In 1974, Third World countries launched the New International Economic Order (NIEO) agenda to reclaim a fairer world system. It was during this pivotal year and period, coinciding with an inflection of imperialism which no longer needed its colonial form, that ROAPE was also born.
While adhering to and displaying the scholarly demand for rigour and contradictory debate, ROAPE distinguishes itself from most academic journals based in Northern countries by its concern to report on developments in and about the African continent in terms that are both non-Eurocentric and critical, in the best tradition of radical political economy.
This editorial approach has been reinforced by lasting efforts to include African voices, those from the continent and its diasporas. ROAPE has been an outlet for the writings of inspirational thinkers such as Samir Amin, Samora Machel, John Saul, Issa Shivji, Mahmood Mamdani, Basil Davidson, Ray Bush, and others. All this has made ROAPE a crucible for two successive generations of researchers, intellectuals and activists from all horizons, as well as a leading intellectual archive on the political economy of Africa.
Created more recently, from 2014 onwards, the ROAPE blog (at Roape.net), while retaining the editorial quality of the Review, has offered a more flexible and interactive publication format. It has become an important source of original and fertile analysis of current events shaping African nations and peoples subject to – and also resisting against – the vagaries of the global capitalist system. In 2018, the blog hosted heated debates involving the likes of David Harvey and John Smith on the changing nature of imperialism in the 21st century: a further confirmation of ROAPE’s long-time reputation as a vibrant space for discussions around Marxist political economy and anti-capitalist alternatives.
In our current times of structural crisis, as revealed by unprecedented socio-economic inequalities at the international level and within countries, debt distress across the developing world, growing militarism, ecological devastation and increased right-wing xenophobia, ROAPE, as a place of critical scholarship, is more important than ever. Documenting the pitfalls, ambiguities and revolutionary potential of popular struggles still remains a primordial intellectual task.
Happy 50th anniversary to ROAPE. Hats off to its founders and to all the comrades who have worked towards this achievement. The recent publication of the magnificent volume Voices for African Liberation: Conversations with the Review of African Political Economy (edited by Leo Zeilig, Chinedu Chukwudinma and Ben Radley) is an eloquent testimony to the intellectual and political journey travelled so far. At the same time, what an exquisite anniversary gift!
ROAPE recently took the path-breaking decision to escape from the strictures of dominant publishing platforms, to make its contents available on a free basis and to progressively relocate to the African continent. International solidarity and commitment from its readership, contributors and other networks will be essential in order to make such a move long-lasting and fruitful.
May ROAPE continue to be there for the next 50 years to accompany the struggles of African peoples and their comrades and allies elsewhere towards a world free of all forms of oppression, exploitation and unnecessary suffering.
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