Ebook: BRICS and Resistance in Africa: Contention, Assimilation and Co-optation

Though initially considered a welcome counterweight to Western interest, across Africa the BRICS (an association consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) are increasingly being viewed as another example of foreign interference and exploitation.



BRICS and Resistance in Africa explores the varied forms of African resistance being developed in response to the growing influence of the BRICS. Its case studies cover such instances as the opposition to China’s One-Belt-One-Road initiative in East Africa; resistance to the BRICS’s oil activities in the Niger delta; and the role of the BRICS in Zimbabwe’s political transition. The contributors expose the contradictions between the group’s rhetoric and its real impact, as well as the complicity of local elites in serving as proxies for the BRICS nations.



By challenging and expanding the debates surrounding the involvement of BRICS in Africa, this collection offers new insight into resistance to globalization in the global South.

About the Author
Justin van der Merwe is a senior researcher with the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Stellenbosch. His books include the edited collection Emerging Powers in Africa.

Patrick Bond is professor of political economy at the Wits School of Governance, and honorary professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has also previously taught at Johns Hopkins University, and worked at the NGOs Planact and the National Institute for Economic Policy. His previous books include Looting Africa , also from Zed Books, and Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa.

Nicole Dodd is chair of the School for Human and Organisational Development at Stellenbosch University. She is coauthor (with Justin van der Merwe) of The Political Economy of Underdevelopment in the Global South.