Afro-Latin Equations: Revisiting the Zone of Peace and Cooperation in the South Atlantic

Abstract

Since the independence of African countries, Latin America and Africa have walked parallel paths without either much looking at or recognising each other. Consequently, their relations have been spasmodic and unstable with periods of drawing nearer and of estrangement. Although natural geographic neighbours, the pre-eminence of North?South relations has had a strong historical influence as the two regions have both suffered from the difficulties caused by colonisation and, therefore, have had peripheral international existence. Nevertheless, Latin America and Africa show similarities. Their countries have fought strongly for their independence, and have dependent economic structures and asymmetric relations with the ?industrialised North?. They have both undergone the economic hardships caused by the implementation of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), albeit in different time frames. Therefore, in this chapter we will deal with the ZPCSA as a common space shared by the coastal countries of South America Africa, experiencing periods of upsurge and some of oblivion. Since its creation in 1986, the ZPCSA has been a mirror of Latin American- African horizontal relations, which have also passed through different stages of success and hibernation.