ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the conceptual relationship between Africapitalism and brand Africa. Both of these ideologies reflect Africa-centric approaches to sustainable development, which attach primacy to internally driven activities and processes by Africans on the continent. Predicated on the premise that what people do as a collective ‘makes’ the place, the chapter highlights how Africapitalism, as essentially entailing business-related activities such as entrepreneurship, innovation and the productivity of human resources, defines Africa to outsiders. Viewed from this angle, Africapitalism thus fundamentally shapes not only the continent’s sustainable development trajectory but also brand Africa. The chapter further maintains that the ‘making’ of Africa within the context of Africapitalism is subject to individual Africans’ appreciation of their social identity as a social collective or an imagined massive family. In turn this sense of collective identity potentially triggers economic patriotism among Africans. Primarily, viewing oneself as an African, and other Africans as family members with common interests, as well as Africa as home are all deemed crucial to economic patriotism. In other words, underpinning economic patriotism is a sense of place and belongingness, which are also the prominent dimensions of brand Africa. As implications, the chapter therefore highlights the need to establish a pan-African identity and promote an Africa-centric education and training system in order to stimulate and facilitate individuals’ participation in their own development as one meta-family called Africa.
