IRL233 – Politics and International Relations in Africa
This course considers Africa both as an ‘idea’ and as a continent. It is because the former–the ‘image’ of Africa–was created by European colonialism, that the latter–the geographical space we call Africa–has struggled to find its place within the international system and the disciplines of political science and international relations (IR).
On the one hand, these disciplines have regarded African states as tribal, deviant, and even pathological in comparison to the ‘ideal’ of the Western nation-state. On the other hand, Africa is increasingly recognized as a land of challenges as well as opportunities: from transnational crime to environmental protection, from migration to economic development, from natural resources to security, what we commonly refer to as ‘Africa’–in fact, a problematic designation that belies the diversity of this vast continent–can no longer be ignored.
Together with technological changes and the so-called ‘death of distance’, the rise of China has accelerated this process of recognition both of the African continent as a vital player in IR, and of African states (and their economies) as entities bestowed with individual agency.
This course provides an overview of these two interrelated processes, namely, the formation of the ‘idea’ of Africa by European colonizers, and the recognition that the continent has become a key player both regionally and internationally. As it is only recently that African states have become sovereign political entities, so the African continent has entered the global political arena comparatively tardy–and not as neutral object of study.
This course has three aims. The first is to familiarize students with some of the key political and historical developments that led to the formation both of an ‘idea’ of Africa by Europeans, and of a geographical entity bearing its name. This is an important because colonialism is one of the unifying factors that contributed to bring together this strikingly diverse continent, both in terms of a shared history of oppression and in the formation of an African ‘consciousness’ or identity.
The second aim of this course is to highlight the contribution that Africa can give to IR theory. Long dominated by Western (especially British and American) social scientists, the discipline of IR is finally recognizing that both the ‘concept’ and the continent of Africa–far from lying at the ‘periphery’ of IR–can contribute to our understanding of domestic and international processes, particularly in an age of declining (USA) and rising (China) powers. Lastly, the third aim of this course is to highlight how individual African states are developing a sense of agency as well as distinctive identities that question the existence of a pan-African foreign policy.