Duncan Clarke was founder and Chairman of the Board, Global Pacific & Partners, a worldwide private advisory firm with vintage of around 40 years, the story told in Three Decades in the Long Grass, 2014. Born in Salisbury, 1948, and raised in Rhodesia, he gained the PhD (Economics) at University of St Andrews, 1975. He has published extensively on Africa and been advisor to governments and companies worldwide, and focused on geo-economics, Africa and world oil, historiography, and corporate strategy for the global upstream industry. The most recent books, published by Royal Sable Publishing, founded by the author in 2019, have been The Quiet Rhodesian: Silent Servant, 1909-1981, published in 2023, and Accidental Author: Fifty Years Writing, Africa and the World, in 2023, The Last Rhodesians: Society Adrift, in 2022, and Rhodes' Ghost: The Conquest of Zambesia, in 2020. Another book, Cecil Rhodes' Library, will be released in early 2024, and Zambesia: The Literary Safari, in late 2024. Details on fifty years-plus of writing, travel and related endeavours are found on duncan-clarke.com.

Arguing that the climate crisis confronting the world today is rooted mainly in the wealthy economies’ abuse of fossil fuels, indigenous forests, and global commercial agriculture, this important book investigates how Africa has been exploited and how Africans should respond for the good of all. As it examines the oil industry in Africa and probes the causes of global warming, this record warns of its insidious impacts and explores false solutions. Demonstrating that the issues around natural resource exploitation, corporate profiteering, and climate change must be considered together if the planet is to be saved, the book suggests how Africa can overcome the crises of environment and global warming.

A New York Times Notable Book Chinese immigrants of the recent past and unfolding twenty-first century are in search of the African dream. So explains indefatigable traveler Howard W. French, prize-winning investigative journalist and former New York Times bureau chief in Africa and China, in the definitive account of this seismic geopolitical development. China’s burgeoning presence in Africa is already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. From Liberia to Senegal to Mozambique, in creaky trucks and by back roads, French introduces us to the characters who make up China’s dogged emigrant population: entrepreneurs singlehandedly reshaping African infrastructure, and less-lucky migrants barely scraping by but still convinced of Africa’s opportunities. French’s acute observations offer illuminating insight into the most pressing unknowns of modern Sino-African relations: Why China is making these cultural and economic incursions into the continent; what Africa’s role is in this equation; and what the ramifications for both parties and their people—and the watching world—will be in the foreseeable future. One of the Best Books of the Year at • The Economist • The Guardian • Foreign Affairs

Each week the oil and gas fields of sub-Saharan Africa produce well over a billion dollars' worth of oil, an amount that far exceeds development aid to the entire African continent. Yet the rising tide of oil money is not promoting stability and development, but is instead causing violence, poverty, and stagnation. It is also generating vast corruption that reaches deep into American and European economies. In Poisoned Wells, Nicholas Shaxson exposes the root causes of this paradox of poverty from plenty, and explores the mechanisms by which oil causes grave instabilities and corruption around the globe. Shaxson is the only journalist who has had access to the key players in African oil, and is willing to make the connections between the problems of the developing world and the involvement of leading global corporations and governments.

Africa is playing a more important role in world affairs than ever before. Yet the most common images of Africa in the American mind are ones of poverty, starvation, and violent conflict. But while these problems are real, that does not mean that Africa is a lost cause. Instead, as Stephen Ellis explains in Season of Rains, we need to rethink Africa’s place in time if we are to understand it in all its complexity—it is a region where growth and prosperity coexist with failed states. This engaging, accessible book by one of the world’s foremost researchers on Africa captures the broad spectrum of political, economic, and social foundations that make Africa what it is today. Ellis is careful not to position himself in the futile debate between Afro-optimists and Afro-pessimists. The forty-nine diverse nations that make up sub-Saharan Africa are neither doomed to fail nor destined to succeed. As he assesses the challenges of African sovereignties, Ellis is not under the illusion that governments will suddenly become more benevolent and less corrupt. Yet, he sees great dynamism in recent technological and economic developments. The proliferation of mobile phones alone has helped to overcome previous gaps in infrastructure, African retail markets are becoming integrated, and banking is expanding. Businesses from China and emerging powers from the West are investing more than ever before in the still land-rich region, and globalization is offering possibilities of enormous economic change for the growing population of one billion Africans, actively engaged in charting the future of their continent. This highly readable survey of the continent today offers an indispensable guide to how money, power, and development are shaping Africa’s future.

Once marginalized in the world economy, the past decade has seen Africa emerge as a major global supplier of crucial raw materials like oil, uranium and coltan. With its share of world trade and investment now rising and the availability of natural resources falling, the continent finds itself at the centre of a battle to gain access to and control of its valuable natural assets. China's role in Africa has loomed particularly large in recent years, but there is now a new scramble taking place involving a wider range of established and emerging economic powers from the EU and US to Japan, Brazil and Russia. This book explores the nature of resource and market competition in Africa and the strategies adopted by the different actors involved - be they world powers or small companies. Focusing on key commodities, the book examines the dynamics of the new scramble and the impact of current investment and competition on people, the environment, and political and economic development on the continent. New theories, particularly the idea of Chinese "flexigemony" are developed to explain how resources and markets are accessed. While resource access is often the primary motive for increased engagement, the continent also offers a growing market for low-priced goods from Asia and Asian-owned companies. Individual chapters explore old and new economic power interests in Africa; oil, minerals, timber, biofuels, food and fisheries; and the nature and impacts of Asian investment in manufacturing and other sectors. The New Scramble for Africa will be essential reading for students of African studies, international relations, and resource politics as well as anyone interested in current affairs.

Wall Street Journal Best Selling Book "I agree with the points made--and with Ayuk's case for the critical role that OPEC will play in helping African oil products achieve a much-deserved voice in the petroleum industry." --OPEC Secretary-General, H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo Two decades of negotiating African oil and gas deals have given NJ Ayuk a grasp of the continent's energy landscape that few can match. The American-educated, African energy lawyer serves up generous doses of that insight in his second book, Billions at Play: The Future of Africa Energy and Doing Deals. Serving as a road map for the continent to do a better job of using its vast energy resources to improve its peoples' lives, Ayuk addresses how African countries can use their energy industries as springboards for diversifying and growing their overall economies. In addition, Ayuk shows how African governments and local companies can negotiate better deals with international energy companies and how the continent's countries can use marginal oil and gas fields to develop domestic energy industries that, once strong, will compete globally. Questions posed and answered: Why Africa's fledgling natural gas resources can allow the continent to emerge as a key global player in the industry What changes African countries can make in order to become attractive investment destinations The role that access to reliable, sustainable, and affordable power can play in the acceleration of economic growth Why and how American energy companies should stop curtailing their investments in Africa And why the continent's energy industry needs more women The book's underlying theme is that too often, natural resources create wealth for foreign investors and a select group of African elites while everyday people (and in turn, African economies) fail to benefit. While it is easy to see that there is a lack of local participation in African projects and an ongoing challenge in securing necessary investment, we also need to understand our role in this. We have to understand the importance of creating enabling environments with attractive fiscal terms for local and foreign investors, the role of stronger local content policies in ensuring more local participation in the sector, and the weight government and political uncertainty carries in moving projects forward. "It's up to Africans to fix Africa," writes Ayuk. This statement can be considered a living theme throughout the book as he encourages that local companies and governments have to enter into collaborative agreements rather than passive engagements with IOCs and majors. "[We need] investors who show that they want to fully participate with us, by coming in and building long-term sustainable businesses that last and make a profit, create jobs and further development." If you're ready to dive headfirst into accessing a frank analysis and examination of the African energy landscape and how Africans can begin to fix Africa, jump into the pages of Billions at Play.