Yoichi Mine

The days when Africa was considered a continent of poverty, in which everybody was supposed to lead destitute but spiritually fulfilled life, are over. Now, fat money circulates with a massive amount of FDI flowing into Africa. The influence of Asian emerging economies is evident in today's Africa, and so is the division between the rich and the poor. Social tensions prevail in villages as well as cities. And, South Africa, which has eventually come back to Africa after the demise of apartheid, is expanding its influence over the continent, playing a role that could have been labeled as an outpost of neo-colonialism some decades ago. The student of political economy of Africa should be able to see this whirlwind of changes in a historical perspective, grounded in life experiences of ordinary people. We should admit that African study in Japan has some serious weak points. A macro overview is often shallow, and yet specialists on African economy are desperately in short supply. I hope that our project will fill those gaps and thereby mark a real turning point of African study in Japan and Asia (and Asian study in Africa!).