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Contemporary African Politics

About the Book Series

Once seen only as a continent of poverty, violence and corruption, the Africa of today is a vibrant place where social forces demand representative governance, in the process generating fresh forms of complexities in the political, social and economic life of ordinary Africans. Whether what we are witnessing is a third liberation of the continent: the first from colonialism, the second from autocratic indigenous rule and now something far more different, is a work in progress.

This series seeks original approaches to furthering our understanding of the ensuing changes on the continent. The series includes work that progresses comparative analysis of African politics. It looks at the full range and variety of African politics in the twenty-first century covering the changing nature of African society, gender issues, economic prosperity and poverty to the development of relations between African states, external organisations and between leaders and the people they would govern. The series aims to publish work by senior scholars as well as the best new researchers and features original research monographs, thematically strong edited collections and specialised texts.

To submit a proposal for Contempoary African Politics please contact African Studies editor Helena Hurd, [email protected]

9 Series Titles


Revolution and Democracy in Ghana The Politics of Jerry John Rawlings

Revolution and Democracy in Ghana: The Politics of Jerry John Rawlings

1st Edition

By Jeffrey Haynes
August 26, 2024

This book analyses Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings’ plans for radical democratisation in Ghana, involving ordinary people directly in the country’s political and economic decision-making processes. Rawlings came to power in Ghana in late 1981 determined to restructure the ...

Foreign Policy in Post-Genocide Rwanda Elite Perceptions of Global Engagement

Foreign Policy in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Elite Perceptions of Global Engagement

1st Edition

By Jonathan R. Beloff
May 31, 2023

This book examines how Rwandan elites within the government, private sector and civil society perceive the nation’s political and economic relationship with the international community. Using testimonies and interviews of Rwandan political, military and economic leaders, and bureaucrats, this book ...

Post-Colonial Kenya The Rise of an Authoritarian and Predatory State

Post-Colonial Kenya: The Rise of an Authoritarian and Predatory State

1st Edition

By Rok Ajulu
May 31, 2023

This engaging reassessment of postcolonial Kenya argues that the country’s political turmoil over the last fifteen years is a continuation of repeating patterns of political contestation and conflict across Kenya’s history. When Kibaki stole the 2007 presidential election, leading to a spiral of ...

Voice and Power in Africa's Democracy Institutions, Participation and Accountability

Voice and Power in Africa's Democracy: Institutions, Participation and Accountability

1st Edition

Edited By Said Adejumobi
September 01, 2020

Africa has made notable progress in its nascent democracy but with uneven performance across countries. However, across the board, challenges abound. Central to Africa’s checkered democratic narrative is the weakness of its democratic institutions, participatory mechanisms and accountability ...

Africa Under Neoliberalism

Africa Under Neoliberalism

1st Edition

Edited By Nana Poku, Jim Whitman
October 12, 2017

The period since the 1980s has seen sustained pressure on Africa’s political elite to anchor the continent’s development strategies in neoliberalism in exchange for vitally needed development assistance. Rafts of policies and programmes have come to underpin the relationship between continental ...

Ethnicity, Democracy and Citizenship in Africa Political Marginalisation of Kenya's Nubians

Ethnicity, Democracy and Citizenship in Africa: Political Marginalisation of Kenya's Nubians

1st Edition

By Samantha Balaton-Chrimes
July 13, 2017

As an ethnic minority the Nubians of Kenya are struggling for equal citizenship by asserting themselves as indigenous and autochthonous to Kibera, one of Nairobi’s most notorious slums. Having settled there after being brought by the British colonial authorities from Sudan as soldiers, this appears...

State, Land and Democracy in Southern Africa

State, Land and Democracy in Southern Africa

1st Edition

By Arrigo Pallotti, Corrado Tornimbeni
May 25, 2017

Each country in southern Africa has a unique history but in all of them socio-economic inequalities and high poverty levels weaken the governments’ legitimacy and represent a challenge to models of economic development. One key issue appears to be the solution of the land question. This vital ...

African Youth Cultures in a Globalized World Challenges, Agency and Resistance

African Youth Cultures in a Globalized World: Challenges, Agency and Resistance

1st Edition

By Paul Ugor, Lord Mawuko-Yevugah
May 16, 2017

All over the world, there is growing concern about the ramifications of globalization, late-modernity and general global social and economic restructuring on the lives and futures of young people. Bringing together a wide body of research to reflect on youth responses to social change in Africa, ...

Reinventing Development Aid Reform and Technologies of Governance in Ghana

Reinventing Development: Aid Reform and Technologies of Governance in Ghana

1st Edition

By Lord Mawuko-Yevugah
August 26, 2016

Global development actors such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund claim that the shift to the poverty reduction strategy framework and emphasis on local participation address the social cost of earlier adjustment programs and help put aid-receiving countries back in control of ...

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