New Books in African Studies

Arthur Shiwa Zárate, an assistant professor and historian of the modern Middle East, explores Egyptian theologian Muhammad al-Ghazali’s turbulent path through the Muslim Brotherhood and Nasserist rule. They discuss Islamic activism, socialism and material welfare, embodied virtue, self-help, science, parapsychology, and how divine presence shaped politics, ethics, and everyday life.

Mesrob Vartavarian, an independent scholar of democracy, authoritarianism, and political change, examines Yoweri Museveni’s four-decade rule in Uganda. They explore coercion, patronage, ethnic politics, colonial legacies, and coalition management. The discussion centers on Uganda’s “militarised family state,” the NRM’s dependence on Museveni, and the uncertain risks surrounding a possible Muhoozi Kainerugaba succession.

Heide Castañeda, an anthropologist and migration scholar, explores how Amazigh communities remake identity and belonging in the United States. They discuss colonialism and Arabization, migration pathways, race and Indigenous classification, Tamazight language, women’s cultural labor, and the organizations shaping diasporic life. The conversation also follows the tensions of living between two homes and challenges familiar American migration narratives.

Nat Cutter, a University of Melbourne historian, uncovers the everyday worlds of British communities in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Drawing on private letters and financial records, he explores ambitious merchants, women investors, converts, household networks, and cross-cultural partnerships. They navigated religion, reputation, diplomacy, danger, and disease while pursuing trade, comfort, influence, and personal advancement across the Ottoman Maghreb.

Farid Hafez, an international relations scholar at William & Mary and Georgetown researcher, examines how colonial rule shaped the governance of Islam. He compares Austria-Hungary’s policies in Bosnia with Germany’s African colonies, traces their influence on modern security practices, and explores colonial amnesia, racialized inclusion, and Islamophobic populism in Austria and Germany.

Samuel D. Anderson, a historian and teacher specializing in Islamic education, French colonialism, and trans-Saharan history, explores the French médersa system. They discuss schools blending Islamic and French curricula, the “hyphen” linking France, Islam, and Africa, archival discoveries across the Sahara, and how medérsiens became influential intermediaries, educators, and anti-colonial actors.

Elisa Prosperetti, a historian of modern Africa and global history, discusses her book on education, race, and emancipation in twentieth-century West Africa. Topics include Europhone schooling as anticolonial development, Black Atlantic roots of educational freedom, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire’s competing visions, the sacrifices demanded of students, and how vocational reform and structural adjustment eroded public education.

Samar Abdel-Rahman, a University of Liverpool lecturer specializing in Middle Eastern and North African cinema, explores Egyptian male stardom after the 1952 revolution. She examines Omar al-Sharif, Ismail Yassin, and Farid Shawqi, tracing how comedy, melodrama, and action shaped competing visions of masculinity, patriotism, class, and national belonging. The conversation also visits cinema’s nationalization, pan-Arab audiences, and Sudanese film culture.

Adam Rovner, a University of Denver scholar of Jewish literature and migration, uncovers the extraordinary life of Nathaniel Isaacs. They explore Isaacs’s shipwreck, ties to Shaka Zulu, travels across Africa, and rise as a colonial power broker. The conversation confronts slavery, abolition, interracial families, Jewish identity, masculinity, and the contradictions of British empire through archival detective work and vivid narrative history.

When an election turns violent and neither side will concede, why is the usual answer to put both sides in the same government?Alex Noyes has spent nearly two decades asking whether that reflex works. Compromised Coalitions: The Paradox of Post-Conflict Power Sharing in Africa out in 2026 from the University of Pennsylvania Press, draws on more than 120 interviews with senior politicians and stakeholders in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Togo to give an unsettling answer. Power sharing can advance democratic reform, but only when two conditions hold: inclusive politics among the parties, and outside enforcers willing to hold them to the deal. Both are rare. And even where the deal ends the killing, it rewards a losing incumbent with unearned power and sets a precedent.In our conversation, Noyes explains why more than 600 such pacts have been struck since the Cold War, what the neglected Togo case reveals, and why he argues these arrangements should almost never be used after election violence. Against the scholarly consensus, Noyes finds these pacts can deliver real democratic reform, but only under conditions that rarely hold, and always at the cost of a compromised start. The costs outweigh the gains, and policymakers should stop defaulting to the model.Our guest is Alex Noyes, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology.Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of "Volatile States in International Politics" (Oxford University Press, 2023).  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.