The seventh Rethinking Economics for Africa Festival 2025 brought students, academics, activists, civil society organisations and members of the public together to explore alternatives in economic thought, policy and practice.
A cross-cutting focus on feminist economics connected discussions about economic power, knowledge production, geopolitics, care and decent work. The opening plenary, Rethinking Economics in Turbulent Times: Confronting Empire, Pursuing (Gender) Justice, set the tone for a programme examining how contemporary crises are shaped by economic systems and global power relations.
Sessions were organised across four streams:
- Power, Policy, and the People
- From Knowledge to Resistance
- Geopolitics: Subjugation and Solidarity
- Labouring Towards Decent Work
The first stream explored township economies, wealth taxation, capital flight, privatisation, and transformative industrial policy. The second examined African feminist epistemology, imperialism in knowledge production, youth protest, and communal organising.
Geopolitical sessions considered artificial intelligence and threats to democracy, extraction, and conflict in Palestine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, trade wars, debt, and taxation. Discussions about work addressed forced migration, food sovereignty, the care economy, climate change, unemployment, and financialisation.
Contributors included Fiona Tregenna, Devika Dutt, Trevor Ngwane, Odile Mackett, Nonzuzo Mbokazi, Juhi Kasan, Sam Ashman, and Faith Lumonya, alongside activists, researchers, and organisers from across Africa and further afield.
Through accessible discussions and participatory sessions, the Festival demonstrated how feminist, heterodox, and decolonial approaches can help explain and transform the economic challenges confronting African societies.
