Over the last decades, the world has witnessed the African continent’s transformation into an

increasingly relevant actor in the global political arena, as part of the emerging South. The most

remarkable aspect of such transformation in the global discourse points to the recognition of the

economic potentialities of Africa, who gathers momentum as the “new frontier of development”.

This new level of visibility of the continent has led to the rise of a new “south agency”, due to

the increasing prominence of a number of African countries and thus South-South cooperation

arises as a development opportunity for the globalized south. In that sense, this work endeavors

to analyze the complexity of this new agency, the main trends for international cooperation and its

role in building the history of the 21st Century