European Partnership with Africa: A Partnership of Values

Abstract

This thesis set out to understand how European rhetoric legitimises European intervention in development and coerces African leaders into the Eurocentric world order. This through analysing the discourse in four Africa-policies from Europe and comparing them The aim of this thesis is to test the power relations within development cooperation. Partnership has become a keyword in these relations and it is both the framework for interaction as for development. But what does this partnership really consist of? The methodology is based on a discourse analysis on how Sweden and EU use rhetoric to construct frameworks for their understanding of Africa as well as how they apply their ideologies in development discourse. Political argumentation is all about saying something to gain something. Policy documents can sometimes be perceived as simple documents that only holds general modalities and simple explanations of frameworks. But development is loaded with ideological convictions and so are policy documents. The documents are analysed in three perspectives, the political, the economical and the cultural. Two key terms are also objects for study, partnership and governance. The rhetorical analysis is derived from the four arguments that Europe has used to legitimise intervention abroad since the colonial days; The barbarity of others, Ending practices that violate the universal values, The defence of the innocent among the cruel others, Making it possible to spread universal values. Together, they form a framework for hegemonic and structural power with a web of values, intentions, punishments and ulterior motive to control Africa.