Cyril Obi

This commentary provides insights into the evolving trajectories of China-Africa relations by drawing on a case study of the place of a strategic natural resource, oil, in the evolving relations. It unpacks the nature of China’s engagements with Africa’s oil-producing states and challenges the views of those who claim that emerging China-Africa relations are based on a “new colonial” scramble for Africa’s resources, particularly oil. The commentary advances an alternate view based on Africa’s agency in shaping its relations with China and posits that African petro-states and elites are in a position to determine if the outcome of oil engagements with China will connect to a project of national and continental development, or not.