Should Africa be scared of the Chinese exploration?

Submitted 4 Aug 2011 11:40am

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Ade Sawyerr, one of Britain’s foremost African thinkers gives an insight to an emerging relationship between African countries and the Chinese Republic. Should Africa now look East and abandon the long standing albeit rocky relationship with the West? Ade informs.

David Cameron’s speech in Nigeria included a warning for Africa to be cautious in their dealing with China and a suggestion that the authoritarian capitalism model adopted by the Chinese was not sustainable and will not help in the development of Africa.

But this warning needs to be examined against the backdrop why it has taken 50-60 years for the West to be rekindling their interest in Africa as the preferred trading partner as it was at the time of independence. We should ask whether this warning has anything to do with the fact that the Chinese are filling the space that the West abandoned because they were not interested in our holistic economic development but only in access to our goods.