The new scramble for Africa

"Most African countries have now enjoyed half a century of independence, and this period has witnessed many achievements in development and national self-confidence. Yet how independent are countries many of which have a GDP no greater than the municipal budget of an average-sized European town, and why is Africa too often and too readily seen as an economic basket case constantly seeking aid from the outside world? The continent's impact upon world affairs is not commensurate with its size, resources or population, although it regularly features in the news for violence, civil war and breakdown [...] State weakness invites external exploitation and much of Africa represents a power vacuum that predatory outsiders are only too anxious to fill as they search for resources in an ever more competitive world [...] The United states, China, India, the old colonial powers of great Britain and France, the European union, and Gulf sovereign wealth funds are vying with each other for Africa's resources and control of African companies." -- Introduction (p. 9).