L’Afrique entre « malédiction des ressources » et « émergence » : une bifurcation ?

Representations on the African path of development are often caricatural : the afro-pessimist point of view is influenced by the resource curse approach, whereas the afro-optimistic one thinks that economic growth and increase of the middle class will set up emerging countries on their own. Using researchs on the impact of new extractive industries in Sahelo-Sudanian Africa, we will argue that the convergence of internal (demographic and urban growth, democratization) and external dynamics (investments, circulation of norms and values) are favourable to opening critical junctures. These could allow African politico-economic systems to escape their historic condition (exporting raw materials to the world market in a marginal position). The materialization of such turning points will depend on endogenous dynamics and social struggles within the different national African societies.