Continuing the tradition we started two years ago, this summer will see the third installment of the annual African Politics Summer Reading Spectacular. Over the course of the summer, we will feature posts about newly published books in African politics — broadly defined. Not all of the books are written by political scientists – in fact, No. 10 is a work of fiction translated from Italian.
The common thread of these books is that they have something to do with important questions in African politics, such as women’s rights, election violence and the resource curse, to name a few. To try to expand our horizons a bit this year, we’ve included two books that were translations of texts previously published in another language.
We’ll have guest posts by the authors, reviews by us, and author Q&As. This is where you come in — if you have questions for the authors, please ask them in the comments section below or on Twitter using the hashtag #APSRS16.
We’ll be posting about these books on Fridays this summer, starting next week and following the tentative schedule below (subject to change). Please join us by reading along, asking questions of the authors and letting us know what you thought about each book.
- June 3 – We start off the series with a bonus book week (why read one book on violence and resistance in Rwanda when you can read two?!?): “Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship,” by Anjan Sundaram and “From War to Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda, 1990-1994,” by André Guichaoua and translated by Don Webster
- June 10 – “The Paradox of Traditional Leaders in Democratic Africa,” by Kate Baldwin
- June 17 – “Making Sense of the Central African Republic,” edited by Tatiana Carayannis and Louisa Lombard
- June 24 – “Bargaining for Women’s Rights: Activism in an Aspiring Muslim Democracy,” by Alice Kang
- July 1 – “The US Military in Africa: Enhancing Security and Development?,” edited by Jessica Piombo
- July 8 – “To Live Freely in This World: Sex Worker Activism in Africa,” by Chi Adanna Mgbako
- July 15 – “Women and Power in Postconflict Africa,” by Aili Tripp
- July 22 – Bonus book week features a twin bundle of books on politics and health in Africa: “Preaching Prevention: Born-Again Christianity and the Moral Politics of AIDS in Uganda,” by Lydia Boyd and “The Experiment Must Continue: Medical Research and Ethics in East Africa, 1940–2014,” by Melissa Graboyes
- July 29 – “Ken Saro Wiwa,” by Roy Doron and Toyin Falola
- August 5 – “Queen of Flowers and Pearls,” by Gabriella Ghermandi and translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto
- August 12 – “Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Causes and Consequences,” by Stephanie Burchard
- August 19 – “Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria,” by Omolade Adunbi
