Author: Veit Bachmann.

The term “Eurafrica” invokes a global panregion that has long and pervasively been a fantasy of imperialistic geopolitics, yet that has never existed. It is questionable for several reasons. First, the spatial construction of panregions is in itself problematic as it describes a “large functional area linking core states to resource peripheries and cutting across latitudinal distributed environmental zones” (O’Loughlin and Van der Wusten 1990, 1-2) and is thus inherently exploitative and imperial. Second, it is superficial, incomplete, and possibly essentializing as it suggests a homogeneity that has never existed. Neither Africa nor Europe are coherent actors or imaginations – both are equally diverse and rich; inspiring, appealing and frightening; strong and weak. There is no such one thing as “Africa,” neither is there one “Europe.” As such, there is also clearly not one such thing as “Eurafrica.” Any engagement with the “African-European relationship” is thus always flawed with generalizations that brutally brush over and conceal the richness of interactions between people of the two continents. Nevertheless, there is a long history, to which the term “Eurafrica” is testimony, which is interested in the relations between the two continents – as much as such broad-brushed accounts are characterized by shortcomings. These opening remarks are intended as critical reflections of such shortcomings that I have reproduced in my previous work and that I will partially reproduce in the following as I will engage with collective European relations with “Africa.” Emphasizing that such engagement cannot be exhaustive, the focus will be on the external relations of the EU with its African partners as one part of the rich diversity of African-European relations.