The elephant in the corner: reviewing India-Africa relations in the new millennium

As countries of the global South seek to challenge existing uneven architectures of economic, political and institutional power, now under different circumstances to those prevailing during the Cold War, relations between African countries and various rising powers have drawn a great deal of academic and public attention. This paper reviews India’s contemporary relations with sub-Saharan Africa on four thematic points: changing geographies of Indo-African relations; trade and foreign direct investment; development cooperation; and geopolitics and diplomacy. It notes that India’s confidence as a global political and economic actor is apparent in its African diplomacy and economic engagements, but its claims to exceptionalism in such relations are not self-evident. Moreover, whether recent shifts in relations between African nations and India will work in the interests of less privileged citizens, workers and consumers in Africa and in India also remain unclear.