Building BRICS in Africa?

This chapter explores the nature of BRICS engagement in Africa and whether or not it opens up policy space for national governments to pursue more interventionist approaches to economic development. It argues that different members of BRICS have different temporalities, spatialities, and sectoral emphases in their engagements in Africa. While in theory greater BRICS engagement in Africa does open up policy space, in practice much of this is latent rather than actualized as current extractive economic relations suit many African political elites who benefit from them. Nonetheless there are counter movements to current arrangements which struggle for greater accountability, even as the influence of the BRICS on the continent is likely to continue to grow.