"Regional trade agreements proliferated in Africa in the wake of independence from colonial rule. For the most part these agreements failed to deliver the regional integration and economic benefits that were promised, and amounted to little more than a propaganda coup for the leaders that signed...

Post-colonial Africa is littered with regional trade agreements that amounted to little more than a photo opportunity for the leaders that signed them. This book explores conventional explanations for past failures and posits a new theory rooted in the symbiotic relationship between...