Book launch: 'Decolonizing African Politics: Bridging the Contours of Debate'

Dr Michael Amoah launches his new book, Decolonizing African Politics: Bridging the Contours of Debate, in conversation with Professor of Security and International Development Zoë Marriage.

Decolonizing African Politics serves as a unique contribution to the curriculum decolonizing agenda currently trending in universities. It approaches Politics and International Relations from postcolonial and decolonial perspectives with empirical rebuttals to existing imperial and neocolonial false narratives. It examines key concepts and topics which regularly feature when teaching or discussing Africa at universities. 

This book explores the etymologies of these concepts or topics and their terminological application to Africa while bringing fresh perspectives to the debate. It appeals to scholars and students of African politics and international relations, and functions as a graduate and advanced under-graduate pedagogical tool.

About the speakers

Michael Amoah is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London. He has held lecturing positions at SOAS and University of Bristol, and a Visiting Senior Fellowship at The London School of Economics and Political Science. His publications include: Decolonizing African Politics: Bridging the Contours of Debate (Springer, 2025); Nationalism, Globalization, and Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); The New Pan-Africanism: Globalism and the Nation State in Africa (IB Tauris, 2019); Reconstructing the Nation in Africa (IB Tauris, 2021); ‘Sleight is Right: Cyber control as a new battleground in African elections’, African Affairs 119(474); ‘Extending term limits, constitutional referendums, and elections in francophone Africa’, Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 7(2023) 100454; Public policy and election administration in Africa: A controlling or innovative environment. In G. Onyango (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa, London: Routledge; and ‘Presidential Extensions in Africa 1960-2022: Impact on Politics, Peace and Security’, SAGE Open, 13(4).

Zoë Marriage is Professor of Security and International Development at the Department of Development Studies of SOAS University of London. Zoe's research has at its core the enquiry into how conflict, security and development interact. Her research areas include Sierra Leone, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC.