Ndongo Samba Sylla – författare

While the revolutionary leftist movements of the 1960s and '70s in Europe, the United States and Latin America have been the subject of abundant literature, similar movements that emerged in Africa have received comparatively very little attention. This book sheds new light on these political movements.Africa's left were extremely active in these years. With pro-Soviet movements, Maoism, Trotskyism, Guevarism, Pan-Africanism and the Black Panthers, the rumble of revolution was felt across the continent. From feminist student rebels in Nigeria to pro-democracy moments in Liberia, the exciting and complex interplay between these many actors changed Africa forever.Can we see echoes of these movements in African politics today? What can we learn from the people who lived through these decades? This unique collection will open the eyes of leftists across the world who will find new and important insights into an important chapter in global history.

Colonialism persists in many African countries due to the continuation of imperial monetary policy. This is the little-known account of the CFA Franc and economic imperialism.The CFA Franc was created in 1945, binding fourteen African states and split into two monetary zones. Why did French colonial authorities create it and how does it work? Why was independence not extended to monetary sovereignty for former French colonies? Through an exploration of the genesis of the currency and an examination of how the economic system works, the authors seek to answer these questions and more.As protests against the colonial currency grow, the need for myth-busting on the CFA Franc is vital and this exposé of colonial infrastructure proves that decolonisation is unfinished business.

The Fair Trade Scandal takes aim at the Fair Trade consumer movement which many assume to be entirely benign. Through a razor-sharp analysis based on insider knowledge, Ndongo Sylla shows that there is a big gap between the rhetoric of Fair Trade and its practical results. Sylla shows empirically that Fair Trade excludes those who need it the most and that its benefits are essentially captured by the wealthiest groups in the supply chain. Based on his experience of working for Fairtrade International, Sylla shows the flaws in the Fair Trade system which compromise its ethical mission. The Fair Trade Scandal is both a provocative and deeply informative exploration of the Fair Trade phenomenon, suitable for specialists and non-specialists alike.

Colonialism persists in many African countries due to the continuation of imperial monetary policy. This is the little-known account of the CFA Franc and economic imperialism.The CFA Franc was created in 1945, binding fourteen African states and split into two monetary zones. Why did French colonial authorities create it and how does it work? Why was independence not extended to monetary sovereignty for former French colonies? Through an exploration of the genesis of the currency and an examination of how the economic system works, the authors seek to answer these questions and more.As protests against the colonial currency grow, the need for myth-busting on the CFA Franc is vital and this exposé of colonial infrastructure proves that decolonisation is unfinished business.

Over forty years after the formal end of colonialism, suffocating ties to Western financial systems continue to prevent African countries from achieving any meaningful monetary sovereignty.Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa traces the recent history of African monetary and financial dependencies, looking at the ways African nations are resisting colonial legacies. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary approach, this book uncovers what went wrong after the Pan-African approaches that defined the early stages of independence, and how most African economies fell into the firm grip of the IMF, World Bank, and the EU’s strict neoliberal policies.This collection is the first to offer a wide-ranging, comparative and historical look at how African societies have attempted to increase their policy influence and move beyond neoliberal orthodoxy and US-dollar dependency. Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa is essential reading for anyone interested in the African quest for self-determination in a turbulent world of recurring economic and financial crisis.

Over forty years after the formal end of colonialism, suffocating ties to Western financial systems continue to prevent African countries from achieving any meaningful monetary sovereignty.Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa traces the recent history of African monetary and financial dependencies, looking at the ways African nations are resisting colonial legacies. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary approach, this book uncovers what went wrong after the Pan-African approaches that defined the early stages of independence, and how most African economies fell into the firm grip of the IMF, World Bank, and the EU’s strict neoliberal policies.This collection is the first to offer a wide-ranging, comparative and historical look at how African societies have attempted to increase their policy influence and move beyond neoliberal orthodoxy and US-dollar dependency. Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa is essential reading for anyone interested in the African quest for self-determination in a turbulent world of recurring economic and financial crisis.

For decades, France has exerted a neocolonial grip on its former African empire, known as the Françafrique. Yet a series of electoral breakthroughs and military coups by opponents of this order have put its future into question.Covering a broad sweep of history from the eighteenth century to the present day, two leading authorities on French neocolonialism, Ndongo Samba Sylla and Fanny Pigeaud, offer a series of sharp political reflections on the French effort to subdue and subvert democracy in its former colonies.With incisive analysis of recent events in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Senegal, the book offers an eye-opening counter-history of democracy and elections, and how the vote was limited in the first French colonies; the organisation of unequal rights within the new colonies; the spread of one-party regimes; significant historical coups d'etat; and the role of contemporary electoral interference.

This handbook brings together scholarship from different disciplines, institutions and locations to contribute critically to how the social sciences think about – with, against, beyond – debt. By bringing together the best specialists in the field, this handbook both captures and feeds the theoretical and political debates on a subject of burning relevance. Across the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches, a common thread to the contributions is a concern with power relations and inequalities. Who owes what to whom? To what extent is debt both shaped by and constitutive of social and power relations while crystallizing or giving rise to individual and collective aspirations, resistances and struggles? How is debt structured by long historical trajectories and broad trends that operate at a global level, while at the same time intertwining with institutions, organizations and interpersonal relations specific to singular contexts and periods of history? The handbook features a combination of theoretical and empirical chapters, but overall their purpose is to make an analytical contribution to some of the most relevant public issues of our time. The volume gives empirical examples from a wide variety of geographical locations, moving away from a narrow Euro-American-centric vision. It also explores the case of countries whose banking and debt systems are relatively unknown. The handbook is an invaluable resource for readers who—besides debt itself--are interested in money, banking, economy, social obligation, poverty, and inequality.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the nagging issue of the Global South's debt back into the spotlight. With declining export earnings and tax revenues, many countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia have found themselves objectively unable to service their foreign currency debt. This situation, reminiscent of the international debt crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, is the backdrop of the 38th volume of the Research in Political Economy series edited by Ndongo Samba Sylla. In Imperialism and the Political Economy of Global South’s Debt, expert contributions connect the history of this issue with a range of factors including class dynamics, the changing landscape of sovereign debt markets, the global liquidity cycle, the enduring constraints of commodity dependence, ecological sustainability and the limitations of the current ad hoc sovereign debt restructuring procedures. In contrast to orthodox accounts that view debt crises in the Global South as a cyclical problem or as consequences of 'mismanagement' or 'fiscal irresponsibility'. Imperialism and the Political Economy of Global South’s Debt recognises the systemic nature of the Global South’s external debt, revealed only further by the economic uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the need to analyse it in relation to existing imperialist structures.