New Directions in African Political Economy

The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, Sharjah will host a three-day scholarly conference in commemoration of the life and work of the late Professor Thandika Mkandawire on November 14-16, 2024, in Sharjah, UAE. Pre-register to attend.

The conference, titled ‘New Directions in African Political Economy,’ seeks to honor Thandika Mkandawire and reflect on the significance of his scholarship for African Political Economy today and in the future. The conference will feature 10 to 15 scholars, including colleagues and friends of Mkandawire, as well as emerging scholars whose work has been influenced by his scholarship.

The aim of the conference is to facilitate dialogue between the past, present, and future of African Political Economy, with Thandika Mkandawire’s life and scholarship as the focal point. Participants will present papers on the general themes of Mkandawire’s life and intellectual interests, including African development and developmentalism, African Political Economy, industrialization in Africa, social policy in Africa, democracy in Africa, and more.

About Thandika Mkandawire

Thandika Mkandawire, who sadly passed away on March 27, 2020, is widely regarded as one of Africa’s most important political economists. Mkandawire’s prodigious scholarship, interdisciplinary in nature, focused on understanding the fundamental reasons for the African continent’s seemingly perpetual state of underdevelopment.

Drawing inspiration from a wide range of African and African diasporic thinkers, including Walter Rodney, Samir Amin, and Julius Nyerere, Mkandawire’s work wove a narrative that situated Africa’s development challenges within the wider context of colonialism and neocolonialism. He argued that Africa’s lack of development stemmed from its historical integration into a world system of exploitation and control, which continues in a more sophisticated form today.

In other words, Mkandawire saw Africa’s developmental challenges as largely the result of external factors, such as commodity price cycles or the outsized influence of the Bretton Woods institutions in Africa. This thesis ran contrary to that of many, mostly Western, economists whose ahistorical analyses placed the blame for Africa’s lack of development on Africans themselves. Despite his critical scholarship, Mkandawire was always a perpetual Afro-optimist. He not only provided a dignified analysis of the African condition, placing underdevelopment in its proper historical context, but also proposed policy solutions that centered African agency in the quest for development.

In addition to being a first-rate scholar, Thandika Mkandawire was an institution builder par excellence. He served as the third Executive Secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) from 1985 to 1996. CODESRIA is the preeminent social science research network in Africa, and Mkandawire’s tenure coincided with a period of profound economic challenges for the African continent, its universities, and by extension, CODESRIA. He ably steered the organization through this tumultuous period, significantly contributing to the influence and prestige that CODESRIA continues to hold today. Following his time at CODESRIA, Mkandawire directed the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Switzerland and later assumed the Inaugural Chair in African Development at the London School of Economics.

Free admission.

The program agenda for this conference will be announced.

This conference will also be streamed virtually. Stay tuned for more details.

Pre-register to attend.

Speakers include:

• Jimi Adesina – Professor and The South Africa Research Chair in Social Policy, University of South Africa, South Africa
• Adia Benton – Associate Professor of Anthropology and African Studies, Northwestern University, USA
• Grieve Chelwa – Associate Professor of Political Economy, The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, UAE
• Kim Yi Dionne – Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California at Riverside, USA
• Eyob Balcha Gebremariam – Research Associate, Perivoli Africa Research Centre, University of Bristol, UK
• Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela – Professor and South African Research Chair in Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• H.E Abdalla Hamdok – Executive Chairman, The Center for Africa’s Development and Investment (CADI), UAE
• Simon Manda – Lecturer in International Development, School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK
• Binyam Sisay Mendisu – Professor of African Languages, The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, UAE
• Maribel Morey – Executive Director, Miami Institute for the Social Sciences, USA
• Godwin Murunga – Executive Secretary, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Senegal
• Adebayo Olukoshi – Distinguished Professor of Governance, Witwatersrand University, South Africa
• Ken Opalo – Associate Professor of Politics, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, USA
• Marion Ouma – Research Fellow, The University of South Africa, South Africa
• Vijay Prashad – Executive Director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
• Rachel Beatty Riedl – Director of the Center on Global Democracy and Professor of Government, Cornell University, USA
• Steve Sharra – Associate Professor of Education, Dean of the School of Education, Social Sciences and Technology, UNICAF University Malawi, Malawi
• Ndongo Samba Sylla – Africa Research and Policy Director, International Development Economics Associates
• Fiona Tregenna – Professor and South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
• Wendy Wolford – Vice Provost for International Affairs and Professor of Global Development, Cornell University, USA
• Paul Zeleza –Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives, Howard University, USA; and Member of the Advisory Board of the Africa Institute, Global Studies University, UAE