When There’s Nothing Left to Own: Materiality and Security in Africa

Over the past 20 years, Africa has been marked by unprecedented economic growth and an influx of social movements. The positive correlation between growth and contentious demands unsettles the impulse to equate peace and progress with levels of economic production. Many African governments have relied on extractivism - development strategies predicated on capital-intensive removal of finite natural resources - to bolster their economies at the expense of ecological and social sustainability.