Journal of African Foreign Affairs (JoAFA) Volume 1, Number 1, 2014

Africa appears to be the guinea pig of the world where theories are verified and tested. For some countries such as the USA, an end in a given historical development (socialism) is an opportunity for the universalization of the value they cherish most (liberal democracy) or as Fukuyama (1992) would put it, ‘the end of history’. The history of Africa remains that of underdevelopment, conflicts and poverty despite the fact that six of the fastest growing economies in the world today are in the continent (The Economist, 2011; Rensburg, 2012). For some analysts therefore, nothing seems to matter about Africa which in the theorem of Lord Lugard (1965) seminal work is a ‘dark continent’. This is succinctly captured by the British historian, Professor Hugh Trevor-Regius when he said...