Dislocation or Relocation? An Afro-Centric Analysis of South Africa's BRICS Membership

Zuma's ascendancy to South African presidency coincided with the lingering global economic crisis of 2007-2009, which affected many Western economies. By this time, the BRIC(S) bloc (Brazil, Russia, India and China) experienced exponential economic growth and became alternative partners to commodities-exporting countries like South Africa. Against this background, South Africa strengthened its ties with the bloc and joined the group in 2011 to expand the alliance into BRICS. South Africa's membership to the bloc received much attention from scholars of International Relations and other cognate academic disciplines, and members of the media, with detractors questioning and proponents supporting the decision. This article employs Afro-centricity as an alternative theoretical framework to interrogate the question of whether BRICS complement or undercut South African efforts to relocate from the margins of global politics and economy. This is a desktop study that relied on secondary data and employed an Afro-centric qualitative research methodology to establish whether the bloc is mutually beneficial or other partners benefit at the expense of South Africa.