AFRICA IN GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Emerging approaches to theory and practice, an introduction

New theoretical perspectives, such as constructivism, the English School and what has been called 'non-Western IR theory' and 'Global International Relations (IR)', have encouraged the incorporation of the voices and writings from other regions into the discussions and debates in IR. Against this backdrop, this chapter explores new and changing African contributions that have relevance for the project of redefining and broadening IR theory. Traditionally, IRT has been biased in favour of universalism. Mainstream IR theories often view the countries or regions of the Global South as marginal to international politics. Turning to South African scholarship, for instance, the predominance of the US academy shaped IR's methodology in South Africa. The politics of the everyday for ordinary people are to be theorised to provide truer descriptions of the world and 'dislodge the dual inferiority of Africa and African feminism in relation to conventional IR' if IR in Africa is to assert its agency.