New Actors and Democratic Governance in a Rising Africa

This paper broadly examines the continued nuancing of the practice of democracy in Africa with a focus on how Africa’s democratic governance is increasingly getting influenced by new actors in the international system, who are driving the formation of a new world order that challenges the current unipolar liberal global order. The paper traces the origins and rationale of the democratization project in Africa and uses this as a basis to delve into some issues around which many African countries have increasingly been engaging with new actors. These broad aspects include: Africa’s international relations, peace and security; civil liberties as well as investments and trade. This paper contends that some states in Africa are charting middle grounds that increasingly, specifically align with their national/elite interests, and broadly, is in tune with the consolidating discourse on Africa Rising.

All that glitters is not white gold

For the majority of sub-Saharan Africa’s young population, the ‘Africa Rising’ narrative has translated as growth without jobs. While it may seem axiomatic that engagement with global markets forms part of the remedy to this malaise, it is far from evident that previous development pathways remain open. This chapter discusses the example of the cotton, textiles, and apparel sectors—sectors which have played a major role in the economic history of each of BRICS countries—currently seen as a conduit through which sub-Saharan Africa can generate labour-intensive growth. The sector is symptomatic of the continent’s development profile: low production yields; small manufacturing presence; persistence of poverty. The chapter endeavours to take a holistic approach combining global with local; supply side with demand side; technical with institutional; and contemporary with historical—and analyses how these drivers interact with dynamic loci of power that frame shifting rules of the game that govern sub-Saharan Africa countries’ entrance to the arena.