Dr Mandira Bagwandeen

Dr Mandira Bagwandeen has experience working with think tanks, local and international corporate companies, and lecturing at universities in South Africa. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where she focusses on Africa's regional integration and industrialisation and China-Africa relations. She also lectures at various UCT departments on international relations and the political economy of Africa-China ties.

Mandira is affiliated with several international think tanks: She is a Research Associate at the Foundation pour la Recherche Stratégique (Foundation for Strategic Research) in France and a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in the US, and a Research Fellow at the African Studies Centre (ASC) at the Metropolitan University Prague, the Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations in Ghana, and Nanyang Technical University-Singapore Business Federation (NTU-SBF) Centre for African Studies. Mandira has provided commentary for various local and international media outlets and written several academic and opinion articles on Africa-China issues.

Research Interests: Africa's regional integration and development (specifically infrastructural integration); Political economy of China-Africa Relations; Digital governance; Geopolitics and geoeconomics of commodities; South-South Cooperation.

 Journal Articles

• M. Bagwandeen. 2023. ‘The China Factor in Africa’s Pursuit of Digital Sovereignty.’ African Governance Papers, 1 (3): 108-135
• ‘African Agency and Debt Renegotiations with China.’ South African Journal of International Affairs, 30 (1):1-27, 2023.
• ‘Changing Realities: China-Africa Infrastructure Development,’ The National Bureau of Asian Research: Asia Policy, 17 (2):18-29, 2022.
• ‘Enduring Silk Ties,’ African East-Asian Affairs (AEAA) Journal, Issue 2: 126-143, 2015

Books

•  T. Zajontz, P. Carmody, M. Bagwandeen, A. Leysens. (eds). 2024. Africa’s Railway Renaissance: The Role and Impact of China. Abingdon: Routledge.

  Book Chapters

• M. Bagwandeen. 2024. Chinese railways and African development: Developing railways or railing development? In, Africa’s Railway Renaissance: The role and impact of China The Role and Impact of China. Eds. T. Zajontz, P. Carmody, M. Bagwandeen, A. Leysens. Abingdon: Routledge.
• T. Zajontz, P. Carmody, M. Bagwandeen., and A. Leysens. (eds.). 2024. The political economy of China’s globalising railways – and their arrival in Africa. Africa’s Railway Renaissance: The role and impact of China. Abingdon: Routledge.

 Book Review

• ‘India-Africa Relations: Changing Horizons,’ South African Journal of International Affairs, 2022, DOI: 10.1080/10220461.2022.2122548

 Research Report

• ‘Development of smart ports in Africa: An opportunity for Singapore to step in,’ The NTU_SBF Centre for African Studies (CAS) (April 2022)

 Op-eds

• ‘The fourth scramble for Africa – an opportunity for Africans to dictate the rules of the game,’ Daily Maverick (June 2023)

• ‘Leveraging Green Panda Bonds for Africa’s Energy Transition,’ Daily Maverick (March 2023)  

• ‘China expands its digital sovereignty to Africa,’ Good Governance Africa (GGA): Africa In Fact, Issue 62, (July-September 2022)

• ‘Russia-Ukraine crisis highlights Africa’s need to diversify its wheat sources,’ The Conversation (April 2022)

• ‘China Merchants Group exporting its Shekou Model of port-industrial development to Africa,’ University of the Witwatersrand: Africa-China Reporting Project (November 2021)
• ‘Of the ties that bind: China’s party diplomacy in Africa,’ University of the Witwatersrand: Africa-China Reporting Project (November 2021)
• ‘Don’t Blame China for the Rise of Digital Authoritarianism in Africa,’ LSE: China in Africa Blog Series (September 2021)