For the first time in South Africa’s 30 years of democracy, the African National Congress (ANC) failed to obtain a majority of votes making a coalition with other parties imminent. Luke Sinwell considers the consequences, and discusses the emergence of a new party, MK, led by Jacob Zuma. Sinwell looks at what has happened to the left, and its repeated failure to make any serious inroads into South Africa’s political scene. By Luke Sinwell The newly minted Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party led by former President Jacob Zuma quickly established itself in the elections as the third largest p ..read more

On 2 June 1937, members of the Labour Trade Union of Kenya returned to work after their masterfully strategic 62-day strike secured them an eight-hour work day, a nearly 25% wage increase, and recognition from colonial employers. Shiraz Durrani’s A Struggle of 62 Days dramatises the legacy of this mass strike. In this article, ROAPE contributor Zachary Patterson reviews Durrani’s play and writes on the history of the Kenyan labour movement in the struggle for independence and liberation. By Zachary Patterson  The genesis of labour activity, organizing, and law and regulation in Kenya can ..read more

Israel, as a settler colony, perceives Palestine as ‘empty land’, empty of people, culture, history and a future. Busani Ngcaweni argues that Palestinians are denied an identity and have become dis-membered, without a home, state or nation. There are striking similarities, Ngcaweni explains, between Israel’s ideology of racial subjugation by a ‘God-chosen people’ and apartheid South Africa’s belief in racial and religious superiority over an inferior black race. By Busani Ngcaweni Last week international media reported that Norway, Ireland and Spain have resolved to recognise Palestine as a st ..read more

ROAPE celebrates the life and work of Alpheus Manghezi, researcher, scholar and activist. Manghezi was a citizen of the world and a fighter for the freedom and liberation of all peoples. He worked in Johannesburg, Glasgow, London, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania. We post two celebrations of his life, one by the Centre of African Studies in Maputo, and the other by Gottfried Wellmer. As Gottfried writes, “If the soul of a human is the capacity to communicate with other humans, then Alpheus was a great soul.” The Centre of African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University (CEA-UEM) reports with gre ..read more

Colin Darch writes about attending the anniversary last month of the Portuguese revolution on 25 April 1974. This was the  “fourth revolution” alongside the anti-colonial transformations in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola. Darch argues that it remains vital to remember that between 1974-1975 radical socialist transformation in a small country on the south-western edge of Europe was on the cards – and that it was African leaders such as Amílcar Cabral, Samora Machel and Agostinho Neto who were showing the way. By Colin Darch A few weeks ago, on the afternoon of the 25 April, I joined ..read more

On the evening of 24 April, a deluge of rain led to flooding that decimated many homes along the Mathare and Getathuru rivers in Nairobi, Kenya. The floods have left nearly 200 people dead and 200,000 more displaced across the country. Zachary Patterson reports on the climate disaster that is claiming lives, and uprooting communities in Kenya and the activists providing support to the displaced while campaigning against state brutality. By Zachary Patterson   Receding waters around Nairobi have revealed destroyed properties, damaged infrastructure, and shattered livelihoods, exacerbating ..read more

Analysing the recent anti-French coups across West Africa, Salvador Ousmane argues that opposition to French imperialism is not a panacea for the region’s poverty and crises. Ousmane also argues that calls for a new currency are overstated, and instead urges collective action against the military juntas and old ruling elites across the region by the working poor in their trade unions. By Salvador Ousmane The key problems for the working poor in most countries across West Africa are the same, poverty, inequality, and corruption. However, the military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have ..read more

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