African Futures in the Making
Will be published approx. on 27. January 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-84701-422-1 (ISBN)
Description
What lies ahead for rural Africa, given a rapidly increasing population, climate change, poverty, inequality and projections of an increasing vulnerability to natural hazards and food shortages?
Bringing together scholars in ecology, agriculture, economics, human geography and cultural anthropology, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK, this book focusses on social-ecological transformation and future-making in rural Africa, especially in areas of rapid land-use change following the establishment of development corridors, conservation areas, and large-scale infrastructure projects. In Africa, discussions on the way forward are particularly conflict-ridden because people do not agree about desirable goals, because the gap between winners and losers seems to be bigger than elsewhere, and because the struggle for desirable futures is embedded in a problematic history of foreign domination and exploitation.
Focussing on eastern and southern Africa, topics examined range from the history of conservation initiatives and wildlife protection to visions of green development, from the gender implications of extreme climate events on pastoral economies to the use of information and communication technologies on farms and mobile money in geographically remote territories, from large-scale energy infrastructure projects and growth corridors to local ways of managing risk. The volume opens with reflections on African utopic registers of the future and conceptual decolonization in African futurity.
Published in association with the Collaborative Research Centre FUTURE RURAL AFRICA, funded by the German Research Council (DFG).
Bringing together scholars in ecology, agriculture, economics, human geography and cultural anthropology, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK, this book focusses on social-ecological transformation and future-making in rural Africa, especially in areas of rapid land-use change following the establishment of development corridors, conservation areas, and large-scale infrastructure projects. In Africa, discussions on the way forward are particularly conflict-ridden because people do not agree about desirable goals, because the gap between winners and losers seems to be bigger than elsewhere, and because the struggle for desirable futures is embedded in a problematic history of foreign domination and exploitation.
Focussing on eastern and southern Africa, topics examined range from the history of conservation initiatives and wildlife protection to visions of green development, from the gender implications of extreme climate events on pastoral economies to the use of information and communication technologies on farms and mobile money in geographically remote territories, from large-scale energy infrastructure projects and growth corridors to local ways of managing risk. The volume opens with reflections on African utopic registers of the future and conceptual decolonization in African futurity.
Published in association with the Collaborative Research Centre FUTURE RURAL AFRICA, funded by the German Research Council (DFG).
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
10 maps, 8 colour and 1 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
643 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84701-422-1 (9781847014221)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Detlef Mueller-Mahn | Michael Bollig
African Futures in the Making
Book
approx. 06/2026
James Currey
€37.50
Not yet published
Persons
DETLEF MUELLER-MAHN is Professor of Development Geography, University of Bonn. He served as the spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC-TRR 228) "Future Rural Africa" 2018-2021. His research focuses on the political ecology of land use change and rural development in East Africa and the Middle East. Eric Kioko). MICHAEL BOLLIG is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.
Content
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Future-making and Social-ecological Transformation in Rural Africa
Detlef Mueller-Mahn and Michael Bollig
Part 1: Bringing Future-Making into Perspective - African Perspectives and the Decolonial Turn
1 Black/African Imaginations of the Future
Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni
2 Conceptual Decolonization in African Universities: An Imperative for Shaping African Futures
Martin Ajei
Part Two: Technologies, imaginaries, and practices of future-making in rural Africa
3 'In technology we trust': Digital Visions and their Implications for Agricultural Futures in Eastern Africa
Astrid Matejcek, Rupert Neuhoefer, Julian Rochlitz, and Julia Verne
4 Green Futures and National Planning: Rhetoric and Reality in Rural East Africa
Eric M. Kioko, Detlef Mueller-Mahn, and Maxmillian J. Chuhila
5 The Growth-Corridor Vision and its Realities - Regional Economic Impacts in Namibia and Tanzania
Javier Revilla Diez, Peter Dannenberg, Carolin Hulke, Linus Kalvelage, Gideon Tups, and Richard Mbunda
6 The Making of an Energy Resource Periphery? Scalar Politics, Frontier Dynamics, and Future-Making in Northern Kenya
Clemens Greiner, Britta Klagge, Kennedy Mkutu, and Frankline Ndi
7 Africa, The Conservation Continent? Future-Making and the Globalization of Wildlife Protection
Hauke-Peter Vehrs and Michael Bollig
Part Three For prayer, profit, and persistence - aspirations and hope in the future-making in rural Africa
8 Gendered African Futures and Extreme Climate Events in
Turkana, Kenya
Maggie Opondo, Gilbert Ouma, Anne Oketch, and Dennis Ong'ech
9 Reimagining Africa's Rural Futures in the Age of Mobile Money
Prince K Guma
10'Joining the church' as a Form of Future-making? Il Chamus Christians' Futural Orientations in Baringo County, Northern Kenya
Dorothea Schulz, Uros Kovac
11 The Politics of Anticipation in East Africa's Rangelands
Ian Scoones, Tahira Shariff Mohamed, and Masresha Taye
Epilogue: African Futures and the Way Forward
Detlef Mueller-Mahn and Michael Bollig
Index
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Future-making and Social-ecological Transformation in Rural Africa
Detlef Mueller-Mahn and Michael Bollig
Part 1: Bringing Future-Making into Perspective - African Perspectives and the Decolonial Turn
1 Black/African Imaginations of the Future
Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni
2 Conceptual Decolonization in African Universities: An Imperative for Shaping African Futures
Martin Ajei
Part Two: Technologies, imaginaries, and practices of future-making in rural Africa
3 'In technology we trust': Digital Visions and their Implications for Agricultural Futures in Eastern Africa
Astrid Matejcek, Rupert Neuhoefer, Julian Rochlitz, and Julia Verne
4 Green Futures and National Planning: Rhetoric and Reality in Rural East Africa
Eric M. Kioko, Detlef Mueller-Mahn, and Maxmillian J. Chuhila
5 The Growth-Corridor Vision and its Realities - Regional Economic Impacts in Namibia and Tanzania
Javier Revilla Diez, Peter Dannenberg, Carolin Hulke, Linus Kalvelage, Gideon Tups, and Richard Mbunda
6 The Making of an Energy Resource Periphery? Scalar Politics, Frontier Dynamics, and Future-Making in Northern Kenya
Clemens Greiner, Britta Klagge, Kennedy Mkutu, and Frankline Ndi
7 Africa, The Conservation Continent? Future-Making and the Globalization of Wildlife Protection
Hauke-Peter Vehrs and Michael Bollig
Part Three For prayer, profit, and persistence - aspirations and hope in the future-making in rural Africa
8 Gendered African Futures and Extreme Climate Events in
Turkana, Kenya
Maggie Opondo, Gilbert Ouma, Anne Oketch, and Dennis Ong'ech
9 Reimagining Africa's Rural Futures in the Age of Mobile Money
Prince K Guma
10'Joining the church' as a Form of Future-making? Il Chamus Christians' Futural Orientations in Baringo County, Northern Kenya
Dorothea Schulz, Uros Kovac
11 The Politics of Anticipation in East Africa's Rangelands
Ian Scoones, Tahira Shariff Mohamed, and Masresha Taye
Epilogue: African Futures and the Way Forward
Detlef Mueller-Mahn and Michael Bollig
Index