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In the forth in a series of blogs for roape.net, writer and activist Lee Wengraf explores China’s recent investment and engagement in Africa. China, she argues, is no kinder, gentler imperial option: just like 19th century colonialists, when the Chinese build roads and schools, the goal is to facilitate resource extraction and build allegiances.

In the first of two blog-pieces, Gary Littlejohn looks at the issues behind western intervention in Libya in 2011. It is part of a long history of Western involvement, he writes, within and beyond Libya and the MENA region.

In this far-reaching interview, ROAPE’s Ray Bush argues that the products and commodities that rural people produce must sustain local demand and local needs, rather than produce export crops to generate foreign exchange on the international markets. The foundation of any modern society has to be the basis of generating sufficiently and appropriately priced food stuffs from local markets. This is the path, he argues, to a real alternative for societies in the Global South.

In the first in a series of blogs for roape.net, writer and activist Lee Wengraf describes Obama’s bloody legacy in Africa. Over eight years the continent has seen an intensification of US aerial campaigns, proxy warfare, and imperial competition.

Harry Verhoeven praises the fine-grained analysis in a new book on Rwanda which has the potential to decisively move beyond widespread caricatures of Rwanda under RPF supremo Paul Kagame as either a ‘slowly democratising developmental state’ (as infatuated aid officials conveniently assert) or as a ‘totalitarian’ leader where no resistance is possible. Yet there are serious weaknesses that speak to the approach taken by the author.

Firoze Manji writes that discontent has been growing across the continent, with spontaneous eruptions and mass uprisings that have in some cases resulted in the overthrow of regimes. In such circumstances, one would have thought that this would have been fertile grounds for the emergence of strong left working class movements across the continent. But why has this not happened?

In this, the third in the series on protest, elections and presidential terms, David Seddon returns again to the three countries initially considered to examine the very different trajectories followed by them over the last six months, and extend the comparison to include two others – also in Central Africa.

In his second piece on popular protest in Africa, David Seddon examines the popular reactions to elected presidents who have extended – or attempted to extend - their term of office beyond the limits defined by the Constitution, as is the case in all too many African countries.

This project hopes to provide a constantly up-dated account (and archive) and analysis of instances of popular protest and examples of social movements across the African continent with a view to identifying patterns and trends.