Over the last couple of years, the visibility and recognition of the importance of Africa in global politics has been increasing significantly, both as a relevant space, but also as a range of actors centrally including states as well as African regional organisations (ROs)/regionalisms (e.g., recent Africa tour of the Russian foreign minister Lavrov, AU acceptance into G20). This observation seems to stand in stark contrast to the persistent criticism advanced against African ROs in many policy publications and much of the academic literature.