Africa and China

Africa’s human and other natural resources continue to be the object of systematic penetration and extraction from external actors. The Chinese penetration into Africa has only added to the new scramble for African resources. ¹ Adherents of globalization need to consider the African perspective on the devastating impact of the slave trade and colonialism to understand ‘how Europe underdeveloped Africa’, to paraphrase a pioneering study. ² Karl Marx had observed that ‘the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production’. ³ According to Marx, ‘these idyllic proceedings are the chief moments of primitive accumulation’. ⁴