Legacies of Power

Leadership change and former presidents in African politics

Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism and Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa is the culmination of decades of work on Hip Hop culture and Hip Hop activism in South Africa. It speaks to the emergence and development of a unique style of Hip Hop hip-hop activism in the Western and Eastern Capes of South Africa.

Even in western industrialised nations, civil and human rights often stop at the prison door. This book looks at the challenges African governments face in dealing with these issues. Written by some of the most eminent researchers from and on Africa, including the former Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Contested Ecologies: Reimagining the Nature-culture Divide in the Global South offers an intervention in the conversations on ecology and on coloniality, and on the ways in which modern thinking, with its bifurcation of nature and culture, constitutes ‘ecology’ within a very particular politics of the cosmos.

The nature of competitive rivalry, and the power and interests of large firms and their owners, is at the heart of how countries develop. Large firms shape the economy as these firms can make the investments required in productive capacity, provide the upstream inputs and services required by smaller businesses and, in many areas, are also the main routes to market. At the same time these firms tend to have market power if competition between them is weak. In crude terms, it is critical whether these firms are able to focus on extracting rents through market power, or whether the returns reward their effort, creativity and entrepreneurship. Competition authorities and economic regulators are critical institutions in restraining the market power of firms while at the same tie taking into account the need to incentivise investment.

The book maps out key issues in competition through four key industry studies across Southern and East Africa. It considers the nature and extent of market power, the development of large firms, their production, investment and the prices of products across countries. This takes into account the work of competition authorities in the different countries and the implications of industrial policies. The concluding chapter draws out critical implications for competition, regional integration and economic development. This fills a big gap as there are no similar publications relating to this important topic.