Africa, African-Americans, and the avuncular Sam

This essay investigates U.S. policy toward Africa and highlights the role that African Americans have played in influencing this policy. It is inspired by the need for an urgent dialogue between Africans and African Americans on U.S. policy toward the continent. It begins by briefly assessing the ignominious roots of Africa's relationship with America and pan-Africanist efforts to liberate Africa from alien rule. It then analyzes the destructive effects on Africa of U.S. policies during the era of the Cold War. It criticizes the pernicious effects of stereotypical and simplistic coverage of Africa in the American media, and assesses U.S. policy toward Africa under the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. It concludes by offering some policy recommendations for a more enlightened U.S. policy toward Africa

The eagle and the springbok : essays on Nigeria and South Africa

Abstract: ‘The Nigerian eagle must soar and the South African springbok gallop in sync, if Africa is to be reborn’ (p. 249). With this sentence, Adekeye Adebajo concludes his book. In a sense this sentence also retrospectively captures the mainly prescriptive essence of The eagle and the springbok: essays on Nigeria and South Africa, a text set to become one of the most important on this relationship, billed by Adebajo to be ‘Africa’s most indispensable’..

Noblesse Oblige : the enduring legacy of Boutros Boutros-Ghal

No abstract available.https://brill.com/view/journals/gg/gg-overview.xmlhj2024Centre for the Advancement of ScholarshipNon

Regionalism and African agency : negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and SADC-Minus

This article investigates the regional dynamics of African agency in the case of negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and a group of Southern African countries, known as SADC-Minus. I argue that these negotiations were shaped by a pattern of differentiated responses to the choice set on offer under the EPAs by SADC-Minus policymakers and by a series of strategic interactions and power plays between them. I offer two contributions to an emerging literature on the role of African agency in international politics. First, I argue for a clear separation between ontological claims about the structure-agency relationship and empirical questions about the preferences, strategies and influence of African actors. Second, I suggest that in order to understand the regional dynamics of African agency it is important to pay close attention to the diversity and contingency of African preferences and to the role of both power politics and rhetorical contestation in regional political processes

The evolution of South Africa's democracy promotion in Africa : from idealism to pragmatism

Abstract: South Africa is an emerging power with fairly strong democratic institutions that were crafted during the transition from minority to majority rule twenty years ago. How has South Africa used its position and power to promote democracy in Africa? Against the backdrop of debates on democracy promotion by emerging powers, this article probes attempts by successive post-apartheid governments to promote democracy in Africa. We argue that although democracy promotion featured prominently in South Africa’s policy toward Africa in the immediate post-apartheid period under Nelson Mandela, the administrations of Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma faltered in advancing democratic norms. This is largely because South Africa has confronted pressures to maximize pragmatic national interests, which have compromised a democratic ethos in a continental environment where these values have yet to find steady footing