Lionel R Cliffe (1936 – 24 October 2013) was an English political economist and activist whose work focused on the struggle for land rights and freedom in Africa from the 1960s.
Cliffe was educated at King Edward VII Grammar School in Sheffield and at the University of Nottingham where he read Economics with Mathematics and Statistics.
A conscientious objector, he was excused national service and instead worked for four years in the late 1950s as an Information and Research Assistant for Oxfam in Oxford.
In 1961 Cliffe went to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to teach at Kivukoni adult education college and later at the University of Dar es Salaam where he was Director of Development Studies.
In 2002 the African Studies Association of the UK marked his career with the Distinguished Africanist award.