Suchergebnisse

This issue marks the 30th anniversary of the birth of The Review of African Political Economy in 1974. At the time, its founders were unsure if it would get off the ground and they certainly never thought it would last thirty years! Apart from debate about what its role would be, there were doubts about their own stamina, and about whether successor generations would emerge to take it on. The challenge was set out by Anderson in relation to another Left Review:

…political journals have no choice: to be true to themselves, they must aim to extend their real life beyond the conditions or generations that gave rise to them (Anderson, New Left Review, 2000).

The spectre of AIDS is haunting Africa. If present trends continue, its impact on development and society will be devastating. This issue of ROAPE looks at some of the graphic realities of the situation as faced by those who must cope. It also explores the struggles and debates around who might take responsibility - for delivering programmes of prevention and care, for making affordable drugs available to those in need and for dealing with the consequences of loss wreaked by the epidemic. If families bear the heaviest burden, what role do states, NGOs and international agencies have in managing the crisis and in averting the worst scenarios? These questions have to be considered in context. (...) There are many facets to the question of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The articles in this volume touch only some of them, but individually and collectively they point to the importance of situating the analysis of the epidemic and its effects into a framework of political economy. (ROAPE/DÜI)