Review Essay: "The new scramble for Africa; Globalization in Africa: recolonization or renaissance?"

Marton, Péter (2014) Review Essay: "The new scramble for Africa; Globalization in Africa: recolonization or renaissance?". Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 32 (1). pp. 137-140. ISSN 0258-9001

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Abstract

Two recent books by Pádraig Carmody (2010, 2011) provide the occasion and the means, in the form of rich empirical detail, to re-examine what is too often the ‘null-hypothesis’ in mainstream thinking about the effects of globalisation through the expansion of trade and foreign investment flows: namely, that said exchange of goods and capital is by default mutually beneficial for the parties involved in the long run and is able to bring about a convergence of welfare for all of humanity. The later book is a particularly powerful study in its overview of various countries’ involvement in Africa as well as subsectoral relations with the continent in relation to the oil, coltan, biofuels and (many) other trades. The book is very conveniently organised in what may be referred to as country and sector chapters. Scholars and students of Africa alike may use this book as a fundamental and comprehensive assessment of where we currently stand, which is very far from the notion of harmony suggested by mainstream assumptions.

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