69 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 R. Bourqia, M. Sili (eds.), New Paths of Development, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56096-6_5 What Can Be the Position of Africa in the Contemporary Globalisation? A Few Thoughts in the Matter… Alioune Sall Abstract The article propose a general and comprehen- sive explanation of the impact of globalization in the Global South, using Africa as a regional case study on the possible alternatives for development without losing control to the Western bloc or with the Chinese bloc of global powers. This chapter presents the issues facing development from a general perspective that closes frst part of the book by highlighting the issues surrounding development today. Keywords Confict · Crisis · Culture · Development · Geopolitics · Resilience We cannot evoke, nowadays, geopolitics and development without mentioning Globalisation. This notion has become practically unvoidable as it imposes itself into the debate and occupies a substantial part of it. Its booming fame is in fact nothing but an absolutely prodigious phenome- non, given the fact that noone heard about Globalisation in the aftermath of World War II, when the term Development replaced mis en val- eur 1 (raising value) which was common during the era of colonialism. Even Harry Truman, who utilized the term Development in its current sense, for the frst time in Part IV of his investi- ture speech, 20th January 1949, did not mention Globalisation at all. And still, the term Globalisation neither existed in 1679 when the term Geopolitics frst appeared in Wilhelm Leibniz’s writings; this German philosopher totally ignored Globalisation. The same applies to the Swedish professor of geography and politi- cal sciences, Rudolf Kijellen, who spreaded the use of the term [Geopolitics] as of 1889, but did not speak about Globalisation neither. The term Globalisation came into the debate right after the war, but, at that time, it was not related to geo- politics on the grounds that it had been used to legitimize German expansionism as well as Nazi ideology. The discipline was therefore temporar- ily proscribed, mainly in France, until the Vietman war when it came back to use, and a lit- tle later during the confict between the Khmer Rouge and the North-Vietnamese. Nowadays, one cannot speak about neither Development nor Geopolitics without mentioning Globalisation. 1 Translator’s note: French colonialism concept. A. Sall (*) Founder and Executive Director, African Futures Institute, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa 5