Charting New Frames for African Global Engagement: Resuscitated Histories, Reimagined Concepts, and Reapplied Contexts

Abstract

This chapter functions as an opening theoretical and historical discussion that conceptualizes the book’s title and thesis while providing historiographical background and heuristic mapping to guide the book’s core theme about Afri-capitalist and Ubuntu business’ interactions, connections, and engagements within Africa Rising and Pan African economic narratives. The chapter elaborates upon the book’s main themes and thesis about cultural identity, development, and political-economic change in the contemporary global political economy as it affects the African Continent. In doing so, while engaging in core issues of economic growth, inequality, poverty, and development, we treat these elements of economy together through the larger prism of cultural political economy, on the one hand, and the current state of the African political economy in global context, on the other. The chapter grounds the book’s thesis about the relevance of Pan African economics to African engagement and navigation of the international political economy by critically reviewing the literature of contemporary international African political economy and ties these three themes together to position and forefront the book’s thesis and subsequent chapter evidence about Pan Africa Rising.