For their new book, Continental Shift: A Journey into Africa’s 21st Century, South African authors Kevin Bloom and Richard Poplak embarked on a 14-country odyssey across two continents over a span of five years to report on Africa’s changing economic, political, and social landscapes.
What they discovered along the way was that China’s role had become pivotal in so many of the African countries they visited. The Chinese presence in Africa, they observed, “is the defining phenomenon of our time.”
Bloom and Poplak don’t advocate that China’s ever-expanding engagement across the continent is either good or bad for Africa. It’s neither, it’s both, it’s complicated. What isn’t in dispute, though, is that China is changing Africa through new infrastructure, more trade, imported labor, corruption, and countless other ways.
The two journalists join Eric and Cobus to discuss their new book and their perceptions of China’s role in Africa’s “continental shift.”
Recommendations
- “Africa Is Not a Country but Maybe it Should Behave As One,” Brian Bakker, African Trader, March 15, 2016
- Continental Shift: A Journey Into Africa’s Changing Fortunes, Kevin Bloom and Richard Poplak (Granta Magazine, 2016)
- “Podcast: Kevin Bloom & Richard Poplak talk 'Continental Shift',” Greg Nicolson and Kingsley Kapuri, Daily Maverick, March 8, 2016