Understanding people and power in African political economy

tribute in this issue.Lionel was a generous friend and mentor to many of us and his deeply engaged scholarship, both in the struggles he brought to light and, with the people around him (in the globalised sense 1 ), substantially exceeds the contemporary dimensions of academic achievement.A loss of this scale leads one inexorably to re-evaluate what is important but Lionel is an inspiration to me because consciously and by example, he also showed this in his life.We met in the formative and typically disheartening years of my academic career and built a friendship based on our shared interest in migration and refugee issues, a concern that he, his partner and daughter were actively engaged in while I was writing up fieldwork from West Africa.He regarded me with his characteristic warmth and humour and once playfully referred to me as his 'grandstudent'; while our conversations were never trivial but focused on our joint research project (mapped out and yet to be finished), on world events including wars and revolutions, and on the experiences and insights of him and his comrades.In reflecting on Lionel's influence, I recognise that over our leisurely coffees and sturdy lunches, seemingly only ever in the sun on the lesser known terraces in the University of Leeds campus or in his resplendent South Yorkshire landscape, he left me with something of a manifesto: to fight for political awareness, to nurture the minds of compassionate people who struggle, and to enjoy life.Lionel implored those of us who earn our living in academia to make choices about our work agenda and approach, opting for an approach that is not 'forced upon us by institutional pressures and intellectual fashions', and to be prepared to rebel as we examine our vocation.Emphasising the need to build networks with other scholars and activists, he noted that 'not all intellectuals earn their bread as academics, and not all academics deserve the title intellectuals' (Cliffe 2012, 222).The especially industrious and solidary tone of our latest editorial meeting, the first of our 40th anniversary year, was undoubtedly a credit to Lionel's influence.Although we can barely begin to consider his legacy at this early time, we are making concrete plans to do so.Lionel continued up to the end of his life to cultivate intellectual projects and collaborations and to set and elaborate on research agendas for the Review and elsewhere, based on his political concerns.At the celebration of Lionel's life last November, a former colleague recounted his response when employers demanded that he state his aims and objectives in teaching.After some thought, he explained that his aim was to instil empathy in students for people around the world.This empathy is ingrained in Lionel's work, reflected in his consistent attention to gender as well as class in the changing relations of production (see Cliffe 1978, 339-342), and it has played an important role in shaping the 'aims and objectives' of this journal.It underpins a radical approach to political economy because, as Agozino's piece in this issue reminds us, capitalism as the prevailing ideology actively discourages the understanding of people in the world, particularly those who struggle.In the fable of primitive accumulation, there are two types of people: those who work hard, invest wisely, are highly educated and are wealthy, and, on the other hand, the 'lazy rascals' who waste their time and wages, rob or beg for a living and are poor (see Marx [1867Marx [ ] 1970, 713), 713).The continuous accumulation of capital is

Economic system · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · African studies and sociopolitical issues · International Development and Aid · South African History and Culture

• On the articulation of modes of production

  Archie Mafeje•Journal of Southern African Studies•1981

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• Development or exploitation

  Open Access•Claude Meillassoux•Review of African Political Economy•1974

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• Imperialism & African Social Formations

  Open Access•Lionel Cliffe•Review of African Political Economy•2005

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• Neoliberal accumulation and class

  Open Access•Lionel Cliffe•Review of African Political Economy•2012

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• Working On, Through and Around the State

  Toby Carroll•Journal of Contemporary Asia•2012

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• Labour migration and peasant differentiation

  Lionel Cliffe•The Journal of Peasant Studies•1978

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