An Afrocentric Analysis of Chinese Loans to Africa in the Context of Angola: Debt Trap Diplomacy

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Page: 70-75

Makhura B. Rapanyane¹ and Kgothatso B. Shai² (Department of Political Studies and International Relations, North West University, Mafikeng, South Africa¹ and
Department of Cultural and Political Studies, University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa²)

Africa’s growing public debt to international lending institutions such as the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and emerging economies like China has polarised a renewal of scholarly debate on the continent’s debt sustainability. This is mostly led by China’s emergence as the crucial financier of Africa’s infrastructure development. Creating an impression that the Asian Giant is using debt to obtain geopolitical support by trapping poor African nation-states into unsustainable infrastructural development loans. By deploying policy insights, scholarly reports, books and government statistical provided data, this article interrogates the above notion from an African viewpoint to analyse China’s African debt trap diplomacy. Informed heavily by the preliminary findings of this article on which it has become clear that China has debt-trapped several poor African nation-states including Angola, the authors argue from an Afrocentric point of view that the ongoing Chinese debt trap narrative in Africa is an act of undermining Africa’s decision-making power.