ABSTRACT
This handbook has considered a wide range of issues that will likely affect the African continent for much of the rest of this century. However, the contributions to the handbook indicate that the Africa that reaches the end of the twenty-first century will be very different from the one that entered it. Much theory about contemporary social, economic and environmental change is based on the analysis of evidence from the past. Africa has been described as ‘an experiment’ in politics, modernism and economic policy (Bratton and van de Walle, 1997; see also Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Chapter 3, this volume), a part of the world where practitioners have tried out their theories – some of which have been developed within Africa, but many have been introduced or imposed from outside (Brookings Institute, 2017). This concluding chapter sets out to briefly discuss key patterns that appear to be emerging and are likely to influence the future.
