Africa Yearbook 6
Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara 2009

The Africa Yearbook is a joint undertaking by the African Studies Centre in Leiden (ASC), the GIGA Institute of African Affairs (IAA) in Hamburg, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (DHF) in Uppsala and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in Uppsala. It has its origins in a German Afrika Jahrbuch that has been produced by IAK for 17 years. In May 2003, the Africa-Europe Group of Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS), a network of European academics working on Africa, encouraged the three centres to publish an Africa Yearbook with a wider international appeal. The edition for the year 2008 is the fifth issue in the series.

The country-specific articles cover domestic political developments, foreign policy and socioeconomic trends in sub-Saharan African states in the calendar year under review. The Africa Yearbook also contains articles on each of four sub-regions, focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organisations. In addition, one article analyses continental developments while another addresses European-African relations. While the editors recognise the impossibility of finding a fully objective indicator of the comparative importance of each sub-Saharan state, the length of each country-specific article aims to reflect the approximate relative political, economic and/or demographic weight of each country.

While the Yearbook is based on scholarly work, it is oriented towards a wider target readership, including students, politicians, diplomats, administrators, journalists, teachers, practitioners in the field of development aid as well as businesspeople. Thanks to the support of the three partner institutions, it can be offered at a price attractive to this broad readership. The volume is primarily concerned with providing factual (though not necessarily neutral) information. In contrast to other publications, each issue of the Africa Yearbook, in focusing on developments during a particular calendar year, will provide a completely fresh annual overview of events.

Editors:

IAA: Andreas Mehler, Director (political science, Central Africa)

DHF: Henning Melber, Executive Director, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala (political science; former Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute)

ASC: Klaas van Walraven, Senior Researcher (political science, international relations, history, democratisation, West Africa)

Sub-editor: Rolf Hofmeier