Despite having ‘everything necessary to become a powerful, modern, industrialised continent’, in the words of former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, the African continent has been plagued by Western intervention in the form of coups, structural adjustment programmes, and more. While African leaders such as Nkrumah have sought to establish new development frameworks based on the organisation of an autonomous united Africa, these Western-imposed agendas have severely hindered the continent’s aspirations for development and dignity. Today, with the rise of China’s Belt and Road Initiative following its own rapid development independent of Western institutions, China represents an important source of financing for alternative development projects.