Africa beyond the aid recipient

For any rising power in the 21st century, partnering with Africa has become an imperative.

- DAMMU RAVI

It is, after all, a continent endowed with vast natural resources such as oil, gas, critical minerals, agricultural lands with abundant fresh water and a market size of 1.5 billion people.

India's enduring partnership with Africa has evolved over time, beyond the sentimentality of the freedom struggle and liberation. The multidimensionality of the partnership has been elucidated in the edited book by Ruchita Beri, a consultant with the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, with a foreword by Ambassador Sujan R Chinoy and scholarly contributions from Sanusha Naidu, Rajeesh Kumar, Aparajita Biswas, Yeshi Choedon, and Hussein Solomon, among others.

All the essays focus attention on two compelling trends—development for Africa and development by Africa. The latter assumes greater significance for contemporary Africa as it seeks to carve out its own destiny, leveraged through industrialisation and trade liberalisation.

“Agenda 2063,” the African Union’s strategic framework for the continent’s socioeconomic transformation, outlining a 50-year vision for development (it was adopted in 2013), advocates industrialisation. The African Continental Free Trade Area seeks value-added manufacturing in the continent. Indian businesses would need to take note of this aspirational Africa that has moved beyond its traditional aid recipient tag.