Dependency theory and China’s increased involvement on the African continent : The perception of foreign aid in Babati

Abstract: The aim of the thesis is to discuss possible effects of an increase in African – Chinese relation above the historically more dominant Western – African dependency. There has recently both been an increase in trading between Africa and China and an increase in Chinese funded development on the African continent. But will Chinese aid over Western actually make that big a difference for Africa? African intellectuals see Chinese involvement as a way to break free from the neo-colonial ties to the West. A fair south-south relationship between Africa and China would indeed have that result but few indicators prove that that would be the case today. The trading interest from China is very similar to that from Western parties, a few valuable goods constitutes the major part of African nations export industry. A rapid growth in trading between China and Africa is not likely to bring African nations from the pattern they are historically used to having against western parties but to form a new trend of dependency towards Chinese interest. (Tull, 2006, s. 471)  To explain this relation between the African continent and both Western and Chinese interests dependency theory will be used. To fully explain dependency theory one will not only have to look at trading and exploatation of natural resources but also on a transference of social values and foreing involvment in African communities. To achieve this a series of interviews were conducted in Babati during the later parts of February and early March in 2010. This in coagency with an text analys provides a foundation for discussion about the implications  Chinese aid will have on the African dependency towards Western interests.  What can be extracted from this is that Chinese aid most likely will not lift Africa out of dependency in it’s current form. Trading interests from Chinese parties are to similar to the explotiative west to make a huge difference. African natural resources are traded against low-cost mass produced units and to  small of an profit is made for the African parties to make the exhange fair. But with the rise of China and the fact that China today finances a big part of the United States government a global power shift will occur and the traditional hegemoninc power structure will most likely change into an multi polar world order.  This change is important to study closer to understand what the effects might be for the African continent’s depenency towards foreign interests and specially the relation between China and USA is important though they are the biggests actors today in development work on the African continent.