ABSTRACT
The remarkable changes that have been going on in Africa in the last few decades have attracted a plethora of external interests, with both “Traditional” global powers and emerging actors busy defining long-term strategies for engaging the continent. Remarkable developments in certain key areas across the continent have also forced many previous external Afro-pessimists to have a rethink about the continent, some with the view to devising strategies of hijacking this success for their own advantage. This chapter looks at how the world is engaging Africa. To capture as much as possible of the issues involved here, this chapter adopts a somewhat peculiar approach. Issues are measured through two angles: the responses and attitudes of the “Traditional” western Powers, especially countries in Western Europe and the United States; and the reactions of emerging economic powers, mainly the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Although examples are drawn from across the continent, the discussion on the relationship between BRIC and Africa concentrates mainly on Nigeria, with an additional discussion on China in its relations with Zimbabwe. These choices in both cases are not random. The choice of Nigeria to discuss the relationship with the entire BRIC is based mainly on the country’s position as the continent’s most populous country and currently its biggest economy – characteristics which make the country a credible barometer for measuring BRIC’s reactions to the increasing importance of the continent. Also, and possibly as a consequence of the first, Nigeria exhibits most of the features present in the changing relations with Africa. The choice of Zimbabwe in the discussion of China’s specific relationship with Africa has been predicated by the need to recognise the importance of China as a major emerging actor in Africa and to show how China is responding to African countries that have clearly exhibited disagreements with the traditional western powers and also one with whom China has developed a relationship from the period before independence till date. The central argument of the chapter is that main external actors from both ideological 159and geographical divides now look at Africa differently and more positively, even if there are strong needs for caution about the fears of another round of external exploitation of Africa and its people.
