Africa and China: Salvation or Disaster for Africa?”

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INTRODUCTION:

China’s involvement in Africa is by no means a new phenomenon. This relationship, however, has evolved over time from 1955 at the Asia-African Conference referred to as the “Bandung Conference”. At the time of this conference though, this association was characterised by both Africa & China’s position of non-alignment, and of being anti-America, anti-hegemonic and anti-imperialist. In the late 1990’s, China announced its "going global" policy, which includes large firms expanding their exploration into investment opportunities in Africa, has led to a new economically focused trend. China has since been cementing this relationship through a number of interventions such as aid and assistance in infrastructure building, all measures that have kept this relationship renewed.

WHY AFRICA IS LOOKING TO CHINA

The re-establishment of links with China was of paramount importance for Africa. A number of factors informed Africa’s ‘Look East’ trend as follows:

1. China’s introduction of a foreign policy based on non-interference in national sovereignty and on non-alignment drew great support from the developing world, including Africa because of its mutual resistance of Western control.

2. Years of colonisation and civil wars have either devastated much of Africa’s infrastructure or hindered the development of infrastructure. Poverty and hunger followed as natural consequences, which meant that mostly, Africa did not have the required resources and technical know-how to extract natural resources and process these for value addition. This is the gap that developed nations and China are now exploiting by bringing much needed development aid to the continent in exchange for natural resources.

WHY CHINA IS LOOKING TO AFRICA

China and Africa’s engagement is not purely based on their mutual political views against the west but rather based on Chinese demand for more raw materials to sustain...