The Editorial Working Group of ROAPE is pleased to announce that this year the Ruth First prize for the best article published by an African author in the journal in 2016 was shared between two authors, namely Grasian Mkodzongi for his article ‘“I am a paramount chief, this land belongs to my ancestors”: the reconfiguration of rural authority after Zimbabwe's land reforms’, and Steven Nabieu Rogers for his article ‘Rethinking “expert sense” in international development: the case of Sierra Leone's housing policy’.
According to the ROAPE Prize Committee for the award, Grasian Mkodzongi's article
provides a timely and important analysis of the shifting role of chieftaincies in relation to land in Zimbabwe. What is particularly refreshing is the way in which the author offers original empirical insights to offer an under-studies insight into local contestation over land and other resources.
The article was published in the ROAPE special issue ‘Land, liberation and democracy: a tribute to Lionel Cliffe’ in September 2016.
On the article by the joint winner, the Prize Committee commented that while Steven Nabieu Rogers’ article
provides a nuanced analysis of the urban political economy of a post-conflict state, it also challenges the traditional conception of the location of power by focusing on the unique position of the local elite or ‘glocalised expert’. The choice of the housing sector is particularly interesting given the history of displacement in Sierra Leone and its remaking under a neoliberal policy making apparatus.
Both of these prize-winning articles can be read free on the following ROAPE pages of Taylor & Francis Online.
Grasian Mkodzongi's article:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03056244.2015.1085376.
Steven Nabieu Rogers’ article:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03056244.2016.1169163.