ROAPE interviews Mark Duffield about his life and work. For decades Mark has worked on the political philosophy of the permanent emergency, the current global crisis in capitalism, the war economy, and the political and economic situation in the Horn of Africa. From his early days growing up in the West Midlands, to his research in Sudan, and later examining the militant struggles of Indian workers in the UK, Duffield has spent a lifetime examining at the central dynamics underpinning our interconnected world of genocide and imperialism.    For ROAPE readers unfamiliar with your ..read more

Kalundi Serumaga offers a radical take on the two-day conference at Makerere University in Kampala in January 2024, reflecting on 40 years of neoliberalism in Uganda. He observed that while Uganda’s intellectuals speak up against poverty and social instability, they fall short of envisioning a way out of the neoliberal impasse. Serumaga defines neoliberalism, elucidates its origins in Uganda’s tumultuous political and economic history, and emphasises the necessity of critiquing it. By Kalundi Serumaga Neoliberalism, as a set of economic policies, is in full bloom in Uganda. The moment of the a ..read more

ROAPE’s Rama Salla Dieng writes Senegal is facing a wave of protests following the appointment of the new  government. Feminist organisations have been shocked at the pathetic number of women ministers in the new government. Dieng writes about the history of marginalisation of women in public office in Senegal since independence, and what the new government must do. By Rama Salla Dieng Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko are facing a wave of protests following their 5 April decree appointing the new  government: 25 ministers and five secret ..read more

Immaculata Abba and Sa’eed Husaini introduce a project that aims at digitising important and imperilled archival holdings of Nigeria’s radical and pro-democracy activists to increase accessibility to these materials as well as to preserve them for posterity. Abba and Husaini invite researchers working in the social sciences and humanities to submit proposals for research papers that use archival research in the collections to produce new narratives of Nigeria’s rich and important history of the radical left. By Immaculata Abba and Sa’eed Husaini Archives of the Nigerian Left is a project run b ..read more

In this blog summary of a ROAPE journal article, Ben Radley argues that the Democratic Republic of the Congo provides an illustrative case of green imperialism, as large capital and hegemonic powers seek to control and generate profit from Congolese territory and resources under the discursive banner of ‘greening’ the global economy. The result, Radley contends, is the reproduction a model of mining-led national development that historically has delivered little by way of material improvements for most Congolese, undermining the prospects of future prosperity in the country. Green New Deals in ..read more

Ludo De Witte, author of The Assassination of Lumumba  reviews Stuart Reid’s recently published book The Lumumba Plot, which has been heavily promoted in the UK and the United States. De Witte argues that although Stuart Reid, the editor-in-chief of Foreign Affairs, provides some new information on the dynamics of this complex crisis, the real dynamics and internal coherence of the Congolese crisis remain hidden. By Ludo de Witte Stuart Reid’s The Lumumba Plot: the secret history of the CIA and a Cold War assassination (2023) should be seen as the first publication to shed new light on th ..read more

This series on state repression and police brutality in Senegal arrives as the nation transitions to a new presidency. It documents the case of state violence that would be investigated if the Amnesty Bill adopted in the last month of the Macky Sall regime was reconsidered. La Maison des Reporters investigated and documented cases of torture, killings, and unlawful arrests suffered by political opponents and ordinary citizens in major Senegalese cities like Dakar and Ziguinchor, providing clear evidence to the public of the abuses under the Macky Sall regime. ROAPE shares two pieces by journal ..read more

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, lasted from 1967 to 1970, and resulted in the deaths of over a million people. The secession of Biafra was a response to perceived marginalization against the Igbo people, and grievances regarding representation and power. Gavin Williams argues that despite almost sixty years since end of the war, its legacy continues to shape Nigerian society and politics today.   By Gavin Williams The events leading to the Biafran secession and the Nigerian Civil War itself were the most tragic and important in the history of Nigeria. They have also ..read more

This year marks ROAPE’s 50th anniversary. To mark the year, Robin Cohen, one of our founding editors, discusses the period in which ROAPE was born. At the time many similar journals were established and declared themselves as ‘radical’ and ‘alternative’. Like ROAPE, these new publications explicitly challenged the mainstream in their disciplines, and proposed changes to scholarship and the world.   By Robin Cohen It is only appropriate to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Review of African Political Economy, given that the journal has made such an important contribution to radical sch ..read more

In January 2024, Makerere University in Kampala hosted a two-day conference to reflect on 40 years of neoliberalism in Uganda. Writing on the conference, Serunkuma reminds us that, 40 years on, Uganda remains an epicentre of neoliberalism – or what he terms the ‘new colonialism’ in Africa. Consequently, neoliberalism and its many ills must remain at the forefront of scholarly and activist discussion and analysis. In January of this year, the Uganda’s Neoliberalism at 40 conference took place at Makerere University in Kampala. Put together by comrades Rose Nakayi, Sarah Ssali (both from Makerer ..read more