The New Scramble for Africa E-Book

Padraig R. Carmody

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 463

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Once marginalized in the world economy, the past decade has seen Africa emerge as a major global supplier of crucial raw materials like oil, uranium and coltan. With its share of world trade and investment now rising and the availability of natural resources falling, the continent finds itself at the centre of a battle to gain access to and control of its valuable natural assets. China's role in Africa has loomed particularly large in recent years, but there is now a new scramble taking place involving a wider range of established and emerging economic powers from the EU and US to Japan, Brazil and Russia.

This book explores the nature of resource and market competition in Africa and the strategies adopted by the different actors involved - be they world powers or small companies. Focusing on key commodities, the book examines the dynamics of the new scramble and the impact of current investment and competition on people, the environment, and political and economic development on the continent. New theories, particularly the idea of Chinese "flexigemony" are developed to explain how resources and markets are accessed. While resource access is often the primary motive for increased engagement, the continent also offers a growing market for low-priced goods from Asia and Asian-owned companies. Individual chapters explore old and new economic power interests in Africa; oil, minerals, timber, biofuels, food and fisheries; and the nature and impacts of Asian investment in manufacturing and other sectors.

The New Scramble for Africa will be essential reading for students of African studies, international relations, and resource politics as well as anyone interested in current affairs.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

FIGURES AND TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

RESOURCE MAP OF AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

1 THE NEW SCRAMBLE, GEOGRAPHY AND DEVELOPMENT

Geography and Development in Africa

The Inequality of Geography or the Geography of Inequality?

Making Distance: The Construction of Markets and Commodity ‘Chains’

The Political Economy of Inequality, Poverty and Conflict in Africa

2 OLD ECONOMIC POWER INTERESTS AND STRATEGIES IN AFRICA

Britain in Africa: Markets, Development and Security

French Interests: From Neo-colonialism to Rapprochement with the US

European Union Interests in Africa: Globalizing Markets

United States Interests in Africa: Oil (and) Security

Japanese Interests in Africa

South African Interests in Africa: Minerals, Mobiles and Marketizing Governance

3 CHINESE INTERESTS AND STRATEGIES IN AFRICA [WITH IAN TAYLOR]

‘Going Out’ with China: The Impacts of Dual Economic Reform on Sino-African Relations

China’s Resource Diplomacy in Africa

‘Soft Power’ or Flexigemony? Strategy for an Emerging Presence in Africa

China and Sudan: Obstruction, But Also Evolution

A Change in China’s Position?

Chinese Flexipower and its Limits: The Zambian Case

The Evolution of China’s Africa Policy

Reflections on China’s African Resource Diplomacy

4 OTHER NEW ECONOMIC POWER INTERESTS AND RELATIONS WITH AFRICA

Indian Interests and Strategies

Indian Trade and Investment in Africa

Resource Access

Other Economic Sectors and Legacy of Migration

Indian Overseas Assistance to Africa

The Geopolitics of Indian Economic Engagement

Brazil’s Relations with and Interest in Africa

Other Emerging Power Interests

5 DRIVING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: WEST AFRICAN AND SAHELIAN OIL

The Scale of Oil Company Investment in Africa and Impacts

Oiling the Wheels of Repression: Equatorial Guinea

Corruption, Inequality, Wealth and Poverty: The Impacts of Oil in Angola

6 POWERING AND CONNECTING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY THROUGH CONFLICT: URANIUM AND COLTAN

Uranium and (In)Security in the Sahel

Oil, (In)Security and Uranium in Niger: A Volatile Mix

Conflict and Coltan in the Congo: War in the Great Lakes

7 FURNISHING AND FEEDING THE WORLD? TIMBER, BIOFUELS, PLANTS, FOOD AND FISHERIES

Fuelling Dispossession? Biofuels

Water is Life? Food, Flowers and Fuel for Whom?

The Timber Trade

The African Fish Rush: Protein and Piracy

Biopiracy

8 THE ASIAN SCRAMBLE FOR INVESTMENT AND MARKETS: EVIDENCE AND IMPACTS IN ZAMBIA [WITH GODFREY HAMPWAYE]

Chinese and Indian Investment in Zambia: History and Context

Nature and Impacts of Asian-Owned Businesses

Developmental Impacts of Asian Investment

The Impacts of the Global Recession on Sino-Zambian Relations

9 CAN AFRICANS UNSCRAMBLE THE CONTINENT?

Scrambling to Conflict or Democracy? The United States and China in Africa

Chinese Power and African Political Economy

Power, Development and Economic Structure

Conclusion: The New Scramble in Perspective

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Index

Copyright © Pádraig Carmody 2011

The right of Pádraig Carmody to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2011 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

350 Main Street

Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4784-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4785-2(pb)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3753-2(Single-user ebook)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-3752-5(Multi-user ebook)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.politybooks.com

FIGURES AND TABLES

Figures

Resource map of Africa

1.1 Imports from Africa in millions of US dollars

3.1 Exports to Africa in millions of US dollars

Tables

8.1 Structure of Asian investment in selected companies in Zambia

8.2 Approved Indian and Chinese investment in Zambia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Several people have helped in writing this book. First and foremost I would like to express my gratitude to Ian Taylor and Godfrey Hampwaye for allowing me to draw substantially for this book on two articles I co-authored with them (P. Carmody and I. Taylor (2010), ‘Flexigemony and force in China’s resource diplomacy in Africa’, Geopolitics, 15, 3, 1–20, and Carmody and G. Hampwaye (2010), ‘Inclusive or exclusive globalization: the impacts of Asian-owned businesses in Zambia’, Africa Today, 56, 3, 84–102). Thanks also to Sarah Smiley and Francis Koti and the referees and editors of Africa Today and Geopolitics for their comments on those papers. Thanks also are due to Emma Mawdsley and Gerard McCann for their comments on part of chapter 4 which appears in their edited book India in Africa: Changing Geographies of Power (Oxford: Fahamu Books, 2010), and for their permission to reproduce material from that chapter here. Thanks are due to Francis Owusu, Howard Stein, Eric Sheppard and Peter Kragelund for comments on sections, and the referees for Polity Press for their incisive comments on the proposal and manuscript, which have substantially improved it. I would also like to thank Louise Knight who suggested this project and David Winters and Leigh Mueller at Polity for helping to bring it to fruition. Thanks also to Sheila McMorrow for producing the map. The support of the National Geographic Waitt Grant Program and the United States National Science Foundation (award number 925151 with Jim Murphy) to undertake fieldwork in Zambia and South Africa is gratefully acknowledged.

ABBREVIATIONS

ABC

Abstain, Be Faithful, Condomize

ACOTA

African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Programme

ACP

African, Caribbean and Pacific (countries)

AFRICOM

African Command of the United States Department of Defense

AGOA

African Growth and Opportunity Act

AIDS

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

AU

African Union

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation

BEE

Black Economic Empowerment

BP

(formerly) British Petroleum

BRICs

Brazil, Russia, India, China

CAR

Central African Republic

CCS

Centre for Chinese Studies

CFA

Communauté Financière Africaine

coltan

colombite-tantalite

CIF

China International Fund

CNN

Cable News Network

CNPC

China National Petroleum Company

CVRD

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce

DFID

Department for International Development (United Kingdom)

DRC

Democratic Republic of Congo

EASSY

East African Submarine Cable

ECOWAS

Economic Community of West African States

EEZ

Exclusive Economic Zone

E-IMET

Enhanced International Military and Education and Training Programme

EPA

Economic Partnership Agreement

EU

European Union

EXIM

Export–Import

FDI

Foreign Direct Investment

FOCAC

Forum on China–Africa Cooperation

FPSOs

floating production, storage and offloading vessels

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GEDA

Gauteng Economic Development Agency

GPN

global production network

HIV

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

IBSA

India, Brazil, South Africa

ICC

International Criminal Court

IMF

International Monetary Fund

ITEC

Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation

KCM

Koncola Copper Mine

MFEZ

Multi-facility Economic Zone

MNC

Multinational Corporation

MTN

Mobile Telecommunications Networks

NEPAD

New Partnership for African Development

NGOs

Non-Governmental Organizations

NOCs

National Oil Companies

OECD

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

ONGC

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (India)

OPEC

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

PDVSA

Petróleos de Venezuela, SA

PEPFAR

President’s Emergency Programme for AIDS Relief

Petrobras

Petróleo Brasileiro SA

PETRONAS

Petroliam Nasional Berhad

PRSP

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

RCD

Rally for Congolese Democracy

RoZ

Republic of Zambia

RPF

Rwandan Patriotic Front

SADC

Southern African Development Community

SAP

Structural Adjustment Programme

SAT-3/WASC

South Atlantic 3 / West Africa Submarine Fibre Optic Cable

SEZ

Special Economic Zone

SOEs

state-owned enterprises

SSA

Sub-Saharan Africa

TEAM-9

Techno-Economic Approach to Africa–India Movement

TNCs

Transnational Corporations

UN

United Nations

UNCTAD

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

VVIP

Very, Very Important Person

WTO

World Trade Organization

ZDA

Zambian Development Agency

RESOURCE MAP OF AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

Africa is ‘in play’ as never before. (Raine 2009, p. 9, quoting Final Report of the Africa–China–US Trilateral Dialogue)

There is now no denying that Africa has become a sought-after continent in a short space of time, thanks to its strategic importance. Today, Africa really matters. (European Union Commissioner for Development, quoted in Holden 2009, p. 128)

Africa has long been held up as a region which has been by-passed by globalization. However, something interesting is afoot in Africa and its relations with the rest of the world. There is now massively increased interest, and investment, in the continent from major world powers. The role of Asian powers in particular is growing rapidly. In some parts of Africa, children now assume that foreigners with light skin are Chinese, rather than European or American (Michel, Beuret and Woods 2009).

Why has Africa suddenly become strategically important for ‘great’ and emerging powers? Why are Chinese companies now investing heavily on the continent and why do we see on the news weekly about Somali pirates kidnapping sailors or hijacking ships for ransom, and are these issues related? The argument of this book is that they are; that these are features of the deepening process of globalization which has unleashed a new scramble for African resources and, to a lesser extent, markets. This is reconfiguring Africa’s economic geography and development, but also reinforcing previous patterns of economy and politics. This book explores the reasons behind the new scramble and its nature and impacts.

African development is defined by the ‘paradox of plenty’: that is, that it is a very resource-rich continent, but economically poor. Africa is thought to contain 42 per cent of the world’s bauxite, 38 per cent of its uranium, 42 per cent of its gold, 73 per cent of its platinum, 88 per cent of its diamonds and around 10 per cent of its oil (Bush 2007). Nonetheless, around half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) live on the equivalent of less than US$1.25 a day (World Bank 2010), and despite the fact that Guinea in West Africa contains almost half of the world’s bauxite, the raw material for aluminium, its government’s budget is only 0.0005 per cent of that of its former colonial master, France (Philips 2007). This is an outcome of the way in which Africa has been integrated into the global economy, which is heavily influenced by its colonial history.

The first scramble for Africa amongst the major European powers was set off in the late nineteenth century by a variety of factors, including English, German and French military rivalry, the need to open new sources of cotton supply as a result of the American civil war, and new markets as a result of the European economic depression (Kennedy 1987; Pakenham 1991; Mamdani 1996). During that era King Leopold II of the Belgians objectified Africa as a ‘magnificent cake’ which would yield up resources and wealth for Europe.