Siphamandla Zondi and Hellen Adogo, eds. Africa’s Strategic Partnerships with BRICS and Other Emerging Countries. Jacana Media, 2025. 434 pp. R410. Paperback. ISBN: 9781997448006.
Year: 2026
Type: book-review
Abstract: The book is divided into two parts: the first focuses on Africa's strategic partnerships with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries, while the second examines relationships with other emerging countries.It highlights Africa's agency in these partnerships, emphasizing the continent's economic development goals.The first part of the book examines the extent to which Africa's agency is effectively represented in its partnership with the BRICS countries, considering the historically exploitative economic practices in Africa by the global north (2, 82).The book emphasizes the unbalanced economic relationships between Africa and its intercontinental trading partners, where Africa's energy and minerals are plundered in return for humanitarian aid and increasing debt burdens (2, 152).Consequently, Africa's economic partnerships with Europe, the West, and Asia have continued to be "vertically, rather than horizontally aligned" (2).The first section of the book takes a closer look at Africa's bilateral and multilateral ties with the BRICS nations to determine whether they offer more balanced benefits rather than maintaining the old patterns of uneven trade relationships.The authors specifically identify several benefits in favor of the BRICS countries over African countries.For example, India, the world's fastestgrowing economy, requires substantial amounts of oil, gas, and other natural resources to sustain its industrial expansion, and Africa is home to five of the top thirty oil-producing countries in the world (94).India also lacks domestic oil and gas reserves; consequently, its reliance on imported oil is projected to rise above 90 percent by the year 2040 (94).Similarly, Russia, China, and South Africa depend heavily on Africa's consumer market for their industrialized products and advanced manufactured goods, raw materials, and agricultural goods, including crude oil, precious stones, iron ore, platinum, and cobalt (75, 170, 191).The authors argue that while the BRICS countries have benefited immensely from their partnership with African countries, the reverse is the case for Africa (122, 183).Africa, home to twenty-three of the world's poorest twenty-eight countries, has an underwhelming overall economic development (161).However, its essential raw materials and human capital continue to be exported to build the economies of other continents (153, 168).There appears to be a gradual shift from the onesided relationship with studies showing an increase in the export of industrialized goods and the stabilization of raw materials exported out of the
Source: African Studies Review
Author: Rilwan Funsho Mahmoud
Institution: University of Ilorin
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7127304647
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: