O futuro com contornos do passado? Perspectivas sobre as relações Brasil-África a partir do novo governo Lula (2023)

The future with the contours of the past? Perspectives on Brazil-Africa relations from the new Lula da Silva government (2023)

Resumo

This article analyzes the challenges of reactivating the strategic dimension of Brazil-Africa relations within the context of changes in the country's international engagement efforts at the beginning of the Lula administration. By invoking the memory of the so-called "Altiva and Active Foreign Policy" as a vector for transforming Brazil's foreign relations after more than a decade of international withdrawal, the prospect of the country's competitive reintegration into the African continent faces various dilemmas. These dilemmas include disengagement that has occurred over the past years, involving historical variables of engagement, such as cooperation, trade, and discursive construction of these relations. Furthermore, it is argued that factors such as the systemic crisis and the geopolitical competition framework involving emerging powers and global powers in the African continent, combined with domestic factors like the need for re-engagement between the government and certain interest groups (agribusiness and the military), as well as the mobilization of resources to affirm a new African policy, point to the necessity of a reconfiguration of Brazilian strategies in re-establishing ties with Africa.