'New Africa', globalisation and the confines of elite reformism: 'Getting the rhetoric right', getting the strategy wrong

The launch in July 2001 of the New Africa Initiative was a culmination of events over the last two years involving the emergence of a group of African leaders who have increasingly played a prominent role in negotiations between Africa and the developed world. This 'New Africa', initially comprising Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa but now more diffuse, has been welcomed at a great number of elite gathering points by the North. This article investigates what is 'new', if anything, about the positions being advanced by this group. The article contends that a hearing is being granted to the New Africa representatives precisely because the message communicated fits the neo liberal discourse. While appreciating elements of New Africa's agenda, it is feared that there is no obvious strategy to be found in the New Africa Initiative inequalities of the global political economy.