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This open letter calls for economic and monetary sovereignty in Africa and implementing an alternative, radical economic development model on the continent. These demands for deep structural reforms are urgent for the continent’s development and to strengthen the resilience of societies in the face of the pandemic. We call on our readers to sign the letter.

ROAPE believes that our times are radical, and we need to radicalise with them in theory and practice - we have been attempting to do this. We inform our readers and supporters that in order to return revived and refreshed to the struggles we have been covering, ROAPE will be pausing activities in August on journal production and the website and social media.

Discussing Africa’s relationship to global real estate capital, Tom Gillespie argues that we should not see African cities as exceptional to wider processes of accumulation and circulation but explore what we can learn about 21st century capitalism by studying its urban frontiers.

The Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) announces the winners of a small research grants competition for African researchers and activists based in Africa. The competition is based on the premise that a shortage of funding for critical research is one of the problems faced by Africa-based scholars and activists wishing to carry forward a political economy agenda.

In a contribution to ROAPE’s debate on capitalism in Africa, Stefan Ouma provides a critical account of Africapitalism as well as an assessment of the future/s it imagines, what it silences and its potential to transform African economies. Ouma concludes that the ecologically destructive and dehumanizing architecture of our global economic system provides further evidence to condemn any variant of capitalism.

In an introduction to a special issue in ROAPE (free to access – see link below), based on our workshop in Johannesburg, Peter Dwyer argues that a radical academic journal must provide activists with a platform to get their stories and experience to a much wider audience. In the context of the economic crisis triggered by Covid-19, and an emerging global movement, this is more urgent than ever.  

The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the inadequacy of mainstream arguments concerning the role of the African state in addressing existing health inequalities. In this blogpost, Joan Nimarkoh highlights the potential reawakening of progressive models for health delivery centred on the needs of poor as the pandemic exposes the stark inequities of privatised health systems. 

The situation is moving quickly in Libya with serious implications for the region as a whole. David Seddon argues that the forces of General Haftar have now been effectively defeated. However, the country remains a battle ground between competing imperialist forces seeking control of Libya’s resources and its location as a gateway to the continent.  

Heike Becker reflects on the Black Lives Matter movement on the continent, the development of radical art and how institutionalized racism and its root – capitalism – continue to kneel on all our necks.

The murder of George Floyd has triggered giant protests around the world. Demonstrations in Africa have been much smaller, with tens or at best hundreds of protesters on the streets. Baba Aye, Lai Brown, Heike Becker and Sabatho Nyamsenda reflect on the Black Lives Matter movement on the continent, the development of radical art and how institutionalised racism and its root – capitalism – continue to kneel on all our necks.