China Science

This article reviews the author’s acquaintance with the literature of economic development, with particular reference to Africa, over the last 50 years. The belief that this development is propelled by the supply of capital, effectively of international aid, is criticized, and emphasis put instead on the effective demand for capital. This demand has been low in Africa; hence much capital investment has been of low or no productivity, and aid has generally failed to fulfil expectations. Aid continues nonetheless, since it serves donor as well as recipient interests and political opposition to it is weak. (more…)

This paper argues that warlord or ‘non-state’ politics have not brought about as fundamental a political transformation as recent discourses about violent ’state collapse’ in Africa seem to suggest. In the context of the territorial break-up of the central state in the DR Congo, it examines the reconfiguration of political power in North Kivu (more…)

Events or occurrences perceived as miracles are a feature of all religious traditions, although not to the same degree. The perception of a miracle is closely connected to ideas that are extant concerning the relations between the material world and the invisible world. Recent decades appear - at least from fragmentary evidence - to have seen an increase in the number of occurrences perceived as miracles in Africa, in Christian, Muslim and indigenous traditions. (more…)

In the year 2000, a new phase of the dysfunctional power of religion exploded into the modern public space in Nigeria. Some regional states in the north of the country exploited a loophole in the 1999 constitution to declare themselves as sharia states. Debate on the constitutional legality, political, socio-economic and gender implications of this development became complicated by ethnicity and regionalism. (more…)

The 1990s witnessed the beginning of a tortuous process of transition in Madagascar, from a planned to a liberal economy and from an authoritarian political regime to democracy. The final act of the transition was the presidential election of 16 December 2001 which pitted Admiral Didier Ratsiraka, aged 69, in power for some 25 years, against a businessman, Marc Ravalomanana, whose only political experience was as mayor of the capital city (more…)

Mobility is the most important response by the inhabitants of the Sahel to climatic adversity. This ‘condition sahélienne’, characterized by unstable climatic circumstances, irregular rainfall patterns and periods of drought, has an important influence on people’s decision-making processes regarding their livelihood. Migration studies mainly focus on labour migration to urban areas. (more…)

It has been said that diamonds are Botswana’s best friend, but with the rise of the ‘conflict diamonds’ issue in international politics, spurred on in the main by non-governmental organizations, Botswana has felt compelled to go on the offensive to persuade the diamond-buying public that its diamonds are ‘clean’ and legitimate. (more…)

During the 1990s, a new kind of alcoholic beverage began to appear in Kenyan bars. The ‘new generation’ drinks, as they came to be known, disturbed an established boundary between the formal and informal sectors, and between legitimate enterprise and criminal endeavour. They invaded the formal spaces of licit drinking, finding their way on to the shelves of bars between the bottles of Tusker and Bond 7; they shamelessly appropriated the physical markers of respectable business, with labelled bottles and advertising. And they were cheap, since they avoided the burden of taxation which had pushed lager beer and whisky beyond the financial reach of many drinkers. (more…)