This article is a tribute to the late Thandika Mkandawire, who passed away on 27 March 2020. It remarks on Thandika’s essential simplicity and humour, and highlights his contribution to our understanding of the state and the peasantry in Africa. He put forward the thesis that post-colonial rebel movements have been largely urban-based aiming to conquer power whose seat is essentially in urban centres. This thesis needs to be revisited critically and debated, especially in the context of widespread land grabbing, which has shifted the terrain of struggle in the countryside.
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