Tafadzwa Mushonga – författare

This book brings together perspectives on resource exploitation to expose the continued environmental and socio-political concerns in post-colonial Africa. The continent is host to a myriad of environmental issues, largely resulting from its rich diversity of natural resources that have been historically subjected to exploitation. Colonial patterns of resource use and capital accumulation continue unabated, making environmental and related socio-political problems a dominant feature of African economies. The book pursues the manifestation of these problems through four themes: environmental justice, violent capitalocenes, indigenous knowledge, and climate change. The editors locate the book within the broad fields of political ecology and environmental geopolitics to highlight the intricate geographies of resource exploitation across Africa. It uniquely focuses on the socio-political and geopolitical dynamics associated with the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources and its people. The case studies from different parts of Africa tell a compelling story of resource exploitation, related issues of environmental degradation in a continent particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the continued plundering of its natural resources. The book will be of great interest to scholars and students from the interdisciplinary fields of the environmental humanities and environmental studies more broadly, as well as those studying political ecology, environmental policy, and natural resources with a specific focus on Africa.

This book brings together perspectives on resource exploitation to expose the continued environmental and socio-political concerns in post-colonial Africa. The continent is host to a myriad of environmental issues, largely resulting from its rich diversity of natural resources that have been historically subjected to exploitation. Colonial patterns of resource use and capital accumulation continue unabated, making environmental and related socio-political problems a dominant feature of African economies. The book pursues the manifestation of these problems through four themes: environmental justice, violent capitalocenes, indigenous knowledge, and climate change. The editors locate the book within the broad fields of political ecology and environmental geopolitics to highlight the intricate geographies of resource exploitation across Africa. It uniquely focuses on the socio-political and geopolitical dynamics associated with the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources and its people. The case studies from different parts of Africa tell a compelling story of resource exploitation, related issues of environmental degradation in a continent particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the continued plundering of its natural resources. The book will be of great interest to scholars and students from the interdisciplinary fields of the environmental humanities and environmental studies more broadly, as well as those studying political ecology, environmental policy, and natural resources with a specific focus on Africa.

The Conservation of Violence explores the governance of protected forests in Zimbabwe, highlighting the structural and operational mechanism through which violent tactics are produced, employed, and sustained to promote nature conservation. Drawing on political ecology, geography, and environmental politics, it examines the central role of the state in conserving conservation violence. The book presents contemporary cases studies of violence in conservation and introduces the concept of conservation of violence as an alternative framework for understanding the tenacity of violence in conservation areas across Africa. It also delves into the constitutionalisation of environmental rights, illustrating how these rights have been leveraged to enable and preserve conservation violence, as well as the ways in which militarisation fosters and circulates violence. By offering new ways for investigating violence in conservation, the book interrogates the complexities of dismantling entrenched systems of violence and provides insights into the theoretical and practical obstacles of transforming conservation ideologies. The explored include coloniality, nature-culture dichotomies, resource governance, extraction, capitalism, sustainability, policy and conservation law, regulation and policing, environmental rights, and environmental justice. The Conservation of Violence will be a significant contribution to the fields of political ecology, geography, development, environmental justice, and the broader environmental humanities.