Newsletter

Mikaela Erskog discusses the Sahel’s fight against Western interference, the character of hyper-imperialism, and calls for Global South unity to propel regional sovereignty.

Inkani Books announces two new releases, launching in April and May, Izimpabanga Zomhlaba, the first Zulu translation of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, and The Revolutionary Thoughts of Kwame Nkrumah

Journalist and founder of African Stream, Ahmed Kaballo, shares why this pan-African media platform was created and how it plays a key role in contextualising and presenting news on Africa today. Unlike most popular media on the continent, it presents anti-imperialist perspectives that guide us through contemporary events and provide crucial context and analysis around why and how events, like the July 2023 coup in Niger, happen.

AFCON, TotalEnergies, oil, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Alassane Outtara, Laurent Gbagbo, Emmanuel Macron, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the Sahel, military coups, Liptako-Gourm Charter, Alliance of Sahel States, Mining Code, Frédéric Pacéré Titinga, President Ibrahim Traoré, West Africa

Gaza and its surroundings have been under siege for decades. In what is now popularly referred to as ‘genocide’ and ‘neurological ethnic cleansing’, the traumatising sounds of war have long since driven away all wildlife including birds. The detritus of waste, rubble, and artillery shells combine with toxic fine dust that seeps into everything and poisons everything still barely living. From movement and activist spaces everywhere, as the world slows down and indulges in the excesses of this time of year, we say, how can we wind down and be merry? Remember Palestine.

On a spectrum of marginalisation, African women’s thought on the economy arguably remains the least visible, a convergence of the problems that dominant economic traditions have with both gender and Africa. By identifying the impact of patriarchal capitalism and recognising the diverse ways in which it operates, feminist perspectives offer alternative economic systems that prioritise equitable distribution and environmental sustainability in general.

Capitalism has no solutions for the problems that confront humanity. This is the unequivocal conclusion of the 800 leaders from 260 left progressive organisations in 51 countries, alongside forward-looking intellectuals and political leaders, who have been convened together in the last few years by PAT and other regional articulations of the International Peoples’ Assembly. For these people, any illusion that there are redeeming qualities to capitalism. The III International Dilemmas of Humanity Conference which just took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, this October was in some ways the culmination of these efforts.

Hundreds of thousands slept in the open air after a magnitude 7 earthquake hit several regions in Morocco. The number of fatalities crossed the 2,900 mark, while more than 300,000 civilians, including 100,000 children, have been affected. Complete villages have collapsed while others have been destroyed or besieged by landslides and falling boulders. Yet, what is clear is that it is not the natural disaster that has killed people, but rather the lack of proper living structures caused by precarity and marginalisation.

Africa has increasingly diverged from the Atlantic powers, more weary of Western militarisation, economic strangulation, and tepid diplomatic policies that give little room for sovereign development. We need new locomotives to represent and advance the collective aspirations of the people not only domestically but the shifting balance of forces globally.

We started Inkani Books in 2021 with a vision of books that could intervene in discussions around the contemporary dilemmas of humanity, that engaged deeply with pan-African themes, Marxism, and struggles in the Global South. We wanted to make books people could gather around and learn from together. Spirited texts to inspire activists and movements to mobilise in innovative ways. People are drawn to books not just as design objects or repositories for ideas but as generators of shared experiences. Done well, they have the power to energise community life and accelerate social change.

This is the first in a monthly newsletter series where we will share recent activities from our Pan-African institute based in Johannesburg, South Africa. We elaborate on and amplify the theories of leading social and political movements while bridging the gap between movement-based intellectuals and academic thinkers. This month, we are spotlighting our dossier Life or Debt: The Stranglehold of Neocolonialism and Africa’s Search for Alternatives and the Collective on African Political Economy.