Lionel R Cliffe (1936–2013) was an English political economist and activist whose work has focused on the struggle for land rights and freedom in Africa, from the 1960s to the present. He was educated at King Edward VII grammar school in Sheffield and Nottingham University where he read Economics with Mathematics and Statistics. A conscientious objector, he avoided national service and instead worked for Oxfam in the late 1950s. In 1961 he went to Dar es Salaam to teach at Kivukoni adult education college. After undertaking fieldwork in Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia, he came to the University of Leeds in 1978 where he worked to help develop what is now Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) and also the journal Review of African Political Economy and became Professor of Politics. In 2002 the African Studies Association of the UK marked his career with the Distinguished Africanist award.
Socialism in Tanzania: Politics and Policies, co-edited with John S. Saul, 2 vols. (1972-3)
Rural Cooperation in Tanzania, co-edited with John S. Saul and others (1975)
Southern Africa after the drought : a crisis of social reproduction (1978)
Behind the war in Eritrea (co-edited with Basil Davidson and Bereket Habte Selassie (1980).
Prospects for agrarian transformation in Zimbabwe (1988)
The Long struggle of Eritrea for independence and constructive peace (co-edited with Basil Davidson (1988)
Zimbabwe : politics, economics and society (with Colin Stoneman) (1989)
The Transition to Independence in Namibia with Ray Bush and Jenny Lindsay (1994)
The Politics of Lying with Maureen Ramsay and David Bartlett (2000)
The Struggle for Land in Africa, Leeds African Studies Bulletin, 64 (2001), pp. 9–44.
Conflict and peace in the Horn of Africa (co-edited with Roy Love and Kjetil, Tronvoll) (2009)
Outcomes of post-2000 fast track land reform in Zimbabwe(co-edited with Jocelyn Alexander, Ben Cousins and Rudo Gaidzanwa) (2013)
'Cricket, racism and the Yorkshire Leagues: Prospects for a more inclusive cricket in Yorkshire' in Michael Lavalette (ed) Capitalism and Sport: Politics, Protest, People and Play (2013)
