New Scramble for Africa?: Imperialism, Investment and Development »

Dramatically escalating prices of raw materials, driven by rapid industrialisation in China and other countries of the global South as well as by looming world shortages, had for the few years preceding the financial meltdown and global recession of 2009 promoted a new scramble for Africa's natural resources. It signalled a brisk turnaround in prospects for what The Economist had dubbed the 'hopeless continent' as recently as 1999. However, while average growth rates across the continent have increased, the implications for Africa's development were and remain at best dubious.

In this timely volume, the new scramble for Africa is placed in the historical context of imperialism and the contributors show important continuities with the original nineteenth-century scramble. While the previous scramble was between major European powers, today the continent provides a battleground for competition between the United States, the European Union, China and other emerging players such as India and South Africa.

This book raises significant general questions relating to the nature of emerging global competition between the United States and China; the centrality of the struggle for oil and minerals and resulting militarisation; the international battle to capture Africa's markets; the marginalisation of African capitalism; and the ambiguous benefits that investment and production by multinational companies bring to African communities. Arguing that exploitation of the continent by comprador African elites remains central, the book concludes by asking relevant questions about the prospects for development in Africa.

Preface vii

Abbreviations xi

Introduction: A New Scramble for Africa? Henning Melber Roger Southall xix

1 Scrambling for Africa? Continuities and Discontinuities with Formal Imperialism Roger Southall 1

2 Global Capitalism and the Neo-Liberalisation of Africa Vishwas Satgar 35

3 Global Trade Regimes and Multi-Polarity: The US and Chinese Scramble for African Resources and Markets Henning Melber 56

4 Trade Relations between the European Union and Sub-Saharan Africa under the Cotonou Agreement: Repartitioning and Economically Recolonising the Continent? Margaret C. Lee 83

5 India's Engagements in Africa: Self-Interest or Mutual Partnership? Sanusha Naidu 111

6 South Africa in Africa: Still a Formidable Player John Daniel Nompumelelo Bhengu 139

7 The Militarisation of the New Scramble in Africa Martin Rupiya Roger Southall 165

8 Scrambling for Oil in West Africa? Cyril I. Obi 190

9 Oil and War in Chad Simon Massey Roy May 213

10 The Mining Boom in Sub-Saharan Africa: Continuity, Change and Policy Implications Wilson Prichard 240

11 Extractive Orders: Transnational Mining Companies in the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries in the Central African Copperbelt Jana Hönke 274

12 The Scramble for Genetic Resources Carol Thompson 299

13 The European Union and the International Scramble for African Fish André Standing 324

14 The Scramble for Africa and the Marginalisation of African Capitalism Roger Southall Alex Comninos 357

15 International Competition, Public Contracts and Foreign Business Bribery in Africa: The Case of Uganda Roger Tangri 386

16 Conclusion: Towards a Response Roger Southall Henning Melber 404

Contributors 428

Index 430