ABSTRACT

Contextualizing how China–Africa relations have been studied to date, this chapter introduces the study of the study of China and Africa and the book as a whole. After tracing the evolution of studies about China and Africa, it problematises China–Africa as a field of study and questions concerning the politics of knowledge and changing dynamics of knowledge and power arising from Africa–China studies. China–Africa studies is a field of power embedded in deeper, historically produced questions about African Studies and is at the forefront of global shifts in the nature and future direction of these. Scholarship on Africa–China is now more seriously beginning to reflect upon questions concerning theory, method and, with these, epistemology and the politics of knowledge. This book seeks to contribute towards this end.