50 years of ROAPE

50 years of ROAPE

The first of ROAPE’s special collections indicates some of our key themes from over the last 50 years. The collection, which is available for all our readers but will also be printed and sent to our subscribers, captures just a glimpse of the debates ROAPE has engaged with over many years. Future collections will remind readers of detailed engagements with imperialism in Africa, uneven and deleterious capitalist transformations, class struggles and national liberation. 

This collection draws on the journal’s rich heritage of activist writing, theories, and examples of struggles for socialism in Africa. We begin with the path breaking and persistently important understanding of accumulation and development on a world scale. This collection then explores ways of understanding African politics, the importance of armed intervention, class struggle and organisation and Pan-Africanism.   

Looking back at these debates provides insight into the continued relevance of the themes raised over 50 years: why and how class struggle is key to transformation and socialism in Africa; why the socialist project(s) are vital to justice and welfare, and why they remain so difficult to deliver.

ROAPE’s new beginning

For 25 years from our first issue in 1974 the Editorial Working Group was responsible for the publication of the journal and in the very early years was also involved in the physical production process. The journal financed itself from relatively low subscription rates but with a large number of subscribers, especially from individuals as well as institutions and also in the early years, bookshop sales. Costs were kept low by the voluntary input of some of the editors in editorial and financial management. Gradually this became too much for the editorial group to manage and we set ourselves up as a cooperative, ROAPE Publications Ltd, with not very well-paid workers dealing with editing, production, and sales.

Always short of money and close to folding, the journal was offered a home with Carfax, which subsequently via Routledge became part of the increasingly large Taylor and Francis stable of journals. This put us on a very stable financial footing with a good relationship with our publishing colleagues and proper payment to our production manager, and later website editor as well as honorary payments to our editors with roles in the production of the journal.

We were also able to run our Connections workshops across the continent with additional support from donors. This came at the cost of being part of a global corporate and a large increase in subscription prices. As a radical left journal, and still a cooperative, we were never happy with this arrangement even if our publishers never interfered in our editorial decisions.

In particular, we did not like that the past seven years of issues were behind a paywall, and effectively inaccessible to a large number of readers. Even some of our institutional subscribers did not have access to the whole 50 years old archive. Our discomfort increased with the advent of the duplicitously termed ‘open access’ model driven by the Research Councils and other bodies whose grants include an element to compensate the publisher for the loss of income from being required to make articles based on funded research openly accessible. This ‘pay to publish’ model means that to make an article that has been accepted for publication openly accessible, authors have to pay the publisher whether from a research grant or from their own pocket. We did not want to be part of this new academic exclusivity.

Since January 2024 everyone can now access electronically all parts of ROAPE as well as its archive without a paywall. We are working with ScienceOpen and through our website you will be able to access and to contribute to the journal. This will make it accessible to a much wider readership, especially in Africa.

We know that journals that have taken this step have increased their readership many times over. We are sure that we will do the same.

Subscriptions and donations

Like other periodicals that have taken this step, we will still need an income. We are hoping that readers of our website and of the journal will support us by subscribing to access the journal online at our much-reduced rates for personal subscriptions. At a higher but still affordable rate you can have both an online and print version.

We are also hoping you can support the journal with a regular or a one-off donation. We will also be offering subscribers and donors significant discounts on books or attendance at conferences that we organise, including two exiting new titles coming out next year, and anniversary events in 2024.

We shall continue to produce a high-quality peer-reviewed journal supporting the work of scholars and activists both across the African continent and around the world. In funding ROAPE through subscriptions and donations you will enable us to sustain production and open access to the rigorous, high quality and radical analysis of African political economy that has been the hallmark of this journal over the last 50 years.

Peter Lawrence and Ray Bush

1.     Editorial. # 1 1974  Editorial – ScienceOpen

2.     Samir Amin Accumulation and Development. # 1 1974 Accumulation and development: a theoretical model – ScienceOpen

3.     Archie Mafeje Soweto and Its aftermath #11 1978 Soweto and its aftermath – ScienceOpen

4.     Ruth First After Soweto: A response #11 1978  After Soweto: a response – ScienceOpen

5.     Ngugu wa Thiong’o The Commitment of the Intellectual #32 1985 The commitment of the intellectual – ScienceOpen

6.     Chris Allen Understanding African Politics #65 1995 Understanding African politics – ScienceOpen

7.     A Tribute to Babu #69 1996 A tribute to A. M. Babu – ScienceOpen

8.     Hakim Adi The African Diaspora, ‘Development’ & Modern African Political Theory #92 2002 The African diaspora, ‘development’ & modern African political theory – ScienceOpen

9.     Issa G. Shivji Nationalism and Pan-Africanism: decisive moments in Nyerere’s intellectual and political thought #131 2012 Nationalism and pan-Africanism: decisive moments in Nyerere's intellectual and political thought – ScienceOpen

10.  Bridget O’Laughlin Ruth First: a revolutionary life in revolutionary times 139 2014 Ruth First: a revolutionary life in revolutionary times – ScienceOpen