Dislocation or relocation? An Afro-centric analysis of South Africa’s BRICS membership

An Afrocentric Revisit of Zuma led South Africa-China Relations, 2013-2017: Mutually Beneficial or Not

“…The tenet of centeredness goes beyond the perpetual subjection of Africans to historical and cultural disorientation by unmasking the marginalization of African economies as well. It is in this context that Afrocentricity calls on Africans to reclaim their culture, ideals, values, history, and interests to relocate their economies from languishing at the periphery to the center of the global economy (Schreiber 2000;Mazama 2001;Maphaka 2020a).…”

“…While BRICS New Development Bank no-strings attached policies provide an enabling environment for South Africa to use loans on its own terms or in a manner that is responsive to her development needs, implementing such policies in a colonial world order limits South Africa's growth potential. The latter should be understood in the context that South African growth and development objectives are tied to a transformed world order (Maloka 2019, and China and Russia are reluctant to support the inclusion of South Africa, Brazil, and India in the transformed United Nations Security Council (Maphaka 2020a). In this regard, South Africa, India, and Brazil acts like colonial subjects that respond more to the interests of China and Russia while their interests receive scant attention.…”

“…The reciprocal visit by the then Deputy President (now President) Xi Jinping to South Africa, saw the two countries signing agreements to cooperate in mining, energy, environment, and transport (Xiong 2012). The exponential economic growth of China and other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) partners coupled with the low demand of commodity products from Euro-American developed countries prompted by global economic crisis made China and other emerging countries alternative trade partners to South Africa (Kim and Tukić 2015;Maphaka 2020a;Prinsloo 2017).…”

Key Challenges Facing the African National Congress-led Government in South Africa: An Afrocentric Perspective

“…This implies that the utilisation of Afrocentricity has been deemed relevant in this analysis as an Afrocentric perspective is better in explaining African issues. Amongst the Afrocentric assumptions would be the inclusion of cultural centeredness which speaks about the inclusion of cultural elements of the group under review/study (Maphaka 2020). A second assumption would be an invocation of the paradigmatic pluralism which mostly explains the multicultural elements in multicultural studies and the Liberation and Cultural Agency which has to do with producing knowledge that is naturally liberating.…”