robert wyrod

Eastern Horizon: Africa and China at the Limits of Development

Robert’s second book, Eastern Horizon, focuses on the rise of China as a new force in African development. China’s dramatically expanding presence on the continent is one of the most significant political shifts in sub-Saharan Africa in the postcolonial era. Since the turn of the millennium, the Chinese government has drastically increased their funding for development projects across Africa, making China a major new player in African development. At the same time, a wide range of new forms of Chinese capital have funded project in Africa.

Eastern Horizon focuses on how China’s role as a development actor is entangled with existing forms of social inequality, including gender, class, ethnicity, and race. Robert has conducted ethnographic research at four fieldsites in Uganda: (1) a China-funded hydroelectric dam; (2) a China-funded industrial park; and (3) two China-funded agricultural projects. Each  is an example of a major way various forms of Chinese capital are shaping development in Africa, creating new opportunities and new inequalities.

 

Robert received a generous grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct the research for this book.