Introduction: Africa and the World

Abstract

The fact that Africa hosts a significant proportion of total global natural and human resource deposits has remained incontrovertible across time and space. However, the inability of the continent to leverage such endowments in enabling the path of sustainable human and physical development at home and in its engagements with the world has continued to be disturbing. This introductory chapter explores various aspects of African realities (e.g., demographic dividend, health sector, educational sector, research and development and so forth) and how such aspects have been employed or helpful in the course of intra-continental transformational engagements and in the process of partnering with the rest of the world bilaterally and multilaterally. It also takes a cursory look at the drivers and the directions of Africa’s developmental drive as a large developing continent within the frameworks of the ever-dynamic global space, putting into perspective the inherent challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century, and thereafter.