Articles

Nigeria and South Africa: political leadership and the development of bilateral relations

Vostok/Oriens '2017, №6

DOI: 10.7868/S0869190817060036

 
Trade, economic and political contacts between Nigeria and South Africa began to develop rapidly in the 1950s – even before Nigeria gained independence and South Africa's apartheid regime collapsed. In recent decades, their bilateral relations have been experiencing periods of dramatic ups and downs, rapprochements and confrontations. The hostility between the two "African giants" at the state and public levels is largely due to their rivalry for the status of the "continent's leader", while the "sinusoidal" nature of their relations seems caused by a very high level of dependence of bilateral contacts on personal relations, sympathies and antipathies of their political leaders.

Keywords: Nigeria, South Africa, political leadership, foreign policy, trade and economic relations, bilateral and multilateral diplomacy

Pages: С. 29–40