The rise of BRICS countries and particularly of China-in-Africa is key in discussing the transformations in the global development regime and the remaking of geographies of power. The ‘rise’ of the South questioned North-South binary construction and Westerndominated mainstream development cooperation projects, discourses, and practices. This led to a polycentric development regime in which the lines between North/South, and center/periphery are blended and fluid. The case of China-Africa agricultural cooperation is representative of South-South cooperation narratives, modalities, and practices and will be used in the seminar to explore China’s influence on African agriculture.
The seminar will discuss the case of Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers in Africa, especially in Tanzania, and will challenge China’s official discourses on African agricultural cooperation. Yet, China's vision of African agriculture is premised upon modernization, technologization, and more recently green agriculture. This is not far from agricultural cooperation models traditionally envisaged by western partners and philanthrocapitalist organizations (e.j. AGRA). Finally, China-Africa relations (included in agriculture) seem to follow well-known patterns of unequal power relations which have characterized Africa's relations with the rest of the world, rather than representing an ‘alternative’ to the West or a ‘win-win’ solution.
