ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 introduces the African region in relation to China and the BRI. It provides an overview of the current field of China-Africa studies and identifies common narratives that have enveloped these relations. The chapter highlights one of the field’s remaining lacunas, namely the question of African agency, looking at reasons why the issue of agency has been neglected in the literature and how it is treated in the few instances where it is analysed. The chapter also explores Africa’s centrality to the BRI against the backdrop of intensifying China-Africa relations. It makes a case for Africa as a fundamental cornerstone of understanding the BRI in both its practical and more ideological facets.
