Africa: Beyond the “new” dependency: A political economy

Abstract

Scholars seek to articulate plausible explanations for the current world situation where the vast majority of
countries are underdeveloped while a relatively small portion- the Western countries, are rich. From the classical
Marxist analysis emerged the neo-Marxists, encompassing the Third World scholars theorizing on the persistence of
this division and development alternatives. Their central argument is „development of underdevelopment‟ which
forms the main strand of the dependency theory. However with the emergence of Brazil and China as global giants
and the pervasive economic in-roads to Africa, a shift on Africa‟s dependency on the global north seems inevitable.
Is a “new dependency” emerging or is Africa developing and catching up to rise beyond a new dependency? This
paper seeks to engage in the ongoing perennial debate on Africa‟s dependency. It presents a critique of the
dependency theory and argues that an inevitable economic growth of China will not only upturn the regional
presence of America in Africa but will create a “new” relationship through Chinese soft technology-the new media
and globalization. However the crux of the argument is whether this will in turn develop Africa or foster a new
dependency within the global South. To interrogate these assumptions, this paper adopts international political
economy (IPE) approach as a methodology to examine China/Africa relationship using post colonial tools of
analysis.