New publications

This volume, based on papers that were given at the conference 'Destination Africa' (held in March 2018), challenges received ideas of Africa as a marginal continent and place of exodus by considering the continent as a centre of global connectivity and confluence. Flows of people, goods, and investments towards Africa have increased and diversified over recent decades. In light of these changes, the contributions analyse new actors in such diverse fields as education, trade, infrastructure, and tourism.

Ethiopia is holding parliamentary elections on 21 June at a time of immense domestic turmoil and foreign pressure. This is due to, in particular, the Tigray conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and other ethnic-based violence. Ethiopia has always been a complex and volatile country, but the confluence of these pressures in 2021 is unique, and dangerous. Still, the elections are better held than delayed again, Jan Abbink writes in The Conversation.

Duncan Money and Limin Teh wrote an annotated bibliography for JSTOR Daily about race and the organisation of labour from a global perspective. It charts the global history of race and labour in the early twentieth century, highlighting the complex ways in which race, labour, and imperialism intersect. The article is available open access.

Rahmane Idrissa wrote an article about the death of Chad’s late president Idriss Déby from a historical perspective for Sidecar, the blog of New Left Review. 'What did France gain in tirelessly propping up a dictator against the aspirations of his people? Such interests are at first sight hard to perceive. They are certainly not economic.'