Justin van der Merwe is a Senior Researcher with the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. His other books include the co-edited collection Emerging Powers in Africa (2016).Patrick Bond is Professor of Political Economy at the Wits School of Governance, and Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has also previously taught at Johns Hopkins University, and worked at the NGOs Planact and the National Institute for Economic Policy. His previous books include Looting Africa (Zed 2006) and Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa (2014).Nicole Dodd is Chair of the School for Human and Organisational Development, Stellenbosch University. She is co-author (with Justin van der Merwe) of The Political Economy of Underdevelopment in the global South (2019).

• 1. African assimilation, co-optation, and resistance in the BRICS era - Justin van der Merwe, Nicole Dodd and Patrick BondPart 1. BRICS: Joining the dots across Africa and the periphery 232. Notes from the hinterland: Theorising BRICS and their geographies of resistance - Justin van der Merwe3. Assimilation, co-optation, and resistance within BRICS-from-the-middle - Patrick Bond4. BRICS' trade with Africa: Long live the new king, just like the old king - Nicole Dodd5. China in Africa: South-South Solidarity or Imperialism in the 21st Century? - Ishmael Lesufi and Lisa ThompsonPart 2. BRICS and their southern and eastern African geographies of resistance: Dispossession, collusion, and local responses 6. BRICS and the new scramble for Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the military coup -Farai Maguwu and Shakespear Hamauswa7. Sino-Zambian relations: Responses from below - Godfrey Hampwaye and Phineas Bbaala8. The Gupta leaks and intra-BRICS collusion - Nicole Dodd and Justin van der Merwe9. The Belt and Road Initiative and Eastern Africa - István Tarrósy10. Africa at the precipice: Lessons from Brazil - Mbekezeli Mkhize and Vukile Sibiya11. Indian Land Acquisitions in Ethiopia: A wolf in sheep's clothing? - Lwando Mthamo and Mbekezeli Mkhize12. Rosatom and nuclear power in South Africa: Assistance and resistance - Eldar Salakhetdinov and Vasily Sidorov 13. GEAR past, BRICS future: South Africa protests - Mbekezeli Mkhize14. Conclusion -Justin van der Merwe, Nicole Dodd, and Patrick Bond