Africa and the BRICS: In whose interest?

Abstract

Africa is currently said to be rising, turning a definitive page in its history. Though all evidence suggests that the upsurge in economic growth has been built on the back of a commodity super-cycle, the “Africa Rising” discourse prefers to insist that improved governance and qualitative endogenous dynamics have been responsible. A great deal of excitement has been generated around the idea that Africa is on the up, and that this is taking place within the context of a world on the cusp of a radically changing global order, one that will be favourable to the developing world. Yet far from bringing about a milieu where Africa may turn a radically new page in its developmental trajectory, the continent is ever more being pushed into the resource corner. Africa thus must fashion its own independent path-relying on the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) or any other external actors simply reproduces Africa’s state of underdevelopment.