Pan-Africanism is Africa’s Third Way: The Cultural Relevance of African Political Economy

Abstract

Third Way politics has often been associated with British politics of the early second millennium whereby British politician Tony Blair articulated a “Third Way” through “New Labour.” Ecuador and Bolivia’s millennium development models have also been touted as “Third Ways” for undercutting neoliberalism for Latin America’s “Left Turn.” And for Asia, China unapologetically, albeit paradoxically, promotes a “Third Way” characterization of its development politics—“Market Socialism.” Yet for narratives that attempt to explain African international political economy, mainstream discourses maintain old paradigmatic dualisms, “anti-globalization” versus “Emerging Africa or Africa Rising” both of which represent opposite sides of the neoliberal agenda on the continent. The chapter provides a route to a Third Way for Africa. To this end, arguing in support of the relevance of pan-Africanism as it is reenvisioned by national-level business sectors in Nigeria and South Africa and their economic philosophies—Africapitalism and Ubuntu business—the chapter explores these new manifestations of pan-Africanism and evaluates their value to Africa’s contemporary engagement with the international political economy.