The fifth Rethinking Economics for Africa Festival marked the return to an in-person gathering after two years of online Festivals. More than 400 students, academics, activists, economic-policy practitioners and members of the public came together at Wits University.
The Festival created an accessible space for participants to question how economics and economies work, exchange alternatives and build a movement for rethinking economics in universities and society.
The programme explored five broad themes:
- inequality;
- economic alternatives;
- power relations;
- Africa in the global order; and
- climate-change activism.
Through panel discussions, debates and workshops, contributors examined how economic systems produce and reproduce inequality, who holds economic power and how alternative policies and institutions could support more equitable development.
Sessions connected African economies to global structures and debates while addressing the urgency of the climate crisis. Feminist analysis, human rights and economic justice were integrated throughout the programme.
The in-person format created valuable opportunities for networking, collaboration and engagement between university-based groups, civil society organisations and economic-policy practitioners. It also enabled the return of the Festival’s cultural programme.
Poet and cultural activist MoAfrika wa Mokgathi and Africanist musical collective iPhupho L’ka Biko performed during the Festival. Their contributions reinforced the Festival’s commitment to engaging with economic questions through culture, creativity and lived experience as well as formal debate.
The 2022 Festival renewed REFA’s commitment to making economics understandable, pluralist and responsive to Africa’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges.
