David M Anderson is Professor of African History in the Global History and Culture Centre, at the University of Warwick, UK. He has published widely on history and politics in Eastern Africa, including Eroding the Commons (2002), The Khat Controversy (2007), Histories of the Hanged (2005) and The Routledge Handbook of African Politics (ed. 2013).

Michael Bollig is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne, Germany. His recent books include African Pastoralism: Past, Present and Future (2013), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on African Landscapes (2009) and Risk Management in a Hazardous Environment (2006). He is currently researching the political ecology of conversation in Southern Africa and land use changes in dryland East Africa.