Africa’s Railway Renaissance

The Role and Impact of China

Tim Zajontz, Pádraig Carmody, Mandira Bagwandeen, Anthony Leysens, Tim Zajontz, Pádraig Carmody, Mandira Bagwandeen, Anthony Leysens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781032077413
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000919240
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book investigates the history, political economy and spatiality of Chinese railway projects in Africa. It examines the financial governance of Sino-African railway projects, their socio-cultural, political and economic effects as well as the regional dimension of Africa's new railway architecture and its function within China's Belt and Road Initiative. Leading and emerging scholars from Africa, China, Europe and the Americas offer interpretations through politicoeconomic, historical, geographical and post-colonial conceptual lenses. Case studies on projects in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia offer an empirically rich and cross-disciplinary picture of Sino-African railway developments at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Regional analyses on West and East Africa expose persistent obstacles to the regional integration of Africa's railways. The volume outlines opportunities and challenges related to Africa's railway renaissance in the post-COVID-19 global political economy and will be of great interest to academics, students and practitioners interested in Africa-China relations and their developmental effects or in the politics of infrastructure, spatial governance and the political economy of transport.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement page
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• List of abbreviations and acronyms
• 1 Introduction: China’s role in Africa’s railway renaissance
• 2 The political economy of China’s globalising railways – and their arrival in Africa
• 3 Powering African transport or transporting Chinese power? The spatial political economy of Chinese railways in Africa
• 4 The Freedom Railway now and then: the enduring relevance of the ‘TAZARA spirit’ for South-South cooperation
• 5 Chinese railways and African development: developing railways or railing development?
• 6 Chinese globalism, African regionalisms and state spatial strategies: the intricacies of regionalising Africa’s railway renaissance
• 7 West Africa’s ‘Railway Patchwork’ and the challenges of its integration
• 8 China’s infrastructure projects in Africa: Nigeria’s unfinished Lagos-Kano railway project
• 9 Kenya’s new Lunatic Express: the Standard Gauge Railway
• 10 The Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and the national question in Ethiopia: a bottom-up view
• 11 The rehabilitation of the Benguela Railway and the reactivation of the Lobito Corridor
• 12 Inside Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway: passenger narratives on large-scale transport infrastructure, connectivity, and political controversy
• Index