Jon Abbink works as a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, and as a research professor at VU University, Amsterdam. His interests are political anthropology, ethno-history, and culture and religion in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia). Current research projects are on Ethiopian regional history and livelihoods, the rhetoric and practice of ‘development’, and religion and community formation in Northeast Africa.Sebastian Elischer, Ph.D. (2010) in Comparative Politics, Jacobs University Bremen, is assistant professor of comparative politics at the University of Florida. He is the author of Political Parties and Ethnicity in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He has published on institutional change, identities and democratization in Africa. Andreas Mehler, Ph.D. (1993) in Political Science, University of Hamburg, is Director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute and Professor of Political Science at the University of Freiburg. He has published extensively on democratisation processes and violent conflicts in West and Central Africa. With Henning Melber he is managing editor of Africa Spectrum.Henning Melber, Ph.D. (1980) in Political Science, University of Bremen, is Director emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Senior Research Fellow of The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden; Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, and the Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State. He has published extensively on Southern Africa and in particular Namibia. With Andreas Mehler he is managing editor of Africa Spectrum.

• PrefaceList of AbbreviationsFactual OverviewList of AuthorsPart 1Sub-Saharan AfricaJon Abbink, Sebastian Elischer, Andreas Mehler and Henning MelberPart 2African-European RelationsChristine Hackenesch and Niels KeijzerPart 3West AfricaSebastian ElischerBeninAlexander StrohBurkina FasoDaniel EizengaCabo VerdeGerhard SeibertCôte d’Ivoire Alfred BaboThe GambiaAlice BellagambaGhana Jennifer C. BoylanGuinea Anita SchrovenGuinea-BissauChristoph KohlLiberiaLansana GberieMaliBruce WhitehouseMauritania Helena Olsson and Claes OlssonNigerKlaas van WalravenNigeria Heinrich BergstresserSenegalMamadou BodianSierra LeoneKrijn PetersTogoDirk KohnertPart 4Central AfricaAndreas MehlerCameroonFanny PigeaudCentral African RepublicAndreas MehlerChad Ketil Fred HansenCongoBrett L. CarterDemocratic Republic of the CongoClaudia SimonsEquatorial GuineaJoseph N. MangarellaGabonDouglas YatesSão Tomé and PríncipeGerhard SeibertPart 5Eastern AfricaJon AbbinkBurundiStef VandeginsteComorosSimon MasseyDjiboutiNicole HirtEritreaNicole HirtEthiopiaJon AbbinkKenya Gabrielle LynchRwandaYolande BoukaSeychellesAnthoni van Nieuwkerk and Jon AbbinkSomaliaJon AbbinkSouth Sudan Daniel LargeSudanJean-Nicolas Bach and Clément DeshayesTanzaniaKurt Hirschler and Rolf HofmeierUgandaVolker WeyelPart 6Southern AfricaHenning MelberAngola Jon SchubertBotswanaDavid SebudubuduLesotho Roger SouthallMadagascarRichard R. MarcusMalawiGeorge Dzimbiri and Lewis DzimbiriMauritiusTor SellströmMozambiqueJoseph HanlonNamibiaHenning MelberSouth AfricaSanusha NaiduSwazilandMarisha RamdeenZambia Edalina Rodrigues SanchesZimbabweAmin Y. Kamete

'Much has changed since my first reading of the Yearbook: the cooperating institutes, the writers, some of the editors. What remains the same is the quality of the articles, the depth of the analysis, the wealth of the factual information and the painstaking effort of the Yearbooks’ contributors to present life in Africa in all its diversity and perplexity'.Sotirios S. Livas in Journal of Oriental and African Studies vol. 27 2018, pp. 434-435

Jon Abbink works as a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, and as a research professor at VU University, Amsterdam. His interests are political anthropology, ethno-history, and culture and religion in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia). Current research projects are on Ethiopian regional history and livelihoods, the rhetoric and practice of ‘development’, and religion and community formation in Northeast Africa.Sebastian Elischer, Ph.D. (2010) in Comparative Politics, Jacobs University Bremen, is assistant professor of comparative politics at the University of Florida. He is the author of Political Parties and Ethnicity in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He has published on institutional change, identities and democratization in Africa. Andreas Mehler, Ph.D. (1993) in Political Science, University of Hamburg, is Director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute and Professor of Political Science at the University of Freiburg. He has published extensively on democratisation processes and violent conflicts in West and Central Africa. With Henning Melber he is managing editor of Africa Spectrum.Henning Melber, Ph.D. (1980) in Political Science, University of Bremen, is Director emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Senior Research Fellow of The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden; Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, and the Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State. He has published extensively on Southern Africa and in particular Namibia. With Andreas Mehler he is managing editor of Africa Spectrum.

• PrefaceList of AbbreviationsFactual OverviewList of AuthorsPart 1Sub-Saharan AfricaJon Abbink, Sebastian Elischer, Andreas Mehler and Henning MelberPart 2African-European RelationsChristine Hackenesch and Niels KeijzerPart 3West AfricaSebastian ElischerBeninAlexander StrohBurkina FasoDaniel EizengaCabo VerdeGerhard SeibertCôte d’Ivoire Alfred BaboThe GambiaAlice BellagambaGhana Jennifer C. BoylanGuinea Anita SchrovenGuinea-BissauChristoph KohlLiberiaLansana GberieMaliBruce WhitehouseMauritania Helena Olsson and Claes OlssonNigerKlaas van WalravenNigeria Heinrich BergstresserSenegalMamadou BodianSierra LeoneKrijn PetersTogoDirk KohnertPart 4Central AfricaAndreas MehlerCameroonFanny PigeaudCentral African RepublicAndreas MehlerChad Ketil Fred HansenCongoBrett L. CarterDemocratic Republic of the CongoClaudia SimonsEquatorial GuineaJoseph N. MangarellaGabonDouglas YatesSão Tomé and PríncipeGerhard SeibertPart 5Eastern AfricaJon AbbinkBurundiStef VandeginsteComorosSimon MasseyDjiboutiNicole HirtEritreaNicole HirtEthiopiaJon AbbinkKenya Gabrielle LynchRwandaYolande BoukaSeychellesAnthoni van Nieuwkerk and Jon AbbinkSomaliaJon AbbinkSouth Sudan Daniel LargeSudanJean-Nicolas Bach and Clément DeshayesTanzaniaKurt Hirschler and Rolf HofmeierUgandaVolker WeyelPart 6Southern AfricaHenning MelberAngola Jon SchubertBotswanaDavid SebudubuduLesotho Roger SouthallMadagascarRichard R. MarcusMalawiGeorge Dzimbiri and Lewis DzimbiriMauritiusTor SellströmMozambiqueJoseph HanlonNamibiaHenning MelberSouth AfricaSanusha NaiduSwazilandMarisha RamdeenZambia Edalina Rodrigues SanchesZimbabweAmin Y. Kamete

'Much has changed since my first reading of the Yearbook: the cooperating institutes, the writers, some of the editors. What remains the same is the quality of the articles, the depth of the analysis, the wealth of the factual information and the painstaking effort of the Yearbooks’ contributors to present life in Africa in all its diversity and perplexity'.Sotirios S. Livas in Journal of Oriental and African Studies vol. 27 2018, pp. 434-435

Jon Abbink works as a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, and as a research professor at VU University, Amsterdam. His interests are political anthropology, ethno-history, and culture and religion in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia). Current research projects are on Ethiopian regional history and livelihoods, the rhetoric and practice of ‘development’, and religion and community formation in Northeast Africa.Sebastian Elischer, Ph.D. (2010) in Comparative Politics, Jacobs University Bremen, is assistant professor of comparative politics at the University of Florida. He is the author of Political Parties and Ethnicity in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He has published on institutional change, identities and democratization in Africa. Andreas Mehler, Ph.D. (1993) in Political Science, University of Hamburg, is Director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute and Professor of Political Science at the University of Freiburg. He has published extensively on democratisation processes and violent conflicts in West and Central Africa. With Henning Melber he is managing editor of Africa Spectrum.Henning Melber, Ph.D. (1980) in Political Science, University of Bremen, is Director emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Senior Research Fellow of The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden; Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, and the Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State. He has published extensively on Southern Africa and in particular Namibia. With Andreas Mehler he is managing editor of Africa Spectrum.

• PrefaceList of AbbreviationsFactual OverviewList of AuthorsPart 1Sub-Saharan AfricaJon Abbink, Sebastian Elischer, Andreas Mehler and Henning MelberPart 2African-European RelationsChristine Hackenesch and Niels KeijzerPart 3West AfricaSebastian ElischerBeninAlexander StrohBurkina FasoDaniel EizengaCabo VerdeGerhard SeibertCôte d’Ivoire Alfred BaboThe GambiaAlice BellagambaGhana Jennifer C. BoylanGuinea Anita SchrovenGuinea-BissauChristoph KohlLiberiaLansana GberieMaliBruce WhitehouseMauritania Helena Olsson and Claes OlssonNigerKlaas van WalravenNigeria Heinrich BergstresserSenegalMamadou BodianSierra LeoneKrijn PetersTogoDirk KohnertPart 4Central AfricaAndreas MehlerCameroonFanny PigeaudCentral African RepublicAndreas MehlerChad Ketil Fred HansenCongoBrett L. CarterDemocratic Republic of the CongoClaudia SimonsEquatorial GuineaJoseph N. MangarellaGabonDouglas YatesSão Tomé and PríncipeGerhard SeibertPart 5Eastern AfricaJon AbbinkBurundiStef VandeginsteComorosSimon MasseyDjiboutiNicole HirtEritreaNicole HirtEthiopiaJon AbbinkKenya Gabrielle LynchRwandaYolande BoukaSeychellesAnthoni van Nieuwkerk and Jon AbbinkSomaliaJon AbbinkSouth Sudan Daniel LargeSudanJean-Nicolas Bach and Clément DeshayesTanzaniaKurt Hirschler and Rolf HofmeierUgandaVolker WeyelPart 6Southern AfricaHenning MelberAngola Jon SchubertBotswanaDavid SebudubuduLesotho Roger SouthallMadagascarRichard R. MarcusMalawiGeorge Dzimbiri and Lewis DzimbiriMauritiusTor SellströmMozambiqueJoseph HanlonNamibiaHenning MelberSouth AfricaSanusha NaiduSwazilandMarisha RamdeenZambia Edalina Rodrigues SanchesZimbabweAmin Y. Kamete

'Much has changed since my first reading of the Yearbook: the cooperating institutes, the writers, some of the editors. What remains the same is the quality of the articles, the depth of the analysis, the wealth of the factual information and the painstaking effort of the Yearbooks’ contributors to present life in Africa in all its diversity and perplexity'.Sotirios S. Livas in Journal of Oriental and African Studies vol. 27 2018, pp. 434-435