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This paper aims to analyse the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and its potential to unleash the development of women in Africa. The envisaged benefits of the AfCFTA include increased trade diversification, regional integration, enhanced human security, increased foreign direct investment and technological advancement. Despite optimism about the prospects of the agreement as a local innovation spearheaded by the African Union, pessimists raise questions about the extent of stakeholder engagement. The agreement must be gender-responsive to enhance outcomes for women cross-border traders. The paper concludes that the lack of gender sensitivity confirms the need to address the specific needs of African women, especially those involved in informal cross-border trade. Hence, for AfCFTA, the policy focus should be on ensuring the formalisation of women who participate in informal trade, thus helping increase access to markets, information and growth opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The setting up by the African Union of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which should govern matters relating to, inter alia, trade in goods and services, investment, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, and competition policy is a step in the right direction. However, this paper argues that the limited inclusion of informal economy actors such as informal cross border traders (ICBTs) appears to undermine the potential of the AfCFTA as the architecture for inclusive socio-economic development in Africa. The paper advances the need for African countries to craft policies which are sensitive to and respond to the circumstances of ordinary people on the ground and not a wholesale application of policies such as neoclassical integration theory, the outcome of which deserts ordinary people. Such policies must be transcendental to the extent of being informed by views from the ground, which does not appear to be the case with the AfCFTA on the score of ICBTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-colonial economy of African countries has continued to manifest all the characteristics of its colonial origins in terms of its structure, direction, and composition. Export of primary commodities continue to take precedence over exports of manufactured products. The African Continental Free Trade Area emerged after series of negotiations to address the problem of structural transformation through value added production, services and increased agglomeration in African economies. This paper examines the extent to which the AfCFTA can foster structural transformation and socio-economic development in Africa. The paper found that despite the challenges that may affect the implementation of the agreement, AfCFTA holds great potentials for the realisation of the social transformation in Africa through creation of regional value chains, unlocking the opportunities in free movement of factors of production and enhancing a stronger voice for Africa in the negotiation of trade and investment agreements with other regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publishing in Africa has long been debated among academics in the global south who recognise the marginal status of African academics' ideas and knowledge. Many of the solutions proffered in global north academies, such as internationalisation and collaborative research, often fail to address specific issues that continue to mark the unequal status of publications from the continent because of the location of the interventions. More recently, a growing number of scholars have argued for a decolonial approach to thinking about African academic publishing. The current paper adds to this growing body of literature and examines alternative considerations to publishing in Africa. This article focuses on the idea of space holding as a tool for navigating the publishing world and suggests the conscientious work by editors, experimental writing and thinking, peer learning and identification of scholarly archives that aligns with theoretical and methodological needs of African scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing models of capitalist transformation have nearly always prioritised an analysis of domestic capital in shaping economic trajectories. Yet, even as industrial policy has been re-imagined in Africa, the potential contribution of domestic capital has remained marginal in academic analysis and policy discussions. The prevailing assumptions are that African capital is either non-existent or too weak to influence the policies of African governments. However, there is evidence within nascent literature that large African-owned businesses continue to influence the trajectory of capitalist transformation within their countries. This paper examines why the study of African capitalists – popular in the 1980s and 1990s – has remained dormant. This paper makes the case for analysing the politics driving the activity of large African-owned firms through researching the politics of diversified business groups (DBGs). Arguing that DBGs are the predominant form that large-scale domestic investment takes on the continent, the paper introduces an inductively-informed typology of African DBGs. The framework shows how domestic political economy (and the politics of state-business relations, in particular) shapes the form and trajectories of diversification of domestic business groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to understand the negative connotations of amalungelo – women's rights – within the domain of African vernacular. We attempt to unpack the ways in which amalungelo are invalidated by neo-traditionalist discourse, and how the invalidation of amalungelo often occurs within the domains of African language and African traditions. We embrace a notion of African identity and culture to which we belong, and also unpack some of the contradictions this presents in the form of new traditionalisms (neo-traditionalism) that form and reform to justify patriarchy in modern Africa. Through conversation we search for a textured sense of the matricentric as offered by language and idiom, in the effort to further contribute to the ongoing work of building an African feminism. The paper sees itself as a non-linear exploration of ideas, with no pretentions to finding a concrete set of appropriate concepts for the ongoing search for women's equality in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a customary land dispute within the context of rising land commoditisation in the Teso region of eastern Uganda. I analyse a statutory court-led mediation hearing of the land dispute, which I observed in October of 2015 in Teso. My analysis of the hearing focuses on how key aspects of the dispute should be understood within the broader context of customary land commoditisation and agrarian change in Teso, exemplifying what Chimhowu calls the '"new" customary tenure' in Africa. In support of an historical approach to understanding land tenure change, I underline the spatial and temporal dynamics of land commoditisation in the region. While the commoditisation of customary land is a trend widely observed across rural Africa, it is less clear how land dispute resolution policies will adapt to this structural shift in customary land tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Akìwowo's vision and scholarship were very much impacted by his historical context. Most of his work was conducted after independence when the issue of development was upmost in the minds of Nigerian academics. Born in 1922, he was an elder among the post-independence scholars who sought to help move the new nation forward. This paper focuses on the distinct ideas Akìwowo brought to this endeavour. It was the area in which I had the most discussions with him and in which I collaborated on a publication. I focus on (1) the context within which his ideas developed, (2) his perspective on indigenous sociologies and (3) his output. Akìwowo's concerns in the 1970s are still with us as is clear from Burawoy's Presidential address at the International Sociological Association meetings in Japan, 2014, and the ongoing work of sociologists and social scientists from other regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the closing decades of the last century, Professor Akínsolá Akìwowo, in a series of seminal papers, inaugurated what Jìmí Adésíná later dubbed 'the Akíwowo project'. This project involved (1) showing that there are resources in an African culture – Yorùbá – for doing sociology in ways that are as good as the dominant tradition to be found in Western sociology; and (2) offering some original ideas regarding some explanatory framework that could enable us to make sense of social phenomena. In this essay, I advance the Akìwọwọ project by showing how, despite previous criticisms, Akìwọwọ remains a keen identifier of theoretical possibilities lurking in his Yorùbá heritage for doing not only sociology, but also philosophy and other theories with African idioms. I show how those criticisms enhance the practice of sociology in Africa that will be a powerful presence in the discipline and in the world of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), it is critical to examine its potential success, or failure, particularly in the context of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Another important issue is how the AfCFTA would interface with other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the customs unions and monetary communities that already exist in Africa. The free trade agreements that subregions and or countries in Africa enter into are a threat to the AfCFTA because all efforts of African countries should be focusing on boosting intra-African trade in order to ensure that the AfCFTA succeeds and it does not seem feasible to readily 'absorb' the RECs into the AfCFTA. Using results from fieldwork, the paper makes a case that the future of RECs should be resolved so there is sufficient clarity regarding the implementation of the AfCFTA as far as the role of RECs is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of the perceptions of corruption and personal experience of bribery on the propensity for ordinary Africans to support collective action-based anti-corruption tactics. It also evaluates how poverty shapes the association between corruption and support for collective civic action against corruption. The paper bases its findings on the multilevel level regression analysis of public opinion data from 35 African countries. The results show that an increase in experience of paying bribes increases poor people's preference for anti-corruption tactics based on collective action. Furthermore, individuals who perceive corruption to be widespread are significantly more likely to support collective action as their country's poverty level rises. These findings strongly challenge the view recently expressed in some of the literature that high levels of corruption erode the willingness of especially poor Africans to bring corruption under control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevailing narratives in the discourse on China-Africa engagement are that China is developing Africa. This paper departs from those narratives because they disregard the agency of Africa's political elite. Basing its argument on the nature of the African political elite, the paper analyses their role in determining the impact of China's economic and trade engagement on economic development in their respective countries. To do that, it first discusses the nature and identity of African political elites, and examines how they control their states and scarce resources. Having done that, the paper then analyses their role in determining the nature and extent of development emanating from their countries’ economic engagement with China. It then concludes that it is not how much foreign states invest in African countries that determines Africa's rise, but rather political elites who influence the direction of their states’ development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the theoretical analysis of the legitimacy challenges faced by the federalist structure of the Somali state, as established with the 2012 constitution. Understanding federalism in Somalia, I argue, is not a simple question of political power distribution: there is also a dichotomy between a predominant European-based conceptualisation of the state and the bulk of often-neglected Somali notions of communitarian organisation, to which the clan is a part. If the decentralised structure of clans in Somali tradition seems to realise a certain convergence with the current federalist project, the dichotomy is rather evident when it comes to the definition of ‘(civil) society’ in Somalia. Thus, in order to assess both the progression of the federalist project, more than four years after its launch, and the factual legitimacy it holds among the Somali population, this paper will focus on the complex relation between state and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper asks why Kenya invaded Somalia in October 2011. It scrutinises five possible explanations as to why Kenyan decision-makers decided to invade neighbouring Somalia. The explanations are inspired by different theoretical frameworks. Some are inspired by theories developed to analyse Western societies, whereas others are inspired by theoretical reflections aimed at understanding politics in Africa. It is concluded that the decision to invade Somalia was made because of the institutional and ‘bureaucratic’ interests of the Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) advanced by a limited number of men of Somali-Kenyan origin who pursued their own interests. Security and economic concerns did play a role, while the paper dismisses that the invasion can be understood as a consequence of the Kenyan government pursuing an ‘international image management strategy’. Theoretically, the paper concludes that ‘Western’ theories may contribute to explaining the launch of ‘Linda Nchi,’ whereas Africa-focused theories like neo-patrimonialism seem less helpful in this particular context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Incumbent political parties in emerging democracies tend to use clientelism and state resources to mobilise electoral support. In most cases, they go on to win these electoral contests. However, this paper uses the Zambian example to demonstrate that mere incumbency may not always win elections. Despite the advantages of incumbency, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) lost the 2011 elections to the opposition Patriotic Front (PF). To explain this, the paper argues that the qualities of an incumbent political party matter. For the MMD, the paper identifies three major contextual variables which undermined incumbency: first, the internal long-term but sustained centrifugal conditions which systematically eroded the party’s strength. Second, the public perception of the MMD as a decaying and recalcitrant party which increasingly detached itself from the electorate. Third, the presence of a surging populist, grassroots-based opposition political party. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Neopatrimonialism, according to the distinguished development scholar, Thandika Mkandawire [2015. "Neopatrimonialism and the Political Economy of Economic Performance in Africa: Critical Reflections." World Politics 67 (3): 563-612], provides the 'common denominator' for a host of practices of politics in Africa; viz. patronage, corruption, cronyism, and predation. So deeply embedded is this view among mainstream thinkers, that 'underneath every policy lurks neopatrimonialism', that the idea has come to be imbued with the 'air of irrefutable common sense'. This paper deconstructs common sense refracted through the lens of present-day statecraft and the deceptive and subversive nature of contemporary neoliberal governance. It cautiously outlines the contours of a new common sense, placing emphasis on theorisation, a situated politics, institutional recalibration, fundamental changes in social relations, and the adoption of 'bad' and unorthodox development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community Conservation initiatives have become widespread in several Southern African countries and have also been increasingly involved in disputes over land claims, control of resources and territorial authority. The aim of this paper is to analyse how Communal Conservancies in Namibia are being used by rural communities as tools for gaining or securing access to and control of communal land in a moment when it is perceived as increasingly scarce. Peasants, Traditional Authorities, the State and conservationists all try to influence the use that will be given to contested lands. The paper will focus on two cases: King Nehale Conservancy, a heavily populated mixed agricultural land in North-Central Namibia (Owamboland) and Nyae Nyae Conservancy, a semi-arid land inhabited by a historically marginalised population, the Ju/’hoan San. In both cases Conservancies contribute to an increased control by communities over their land, but also imply the reinforcement of the presence of the State and private capital in communal areas, and become part of the internal struggles among sections of the communities themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If my experience of anthropology in and on Africa is anything to go by, there has been too much of engaged or public anthropology and too little of anthropology as an intellectual pursuit animated by rigorous contemplation and practice on and around a set of shared curiosities. Distinguishing between academic anthropology and engaged or public anthropology requires a priori reflection on the scientific status of anthropology. This paper argues that anthropology's scientific potential has yet to be fully realised. Without a rigorous commitment to science, theory building, and an acknowledgement of associated epistemologies, as well as little patience for knowledge production as a collaborative endeavour, much anthropology today is little different from an evangelical and ideological commitment to saving souls, saving situations, winning converts and ‘giving back’. The paper challenges anthropologists to commit to the essential task of producing critical knowledge of critical value, and to re-embrace and fulfil anthropology's core mission and ambition as an evidence-based field science. The need for anthropology as a rigorous and collaborative field science, liberated from ‘western’ and ‘male’ dominance, calls for a negotiated, inclusive and accountable ethics, evidence-based thick description, an understanding of interconnections and interdependencies, and critical and comparative theory building as a permanent engagement and as a dynamic and constructive debate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This introductory essay lays out the main themes of a special issue of Journal of Contemporary African Studies which brings together six empirically grounded papers by African social scientists of different disciplinary backgrounds. These works touch on various aspects of the social impact of religious innovation and competition in present day African Christianity. They represent the first fruits on the social science side of an interdisciplinary initiative that made 23 research grants for theologians and social scientists to study Christianity and social change in contemporary Africa. These articles focus on a variety of dynamics in contemporary African religion (mostly Christianity), including gender, health and healing, social media, entrepreneurship, and inter-religious borrowing and accommodation. The editors conclude that the research and learning reflected in this volume will enhance understanding of religion’s vital entanglement in contemporary African society. The articles reveal problematic ethical and psychological dynamics in some of these new movements, particularly among some of the neo-Pentecostal groups. Yet the authors are determined to go beyond perspectives that are overly fixated with African problems and victimisation. They are keen to explore opportunities for understanding African agency and African wellsprings of hope. The editors conclude that scholars of religion and religiosity in Africa need to invest new conceptual and methodological energy in researching what it means to be actively religious in Africa today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary conservation discourse, an uncomfortable distinction exists between the foreign organisations invested in protected areas and the surrounding ‘local communities’. Specifically, this dichotomy seems to reinforce a stereotypical set of imagined stakeholders, ultimately promoting Euro-American conservation experts as the instructors of uninformed residents in wild areas. This paper presents publications on two community-based conservation efforts in South Luangwa, Zambia that emphasise this division: Administrate Management Design (ADMADE) and Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO). Through community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) literature from Zambia, additional CBNRM narratives from elsewhere in Southern Africa, and limited supporting ethnographic evidence from South Luangwa, this paper demonstrates the continued Euro-American environmental hegemony of ‘community-focused’ conservationism. In particular, the perspectives publicised by both ADMADE and COMACO suggest that without influence from international conservation institutions, ‘communities’ that live amongst wildlife in Zambia will deplete their natural resources and in the process alter the African savannah as imagined and revered by the global North. This paper introduces a preliminary analysis of both ADMADE and COMACO in attempt to unveil their inherent imperial associations and highlight the local challenges to their protocols. In so doing, this critique serves as a point of departure for future comparative research on the repeat assumptions and rejections of CBNRM programmes in Southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reflects the activist experience of its author, Philip Thigo of the Nairobi-based Social Development Network (SODNET), one of a new generation of agencies that are seeking to deploy new communication technology for socially emancipatory purposes. The paper makes three very strong claims concerning the political effects of social movement activists deploying ICT. Firstly, it argues that in Kenya, the use of ICT by civil society agencies has helped to open up and enlarge new kinds of political space – ‘self-created spaces’. These spaces offer new kinds of political possibilities in contrast to the organised and managed spaces occupied by more institutionalised and officially registered ‘non-government organisations’. These spaces are new, because popularly accessible communication technologies have opened up public domains for civil politics where no such space existed previously; they constitute fresh domains that are not managed or regulated by authority. Thigo's second major claim is that these new spaces are arenas that can accommodate a new type of politics. The communicative network that groups such asUshahidiandHudumahave embedded within the communities in which they are active facilitate quite novel configurations of collective action. These permit the political effectiveness of less organised groups, they broaden the social range of political expression, and they give equality to different voices – through such instruments as crowd-sourcing. These voices can now be heard unmediated by the traditional aggregating agencies such as political parties or the notables and patrons who often profess to speak for communities. Indeed, in enabling the bypassing of conventional channels of patron–client relations, the new technologically networked social movements embody a really formidable challenge to the existing distribution of political power. However, the sources of political power may be relocating in other ways too. The third claim that can be derived from Thigo's argument is that popular deployment of communication technology is also opening up novel prospects for advancing the state's capacity. The official Kenyan Open Data Initiative described in this paper is an unprecedented effort by an African government to provide information about its functions and resources available to citizens. It doing so it represents an important extension of government functionality. Of course, the state's deployment of information technology can add considerably to its repressive capacity but it can also extend its distributive effectiveness and its moral authority. To be sure, movements such asHudumaandUshahidiare primarily concerned with empowering poor and rightless groups. However, in their chosen strategy of ‘constructive engagement’, Thigo's people-centred ICT networks might also significantly transform and enlarge the bases of African state power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This contribution critically explores changing relationships between diamond mining and patterns of urbanisation in Sierra Leone. In providing an historical overview of mining expansion and contraction, the paper highlights the significant impacts that mining has had on the rural–urban continuum, and how this has shaped political, economic and social change in diamondiferous regions. Focusing on Kono District, the effects of diamond mining on populations are evaluated before, during and after the civil war, demonstrating how diamonds have had diverse and varying impacts on both population mobility and urban agglomeration at different points in time. While much attention has focused on the social consequences of wartime displacement from diamondiferous areas to the capital city, Freetown, recent research suggests that the post-war return of young people to diamond mining regions has had unexpected consequences. Most significantly, a decline in artisanal mining activities and the rise of large-scale industrial mining has reawakened the interest of young ex-miners in farming, especially those who enjoy hereditary land rights. While one consequence of the war may be that the population is now more urban and more mobile, the paper concludes that the return of young people to their villages of origin, and rapprochement with local chiefs, may be helping to drive a resurgence of community-based cooperation in Kono District, a development which could provide a more durable basis for sustainable and democratic development in the years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Heritage planning in Ghana is mainly governed by the idea of sustainable pro-poor tourism, but is only marginally integrated with general planning programmes and fragmentally addressed by policy-makers. Motivated by the general lack of research on heritage policy in Ghana, this paper examines the role of heritage planning in national socio-economic, cultural and tourism policy and highlights various ambiguities in terms of concepts, objectives and approaches. The major findings show gaps between rational and communicative planning ideals, between informal management systems and wider democratic concerns, and between delimited and comprehensive planning perspectives. The central argument is that the lack of coherence among different development planning perspectives is an issue that future heritage policy-making needs to consider in order to balance tourism development with concerns such as social stability, community development and local pride of place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the Poro, a male secret society in rural Sierra Leone, and how it conditions access to security and justice. It critiques dichotomies between state and non-state and substantiates the networked quality of order-making as dispersed among a multitude of actors who intertwine disparate rationalities and registers of authority. The secret nature of the Poro, the ‘sons of the soil’, and the ‘stranger’ are explored as central figures. Poro membership is essential to the production of social and physical boundaries between insiders and outsiders of a community. By conditioning access to local positions of power and decision-making about how resources are to be distributed, the Poro also conditions access to security and justice. The networked quality of order-making becomes particularly noticeable when the police engages in Poro affairs, which accentuates the multitude of registers of authorities that are combined and assembled as the Poro and the police interact. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The failings of classical Marxism, social democracy and anti-imperialist nationalism point to the need for a radical left politics at a distance from the state. This paper examines the impact, revival and promise of the anarchist/syndicalist tradition, a rich, continuous praxis in labour, left, anti-imperialist, anti-racist and egalitarian movements, worldwide, since the 1860s. Outlining its core ideas – anti-hierarchy, anti-capitalism, anti-statism, opposition to social and economic inequality, internationalist class-based mobilisation – and critique of mainstream Marxism and nationalism, it highlights the arguments there is a basic incompatibility between state rule, and bottom-up, egalitarian, democratic, socialist relationships. The anarchist/syndicalist project cannot be reduced to an organising style, protest politics or spontaneism: for it, transition to a just, self-managed society requires organised popular capacity for a revolutionary rupture, developed through prefigurative, class-based, democratic organs of counter-power, including syndicalist unions aiming at collectivised property, and revolutionary counter-culture. Success needs formal organisation, unified strategy and anarchist / syndicalist political organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely believed that national urban policies in Africa are rare. This is a concern bearing in mind the formidable challenges posed by urbanisation in the context of low incomes and weak institutions. The paper unpacks the concept of urban policy and what it means for the way in which cities grow. It considers the situation in five countries with different approaches. The evidence indicates increasing interest in steering urban growth through coordinated actions on land, housing and infrastructure. The positive developmental arguments seem to carry more weight than the threats of disaster if squalor and social unrest are not addressed. Yet the appropriate policy responses are not clear-cut and there are many dilemmas faced. Capacitating city governments to plan and invest in networked infrastructure appears to be one of the priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues for seeing African land tenure regimes as institutional configurations that have been defined and redefined as part of state-building projects. Land regimes have built state authority in the rural areas, fixed populations in rural territories, and organised rural society into political collectivities subject to central control. Land tenure regimes can be understood as varying across subnational jurisdictions (rather than as invariant across space) in ways that can be grasped in terms of a conceptual distinction between neo-customary and statist forms (rather than as infinitely diverse). Differences between the two have implications for the character of political authority in the rural areas, the nature of political identities and community structure, and the nature of property and land claims. These political effects are visible in differences in the forms of local protest and resistance to commercial land acquisitions in peri-urban Kumasi, Ghana, where a neo-customary land regime prevails, and the Kiru Valley of northern Tanzania, where land institutions are decidedly statist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article contributes to a growing literature on the character of leadership, democracy and governance espoused by post-liberation governments, focusing on the African National Congress (ANC) as a political party. The article provides a brief overview of the two most common approaches to analysing the ANC's transition from a national liberation movement to a political party in an electoral democracy, the dominant party approach and what is termed the Fanonesque perspective. Neither is found to be wholly satisfactory, for largely the same reason – their tendency to present what is effectively a caricature of the ANC, by selectively highlighting features of its practices that conform to a pre-determined pathology, rather than acknowledging the ANC's complexity, variability and essentially contested nature. In developing an alternative approach, the paper draws from an earlier body of literature on single-party–dominant states in post-independent Africa that was empirically driven and comparative in nature. Such an approach can help us develop a more realistic, less sensationalist interpretation of ANC rule in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘right to contest’ is an internationally recognised principle, embodied in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The issue posited by this paper is whether and how contestation can occur, in resource-rich countries in Africa, constructively or destructively. Constructive contestation in Africa is particularly important in relation to natural resources, those under the land, on the land and perhaps most importantly in relation to the land itself. Without the political and social spaces to contest decisions regarding those resources constructively, violence or other forms of destructive contestation may ensue. In Africa, the problem of contestation is exacerbated by the predation of resources – its illicit taking by more dominant parties – and consequent territorial dispossession, loss of culture and identity, and the often justified feelings of betrayal and anger. If one accepts that contestation in a constructive manner ought to be provided for, the questions then arise as to who can legitimately contest and on what basis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the factors contributing to single-party dominance in Tanzania. Despite the fact that Tanzania has had a multi-party democracy since 1995, the party which governed during single-party rule, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has won the vast majority of seats in the National Assembly in the first four multi-party elections. In order to understand the CCM's grip on power, this article analyses the results of a survey conducted amongst subsistence farmers in Tanzania, which provides information on farmers’ livelihood conditions, access to media and political views, and hence provides insight into the preferences underlying voting behaviour. It discusses the dominant reasons for CCM support, as well as the characteristics of farmers who are more likely to support an opposition party. It concludes by discussing possible policy options for enhancing political competition in Tanzania. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper seeks to analyse Zimbabwe's economic empowerment policy. It argues that while there is a felt need for Zimbabwe to redress colonially induced injustices and racial imbalances in the ownership of the means of production, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to the indigenisation of the economy is fundamentally flawed as it deters investors and may further damage the country's already extremely fragile economy. The implementation of the land reform programme contributed to the decline of Zimbabwe's economy: lessons learnt from the programme and related economic policies of the past 15 years highlight the problems of empowerment policies that are intertwined with patronage politics. The government's negation of basic economic principles and failure to open spaces for critical engagement with all relevant stakeholders epitomises an ill-advised indigenisation and economic empowerment strategy. The policy will not promote and retain foreign investment;nor are there sustainable prospects of internally oriented accumulation strategies on the horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on the experience of Ghana, which the World Bank itself proclaimed as an African success story in the early 1990s, this paper sheds important light on why neoliberal policies have had limited success in Africa and what strategies are likely to be necessary to foster growth and industrialisation in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. In 2001, a few short years after being proclaimed as an economic miracle, Ghana joined the growing ranks of highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) - an especially humbling development for this once proud nation. Why did Ghana's economy collapse after recovering so well? Ghana's experience highlights both the promise and limitation of neoliberal reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]