African Economics

Clyde W. Ford uses the lives of individual Black men and women as a lens to explore the role they have played in creating American institutions of power and wealth—in agriculture, politics, jurisprudence, law enforcement, culture, medicine, financial services, and many other fields—while not being allowed to fully participate or share in the rewards. Today, activists have taken the struggle for racial equity and justice to the streets.

With twenty years of experience in frontier markets, including a decade working in Africa, author Jonathan Berman engages with top business leaders on the vast opportunities and challenges of the continent. Success in Africa pushes past the headlines on Africa's growth to answer the questions often asked by companies and investors: Who do I work with there and what drives them? How do I deal with government? What about war, disease, and poverty? What about China? How do I win?

Drawing from stratification economics, intersectionality, and respectability politics, The Love Jones Cohort centers on the voices and lifestyles of members of the Black middle class who are single and living alone (SALA). While much has been written about both the Black middle class and the rise of singlehood, this book represents a first foray into bridging these two concepts.

In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and the persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.

Communalism – The Economics of Empathy: Building Wealth Through Shared Values by José Santiago is a transformative exploration of how financial systems can evolve to prioritise shared prosperity and inclusion over individual gain. Through meticulous research and a heartfelt vision, Santiago introduces communalism, a ground breaking economic framework rooted in empathy and collective well-being. In this compelling narrative, Santiago deconstructs traditional financial systems that perpetuate inequality and exclusion, offering a visionary alternative where fairness and mutual support are ...

More than 50 years ago, an assassin's bullet robbed us of one of the most eloquent voices for 20th-century human rights and justice. Drawing on a new generation of scholarship about the civil rights era, To the Promised Land goes beyond the iconic view of King as an advocate of racial harmony to explore his profound commitment to the poor and working class, and his call for "nonviolent resistance" to all forms of oppression, including economic injustice.

The ancestors of Nelson Madiba Mandela send him back to the world to look for his brother Justice. The two of them in their youthful days on earth had sold the prized cow of regent King Jongintaba and fled to Johannesburg in search of a better life. Everywhere Madiba goes,he asks, "Have you seen Justice?" But Justice, it seems, is like the elephant the seven blind men went looking for.This thrilling and pulsating historical fiction is the first in a series of Madiba comings. Rich in African history, tradition, and socio-economic nuance, it beautifully encapsulates the story of South Africa,...

“ The gaps and the developmental needs in Africa have much rooms than enough for every reasonable and creative African to take proactive action for transformative changes for the benefit of the black race and all mankind.” --So let your voice and action beat louder than selfish interest and immediate secluded environment. --Just my view and perspective- (Dr. Amos Obi) Welcome to a new dawn. This is not just another book, but rather a movement—it is a rallying cry, a declaration, and a prophetic vision to realizing the AFRICA OF OUR DREAM. This book could be rightly titled: “The ...

In The Black Boom, Jason L. Riley—acclaimed Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute—digs into the data and concludes that the economic lives of black people improved significantly under policies put into place during the Trump administration.

"Amanda Clayton was 24 when she won the Michigan State lottery of $1 million in 2011; she was a single mom of two, then. Unexpectedly, she was involved in welfare fraud soon after someone recorded her using a snap card (food stamps) at a gas station even after the windfall. Eventually, she was sentenced to nine months of probation and ordered to repay $5,500 in food and medical assistance to the State. Then, astonishingly, Amanda was found dead of OD in a friend's home in 2012; that was just one year after the winning and she was only 25. I wonder if she could have been OK until now if she ...

In Residual Governance, Gabrielle Hecht dives into the wastes of gold and uranium mining in South Africa to explore how communities, experts, and artists fight for infrastructural and environmental justice. Hecht outlines how mining in South Africa is a prime example of what she theorizes as residual governance—the governance of waste and discard, governance that is purposefully inefficient, and governance that treats people and places as waste and wastelands.

The author looks at why Africa is in such a mess – political, economic, social – decades after independence and proposes solutions to the continent's seemingly intractable problems. He attributes Africa's plight to both internal and external forces but contends the main problem lies within not without. Bad leadership is the biggest problem Africa has faced since independence and everything else revolves around it, he contends. He explains why most countries on the continent have had bad leaders since the end of colonial and white minority rule and what internal forces, such as ethnic ...

Remaking a Life uses the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a lens to understand how women generate radical improvements in their social well being in the face of social stigma and economic disadvantage. Drawing on interviews with nationally recognized AIDS activists as well as over one hundred Chicago-based women living with HIV/AIDS, Celeste Watkins-Hayes takes listeners on an uplifting journey through women’s transformative projects, a multidimensional process in which women shift their approach to their physical, social, economic, and political survival.

A millioner and a self-made businessman, Marek Zmysłowski, built African Amazon and became one of the most famous people in IT in Africa. One day it turned out that he's also a fugitive wanted by the Interpol. How did this happen? In his autobiography, Zmysłowski doesn't take himself too seriously and with humor shows the backstage of doing business, which was sometimes dangerous. With his journalistic verve, he draws a colorful picture of Africa, which became his favorite continent.

Elegant, profound, and intoxicating—Spectral Evidence, Gregory Pardlo’s first major collection of poetry after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Digest, moves fluidly among considerations of the pro-wrestler Owen Hart; Tituba, the only Black woman to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials; MOVE, the movement and militant separatist group famous for its violent stand-offs with the Philadelphia Police Department (“flames rose like orchids . . . / blocks lay open like egg cartons”); and more.

Black Picket Fences is a stark, moving, and candid look at a section of America that is too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the Black middle class. The result of living for three years in "Groveland", a Black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, sociologist Mary Pattillo-McCoy has written a book that explores both the advantages and the boundaries that exist for members of the Black middle class.

Reniqua Allen tells the stories of Black millennials searching for a better future in spite of racist policies that have closed off traditional versions of success. Many watched their parents and grandparents play by the rules, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. They witnessed their elders fight to escape cycles of oppression for more promising prospects, largely to no avail. Today, in this post-Obama era, they face a critical turning point. Interweaving her own experience, Allen shares surprising stories of hope and ingenuity.

For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865 describes the African American struggle to obtain equal rights in the workplace and organized labor's response to their demands. Award-winning historian Robert H. Zieger asserts that the promise of jobs was similar to the 40-acres-and-a-mule restitution pledged to African Americans during the Reconstruction era. The inconsistencies between rhetoric and action encouraged workers, both men and women, to organize themselves into unions to fight against unfair hiring practices and workplace discrimination.

The author looks at Botswana since the end of British colonial rule and the prosperity, including peace and stability, the country has enjoyed through the decades and why she has been so successful unlike most of the countries on the African continent.

Accountable examines present-day conditions and the consequences for America. At its core, this book is a tool with which the community can evaluate the successes or failures of its political leaders and of itself. This insightful book acknowledges the mistakes of the past while offering hope and inspiration for a better future.