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.
The Covid-19 pandemic and its effects dominated Kenyan politics, its foreign relations, and its socioeconomic developments. Kenya registered its first case of the novel coronavirus on 13 March 2020. The pandemic led to significant loss of life not only from health complications but also as a result of police brutality and health issues arising from the attendant loss of livelihoods in an economy that is largely informal and dependent on tourism. Dominant political issues in 2020 were nation-building, devolution, corruption, terrorism, and economic downturn due to the pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic had far-reaching political consequences. The pursuit of a united Kenya continued through the proposed Building Bridges Initiative (bbi), resulting in new elite alliances and divisions. These divisions were exacerbated by the devolution disagreements that emerged from the planned revenue-sharing formula among different counties. On foreign affairs, Covid-19 strained and promoted relations between Kenya and other states in equal measure. Relations with neighbouring Tanzania were strained over different pandemic containment measures, while relations with the US and China were strained by the increasingly nationalist and protectionist policies of the great powers. Macroeconomic indicators weakened as the economy took a downturn, along with other development indicators.