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Title:Ties that bind or binds that tie? India's African engagements and the political economy of Kenya
Author:McCann, GerardISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy (ISSN 0305-6244)
Volume:37
Issue:126
Pages:465-482
Language:English
Geographic terms:Kenya
India
Subjects:South-South relations
international economic relations
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2010.530944
Abstract:This paper analyses contemporary non-Western engagement with Africa through the lens of India. Much of the literature on India's renewed interest in Africa is panoramic, highlighting concepts of 'South-South' cooperation in ways uncritical of Indian claims to the Nehruvian moral high ground in the developing world. This article, by contrast, focuses on critical realities of India's relations with a single country - Kenya, a nation with which India has had close links due to the historic presence of South Asian communities in the region. It critiques notions that 'diasporic' ties between India and Kenya facilitate contemporary Indian economic ambitions. Rather, fractious historical race relations in Kenya, and the cynosure of 'African' homogenization of 'Asians' within an 'ethnicized' postcolonial political economy, might impede Indian ambitions relative to capital-rich foreign suitors devoid of such historical baggage. The second argument holds that the State-led imperatives of much economic liaison within Kenya favour certain 'partners' with statist investment models in contrast to India's more explicit private sector-led engagement. Most importantly, analysis within a localized African context points to African agency in encounters with the 'Asian drivers', a term implying a certain unidirectional power flow. The competitive interest of a range of 'new' suitors has allowed African leaders unprecedented choice in international negotiations. The danger, however, is that these new liaisons can reify divisive sociopolitical conflicts in which many African nations are mired. This appears to be pertinent to Kenya. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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