Public Lecture: Is South-South Cooperation an alternative development paradigm? The Case of India in Africa; Speaker: Meera Venkatachalam

Abstract:

A number of emerging powers, such as China, Turkey, Brazil and India have come to play a significant role in Africa’s development landscape, funding projects from infrastructure to capacity-building and agriculture. Many of these states claim their actions are informed by the notion of southern solidarity, and that their development compact with Africa is framed in terms of a more equal, horizontal relationship, unlike the conditionalities associated with traditional northern/DAC donors. The ‘southernisation’ of ‘aid’ has been hailed by some to be a positive development, potentially being able to reduce inequality within and between states. This lecture looks at India’s Africa policy in the longue durée, tracing the evolution of India’s outreach to Africa, against the backdrop of postcolonial politics of Third Worldism, and then as part of a multipolar Global South. It asks whether: 1] the southernisation of ‘aid’ has the potential to reconfigure the global development landscape, and 2] whether South-South Cooperation presents an alternative to development as imagined by hegemonic northern discourses. While I focus on India in Africa, there are many broad generalizations that can hold true of other emerging Asian powers’ engagements in Africa. 

Trained as an anthropologist and historian, Dr. Meera Venkatachalam‘s research is broadly focused on the transregional circulation of capital, commodities, people, and religion across the Global South, and between Africa and South Asia in particular. She has also worked extensively on India’s development cooperation with regions of the Global South, and Africa in particular.

This lecture series is open to the public.

For virtual participation via Zoom, please use the following link:

https://uni-freiburg.zoom-x.de/j/65458744535?pwd=ETBo2Fvz339paJ4V4T9UaFmTXpiieM.1

Meeting-ID: 654 5874 4535
Code: n5i3DTDjF