ABSTRACT
At the start of the new century, trade remains crucial to Africa's political economies even if the continent is increasingly marginal in global trade. Yet, while over the last quarter of the twentieth century, Africa came to constitute a declining share of formal sector global exchange, niches do exist for competitive African companies and sectors in the twenty-first century, concentrated around 'African democratic developmental states' (Mkandawire 2001) like Botswana, Mauritius and Uganda and 'new' industries like mobile telephones and fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables, let alone South African franchises. Moreover, if we recognize informal as well as formal trade along with the roles of diasporas and mafias, then the continent becomes less peripheral and less distant in the global marketplace.
