Research Guides: Contemporary African Politics (POLS GU4496): Books

Selected Books on African Politics and Elections in Africa

African Politics

Abbink, Jon. A decade of Ethiopia : politics, economy and society, 2004-2016. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2017]
Africa : dilemmas of development and change. Edited by Peter Lewis. (Boulder, Colo : WestviewPress,: 1998)
Africa in world politics : engaging a changing global order. 5th ed. Edited by John W. Harbeson and Donald Rothchild. (Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 2013)
--See also: 2009 ed. and 2000 ed.
African democracy and development : challenges for post-conflict African nations. Edited by Cassandra R. Veney and Dick Simpson. (Lanham [Md.] : Lexington Books, c2013)
African studies in social movements and democracy. Edited by Mahmood Mamdani and Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba. (Dakar, Senegal : CODSRIA, 1995)
The A-Z of South African politics : people, parties and players. Written and compiled by Kashiefa Ajam, Kevin Ritchie, Lebogang Seale, Janet Smith & Thabiso Thakali. (Auckland Park : Jacana Media, 2019)
--See also, previous editions: 1999 ; 2004; and, 2009
Bates, Robert H. Markets and states in tropical Africa : the political basis of agricultural policies. Updated and expanded with a new preface. E-book
(Berkeley : University of California Press, 2014)
--See also, in print: 2005 ed. and 1981 ed.
Big African states. Edited by Christopher Clapham, Jeffrey Herbst, and Greg Mills. (Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2006)
Bøås, Morten and Kevin Dunn. Politics of origin in Africa : autochthony, citizenship and conflict. (London : Zed Books, 2013)
--See also: E-book
Boone, Catherine. Property and political order in Africa : land rights and the structure of politics. (New York : Cambridge University Press, 2014)
Branch, Adam and Zachariah Mampilly. Africa uprising : popular protest and political change. (London : Zed Books, in association with International African Institute, Royal African Society, World Peace Foundation, 2015)
Bratton, Michael, Robert Mattes, and E. Gyimah-Boadi. Public opinion, democracy, and market reform in Africa. (Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2005)
--See also: E-book
Bratton, Michael and Nicolas van de Walle. Democratic experiments in Africa : regime transitions in comparative perspective. (Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997)
Building regionalism from below : the role of parliaments and civil society in regional integration in Africa. Edited by Korwa G. Adar, Giovanni Finizio and Angela Meyer. New York : P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2018.
Cheeseman, Nicholas. Democracy in Africa : successes, failures, and the struggle for political reform. (New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2015)
--See also: E-book
Christensen, Darin and David D. Laitin. African states since independence : order, development, & democracy. (New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019])
Citizenship, belonging, and political community in Africa : dialogues between past and present. Edited by Emma Hunter. (Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2016])
Civic agency in Africa : arts of resistance in the 21st century. Edited by Ebenezer Obadare & Wendy Willems. (Woodbridge, Suffolk : James Currey, [2014])
Civil society and the political imagination in Africa : critical perspectives. Edited by John L. and Jean Comaroff. (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1999)
Collective mobilisations in Africa : enough is enough! =Mobilisations collectives en Afrique : ça suffit!. Edited by Kadya Tall, Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle, Michel Cahen. (Leiden : Brill, [2015])
Contesting transformation : popular resistance in twenty-first-century South Africa. Edited by Marcell C. Dawson and Luke Sinwell. (London : Pluto Press, 2012)
--See also: E-book
Democratic trajectories in Africa : unravelling the impact of foreign aid. Edited by Danielle Resnick and Nicolas van de Walle. (Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2013)
--See also: E-book
Democratic transition in East Africa : governance and development at the grassroots. (Dar es Salaam : Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania, c2011)
De Waal, Alex. The real politics of the Horn of Africa : money, war and the business of power. (Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2015)
Dunn, Kevin C. Imagining the Congo : the international relations of identity. (New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
--See also: E-book
Elmi, Afyare Abdi. Understanding the Somalia conflagration : identity, political Islam and peacebuilding. (London ; New York : Pluto Press ; Oxford : Pambazuka Press ; New York : Distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
Emerson, Stephen and Hussein Solomon. African security in the twenty-first century : challenges and opportunities. (Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2018)
--See also: E-book
Federalism and democracy in Nigeria : fifty years after. Edited by J. Isawa Elaigwu. (Jos : Institute of Governance and Social Research, 2014)
Ferguson, James. The anti-politics machine : "development," depoliticization, and bureaucratic power in Lesotho. (Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [1994]).
Ferguson, James. Expectations of modernity : myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt. (Berkeley : University of California Press, [1999])
--See also: E-book
Ferguson, James. Global shadows : Africa in the neoliberal world order. (Durham [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 2006)
--See also: E-book
Fujii, Lee Ann. Killing neighbors : webs of violence in Rwanda. (Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2009)
--See also: E-book
Governance and the crisis of rule in contemporary Africa : leadership in transformation. Edited by Ebenezer Obadare and Wale Adebanwi. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
The hard road to reform : the politics of Zimbabwe's global political agreement. Edited by Brian Raftopoulos. (Harare, Zimbabwe : Weaver Press, 2013)
Harris, David. Civil War and Democracy in West Africa : conflict resolution, elections and justice in Sierra Leone and Liberia. (New York : I .B. Tauris, 2012)
--See also: E-book
Harsch, Ernest. Burkina Faso : a history of power, protest and revolution. (London : Zed Books Ltd., 2017)
Herbst, Jeffrey Ira. States and power in Africa : comparative lessons in authority and control. (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2000)
--See also: 2014 e-book edition -or- in print.
Honwana, Alcinda Manuel. The time of youth : work, social change, and politics in Africa. (Sterling, Va. : Kumarian Press, 2012)
Honwana, Alcinda Manuel. Youth and revolution in Tunisia. (London ; New York : Zed Books in association with International African Institute, the Royal African Society and the World Peace Foundation ; New York : Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
--See also: E-book
The Horn of Africa : intra-state and inter-state conflicts and security. Edited by Redie Bereketeab. (London : Pluto Press ; New York, NY : Distributed by Palgrave MacMillan, 2013)
--See also: E-book
Idris, Amir H. Conflict and politics of identity in Sudan. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, c2005)
-- See also: E-book
Institutions and democracy in Africa : how the rules of the game shape political developments. Edited by Nic Cheeseman. (Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018)
--See also: E-book
Jok, Jok Madut. Sudan: race, religion and violence. (Oxford: Oneworld, 2007)
Keller, Edmond J. Identity, citizenship, and political conflict in Africa. Bloomington, Indiana ; Indianapolis, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2014.
--See also: E-book
Kidane Mengisteab. The Horn of Africa. Hot spots in global politics. (Cambridge, UK : Polity Press, 2014)
Kisangani, Emizet F. Civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1960-2010. (Boulder : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012)
Land, law and politics in Africa : mediating conflict and reshaping the state. Edited by Jan Abbink, Mirjam de Bruijn. (Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2011)
Land in the struggles for citizenship in Africa. Edited by Sam Moyo, Dzodzi Tsikata, Yakham Diop. (Dakar, Senegal : Counsel for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, [2015])
LeVan, A. Carl. Dictators and democracy in African development : the political economy of good governance in Nigeria. (New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2015)
--See also: E-book
Le Vine, Victor T. Politics in Francophone Africa. (Boulder, Colo. : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004)
Lyons, Terrence. The puzzle of Ethiopian politics. (Boulder, Colorado : Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2019)
Mamdani, Mahmood. Citizen and subject : contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism. (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1996)
Mamdani, Mahmood. When victims become killers: colonialism, nativism, and the genocide in Rwanda. (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. 2001)
-- See also: E-book
Mampilly, Zachariah Cherian. Rebel rulers: insurgent governance and civilian life during war. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011)
-- See also: E-book
Manby, Bronwen. Struggles for citizenship in Africa. (London ; New York Zed Books c2009)
Marcus, Richard R. The politics of institutional failure in Madagascar's Third Republic. (Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2016])
McGovern, Mike. Making war in Côte d'Ivoire. (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011)
Mueller, Lisa. Political protest in contemporary Africa. (Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Mugabeism? : history, politics, and power in Zimbabwe. Edited by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni. (New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
Mũngai, Mbũgua wa and G. M. Gona. (Re)membering Kenya. 3 vols. (Nairobi : Twaweza Communications Ltd., c2010-)
--See also: E-book, vol. 1 ; E-book, vol. 2
Neocosmos, Michael. From 'foreign natives' to 'native foreigners' : explaining xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa : citizenship and nationalism, identity and politics. [2nd ed.] (Dakar, Senegal : CODESRIA, c2010)
--See also: E-book
New Sudan in the making?: essays on a nation in painful search of itself. Edited by Francis M. Deng. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, c2010.
Nugent, Paul. Africa since independence : a comparative history. (Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Nyabola, Nanjala. Digital democracy, analogue politics : how the Internet era is transforming Kenya. (London : Zed Books, 2018)
Nyamnjoh, Francis B. Insiders and outsiders : citizenship and xenophobia in contemporary Southern Africa. (Dakar, Senegal : Codesria Books ; London ; New York : In association with Zed Books ; New York : Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
--See also: E-book
Oliveira, Ricardo Soares de. Magnificent and beggar land : Angola since the Civil War. (New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2015])
--See also: UK edition
Our turn to eat : politics in Kenya since 1950. Edited by Daniel Branch, Nic Cheeseman, Leigh Gardner. (Berlin : Lit ; London : Global [distributor], c2010)
Peasant organisations and the democratisation process in Africa. Edited by Mahmoud Ben Romdhane & Sam Moyo. (Dakar, Senegal : Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, c2002)
The recurring Great Lakes crisis: identity, violence and power. Edited by Jean-Pierre Chrétien and Richard Banégas. (London : Hurst & Co., 2008)
Reno, William. Warlord politics and African states. (Boulder, Colo.: Lynner Rienner Publishers, 1998)
Rights and the politics of recognition in Africa. Edited by Harri Englund & Francis B. Nyamnjoh. (London ; New York : Zed Books ; New York : Distributed in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
The roots of African conflicts: the causes and costs. Edited by Alfred Nhema and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza. (Oxford: James Currey; Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press; Pretoria: UNISA Press, 2008)
-- See also: E-book
Rothchild, Donald S. Managing ethnic conflict in Africa : pressures and incentives for cooperation. (Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, c1997)
Sesay, Amadu and Charles Ukeje...[et al.]. Post-war regimes and state reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone. (Dakar : Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, c2009)
--See also: E-book
Southall, Roger. Liberation movements in power : party and state in Southern Africa. (Oxford : James Currey, 2013)
State and society in the Gambia since independence : 1965-2012. Edited by Abdoulaye Saine, Ebrima Ceesay and Ebrima Sall. (Trenton, N.J. : Africa World Press, c2013)
State versus ethnic claims : African policy dilemmas. Edited by Donald Rothchild and Victor A. Olorunsola. (Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1983)
Straus, Scott. The order of genocide: race, power, and war in Rwanda. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006)
-- See also: E-book
Traditional cures for modern conflicts: African conflict "medicine". Edited by I. William Zartman. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000)
Tripp, Aili Mari Women and power in postconflict Africa. (New York : Cambridge University, 2015)
--See also: E-book
Turner, Thomas. The Congo wars: conflict, myth and reality. (London; New York: Zed Books Ltd.; New York: Distributed in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Turning points in African democracy. Edited by Abdul Raufu Mustapha & Lindsay Whitfield. (Woodbridge ; Rochester, NY : James Currey, 2009)
Van de Walle, Nicolas. African economies and the politics of permanent crisis, 1979-1999. (Cambridge New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001)
Voices of protest : social movements in post-apartheid South Africa. Edited by Richard Ballard, Adam Habib and Imraan Valodia. (Scottsville, South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2006)
The war within : new perspectives on the civil war in Mozambique, 1976-1992. Edited by Eric Morier-Genoud, Michel Cahen & Domingos Manuel do Rosário. (Suffolk ; Rochester, NY : James Currey, 2018)
Who is an African? : identity, citizenship and the making of the Africa-nation Edited by Jideofor Adibe. (London : Adonis & Abbey, 2009)
Young, Crawford. The African colonial state in comparative perspective. (New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, c1994)
--See also: E-book
Young, Crawford. The postcolonial state in Africa : fifty years of independence, 1960-2010. (Madison : The University of Wisconsin Press, c2012)
--See also: E-book

Elections in Africa

Bleck, Jaimie and Nicolas van de Walle. Electoral politics in Africa since 1990 : continuity in change. (Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2019)
--See also: E-book
Burchard, Stephanie M. Electoral violence in sub-Saharan Africa : causes and consequences. (Boulder, Colorado : FirstForumPress, A Division of Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2015)
Contested power in Ethiopia : traditional authorities and multi-party elections. Edited by Kjetil Tronvoll, Tobias Hagmann. (Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2012)
--See also: E-book
Election fever : Kenya's crisis. Edited by Nic Cheeseman & Dan Branch. (Abingdon : Routledge, 2008)
Election observation and democratization in Africa. Edited by J. Abbink and G. Hesseling. (New York : St. Martin's Press ; London : Macmillan, 2000)
--See also: Law Library copy
--See also: E-book
Elections and democratization in West Africa, 1990-2009. Edited by Abdoulaye Saine, Boubacar N'Diaye, and Mathurin Houngnikpo. (Trenton, N.J. : Africa World Press, c2011)
Electoral reform in Africa : challenges and opportunities. Edited by Mikewa Ogada. (Nairobi, Kenya : Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists, 2011)
--See also: Law Library copy
Fall, Ismaila Madior, Mathias Hounkpe, Adele L. Jinadu, Pascal Kambale. Election management bodies in West Africa: a comparative study of the contribution of electoral commissions to the strengthening of democracy. ([Johannesburg, South Africa] : Open Society Foundations, 2011)
--See also: E-book
Frère, Marie-Soleil. Elections and the media in post-conflict Africa : votes and voices for peace?. (London ; New York : Zed Books ; Paris : Institut Panos Paris ; New York : Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
--See also: E-book
Hounkpe, Mathias and Ismaila Madior Fall. Electoral commissions in West Africa : a comparative study. (Abuja, Nigeria : Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2010)
Ibrahim, Jibrin and Dauda Garuba. A study of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria. E-book (Dakar, Senegal : CODESRIA, c2010)
Institutionalising democracy : the story of the Electoral Commission of South Africa, 1993-2014. Edited by Mcebisi Ndletyana. (Pretoria, South Africa : Africa Institute of South Africa, 2015)
Multi-party elections in Africa. Edited by Michael Cowen & Liisa Laakso. (New York : Palgrave, 2001)
When elephants fight : preventing and resolving election-related conflicts in Africa. Edited by Khabele Matlosa, Gilbert M. Khadiagala and Victor Shale. (Johannesburg : EISA, 2010)
Violence in African elections : between democracy and big man politics. Edited by Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs and Jesper Bjarnesen. London : Zed ; Uppsala, Sweden : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, [2018]
Votes, money and violence : political parties and elections in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edited by Matthias Basedau, Gero Erdmann and Andreas Mehler. (Stockholm : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet ; Scottsville, South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007)
Voting in fear : electoral violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edited by Dorina A. Bekoe. (Washington, D.C. : United States Institute of Peace, 2012)