Africa’s Shadow Rise and the Mirage of Economic Development

Economic growth rates above much of the rest of the world for a decade and a half led some analysts and commentators to develop or adopt an “Africa Rising” discourse. This discourse presents Africa as an emerging global economic and political power. While the Africa Rising discourse is problematic, we argue that it does reflect the emergence of a number of world powers from the Global South, particularly China—a kind of “shadow rise”, which may nonetheless have led to the concomitant increase in the economic and political power of local elites and domestic “middle classes” across a number of African countries. This paper seeks to break open the black box of the power relations and economic impacts of China in Southern Africa and relate it to the concept of “Africa Rising”. In particular, it explores the extent to which China has empowered different local actors and whether or not they have contributed to the diversification of local economies.