Book Review: Other Areas: The New Scramble for Africa

Abstract

This work is about the new scramble for African resources and, to some extent, African markets by what Carmody refers to as the old economic powers comprising Britain, France, the European Union, the United States of America, Japan and South Africa, and the so-called new powers comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). Carmody emphasises the importance of the role of African leadership in determining the future of Africa in the new scramble, which he also refers to as 'a scramble in Africa' to distinguish it from the scramble for Africa of the late nineteenth century, which was characterised by European military rivalry and markets, and in which the rules for the division of Africa were established at the Berlin Conference of 1884-5. The book's central argument is embedded in the contradictions between the growth of the global economy and the fixed amount of natural resources. Carmody further argues that the old and new powers are scrambling for African resources in a global economy that is technologically dynamic and expansive, and wherein multinational companies seek out low-cost labour sites for assembly operations to reduce costs and raise profits (pp. 6-7). In essence, the book moves beyond looking at Africa as a 'dark continent' with nothing to offer, and a continent to be civilised, as characterised in the literature of the late nineteenth century on the scramble for Africa. Besides this opportunity in which African leadership can negotiate advantageously for Africa (p. 191), Carmody warns against the past and present gloomy exploitative strategies of the old and new powers. He points out that African economies were structured to meet the demands of industrialising Europe by producing raw materials. This extroversion of Africa, whereby its economy was oriented to meet the needs of other people in other places, continues. Threequarters of what Africa exports are unprocessed primary commodities such as oil or copper, and many of the biggest companies exploiting African resources are foreign owned-so profits mainly flow elsewhere (pp. 2-5).