Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Civil Rights, Colonies & Colonization, emigration & immigration, International Relations, Modern History , Political Institutions, Socialism, Communism, Anarchism

Regions:

Africa

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Africa in general and Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa in particular.

Project summary relevant to Fellowship:

Having completed my book on South Africa between the Boer war and World War One, I am finalising a book on Eritrea and continuing to work more widely on the Horn of Africa and southern Africa.

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
01-May-2024	Eritrea’s foreign festivals: clashes within the exile community Articles Review of African Political Economy, 2024 Vol. 51, No. 179, 159–169
30-May-2018	Eritrean ‘askaris’: postcards from the Red Sea Journal articles The Ephemerist No. 180, Spring 2018, pp. 13- 15
01-Apr-2018	Robert Mugabe Edited Book Ohio University Press, April 2018 (with Sue Onslow)
19-Mar-2018	Media Freedom in South Africa Journal articles The Round Table, 19 March 2018
21-Feb-2018	Libya’s slave markets are a reminder that the exploitation of Africans never went away Articles  Slavery was recorded in 20th century Ethiopia and continues to exist in Mauritania today.
22-Jan-2018	Do South Africa and Zimbabwe’s new leaders represent a moment of hope? Articles  Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa both have tarnished pasts, but attract optimism.
18-Jan-2018	The Ethiopian Famine: War, Weapons, and Aid Articles Did rebel movements in Ethiopia use part of the international aid they received for those who were starving to buy weapons and ammunition? Martin Plaut discusses the claims that the aid arm of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front diverted some of these funds to purchase military supplies.
15-Jan-2018	The Ethiopian famine: war, weapons and aid Journal articles The RUSI Journal, DOI:10.1080/03071847.2017.1414736, January 2018
01-Dec-2017	A crushing defeat for the dark side Articles  The collapse of Bell Pottinger would not have happened without the investigative zeal of a group of dedicated journalists in South Africa
13-Sep-2017	Eritrea: a mafia state? Articles  Eritrea is no ordinary state; rather it resembles a criminal organisation designed to keep its citizens in perpetual servitude. It is behaves like a mafia organisation: with covert finances but without a constitution, legislature or elections, run by the country’s president and his closest associates.
05-Aug-2017	How Leave.EU threw its backing behind a far-right anti-migrant boat Articles  As the Italian navy enters Libyan territorial waters for the first time, they are joined by strange allies: Europe’s far right.
19-Jun-2017	Qatar’s conflict with its neighbours can easily set the Horn of Africa alight  It began as a squabble between Arab allies, but the standoff between Qatar and its neighbours is threatening to engulf the Horn of Africa. When Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and the Maldives declared at the beginning of June that they were severing diplomatic relations with Qatar it appeared to be of interest mainly to the Arabian Peninsula – and the Gulf in particular.
13-Apr-2017	Eritreans in the Netherlands complain of pressure to support youth congress Articles  Claims of ‘systemic intimidation’ as top Eritrean official Yemane Gebreab arrives on Dutch soil to address youth wing of African country’s ruling party
04-Apr-2017	Jacob Zuma vs democratic South Africa - only one is likely to survive Articles  A bloody cabinet reshuffle has left South Africans divided and reeling.
26-Mar-2017	Reporting Conflict in Africa Journal articles Media, War and Conflict, Vol 10, Issue 1, 2017
01-Oct-2016	Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa’s most repressive state Monographs  Hurst Publishers, October 2016
01-Aug-2016	F.Z.S. Peregrino, A Significant but Duplicitous Figure in the Black Atlantic World  (with David Killingray), South African Historical Journal, August 2016
01-Jul-2016	Olive Schreiner and the Taaibosch derailment: From ‘Pro-Boer’ activism to networking with the early British Labour Party, Articles  Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, vol. 70, no 1, June 2016
01-Apr-2016	Promise and Despair: The first struggle for a non-racial South Africa, 1899 – 1914 Monographs  Jacana Media, April 2016
01-Jan-2016	Joseph Gerrans and Resistance to the Planned Incorporation of Botswana into the Union of South Africa, 1909 Articles  Botswana Notes and Records, Volume 47, 2016
01-Oct-2014	South Africa: How the ANC wins elections Journal articles Review of African Political Economy 2014
31-Jul-2014	Keir Hardie's visit to South Africa, 1908 Journal articles Bulletin of the South African Library
01-Jan-2014	New Light on Gandhi's Decisive South African Confrontation Articles  New Light on Gandhi's Decisive South African Confrontation
04-Dec-2013	Gandhi ’s Decisive South African 1913 Campaign: A Personal Perspective from the Letters of Betty Molteno Journal articles Corder,Catherine and Plaut, Martin, Gandhi's decisive South African 1913 campaign: a presonal perspective from the letters of Betty Molteno. South African Historical Journal,  (2013)
26-Jun-2013	How unstable is the Horn of Africa? Journal articles Review of African Political Economy, Volume 40, Issue 136, 2013 How can one explain the apparent stability that has prevailed in the Horn since 1991? The overthrow of the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia and the de-facto independence of Eritrea paved the way for a period of stable government that had been absent for the many years. Stability is not peace, but one is struck by the fact that for more than two decades the key countries in the Horn have remained essentially under the same administrations or forms of government.
01-Jan-2012	Who Rules South Africa? Edited Book Jonathan Ball, (with Paul Holden)  ISBN 9781868424252
01-Jan-2010	Fighting for Britain: African soldiers in the Second World War Edited Book James Currey, (by David Killingray, with Martin Plaut) ISBN 1847010156
01-Jan-2010	South African Student Protest, 1968: Remembering the Mafeje Sit-in Articles History Workshop Journal, Vol 69 No 1 pp. 199 - 205
01-Jan-2010	The Nile comes to the boil Articles African Security Review, Vol 19 No 3 pp. 114 - 118
01-Jan-2010	South Africa: The ANC's difficult allies Articles Review of African Political Economy, Vol 37 No 124, pp. 201 - 212
01-Jan-2007	Trading Guns for Gold: Pakistani Peacekeepers in the Congo Articles Review of African Political Economy,  Vol 34 No 113, (Sept 2007), pp580-588
01-Jan-2007	Ethiopia and Eritrea: Allergic to persuasion Papers Royal Institute of International Affairs, (with Sally Healy)
01-Jan-2005	Unfinished Business: Ethiopia and Eritrea at war Edited Book  Red Sea Press, (editor, with Dominique Jacquin-Berdal)ISBN 1569022178
01-Jan-1999	War in the Horn Papers Royal Institute of International Affairs, (with Patrick Gilkes) ISBN 1862030596
01-Jan-1984	Power! Black workers, their unions and the struggle for freedom in South Africa Edited Book Spokesman Press, (with Denis MacShane and David Ward) ISBN 0851244114
	Ethiopia's Oromo Liberation Front Articles Review of African Political Economy, Vol 33, No 109 (Sept 2006), pp587-593

Additional Publications

Relevant Events

Related events:

Date	Details
06-Dec-2017	Talk on Promise and Despair: the first struggle for a non-racial South Africa’
01-Nov-2017	Talk on 'Understanding Eritrea’
19-Oct-2017	The European Union and Eritrea  The position of Eritrean refugees seeking to flee their country has seldom been more dangerous. The obstacles they have to face – whether in crossing into Sudan or Ethiopia – remain considerable; the fate that awaits them on their journey to Europe is increasingly hazardous and their reception in Europe is frequently less than hospitable. Yet still they choose this difficult, draining option that leaves their families and communities torn apart, and vulnerable: a comment on how severe the human rights abuses remain in Eritrea itself.
17-Jul-2015	SCOLMA Annual Conference 2015 “Imagery of African troops”, to SCOLMA Annual Conference 2015, “There came a darkness”: Africa, Africans and World War I
01-Jul-2015	Interviews with BBC   Interviews with BBC, al-Jazeera, Monocle radio. Articles for the Guardian and New Statesman.
01-Jul-2015	Consultations with Foreign and Commonwealth Office and US State Department.  Consultations with Foreign and Commonwealth Office and US State Department.
05-Dec-2014	Nelson Mandela: Myth and Reality  Joint convenor with Keith Somerville

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