A new scramble for Africa?

About this book

In this timely volume, the new scramble for Africa is placed in the historical context of imperialism and the contributors show important continuities with the original nineteenth-century scramble. While the previous scramble was between major European powers, today the continent provides a battleground for competition between the United States, the European Union, China and other emerging players such as India and South Africa. This book raises significant general questions relating to the nature of emerging global competition between the United States and China; the centrality of the struggle for oil and minerals and resulting militarisation; the international battle to capture Africa's markets; the marginalisation of African capitalism; and the ambiguous benefits that investment and production by multinational companies bring to African communities. Arguing that exploitation of the continent by comprador African elites remain central, the book concludes by asking relevant questions about the prospects for development in Africa.