{"title":"Series: African Arguments","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAfrican Arguments\u003c\/strong\u003e brings together a diverse range of titles that explore contemporary issues across philosophy, finance, history, and culture with a distinctive perspective. Readers can expect thought-provoking works that challenge conventional narratives, offering fresh insights into complex topics relevant to African and global contexts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis series spans genres and disciplines, from incisive analyses of investment and entrepreneurship to engaging stories in travel, technology, and graphic novels. Whether seeking intellectual inquiry or compelling storytelling, \u003cem\u003eAfrican Arguments\u003c\/em\u003e presents books that inform and inspire reflection.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"africas-global-infrastructures-9781805260226","title":"Africa's Global Infrastructures","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe boom in South-South relations since the early 2000s has seen a flurry of investment in African infrastructure from emerging markets across the Global South. While the extent to which these projects spur growth is constantly debated, few studies have addressed their impact on ground-level political and socio-economic practices in Africa—or their consequences for transnational governance more broadly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough the lens of infrastructure, \u003cem\u003eAfrica's Global Infrastructures\u003c\/em\u003e investigates the developmental ideas, processes and techniques that have travelled to and emerged from Africa as a result of Global South-led projects. How have they been adapted, transformed and contested by local actors? How does this shape business-society relations? And how has this challenged the Western-dominated global order?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe contributors zoom in on large-scale Chinese-, Brazilian- and Indian-funded ventures—dams, ports, roads and mines—across countries including Kenya, Mozambique and the DRC. These 'frontier zones', bringing together politicians and practitioners, campaign groups and communities from Africa and elsewhere, offer a unique insight into the global workings of our contemporary world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTaking a bottom-up approach, \u003cem\u003eAfrica's Global Infrastructures\u003c\/em\u003e explores the longer-term significance and implications of these pluralistic socio-economic interactions, for the continent and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47485752410348,"sku":"9781805260226","price":57.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781805260226-africa-s-global-infrastructures.jpg?v=1775714808"},{"product_id":"against-decolonisation-by-olufẹmi-taiwo-9781787386921","title":"Against Decolonisation","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDecolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West's direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing 'morality' or 'authenticity'; it suffocates African thought and denies African agency.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOlúfẹ́mi Táíwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of 'decolonisation' to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds the decolonisation of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society's foundations. Worst of all, today's movement attacks its own cause: 'decolonisers' themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today's 'decolonisation' truly serves African empowerment. Táíwò's is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47485754540268,"sku":"9781787386921","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781787386921-against-decolonisation.jpg?v=1775714852"},{"product_id":"comrades-beyond-the-cold-war-by-tycho-van-der-hoog-9781805262787","title":"Comrades Beyond the Cold War","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNorth Korea was an important player in the decolonisation of Africa. Freedom fighters across the continent received vital assistance from Pyongyang, and almost all southern African independence leaders travelled to the North Korean capital at some point, in search of support. This alliance has continued into the twenty-first century, with African postcolonial governments throwing a lifeline to Pyongyang's increasingly isolated economy by hiring North Korean companies, despite United Nations sanctions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTycho van der Hoog examines the relations between victorious southern African liberation movements and North Korea, from the 1960s to the present. He explains why African presidents sang and danced at parties in Pyongyang, and why North Korean books were translated into Swahili and Afrikaans. He reveals how African soldiers were trained in guerrilla warfare by North Korean instructors, and how North Korean labourers construct monuments in Africa in the shape of AK-47s. And he explores the question of how revolutionary regimes, motivated by a need for survival, work together to defy the global order.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on extensive research across four continents, including recently disclosed African liberation archives and Korean diplomatic cables, this innovative study is the first book on African-North Korean relations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eComrades Beyond the Cold War\u003c\/em\u003e provides a unique insight into the alliance between these regions, offering a fascinating account of their historical and ongoing collaboration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47486005543148,"sku":"9781805262787","price":57.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/ceaa2b831362ca7872394bec0229d092.jpg?v=1775784380"},{"product_id":"trade-makes-states-9781787387058","title":"Trade Makes States","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrade Makes States\u003c\/i\u003e highlights how trade and the circulation of goods are central to Somali societies, economies, and politics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on multi-site research from across East Africa's Somali-inhabited economic space—which includes areas of Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, and Ethiopia—this volume highlights the interconnection between trade and state-building after state collapse. It scrutinises the 'politics of circulation' between competing public administrations, which seek to generate revenue and to control infrastructures along major trade corridors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eConnecting classic debates on state formation with recent scholarship on logistics and cross-border trading, \u003ci\u003eTrade Makes States\u003c\/i\u003e argues that the facilitation and capture of commodity flows have been instrumental in making and unmaking states across the Somali territories. Aspiring state-builders are thus confronted with the challenge of governing the flow of goods in order to rule over lands and peoples.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe contributors to this volume draw attention to the ingenuities of transnational Somali markets, which often appear to be self-governed. Their dynamism and everyday administration by a host of actors provide important insights into contemporary state formation on the margins of global supply-chain capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47537398972652,"sku":"9781787387058","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/a8dc911dbb34199395c0d3b31ddce8cc.jpg?v=1776901390"},{"product_id":"undoing-a-revolution-by-harry-cross-9781805263050","title":"Undoing a Revolution","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReveals how international finance has kept its grip in post-independence Sudan.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2019, a people's revolution ended the thirty-year reign of Sudan's military president Umar al-Bashir. A transitional government took power, led by esteemed international economist Abdalla Hamdok, promising a return to civilian rule. However, Sudan's new government quickly imposed a shock therapy programme of cuts, privatisations, and devaluation, following the diktat of foreign lenders.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2021, as Sudan grew poorer, the army seized on popular discontent to launch a coup, burying hopes for a democratic transition. Why did Sudan's first civilian government in more than a quarter-century bend to the will of creditors at this crucial moment in the country's history? The answer lies in an unwieldy and unpayable debt burden that has long constricted Sudanese politics and society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUndoing a Revolution\u003c\/em\u003e narrates the history of sovereign debt in Sudan from independence to the present, revealing the innovative policies adopted by Sudanese governments to manage their place in the global economy. It also shows how external actors have leveraged the power of debt to impose their will and wreak havoc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith Sudan embroiled in civil war since 2023, Harry Cross explores the political implications of sovereign debt for states and societies across Africa, and around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47537423253740,"sku":"9781805263050","price":74.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/e586f107f72ae6e1e1c4a271fe861004.jpg?v=1776901299"},{"product_id":"bushmeat-by-theodore-trefon-9781787388147","title":"Bushmeat","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn much of Central Africa, eating wildlife is seen as a normal, desirable and common-sense practice. Almost all wild animals, from the largest mammals to the smallest invertebrates, are hunted, traded and consumed, providing vital income and nutrition for millions of people. But as demand for bushmeat grows, animal populations are being decimated, directly impacting biodiversity, local economies and public health.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTaking an interdisciplinary approach, \u003ci\u003eBushmeat\u003c\/i\u003e explores questions ranging from deforestation and conservation strategies to infectious diseases, urban street food and law enforcement. It explains how the popularity of wild meat consumption has spread from rural areas into major cities, fuelled by rapid urbanisation, poorly defined regulations, and developing trade networks—whether small-scale and informal, or commercial and politically connected. While unsustainable hunting practices pose clear problems for wildlife conservation, they also increase the risk of rural food insecurity and of new infectious diseases emerging—as HIV, Ebola and Covid-19 have shown. But cultural attachment to wild meat, and its dietary importance for many communities, make the 'bushmeat crisis' difficult to solve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on extensive interviews and a comprehensive review of secondary literature, \u003ci\u003eBushmeat\u003c\/i\u003e presents a startling account of one of the Anthropocene's catastrophes in the making.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47605169193196,"sku":"9781787388147","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781787388147-bushmeat.jpg?v=1778125722"},{"product_id":"mugabes-legacy-9781787387713","title":"Mugabe's Legacy","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZimbabwe's party-internal 'coup' of 2017, and deposed president Robert Mugabe's death nearly two years later, demand careful, historically nuanced explanation. How did Mugabe gain and retain power over party and state for four decades? Did the suspected and nearly real 'coups', the conspiracies behind them, and their concurrent mythomaniacal conceits ultimately, ironically, spell his near-tragic end? Has Mugabe's particular mode of power reached a finality with his own downfall, as his successors struggle more to balance Zimbabwe's political contradictions? Will the phalanxes arrayed against Mugabe's control fray further, as Zimbabwe fades?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMugabe's Legacy\u003c\/em\u003e delves deeply into such questions, drawing on more than forty years of archival and interview-based research on Zimbabwe's political history and current precariousness. Starting with the mid-1970s, it traces how Machiavellian moves allowed Mugabe to reach the apex of the Zimbabwe African National Union's already slippery slopes, through the complexities of Cold War, regional, ideological, generational, inter- and intra-party tensions. The lessons learned by the president and the nascent ruling party then turned gradually inward, ultimately arriving at a near-collapse that may now pervade all of the country's political space. David B. Moore vividly charts this rise and fall, all the way to Zimbabwe's tenuous chaos today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47607079239916,"sku":"9781787387713","price":57.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1b1348a2b74f47890d4bd50c9e97a408.jpg?v=1778191053"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/series-african-arguments.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}