Place Images and Nation Branding in the African Context: Challenges, Opportunities, and Questions for Policy and Research

This paper examines nation branding in Africa, based on a comprehensive and integrative review of past research. This considers, among others, current place images on the continent in the context of traditional views, which see it as a poor and underdeveloped region, versus the newer perspective of an evolving “African Renaissance”; efforts at systematic place marketing in sectors including tourism, foreign investment, natural resource and manufactured exports, and higher education; the absence of intra-African research on place image effects; reverse ethnocentrism, or the generally positive view of African consumers about products originating from more developed countries outside the continent; and the “continent effect”, which may affect individual countries' efforts to establish their own identities. Information and insights from this review are synthesized to highlight implications and potential directions for future research and policy, on both specific thematic areas as well as overarching research topics that affect all aspects of African images and nation branding