The last decade witnessed the radically reshaping of Brazilian foreign policy by President Lula. He toured Africa several times to meet with heads of state, opening new embassies across the continent, all the time lauding the historic Afro-Brazilian ties which are so visibly apparent in Brazil’s multi-racial population. Amid the political initiatives and declarations of friendship, trade between Brazil and the continent soared, increasing 500% in decade, and Brazilian companies like Vale looked east across the Atlantic Ocean eyeing lucrative investment opportunities.

Another less heralded but potentially transformative aspect of this relationship has been the projection of Brazilian technical assistance across Africa. Brazil is world leader in agribusiness. Along with being a top producer of commodities such as soya, beef and coffee, it is an innovator, applying new ideas like this pest-control scheme which air dropped wasps on crops to kill insects. In comparison Africa lags behind the rest of…