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In much of Eastern Africa, the last decade has seen a renewed interest in spatial development plans that link mineral exploitation, transport infrastructure and agricultural commercialisation. While these development corridors have yielded complex resultseven in cases where significant investments are yet to happenmuch of the existing analysis continues to focus on economic and implementation questions, where failures are attributed to inappropriate incentives or lack of 'political will'. Taking a differentpolitical economyapproach, this article examines what actually happens when corridors 'hit the ground', with a specific interest to the diverse agricultural commercialisation pathways that they induce. Specifically, the article introduces and analyses four corridors-LAPSSET in Kenya, Beira and Nacala in Mozambique, and SAGCOT in Tanzaniawhich are generating 'demonstration fields', economies of anticipation and fields of political contestations respectively, and as a result, creatingor promising to creatediverse pathways for agricultural commercialisation, accumulation and differentiation. In sum, the article shows how top-down grandmodernist plans are shaped by local dynamics, in a process that results in the transformation of corridors, from exclusivist 'tunnel' visions, to more networked corridors embedded in local economies, and shaped by the realities of rural Eastern Africa.

This study examines Mozambican popular music to investigate three questions: Are notions of empowerment and accountability present in popular music in Mozambique? If so, what can these existing notions of empowerment and accountability reveal about relations between citizens and state institutions in general and about citizen-led social and political action in particular? In what ways is popular music used to support citizen mobilisation in Mozambique? The discussion is based on an analysis of 46 protest songs, interviews with musicians, music producers and event promoters as well as field interviews and observations among audiences at selected popular music concerts and public workshops in Maputo city. Secondary data were drawn from radio broadcasts, digital media, and social networks. The songs analysed were widely played in the past two decades (1998–2018), a period in which three different presidents led the country. Our focus is on the protest song, conceived as those musical products that are concerned with public affairs, particularly public policy and how it affects citizens’ social, political and economic life, and the relationship between citizens and the state.

Energy protests are becoming increasingly common and significant around the world. While in the global North concerns tend to centre around climate issues, in the global South the concerns are more often with affordable energy. Both types of protests, however, have one issue in common: the undemocratic nature of energy policymaking. This paper draws together findings from research conducted in three countries, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Pakistan to ask how and under which conditions do struggles over energy access in fragile and conflict affected settings empower the powerless to hold public authorities to account? In exploring this theme, the study examines what factors support protests developing into significant episodes of contention within fragile settings, and whether these energy struggles promote citizen empowerment and institutional accountability.

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