalism. ‘Globalisation’ serves as shorthand for the restructuring of capital on a world scale since the 1970s (and not least ‘financialisation’), while he uses ‘neoliberalism’ to refer to the political and ideological project of promoting the interests of capital in such restructuring at the expense of the interests of labour. He concludes with some broad historical theses about ‘African Peasants and Revolution’.

An interview with Samir Amin

Samir Amin was a contributor to the first issue of Review of African Political Economy (Amin 1974). He is a militant Marxist economist who has published more than 30 books including the path-breaki...

Neoliberal accumulation and class: a tribute to Gavin Williams

The articles in this collection emerged as presentations made at a conference in July 2010 which marked the retirement from Oxford of Gavin Williams, one of the founding editors of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) and today a member of its International Advisory Board. Conference papers celebrated his several contributions, covering themes that resonated with his best known work, and in several cases that had been inspired by him – as some of the published articles here make explicit. The countries they focus on are South Africa and Nigeria, which are recognised as the geographical centres of gravity of his work, but extend, characteristically, to broader issues of political economy, such as privatisation (Pitcher) and overall development trajectories in Africa as compared with East Asia (Meagher). To set the scene for these five articles and to provide an overview of the conference as a whole and to the broad sweep of Gavin's lifetime contribution, not least to this journal, the following paragraphs are based on remarks I made to launch the conference.

Brand Africa: multiple transitions in global capitalism – a preface

Briefings and Debates Editor, Review of African Political Economy The following set of papers on an emerging discursive trend on linking commerce with do-gooding for ‘Africa’ seems to me to be of s...

Questioning resistance in post-apartheid South Africa: a response to Luke Sinwell

Luke Sinwell's article ‘Is “Another World” Really Possible? Re-examining Counter-Hegemonic Forces in Post-Apartheid South Africa’, published in March 2011 in the Review of African Political Economy...

The Mosaic of Violence – An Introduction

Bakonyi, J., Bliesemann DeGuevara, B. (2011). The Mosaic of Violence: An Introduction. In B. Bliesemann de Guevara, & J. Bakonyi (Eds.), A Micro-Sociology of Violence: Deciphering patterns and dynamics of collective violence. (pp. 1-17). Routledge.

The Marketisation of Social Justice: The Case of the Sudan Divestment Campaign

Against the backdrop of the growing influence of institutional investors (pension and mutual funds, endowments and so forth) on publicly listed corporations,1 socially responsible investing (hereaf...

The weight of history, a broad sense of the possible: Economic history, development studies, political economy and Bill Freund

The weight of history, a broad sense of the possible: Economic history, development studies, political economy and Bill Freund

‘Power to Uhuru’: Youth Identity and Generational Politics in Kenya’s 2002 Elections

Faced with the challenge of a new, multi-ethnic political coalition, President Daniel arap Moi shifted the axis of the 2002 electoral contest from ethnicity to the politics of generational conflict. The strategy backfired, ripping his party wide open and resulting in its humiliating defeat in the December 2002 general elections. Nevertheless, the discourse of a generational change of guard as a blueprint for a more accountable system of governance won the support of some youth movements like Mungiki. This article examines how the movement's leadership exploited the generational discourse in an effort to capture power. Examining the manipulation of generational and ethnic identities in patrimonial politics, the article argues that the instrumentalization of ethnicity in African politics has its corollary in the concomitant instrumentalization of other identities race, class, gender, clan, age and religion. As THE HISTORIC 27 DECEMBER 2002 ELECTIONS got under way, it became evident that Kenya was poised for 'one of the most significant political changes since independence'.' The electoral victory of the ethnically based parties coalesced around the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) ended Daniel arap Moi's 24-year patrimonial rule, which many Kenyans blamed for their economic miseries and for the erosion of accountability of state power and of respect for citizenship rights and the ideals of nationhood, reduced by corruption, greed and the cynical manipulation of ethnicity. NARC's victory signified the triumph of ethnic pluralism and national rejuvenation. However, Kenya's return to the multi-ethnic foundations of its nationhood in late 2002 occurred in the shadow of widening inter-generational discord and tension.2 Dr. Peter Mwangi Kagwanja is the Director, International Crisis Group (Southern Africa) and Research Associate, Center for International Political Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa. 1. Anders Ndirma, 'Elections in Kenya', Review of African Political Economy 30, 96 (2003), pp. 343-50; see also Lionel Cliffe, 'Kenya post-election prospects', Review of African Political Economy 30, 96 (2003), pp. 341-3. 2. See 'Children in the spotlight: a place in the African security debate', editorial, African Security Review 11, 3 (2002), p. 1.

Removing Knowledge

Removing Knowledge

Migrants and Housing Investments: Theory and Evidence from Nigeria

The dominance of housing may reflect limitations in the menu of investment choices available to migrants in the country of origin. In many developing countries individuals face relatively few savings opportunities where productive assets (such as land farm assets) are associated with high risks and/or low rates of return. Housing investments offer unique advantages in that they are durable highly visible and associated with low risk and monitoring requirements. However there are some important drawbacks associated with housing investments. In particular where resale and rental markets for housing are not well developed migrants housing assets may be relatively illiquid and irreversible. In the next section I provide some background on general patterns of investment behavior among migrants. Here the evidence on housing investments is discussed for a rich set of migrant sending and receiving countries. In Section III I develop the conceptual framework for understanding migrants housing investment decisions. Section IV provides a description of the data sources. Section V outlines the empirical strategy. In Section VI I discuss the empirical findings. Section VII presents conclusions. (excerpt)