Pub Date : 2022-03-30DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2044300
Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo
SUMMARY This briefing explains Ghana’s recent banking sector failures and renewed debt crisis as consequences of its uneven and deleterious integration into the global capitalist financial system, a situation that critical scholars in international political economy call international financial subordination.
{"title":"Collapsing banks and the cost of finance capitalism in Ghana","authors":"Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2044300","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2044300","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY This briefing explains Ghana’s recent banking sector failures and renewed debt crisis as consequences of its uneven and deleterious integration into the global capitalist financial system, a situation that critical scholars in international political economy call international financial subordination.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"624 - 633"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43990015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-10DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2037540
T. Lyons, Aly Verjee
SUMMARY Ethiopia’s 2021 elections have been overshadowed by the brutal civil war that has raged since November 2020. The elections may not have been competitive but they reveal important dynamics about institutions and the competition for power in Africa’s second most populous state. These were the first elections under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018 insisting that legitimacy comes through elections. By 2021, however, repression and boycotts resulted in the ruling party winning 97% of the seats where voting took place. Beneath this national result were patterns of asymmetric electoral authoritarianism. Some regions experienced heavy-handed political domination and voting with only the ruling party competing. Others had circumscribed political space and opportunities for the opposition to win votes. Local dynamics challenge assessments that only look at the national outcome, missing important differences between types of electoral authoritarianism.
{"title":"Asymmetric electoral authoritarianism? The case of the 2021 elections in Ethiopia","authors":"T. Lyons, Aly Verjee","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2037540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2037540","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY Ethiopia’s 2021 elections have been overshadowed by the brutal civil war that has raged since November 2020. The elections may not have been competitive but they reveal important dynamics about institutions and the competition for power in Africa’s second most populous state. These were the first elections under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018 insisting that legitimacy comes through elections. By 2021, however, repression and boycotts resulted in the ruling party winning 97% of the seats where voting took place. Beneath this national result were patterns of asymmetric electoral authoritarianism. Some regions experienced heavy-handed political domination and voting with only the ruling party competing. Others had circumscribed political space and opportunities for the opposition to win votes. Local dynamics challenge assessments that only look at the national outcome, missing important differences between types of electoral authoritarianism.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"78 6","pages":"339 - 354"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41243788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-08DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2027750
Tapiwa Madimu
ABSTRACT This paper examines unregulated gold-mining activities prevalent at disused mines and decommissioned shafts at operating mines in post-apartheid South Africa. This kind of mining is deemed illegal by the government since it is outside the parameters of the country’s main mining legislation. The author uses the concept of ‘the everyday’ to examine the daily living patterns and work operations of unregulated miners (zama-zamas) to fully understand their real world, beyond what is peddled by the state, and to argue that unregulated mining activities are orderly and make a significant contribution to the livelihoods of thousands of people in South Africa and the subregion. A thorough examination of their daily work and leisure routines sheds more light on their actual world, which has till now been obscured by government and media reports that emphasise the ‘illegal’ and violent aspects while remaining mute on the positive elements.
{"title":"‘Illegal’ gold mining and the everyday in post-apartheid South Africa","authors":"Tapiwa Madimu","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2027750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2027750","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper examines unregulated gold-mining activities prevalent at disused mines and decommissioned shafts at operating mines in post-apartheid South Africa. This kind of mining is deemed illegal by the government since it is outside the parameters of the country’s main mining legislation. The author uses the concept of ‘the everyday’ to examine the daily living patterns and work operations of unregulated miners (zama-zamas) to fully understand their real world, beyond what is peddled by the state, and to argue that unregulated mining activities are orderly and make a significant contribution to the livelihoods of thousands of people in South Africa and the subregion. A thorough examination of their daily work and leisure routines sheds more light on their actual world, which has till now been obscured by government and media reports that emphasise the ‘illegal’ and violent aspects while remaining mute on the positive elements.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"436 - 451"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48976175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-07DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2042239
C. Amuhaya, D. Degterev
SUMMARY Eastern African small island states played a role in advancing the ‘Blue Economy’ concept prior to the Rio+20 summit in 2012, when it emerged on a global stage. As their main concern they cited threats caused by climate change to marine life, on which they are highly dependent. This briefing explores the uneven development of the various national policies geared towards the concept. It notes an emphasis on economic policies neglecting climate change and dispute settlement policies, and identifies a need for the development of an all-encompassing regional approach to maximise Blue Economy benefits in Eastern Africa.
{"title":"Development of the Blue Economy concept in Eastern Africa: strategic frameworks and a simmering conflict","authors":"C. Amuhaya, D. Degterev","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2042239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2042239","url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY Eastern African small island states played a role in advancing the ‘Blue Economy’ concept prior to the Rio+20 summit in 2012, when it emerged on a global stage. As their main concern they cited threats caused by climate change to marine life, on which they are highly dependent. This briefing explores the uneven development of the various national policies geared towards the concept. It notes an emphasis on economic policies neglecting climate change and dispute settlement policies, and identifies a need for the development of an all-encompassing regional approach to maximise Blue Economy benefits in Eastern Africa.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"507 - 519"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44348917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-07DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2026314
P. Mataruse, S. Matthews
ABSTRACT One of the ways in which opposition activists in Zimbabwe receive funding is through democracy assistance. Focusing on the late 1990s to 2016, this article explores the effect the receipt of such aid had on the ways in which opposition activists organise and on their ideological orientation. The authors show that the availability of such funds contributed to the commercialisation of the struggle whereby opposition activists began to view activism as a way to earn a living. Furthermore, this funding led to a decline in trust, passion and voluntarism among opposition activists. And, finally, dependence on foreign funding resulted in ideological shifts in Zimbabwean opposition parties and organisations whereby radical, left-leaning positions were abandoned in order to secure funding. The authors suggest that local strategies for funding such struggles for democracy must be given greater consideration to promote transformational possibilities and new participatory forms of democracy.
{"title":"Commercialising the struggle: the organisational and ideological effects of democracy assistance on opposition activism in Zimbabwe","authors":"P. Mataruse, S. Matthews","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2026314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2026314","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT One of the ways in which opposition activists in Zimbabwe receive funding is through democracy assistance. Focusing on the late 1990s to 2016, this article explores the effect the receipt of such aid had on the ways in which opposition activists organise and on their ideological orientation. The authors show that the availability of such funds contributed to the commercialisation of the struggle whereby opposition activists began to view activism as a way to earn a living. Furthermore, this funding led to a decline in trust, passion and voluntarism among opposition activists. And, finally, dependence on foreign funding resulted in ideological shifts in Zimbabwean opposition parties and organisations whereby radical, left-leaning positions were abandoned in order to secure funding. The authors suggest that local strategies for funding such struggles for democracy must be given greater consideration to promote transformational possibilities and new participatory forms of democracy.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"452 - 471"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46858745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-24DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2026765
J. Pateman
ABSTRACT Lenin’s Marxist theories have aided both African anti-imperialist struggles and the study of African political economy. Recently, however, some scholars have reinvigorated the postcolonial critique of Marxism as a Eurocentric doctrine, one that misunderstands and marginalises Africa and its peoples. Following Cedric Robinson, several analysts mention Lenin alongside Marx and Engels as a founder of Eurocentric Marxism. This article, by contrast, argues that Lenin displayed a deep concern for Africa, one that was fundamentally non-Eurocentric. Lenin researched Africa extensively in his Notebooks on imperialism. Upon the basis of this research, Lenin placed Africa at the centre of his analysis in Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism. It is impossible to understand the insights of Lenin’s theory of imperialism without appreciating Africa’s centrality within it. Although Lenin displayed the racist views of Africa that dominated his era, these were marginal in his thought. Lenin militantly opposed colonialism and supported African independence.
{"title":"The centrality of Africa in Lenin’s theory of imperialism","authors":"J. Pateman","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2026765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2026765","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Lenin’s Marxist theories have aided both African anti-imperialist struggles and the study of African political economy. Recently, however, some scholars have reinvigorated the postcolonial critique of Marxism as a Eurocentric doctrine, one that misunderstands and marginalises Africa and its peoples. Following Cedric Robinson, several analysts mention Lenin alongside Marx and Engels as a founder of Eurocentric Marxism. This article, by contrast, argues that Lenin displayed a deep concern for Africa, one that was fundamentally non-Eurocentric. Lenin researched Africa extensively in his Notebooks on imperialism. Upon the basis of this research, Lenin placed Africa at the centre of his analysis in Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism. It is impossible to understand the insights of Lenin’s theory of imperialism without appreciating Africa’s centrality within it. Although Lenin displayed the racist views of Africa that dominated his era, these were marginal in his thought. Lenin militantly opposed colonialism and supported African independence.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"287 - 302"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42334955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2049146
Sophia Hayat Taha
{"title":"Migration beyond capitalism","authors":"Sophia Hayat Taha","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2049146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2049146","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"194 - 196"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46572838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2049129
Natacha Bruna
ABSTRACT With the global environmental crisis intensifying, capitalism has extended the reach of financialisation through the creation of new financial assets that rely on further commodification of nature. Using the case of a national reserve in Mozambique, the paper examines the emergence of green extractivism as a consequence of deepening financialisation, an extractivism which is building on pre-existing relations of unequal and asymmetric exchange between industrialised and extractive economies. The article focuses on the linkages between financialisation and extractivism and nature-based financial mechanisms, whose operationalisation impacts on rural social reproduction. It is argued that the emergence of green extractivism, supported by green funds and loans, is intensifying the extractive character of the Mozambican economy. The case study shows, that with the support of philanthrocapitalism, the process of financialisation led by mature economies supports the appropriation of nature through green extractivist programmes in the periphery, with adverse implications for development and for rural subsistence.
{"title":"Green extractivism and financialisation in Mozambique: the case of Gilé National Reserve","authors":"Natacha Bruna","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2049129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2049129","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With the global environmental crisis intensifying, capitalism has extended the reach of financialisation through the creation of new financial assets that rely on further commodification of nature. Using the case of a national reserve in Mozambique, the paper examines the emergence of green extractivism as a consequence of deepening financialisation, an extractivism which is building on pre-existing relations of unequal and asymmetric exchange between industrialised and extractive economies. The article focuses on the linkages between financialisation and extractivism and nature-based financial mechanisms, whose operationalisation impacts on rural social reproduction. It is argued that the emergence of green extractivism, supported by green funds and loans, is intensifying the extractive character of the Mozambican economy. The case study shows, that with the support of philanthrocapitalism, the process of financialisation led by mature economies supports the appropriation of nature through green extractivist programmes in the periphery, with adverse implications for development and for rural subsistence.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"138 - 160"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41398553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2036485
Carlos Muianga
ABSTRACT In Mozambique, policy discourses supporting the expansion of large-scale capitalist agriculture have largely focused on its potential to increase agricultural production and productivity. In particular, they have highlighted the potential contribution to rural employment and income, and their impacts on poverty reduction. Yet in focusing narrowly on these dynamics, they have ignored the contradictions of social reproduction of labour often associated with the expansion of capitalist production. This paper explores these contradictions by considering primary and secondary evidence from two contexts of expansion of large-scale capitalist agriculture in Mozambique. It argues that these contradictions have manifested in diverse forms, reflecting the extent to which forms of expansion and (re)organisation of sectors of capitalist agricultural production, and the associated forms of labour exploitation, have affected different spheres of social reproduction of labour in these contexts. Moreover, the paper suggests, they have reproduced more broadly, as the expansion/intensification of the extractive logic of accumulation has compromised ‘alternative’ spaces of social reproduction.
{"title":"The expansion of capitalist agricultural production and social reproduction of rural labour: contradictions within the logic of capital accumulation in Mozambique","authors":"Carlos Muianga","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2036485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2036485","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In Mozambique, policy discourses supporting the expansion of large-scale capitalist agriculture have largely focused on its potential to increase agricultural production and productivity. In particular, they have highlighted the potential contribution to rural employment and income, and their impacts on poverty reduction. Yet in focusing narrowly on these dynamics, they have ignored the contradictions of social reproduction of labour often associated with the expansion of capitalist production. This paper explores these contradictions by considering primary and secondary evidence from two contexts of expansion of large-scale capitalist agriculture in Mozambique. It argues that these contradictions have manifested in diverse forms, reflecting the extent to which forms of expansion and (re)organisation of sectors of capitalist agricultural production, and the associated forms of labour exploitation, have affected different spheres of social reproduction of labour in these contexts. Moreover, the paper suggests, they have reproduced more broadly, as the expansion/intensification of the extractive logic of accumulation has compromised ‘alternative’ spaces of social reproduction.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"87 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47978833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2050557
A. Ganho
ABSTRACT This study levels an international political economy lens at the development of the Sino-Mozambican rice project in the lower Limpopo, by examining how class relations shaped and were shaped by global trends, Chinese resources and Mozambican dynamic accumulation interests. The Sino-Mozambican rice project (2005–2014) is analysed as three projects benefiting different groups, with a focus on producer selection and allocation of means of production, in dialogue with the historical dynamics of agrarian accumulation and the political economy of Mozambique. The paper argues that the project has served the expansionist interests of the ruling capitalist group associated with central government circles, limiting land-based possibilities at province level. In addition, the plan to locally transform small producers into rural capitalists through ‘modern’ Chinese methods has failed to confront the historical interdependence of the commercial and so-called family sectors and the diversity of livelihood sources for the reproduction of food and labour.
{"title":"Class, politics and dynamic accumulation processes around the Sino-Mozambican rice project in the lower Limpopo, 2005–2014","authors":"A. Ganho","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2050557","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2050557","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study levels an international political economy lens at the development of the Sino-Mozambican rice project in the lower Limpopo, by examining how class relations shaped and were shaped by global trends, Chinese resources and Mozambican dynamic accumulation interests. The Sino-Mozambican rice project (2005–2014) is analysed as three projects benefiting different groups, with a focus on producer selection and allocation of means of production, in dialogue with the historical dynamics of agrarian accumulation and the political economy of Mozambique. The paper argues that the project has served the expansionist interests of the ruling capitalist group associated with central government circles, limiting land-based possibilities at province level. In addition, the plan to locally transform small producers into rural capitalists through ‘modern’ Chinese methods has failed to confront the historical interdependence of the commercial and so-called family sectors and the diversity of livelihood sources for the reproduction of food and labour.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"107 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41917294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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