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In an important conference on agriculture in North Africa speakers sought to confront the central issue of our time: delivering accessible and available food to the world’s poor in a way that is sustainable for the planet. Many speakers argued that food sovereignty through delinking from global commodity chains might be the answer.

In the latest blogpost on the ROAPE/Third World Network workshop in Accra, Elisa Greco argues that uncovering and documenting rural and urban struggles which often do not make the headlines is one of the key tasks of activist-intellectuals. Analysing the contradictions internal to these struggles, she argues, requires a ruthless analysis of their internal contradictions and necessitates a sustained optimism of the will.

At last week’s ROAPE and TWN (Third World Network Africa) workshop in Accra, sixty activists and activist-researchers came together to discuss radical political economy and structural transformation in Africa. Given the recent, tumultuous events in Zimbabwe, we begin by posting short interviews filmed in Accra by ROAPE’s Peter Dwyer with Tafadzwa Choto and ROAPE’s Laura Mann interviewing Munyaradzi Gwisai.

Every quarter roape.net posts extracts from the introductions to our print journal. In this quarters issue (Vol. 44, Issue 153) Hannah Cross writes about the widespread revolt against neo-liberalism in an issue that addresses the ‘attacks on gender relations and rights, workers and standards of living’ across Africa.

The Review of African Political Economy is convening a series of three workshops in Africa in the 2017-18 period to explore Structural Transformations in Africa today: interventions from the Left. The workshops will help link analysis and activism in contemporary Africa from the perspective of radical political economy; consider whether a new politics is emerging from sites of contestation in Africa and reflect on lessons which might be drawn for the continent from revolutionary historical transitions.

Nungari Mwangi contributes to our debate on capitalism in Africa by looking into export horticulture in Kenya and its role in the expansion of capitalism. Using a case study of marginalized small scale flower farmers, she challenges the orientation towards European export markets, and calls for a focus on local and regional markets for their survival.

In this far-reaching and provocative contribution to roape.net's debate on capitalism in Africa, Elísio Macamo argues that instead of discussing whether “Capitalism” as such is a valid concept or a useful description of social phenomena in Africa, we should interrogate how concepts developed in very specific times and places under specific circumstances can be usefully deployed in other settings.

In these two reviews, Femi Aborisade reflects on perspectives on African political economy, focusing on two recent articles by Issa Shivji (2015) and Jean Nanga (2015). ROAPE Online welcomes further contributions to this important debate.