Quality of African integration into the globalized economy

Abstract : While several analyzes contradict the uprising of the African continent as a future hub of emergence and attractiveness, and that many authors compete to see who is right (Severino and Ray (2010), Kabou (1991, 2010), Moyo (2010), etc.), it seems that the integration of Africa to the global system is no more an issue. Rather, the quality of this integration can be subject to analysis: in fact, from a retrospective standpoint, what can we say about the quality of the integration process in Africa? From a methodology voluntarily historical and factual, the African integrator dynamic is analyzed tracing back to 1910. In the first part of the paper, the integration’ ambition of Africa is presented and evaluated. The second part of the paper discusses the fundamental challenges that should be absolutely resolved by countries in route for integration.

Keywords : economic integration, Africa, regional economic community.

JEL Classification : F02, F15, F55, O19, O55.