Post-Colonial Perspective on the Discourse of andlsquo;Normative power Europeandrsquo; In the African-EU Relations

Abstract

This article attempts to critically examine the concept of 'Normative Power Europe' and its role in (re)producing the dominant power relation between the EU and the African nations. In order to analyze the normative power thesis and its postcolonial implication to Africa this article introduces the Cotonou Partnership Agreement- the EU cooperation agreement with African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries-which included tight normative clauses and conditionality’s. The article argues that the meta-narrative of NPE and the normative clauses and conditionality’s in the Cotonou Partnership Agreement are reinforcing the unequal power relations that are resulted from the colonial rule in the African- EU relations through the practice of Orientalism. It farther reveals this meta-narrative produces and reproduces the representation of Africans as 'inferior' and 'deficient' which needs to be redeemed by the help of the 'superior' and 'capable' Europeans.