Brand Africa

Africa is often left out of mainstream discussions of emerging trends in the global economy and the business of 'development'. Whether on the basis of misplaced romanticism, stale Afro-scepticism, or a presumed 'lack of data', disengagement with Africa has significantly limited the debates on political economy in a global context. Yet, new research suggests that Africa may be far more central than we think in understanding the multiple transitions that are taking place within global capitalism.

Helping distant others, typically Africans, has become a way of constructing a postcolonial Western identity, producing a responsible form of corporate engagement in the market, and selling products at the same time.

In debate forum just published by the Review of African Political Economy (guest-edited by Lisa Ann Richey and DIIS Senior Researcher Stefano Ponte), a number of scholars spark a lively debate on the 'manufacture of Africa' as a way of selling the inequalities of global capitalism. Key questions raised in the debate forum include:

• In co-branded products where 'Africa' is part of the brand value through production of products by Africans or on the continent, how do the production 'challenges' (such as unreliable transportation, ill health, or inconsistent electricity supply, for example) that may affect the quality or timing of the supply chain come to be used in authenticating the 'Africa' brand?
• How do the new opportunities for providing capital in Africa (new aid countries, investors from emerging economies, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, etc.) interface with African states in the diverse political/ economic settings on the continent?
• What effect does branding Africa as a symbolic commodity have on the ability of Africans to acquire, wield and perhaps even trade their symbolic cultural capital? How might this repositioning of affect in intellectual and political debate shape relationships between Africans and Africa in regional, diasporic, local or networked political struggles?
• What is the political economy of representation of Africa? Which images sell? What do they sell and to whom?
• Where do we look for competing brands of Africa? Who are Africa's celebrities? What do they brand? How do they interact with global celebrities who are speaking on behalf of Africa?

Lisa Ann Richey and Stefano Ponte (eds) (2012) 'Brand Africa: Multiple transitions in global capitalism', Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 39, No. 131, pp. 135-150. With contributions by Fantu Cheru, Rita Abrahamsen, Graham Harrison, Claire Mercer, Dan Brockington, Lisa Ann Richey and Stefano Ponte.