NYASA VIRTUAL WORKSHOP
SATURDAY, 22 MAY 2021
CALL FOR PAPERS
Old Wine in New Bottles: The New Scramble for Africa
Late 19th century hyper-nationalism, economic downturn, and global competition to open up new markets for European goods, gave rise to the scramble for Africa. A legacy of this scramble was the 1885 partition of Africa and the inauguration of colonial rule. This project of exploitation in Africa lasted for more than seven decades before it began to collapse. Between January and December of 1960, seventeen African nations became “politically independent” from their European overlords. Sixty years later, the promises of independence have remained a mirage for many on the continent, and the image of Africa for many in the West evokes corruption, disease, war, and poverty or what Dambisa Moyo has described as the “Four Horsemen of Africa’s Apocalypse.”
The arrangements that led to the independence of African countries granted them political independence without economic independence as the economies remained reliant on the extractive systems that were put in place by the European powers. Leaders of these new states that Frederick Cooper calls “Gatekeeper States” relied primarily on excise taxes and foreign loans/ aid to manage their countries, a situation that makes them less responsive to their people but more to the Euro-American powers that provide the capital.
The socio-political ramifications of the heightened interests of European, American, and Asian powers in Africa today, consolidate those of the 19th century “scramble” with colonialisms followed by post-colonial, neo-colonialism. These powers are rushing to “invest” in Africa and to establish commercial and strategic ties. This new surge has been fueled by China’s $300 billion-plus investments in Africa. Since the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing where the Communist Party’s leader Xi Jinping announced a $60 billion investment package for Africa, other European powers have joined the scramble: Russia-Africa Summit (October 2019), Germany’s Compact with Africa (November 2019), and Britain-Africa Investment Summit (January 2020). Unlike in the 1880s and 1890s, however, the US is present as a major player through its neoliberal and neocolonial multilateral financial institutions such as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
We are interested in contributions that discuss, challenge, and/or interrogate questions relating to China’s activities in Africa as well as policies of Euro-American powers and their multilateral financial or non-governmental organizations. Some possible questions are:
- Does Africa’s colonial past shape the new scramble?
- What is the nature of China’s “investments” in Africa? Is China a new imperialist power on the continent?
- Brexit and colonial nostalgia. What is the role of the Commonwealth of Nations?
- Russia’s return to Africa, what does this mean for Africa and the West
- What is Germany’s Compact with Africa?
- Is France’s economic ties with its former colonies a continuation of colonial rule?
- Is there a difference between the scramble for Africa in the 1880s and the new scramble?
- In the “Old Scramble,” Ethiopia and Afrikaner Republics were participants. Will any African States be actors or acted upon in the present scramble?
- What is the impact of the new scramble on African states, and how are they responding?
- Are foreign Non-Governmental Organizations operating in Africa neo-imperialists? How might we understand changes (if any) to NGOs working in Africa (such as MSF / Doctors without Borders) in these larger historical and geopolitical and economic contexts?
- How are the sciences and health care systems in Africa responding to colonial legacies, to the new scramble, and/or to “the turn toward Asia”?
- Are IMF/World Bank activities in Africa neo-colonial?
- How are global trade policies affecting Africa’s development?
- How African is the African Development Bank?
- How are Africans responding to colonial legacies, to the new scramble, and/or to “the turn toward Asia” including political, economic, cultural, environmental, and memorial movements?
- How are African arts (visual, musical, literary) responding to colonial legacies, to the new scramble, and/or to “the turn toward Asia”?
CONTRIBUTIONS OUTSIDE THESE THEMES ARE ALSO WELCOME
Please send an abstract of 350 to 500 words and a brief CV (not more than two pages) to Dr. Ndubueze Mbah or Dr. Bekeh Ukelina by April 30, 2021. We will notify you by May 10, 2021, if your proposal is accepted.