Stig Stenslie and Marte Kjær Galtung

With steely determination, Xi Jinping has forged his way to absolute power at home, consolidated China's role as a global superpower, and promoted instrumental myths about his life. All the while, in many ways he has remained a mystery. Which is a problem, assert Stig Stenslie and Marte Kjær Galtung, because to understand China today, it is essential to understand Xi. Who is he? What  More >

David Johnson, Noor Nieftagodien, and Lucien van der Walt, editors

The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU)—the largest black political organization in southern Africa before the 1940s—was active in six African colonies, as well as in global trade union networks. Labour Struggles in Southern Africa provides fresh perspectives on the ICU, exploring its record in the 1920s and 1930s and assessing its achievements and failures in relation  More >

Philip Frankel

South Africa has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the top-ten worldwide routes for trafficking in persons, or TIP, a massive phenomenon fueled by poverty, forced migration, government corruption, and digital communications that decrease the distance between victim and perpetrator. In his deep study of human trafficking in South Africa, Philip Frankel explores the nature of TIP,  More >

Funeka Y. April, Modimowabarwa Kanyane, Yul Derek Davids, and Krish Chetty, editors

The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—have become a strong engine of South-South cooperation, contributing to a significant shift in the global balance of power. They also, taken as a whole, constitute Africa's largest trading partner. The authors of this new collection consider the potential of BRICS–Africa cooperation for promoting sustainable  More >

Janet Hodgson

Janet Hodgson traces the life of Xhosa prophet Ntsikana (1780–1821) from his birth through his years as a Christian convert, evangelist, and composer of enduring hymns. Ntsikana is known as one of the first Christians to adapt Christian ideas to African culture, writing hymns in isiXhosa and translating concepts into terms that resonated with his Xhosa community. Even today, his hymns are  More >

Stephen Noakes and Alexander C. Tan, editors

Both the spread of Covid-19 and the intense US-China rivalry have been sources of stress for national economies throughout Asia Pacific. The authors of Asia-Pacific Small States, eschewing the usual focus on the region's powerhouses, turn their attention instead to the coping strategies of the smaller economies. Showing how these smaller states have been navigating the current turbulent times,  More >

Tinashe Mushakavanhu, editor

Seismic shifts in Zimbabwe's politics since the 2017 demise of Robert Mugabe have generated renewed interest in Ndabaningi Sithole, the first president of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Tinashe Mushakavanhu brings this vanguard revolutionary back to center stage through a selection of his important political and literary works. The result is an important biographical mapping of  More >

Tumi Mampane

Drawing on her own experiences, Tumi Mampane provides deep insights into the daily lives of women in a South African Pentecostal community. Equally, she relates those insights to Black/African feminist and womanist theory. Her autoethnographic study exposes the complexities and contestations that exist not only in Charismatic discourses, but also in the relationships that the community's women  More >

Amira Jadoon with Andrew Mines

The deadly attack on Kabul's airport in August 2021 shocked the world and brought concentrated attention to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISK). New questions quickly arose: How did this ISIS affiliate become such a force in Afghanistan and Pakistan? And why is it now a lethal threat to the Taliban? Addressing these questions, Amira Jadoon and Andrew Mines draw on original data and newly  More >

Edward Ashbee

By March 2022, a remarkable 144 countries had signed onto the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—China's massive investment and infrastructure development program—with significant implications for US foreign policy. Edward Ashbee explores how the US has reacted to this global expansion of Chinese power, tracing the arc of policy responses to the BRI from its inception in 2013 through  More >