Chinweizu, Asia’s Rise and Disentangling Africa’s Strategic Incoherence for Africa’s Future

Abstract

Chinweizu’s wide-ranging and copious intellectual output persistently brings into sharp focus penetrating analysis of Asia’s contemporary rise (read in Chinweizuan terms as autonomous modernization and industrialization) in juxtaposition to Africa’s de-industrialization and with it her firm rootedness at the periphery of global power. “Africa’s Staticity-Asia’s Rise” is a binary that bothers Chinweizu to no end. In two key works presented in Accra and Abuja respectively (Chinweizu, 2010a; 2010b) he tries to find answers. The two papers throw up in my view, a few strategic questions: i. how should Africa relate to a rising Asia in contemporary times? ii. What will it take in real terms for Chinweizu’s Black Superpower to emerge if the Asian example is a compelling one? iii. Is industrialization an existential necessity for Africa? iv. What kind of political, economic, and social structures are required for a Black Superpower to emerge to command the respect of the world like Japan, Korea, or China? This article will critically engage with these two works to attempt to respond to these strategic questions in the hope that it will aid in sharpening the theoretical underpinnings and practical processes for building the Chinweizuan Black Superpower.