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.
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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.
After two years of war in the Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities agreement (CoHA) in Pretoria on 2 November between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (tplf) marked an end to the conflict. Meanwhile, however, government forces intensified efforts to drive the Oromo Liberation Army (ola) from its strongholds in western Oromia and bordering regions. The international community called for unfettered humanitarian access to conflict areas as a condition for debt restructuring and a normalisation of diplomatic relations. A mid-year crackdown on Fano militias in Amhara Region by government forces foreshadowed a shift in domestic political alliances, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party (pp) risked losing its Amhara nationalist and pan-Ethiopianist support base. Conflicts in the north (Tigray, Amhara, and Afar) and west (western Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz), as well as drought in the south-east of the country (Somali Region, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region, southern Oromia), resulted in rising food insecurity and an idp and refugee crisis. This was compounded by food and fuel inflation and currency depreciation, as Ethiopia sought to reduce its foreign exchange deficit and debts. Agricultural outputs were affected by conflict and drought, while a national wheat cluster farming programme could not end reliance on wheat imports. The extractive mineral sector continued to gain in importance, with gold the most exported commodity, on par with coffee despite a close to 60% decline in gold exports over the year. Pledging to liberalise the economy, as part of its Home-Grown Economic Reform agenda, the pp announced the privatisation of all sugar factories and industrial parks. A year after obtaining its licence as Ethiopia’s first private mobile service, Safaricom began to roll out services as of October – at a time when parts of western Oromia and Tigray were still under a government-imposed communication blackout.