African Studies
Utafiti: Journal of African Perspectives
Call for Papers: Utafiti is inviting you to submit your manuscript – any topic in the humanities - for consideration in the next issues.
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This journal promotes critical and worldly debates with Africa at the centre.
New Series: Africa Futures / Afrique Futurs
Published in association with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Africa Futures features cutting-edge research that critically reflects on some of the big questions relevant to imagining Africa’s future as a place.
Listen to our podcast on Africa and Climate Change
Robin Attfield talks about how Africa finds itself vulnerable to drought but also the flooding of its coastline, among other untoward environmental effects of climate change and civil war.
On 16 July, citizens in the Republic of Congo were called to the polls to elect a new National Assembly, the fourth legislative election since President Denis Sassou Nguesso reclaimed power in 1997. The elections occurred in the midst of the worst crisis since 1990, which had compelled Sassou Nguesso to convene the National Conference and ultimately permit Congo’s first democratic elections in 1992. Certain the legislative elections would be fraudulent, citizens registered their frustration by refusing to participate. Sassou Nguesso responded to citizens’ frustrations by continuing the campaign of repression that he had begun in the run-up to the constitutional referendum of October 2015. Several opposition leaders and journalists were imprisoned, others remained incarcerated, without trial, and one political prisoner died in police custody. Abroad, Sassou Nguesso sought financial and military support to buttress his weak domestic position. As global oil prices remained low, existing oil fields reached maturity and Sassou Nguesso’s massive infrastructure programme failed to generate sustainable economic growth, the government’s debt/gdp ratio spiked to nearly 120%. The government slashed domestic spending, causing per capita gdp to fall sharply.