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Africa's rise to prominence in the geopolitics of the 21st century is explained largely by the renewal of great power interest towards the region of the world once dismissed as the "forgotten continent." This great power concern reproduces the same power-play which characterised the Cold War when inter-locking and overlapping interests of great powers significantly shaped the outlook of international politics. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent demise of the Soviet Union gave rise to a new environment which President George H.W Bush called a "New World Order" in 1990. This "New World Order" or globalization as it came to be called, saw the expansion of capitalism across regional and continental boundaries at the expense of its reeling rival, communismBarely a decade after President Bush's ordination of a new global environment, another world order was gradually emerging. This "Third World Order" as it has also been named, is championed by a rising eastern giant, China. The unprecedented rise of China as an economic power capable of steering the course of the global economy provides a credible alternative to the western-driven concept of globalization. The imagined or real rivalry between these two power blocs is the concern of this article. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]