THE FUSE

Brics and the wider multipolar shift have opened a new political field in world affairs. They have weakened the old monopoly through which Washington, London, Brussels and their allies dictated the terms of finance, diplomacy and legitimacy. South Africa has entered this field with confidence. Its officials speak of strategic diversification, sovereign options, South–South cooperation and a changing world order. Yet a serious contradiction sits at the centre of this posture. Brics diplomacy does not centre Black epistemologies, African revolutionary thought or the political traditions that emerged from anti-colonial struggle. It receives Africa as a participant, market, symbol and diplomatic constituency. It does not receive Africa as organising intelligence.