Connecting people and voices for radical change in Africa

Abstract

In this section of the journal, we aim to give readers of the print journal a picture of what has been published on Roape.net over the last few months, and invite you to connect and follow the articles, blogposts, authors and debates online. Details of all the blogposts referred to here are in the reference list at the end. We warmly invite all our readers to sign up to the Roape.net newsletter and WhatsApp service at the top of the home page of the website.

Our content has been rich and varied over the last quarter, as we continue to attract a range of excellent contributors, as well as new voices and activists. Radical journalist Victoria Brittain discussed the life of Thomas Sankara with Brian J. Peterson (Peterson and Brittain 2022), with Peterson’s book shedding new light on the responsibility for Sankara’s murder.

We also hosted an interesting discussion between Brooks Marmon and D. Elwood Dunn (Marmon and Dunn 2022), in which Dunn, a Liberian intellectual and former politician, was asked about Liberia’s position in the pan-African and anti-colonial world in the 1970s. He sees Liberia, under William R. Tolbert, as a progressive force helping to shape Africa’s postcolonial political trajectory at that time.

Heike Becker described the extraordinary activist campaign to decolonise public spaces in Namibia (Becker 2022), while Mwangi Mwaura explained that current demolitions in Nairobi represent continuity with British colonial demolitions of ‘illegal’ housing under the banner of cleaning up and developing the city to attract investment (Mwaura 2022).

We also published an excellent blog by Pedro Monaville, based on his book on the radical politics and activism of Congolese students in the 1960s (Monaville 2022). He argued that despite their small numbers, the students’ political influence was significant. While memories from this period might be fading, they can still help us to better understand what was lost and remain a key component in the history of the present.

We featured another extract from Anne Alexander’s new book on Egypt, which carefully considers the mass protests and the revival of the workers’ movement, that played a vital role in the revolutions and rebellions in 2011 and 2019 (Alexander 2022).

Wyatt Constantine wrote about the consequences of the international recession for the global South (Constantine 2022), arguing that those with investments and assets profit, while wages fall and benefits are slashed. Looking at Africa, Constantine suggested that we need to engage with the far more complicated and nuanced questions of building a new economic order.

Our coverage for COP27 was extensive, with a vital piece on the plight of the tens of thousands of political prisoners in Egypt. Al-Askar – a pen-name – pointed to the hypocrisy of President Abdel Fattal el-Sisi, presenting himself on the international stage as a fighter for the oppressed while brutally repressing any Egyptian who dares to speak out against his military regime (Al-Askar 2022). Al-Askar argued that through its uncritical engagement with Sisi’s Egypt, COP27 threatens to derail the struggle for climate reparations while greenwashing Egypt’s military dictatorship.

Other pieces included Shreya Parikh’s long-read piece on climate change, overpopulation and shame in Tunisia and India, and how suffering is often interpreted as being a result of individual deficiencies (Parikh 2022). This is a false narrative that blames those most gravely affected by climate change for their own suffering.

ROAPE’s Ray Bush examined migration in the age of the climate emergency (Bush 2022). The consequence of imperialism, colonialism and climate crises is the persistence of labour migration. Bush argued that the underlying cause of migration is structural inequality and its reproduction between the global North and South, which is now exacerbated by climate catastrophe.

We posted an excellent article from radical climate activist Nnimmo Bassey, who asked why the COP is burying its head in the sand in not accepting that fossil fuels are burning the planet. Having witnessed COP27 firsthand, Bassey outlined how the event was a huge carbon trade fair for the fossil fuels lobby (Bassey 2022).

We also published a review of Lena Anyuolo’s debut poetry collection, Rage and bloom, which tackles patriarchy and revolutionary contradictions, as well as hope for a better tomorrow (Bolus 2022). Stuart T. A. Bolus celebrated a collection of poetry that speaks to the twenty-first century of pure unapologetic African love.

Finally, at the end of 2022 we highlighted some of ROAPE’s best reads of the year (ROAPE 2022).

About Roape.net

Together with the print journal, Roape.net seeks to develop a critique of the existing balance of class and social forces in African political economy as a vital part of the project of radical political, environmental and economic transformation. ROAPE’s online platform keeps the struggles for racial, gender and economic equality at the centre of our focus. We aim to highlight debate on the agrarian question, rural immiseration and food sovereignty, the shifting dynamics of popular protest, the transformation of imperialism on the continent, and the role of national and international elites. We are not a substitute for African voices, but a platform for them. To find out more and read our latest contributions, go to https://roape.net/. To subscribe to the quarterly newsletter, fill in your details in the blank box next to the red ‘SUBSCRIBE’ prompt at the top of our home page. To subscribe to the ROAPE WhatsApp service, send the message ROAPE to [phone].