Conclusion: What Futures for African International Relations?

Abstract

For the first time in more than two decades, Africa has begun to find its rightful place in the world, attracting the attention of the traditional Western powers as well as the leadership of emerging ‘Southern powers’ such as China, India, Brazil and South Korea. The pervasive ‘Afro-pessimism’ of the 1980s and 1990s has given way to an image of Africa that is socially and economically vibrant, politically more open, with an assertive civil society, an entrepreneurial indigenous private sector and an aggressive free press playing a central role in articulating an independent and authentic African development agenda.