A few months ago ROAPE decided to initiate a small research grants competition for African scholars and/or activists based in Africa and pursuing a political economy agenda. This has turned out to be one of the most successful ventures ROAPE has engaged in to reach out to progressive African intellectuals. The establishment of the Fund was based on the premise that the shortage of funding for critical research was one of the problems faced, and one of the explanations for, the limited amount of such material coming to ROAPE. ROAPE therefore offered four small research grants (each of £3000) to applicants who could devise a small research project and write it up. Half the grant is to be delivered immediately, the other half on completion of a submission to be considered for publication.
The response went far beyond our expectations. We received over two hundred applications from all over Africa – from South Africa to Tunisia, Madagascar to Senegal, Burkina Faso to South Sudan. A high proportion came from Nigeria, with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda also generating many applications. We were particularly pleased that over 20% of the applications came from female candidates. With only four grants to disburse we were hard-pressed to make a choice from amongst a very competent and worthy set of applications, mostly from academics, but some from political activists and others who encompassed both locations. We decided to focus on projects with a strong and clear political economy framing and with a convincing research methodology. Despite this clear objective many promising candidates still had to be turned down. This suggests to us that there is a huge unmet need for critical research support in Africa and we hope to sustain this initiative into the future (our own funds permitting).
The four winning candidates were as follows:
Christiana Badoo: Ghanaian (Chinese illegal gold miners in artisan sector in Ghana)
John Grobler and Khadija Sharife: Namibian and South African (Railway infrastructure, development and Chinese state involvement)
Aymer Nyenyezi Bisoka: Congolese (Land grabbing in Gt Lakes region)
Mahola Lawrence Ntuli: South African (Non-unionised workers’ resistance to exploitation in response to municipal out-sourcing).
To acknowledge the effort that applicants had made, we also produced a list of seven ‘Highly Recommended’ and fourteen ‘Recommended’ candidates, and will be suggesting that the former submit an article or Briefing to ROAPE for consideration. The list of Highly Recommended applications gives a broader idea of the range of research projects proposed:
Kassa T. Alemu: Ethiopian (Large-scale agricultural land investment in Ethiopia)
Farai Maguwu and Khadija Sharife: Zimbabwean and South African (Diamonds and the political economy of the Sino-Zimbabwean alliance)
Dennis Edward Webster: South African (Role of bureaucracy in reproducing capitalism in South Africa)
Oduari Leonard Haggai: Kenyan (Agricultural credit in Kenya)
Kingstone Mujeyi: Zimbabwean (Informal employment and entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe)
Jasper Ayelazuno, Ghanaian (Africa's extractive oil industry and the well-being of the subaltern classes)
Yulli Bebia Jeremia: Tanzanian (The scramble for African data – the open government initiative in Tanzania).
It was a surprise to us that the prominent showing of Nigerians amongst the applicants was not reflected in the successes listed above, although one Nigerian was on our Recommended list. Overall, there was a range of reasons why candidates were not rated highly. A few were not African nationals or failed to clarify their national origin. Many proposals were simply documentation projects, rather than setting up a research problem to be investigated. Documentation is important especially where little or no previous research exists, but it needs to be complemented with critical questioning about the phenomenon under study (sometimes called ‘problematisation’). Key terms were not defined – e.g. ‘development’. Research methodology was sometimes unrealistic or over-ambitious in the time available. Some was skimpy and unconvincing as a route to achieving the data claimed. Additionally, some applicants were merely collecting ‘opinions’ or ‘attitudes’ of informants without a process of critical reflection on the value of such data or its validity. Claims to be doing quantitative research were not always convincingly demonstrated.
We should also record that the term ‘political economy’ was puzzling to some and was not always used to design research projects seeking to uncover economic processes and structures and their accompanying power relations which might lie behind the immediately observable. We are aware that ‘political economy’ has more than one definition, but ROAPE's remit, which was part of the call for applications, indicated how we use the term. Uncritical research projects which did not question or challenge the status quo were also not rated highly.
We hope this information may help future candidates for the Africa Research Fund.
Following the sad death of one of ROAPE's founders, Lionel Cliffe, the Fund is to be renamed the Lionel Cliffe Memorial Research Scholarship.