A new scramble for Africa? Imperialism, investment and development, edited by Roger Southall and Henning Melber, Durban, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009, xxvii + 440 pp., R245.00 / £29.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1869141 714
This interesting volume is a collection of studies of the impact on Africa of the recent global boom in demand for raw materials, particularly (but not only) petroleum and minerals. Its sixteen chapters address concerns similar to those discussed in ROAPE's recent special issue on mining in Africa (Vol. 35, no. 117). It examines whether and how the increased commercial value of Africa's natural wealth can avoid becoming a ‘resource curse’ and instead be effectively harnessed for sustainable development. As its title indicates, the book also asks whether revived external interest in Africa should be understood as a form of neo-colonialism, or as an opportunity that could work to Africa's benefit.
The quality of this collection of papers, first written in 2007, varies significantly, as does the contributors' adhesion to the central themes. Some chapters provide useful data on patterns of investment and activity in particular sectors, but little original analysis. Others suffer from rather normative assumptions about, for example the ‘progressive’ or ‘reactionary’ nature of Western and non-Western investors (the chapter on India's engagements in Africa is particularly weak in this respect). Some chapters are broad surveys (for example, Margaret Lee's exemplary study of the European Partnership Agreements [EPAs]) whilst others are useful case studies based on in-country research, something often lacking in studies of, for example, ‘China in Africa’: these include Cyril Obi on oil in west Africa; Massey and May on oil and conflict in Chad; and in particular Jana Hönke's excellent study of mining companies on both sides of the Zambia-Congo Copperbelt – her historically rooted analysis is unfortunately the exception rather than the norm.
The lag between writing and publication also means that some of the assumptions about the ‘boom’ are already out of date. Although the global recession is addressed by the editors in their introduction and conclusion, it is not reflected in most contributions. The claim by Daniel and Bhengu that ‘Finance houses tend to be cautious and conservative … they are after all playing with other people's money’ (p. 157) is not one contemporary observers of the global banking system will recognise. Nevertheless, the uneven impact of the ‘bust’ and its unpredictable impact on Africa means that much of the analysis retains relevance: African oil remains a valuable prize, whilst the value of some minerals, for example copper, has recently recovered a substantial part of the losses of the last two years.
The book provides analysis of two important questions that can usefully be built on in further research. First, the question of whether the new scramble constitutes a form of imperialism naturally depends on how imperialism is defined. Commercial investment by Western and non-Western companies has often led to increased political interference in the investment destinations by those companies' home governments. This is of course not new, but evidence presented here suggests that the recent upsurge of foreign direct investment in Africa, and its increasingly diverse origins, has led to increased political engagement and/or interference. The case for the ‘militarisation’ of this contemporary scramble, in the chapter by Rupiya and Southall, is however less convincing: the ineffectiveness of the US African Command (AFRICOM) initiative can be judged in part by the refusal of African states to host it. Obama's presidency, beginning after this book went to press, so far suggests a more subtle projection of US power in Africa. The overall impression given by this collection is that the new diversity (and, in comparison to their late nineteenth-century counterparts, uncoordinated approach) of countries and companies scrambling for African resources means that the imposition of any singular ‘imperial’ project is impossible. The European Union's inability to uniformly impose the regional structures envisaged in the EPA strategy is one example of this. Related to this, secondly, is the question of the capacity and willingness of African states to ensure that the benefits of such investments accrue to them and, potentially, to their peoples. Daniel and Bhengu reject the ‘new imperialism’ notion on the basis that the massive revenues currently accruing to some African states do not resemble the ‘looting’ of earlier imperialism. But Europe did not simply loot Africa, as in the atypical example of King Leopold's Congo Free State. It usually depended on the cooperation of African elites, whether chiefly authorities or a ‘Westernised’ intelligentsia, to whom benefits accrued as the junior partners of European exploitation. Various characterisations of ‘comprador’ bourgeoisies have of course long informed analyses of colonialism and neo-colonialism, helping to explain the failure of African states to effectively respond to the needs and aspirations of their peoples. Much of the evidence presented here suggests continuity rather than change in this respect: for example, the accrual of vast wealth to the Angolan political elite may enable a more effective playing off of one investor against another, but there is little evidence of a meaningful trickle down of that wealth to wider society. Southall and Melber's conclusion endorses a revival of the ‘developmental state’ funded by the new revenues, but nonetheless recognises that the potential of such states to improve on their initial post-colonial manifestation relies on the extent of their popular accountability. Indeed, state models are perhaps of less relevance than the question of how democratic accountability can be effectively achieved and then deepened, so that the benefits of any future boom flow into and not out of African societies.