Cobus van Staden, South African Institute of International Affairs e Chris Alden, London School of Economics and Political Science
A narrow interest in whether Beijing actively pushed for Mugabe’s fall is based on the assumption that the China-Africa relationship is an isolated phenomenon.
President of the AU Alpha Conde, European Council President Donald Tusk (L) and President of the EU Jean-Claude Juncker.
Reuters/Luc Gnago
The transformation of the EU-Africa summit series into the EU-AU summit is more than just a change of name. It reflects the increasing recognition of the AU as an international actor.
China’s presence in Africa continues to grow with its first military base in Djibouti. It wants to be a friend to Africa positioning itself as a global power while looking after its own interests.
The 28th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
GCIS
The African Union is changing the way it does business. Its new reforms, led by Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, call for fewer strategic priorities and addressing bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Growth accelerations in African countries have been short-lived. That might be about to change.
Shutterstock
The risk following recently ended economic booms in Africa is that, due to insufficient planning and excessive optimism, the windfalls were wasted. But there are signs that Africa may be changing.
Addis Ababa’s light-rail network built by China Railway Engineering Corporation has become a key transport link for city residents.
EPA/Solan Kolli
In Ethiopia, the US pushes the diffusion of individual freedoms and China jockeys for collective economic betterment. Both the US and China could lose out if chaos spreads in the Horn of Africa.
A French soldier involved in Operation Barkhane to keep Al Qaeda at bay in the desert of northern Mali patrols a street in Timbuktu.
Joe Penney/Reuters
The US and France have bolstered military strength across vast areas of Africa in response to Islamist threat. But the interest is also driven by Western strategic calculations
Americans’ ignorance about Africa persists despite efforts by presidents Kennedy and Obama to forge stronger ties with the continent.
Jason Reed/Reuters
The time has come for developed nations to eliminate the large pockets of ignorance which exist in their societies about Africa and other peoples. Globalisation demands that people think differently.
Tourists visit the Great Wall of China.The problem of racism in the country is bigger than that of Afrophobia.
Reuters/Stringer
Between 1995 and 2013 the US provided about US$98 billion in aid to sub-Saharan Africa. But the country’s economic and political reach is slowly declining.
China’s President Xi Jinping on a state visit to Zimbabwe.
REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
The increasing importance of non-traditional donors such as China has meant that the economic and political stronghold of Western countries in sub-Sahara Africa has gradually ebbed.
The reality of Chinese investment in African agriculture has yet to catch up with the hype.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Agriculture featured prominently at the 2015 Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, but the reality has yet to catch up to the hype about China’s involvement in African agriculture.
The Chinese and South African governments, led by presidents Xi Jingping and Jacob Zuma, cement ties during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Reuters/Wang Zhao/Pool
When it comes to the global political economy, no one “talks left and walks right” more than China, a dominant player in global capitalism. South African and Chinese aspirations have much in common.
An example of the restoration of a degraded mountain slope in China. The country has numerous initiatives underway to battle climate change.
Anthony Mills