India’s vision to lead the global South turns on its relationship with Africa. Yet, the historical relationship between India and African nations has not always proceeded the way Indian leaders anticipated, owing to tensions over issues such as economic development, nuclearisation, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This article examines the fluid and flexible web of relationships between Africa and India as a mirror of the greater global South, which is a shapeshifting and slippery world.

The year 2023 saw the first and second meetings of the new Voice of the Global South Summit, the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The first was held in January to mark the beginning of India’s one-year presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit and to galvanise support from the leaders of African, Asian, and South American nations. The second, held in November, celebrated the new membership of the African Union in the G20, a move spearheaded by India. The Prime Minister used this occasion to call for unity in the global South, urging a collective spirit among nations who were perhaps headed in different directions as they faced mounting pressure to take sides in catastrophic and lengthy wars in Ukraine and West Asia. India, for its part, had expres­sed vocal support for Israel shortly after the 7 October terrorist attacks by Hamas, a position that put the nation at odds with much of the global South. He was perhaps fearing for India’s credibility as a voice for the developing world, for, as international relations scholar Muqtedar Khan (2023) writes, “there is no place south of Palestine in the Global South.”

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