The successful discovery of large oil deposits in the Lake Albert region of Uganda has encouraged the industry to view the region more positively, bringing an influx of new and established companies to tender for exploration rights in a wide range of fields covering Puntland, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Southern Sudan, Uganda, the DRC, Kenya, and Tanzania. This paper charts the extent of this oil exploration and industry investment in the region over the past decade, and discusses the economic and political implications of significant oil finds for future development.

Bringing together economists, political scientists, anthropologists and development experts, and spanning a variety of case studies from across the continent, this collection provides a much-needed corrective to the received wisdom within development circles, and provides a fresh perspective on social transformations in contemporary Africa.

In Rich People Poor Countries, Caroline Freund identifies and analyzes nearly 700 emerging-market billionaires whose net worth adds up to more than $2 trillion. Freund finds that these titans of industry are propelling poor countries out of their small-scale production and agricultural past and into a future of multinational industry and service-based mega firms. And more often than not, the new billionaires are using their newfound acumen to navigate the globalized economy, without necessarily relying on political connections, inheritance, or privileged access to resources.

This chapter examines the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through the prism of a major infrastructure project currently taking place in Kenya on the East coast of Africa, namely the LAPSSET (Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia) corridor.

Coal has recently emerged as part of Kenya’s energy and economic security. In this chapter, the authors analyze key drivers of the recent growing interests in coal power generation in Kenya as well as the tensions regarding the role of coal in the energy mix. The Kenyan case illustrates contested visions between ruling elites at the national level and local population at the subnational level.

Over the last 20 years, we have witnessed worldwide a renewed interest in local food products and traditional cuisine. Addressing this demand, the catering industry has played a pivotal role in reviving local food heritage and traditions. While several studies have explored the evolution of this trend in Europe, little attention has been given to this phenomenon in contemporary Africa. To partially fill this gap in the literature, the authors conducted an ethnographic study to investigate the role of the catering sector in recovering and promoting food and gastronomic heritage in Nakuru County, an emerging Kenyan agricultural and tourist hub. Some differences in the role of Kenyan cuisine emerged, with the differentiation mostly linked to the customer profiles. In particular, attention toward traditional foods was more accentuated in restaurants aimed at middle- and high-income Kenyan customers and for specific products.