African Futures in the Making

Name: African Futures in the Making
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ISBN: 9781847014870

Prof Dr Detlef Müller-Mahn, Prof Dr Michael Bollig, Anne Oketch , Dr Astrid Matejcek

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English

James Currey
16 June 2026

Development studies; Social forecasting, future studies; Development economics; Management of land & natural resources; Conservation of the environment

Series: Future Rural Africa

What lies ahead for rural Africa, given a rapidly increasing population, climate change, poverty, inequality and projections of an increasing vulnerability to natural hazards and food shortages?

Bringing together scholars in ecology, agriculture, economics, human geography and cultural anthropology, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK, this book focusses on social-ecological transformation and future-making in rural Africa, especially in areas of rapid land-use change following the establishment of development corridors, conservation areas, and large-scale infrastructure projects. In Africa, discussions on the way forward are particularly conflict-ridden because people do not agree about desirable goals, because the gap between winners and losers seems to be bigger than elsewhere, and because the struggle for desirable futures is embedded in a problematic history of foreign domination and exploitation.

Focussing on eastern and southern Africa, topics examined range from the history of conservation initiatives and wildlife protection to visions of green development, from the gender implications of extreme climate events on pastoral economies to the use of information and communication technologies on farms and mobile money in geographically remote territories, from large-scale energy infrastructure projects and growth corridors to local ways of managing risk. The volume opens with reflections on African utopic registers of the future and conceptual decolonization in African futurity.

CONTRIBUTORS: Martin Ajei, Michael Bollig, Maxmillian Chuhila, Peter Dannenberg, Clemens Greiner, Prince K. Guma, Carolin Hulke, Linus Kalvelage, Eric Kioko, Britta Klagge, Uroš Kovač, Astrid Matejcek, Richard Mbunda, Kennedy Mkutu, Detlef Müller-Mahn, Frankline Ndi, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Rupert Neuhöfer, Anne Oketch, Dennis Ong'ech, Maggie Opondo, Gilbert Ouma, Javier Revilla Diez, Julian Rochlitz, Dorothea Schulz, Ian Scoones, Tahira Shariff Mohamed, Masresha Taye, Gideon Tups, Hauke-Peter Vehrs, Julia Verne

Published in association with the Collaborative Research Centre FUTURE RURAL AFRICA, funded by the German Research Council (DFG).

This book is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the collaborative research center ""Future Rural Africa"", funding code TRR 228/3.

Contributions by: Anne Oketch, Dr Astrid Matejcek, Britta Klagge
Edited by: Prof Dr Detlef Müller-Mahn, Prof Dr Michael Bollig
Imprint: James Currey
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781847014870
ISBN 10: 1847014879
Series: Future Rural Africa
Pages: 318
Publication Date: 16 June 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Table of Contents List of Illustrations Introduction: Future-making and Social-ecological Transformation in Rural Africa Detlef Müller-Mahn and Michael Bollig Part 1: Bringing Future-Making into Perspective - African Perspectives and the Decolonial Turn 1 Black/African Imaginations of the Future Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2 Conceptual Decolonization in African Universities: An Imperative for Shaping African Futures Martin Ajei Part Two: Technologies, imaginaries, and practices of future-making in rural Africa 3 'In technology we trust': Digital Visions and their Implications for Agricultural Futures in Eastern Africa Astrid Matejcek, Rupert Neuhöfer, Julian Rochlitz, and Julia Verne 4 Green Futures and National Planning: Rhetoric and Reality in Rural East Africa Eric M. Kioko, Detlef Müller-Mahn, and Maxmillian J. Chuhila 5 The Growth-Corridor Vision and its Realities - Regional Economic Impacts in Namibia and Tanzania Javier Revilla Diez, Peter Dannenberg, Carolin Hulke, Linus Kalvelage, Gideon Tups, and Richard Mbunda 6 The Making of an Energy Resource Periphery? Scalar Politics, Frontier Dynamics, and Future-Making in Northern Kenya Clemens Greiner, Britta Klagge, Kennedy Mkutu, and Frankline Ndi 7 Africa, The Conservation Continent? Future-Making and the Globalization of Wildlife Protection Hauke-Peter Vehrs and Michael Bollig Part Three For prayer, profit, and persistence - aspirations and hope in the future-making in rural Africa 8 Gendered African Futures and Extreme Climate Events in Turkana, Kenya Maggie Opondo, Gilbert Ouma, Anne Oketch, and Dennis Ong'ech 9 Reimagining Africa's Rural Futures in the Age of Mobile Money Prince K Guma 10'Joining the church' as a Form of Future-making? Il Chamus Christians' Futural Orientations in Baringo County, Northern Kenya Dorothea Schulz, Uroš Kovač 11 The Politics of Anticipation in East Africa's Rangelands Ian Scoones, Tahira Shariff Mohamed, and Masresha Taye Epilogue: African Futures and the Way Forward Detlef Müller-Mahn and Michael Bollig Index

DETLEF MÜLLER-MAHN is Professor of Development Geography, University of Bonn. He served as the spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC-TRR 228) ""Future Rural Africa"" 2018-2021. His research focuses on the political ecology of land use change and rural development in East Africa and the Middle East. Eric Kioko). MICHAEL BOLLIG is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. Carolin Hulke is a research associate at the University of Cologne, Institute of Geography and associate to the multi-disciplinary research project ""Future Rural Africa"" (CRC-TRR228/1). She is conducting her PhD research on southern African agricultural regional value chains, livelihood strategies and rural development. Clemens Greiner is the academic coordinator of the Global South Studies Center (GSSC). His current research focuses on rural change, political ecology, translocality, and (energy) infrastructures in Kenya. His regional specialization is on Eastern and Southern Africa. DETLEF MÜLLER-MAHN is Professor of Development Geography, University of Bonn. He served as the spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC-TRR 228) ""Future Rural Africa"" 2018-2021. His research focuses on the political ecology of land use change and rural development in East Africa and the Middle East. Eric Kioko). DOROTHEA E. SCHULZ is Professor & Department Chair, Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Münster, Germany. Eric M. Kioko is a lecturer at Kenyatta University in the Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development where his research and teaching focuses on the dynamics of human-environment relations. His publications include Cooperation in the midst of conflict (with M. Gravesen, 2019) and Appeasing the land (with W. Okumu, 2018). HAUKE-PETER VEHRS is a Post-doctoral researcher in the project 'Future Rural Africa: Future-Making and Social Ecological Transformation' at the University of Cologne. Javier Revilla Diez holds a Chair in Human Geography at the Institute of Geography and is associated to the Global South Study Center at the University of Cologne. He participates in the collaborative research center 'Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation'. Linus Kalvelage is a research associate at the Institute of Geography, University of Cologne. A member of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC 228) 'Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation', his research interests include tourism GPNs, nature conservation and regional development in Southern Africa. MICHAEL BOLLIG is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.