Only time will tell whether all the processes and developments described in the preceding chapters simply represent political discourse (prestige diplomacy), economic interest (‘soft imperialism’) or an association between two peripheries of the world system in the pursuit of socioeconomic development (South–South Cooperation). Fundamentally, the three aspects complement each other because diplomacy and effective support for social development can only result from economic cooperation. Brazilian domestic contradictions interact with those of African nations. It is an ongoing process involving many actors, various goals and a complex regional and global environment. However, despite all Brazil's efforts, there has been a lack of coordination within the government and between the government, society and business, as well as an absence of strategic vision in the private sector. Similarly, although more financial resources have been invested, they are still insufficient for the proposed policy, and corporate sectors react strongly to the allocation of more resources for Brazil–Africa relations.

It is however undeniable that the relationship between Brazil and the African continent has deep historical roots, as both sides of the South Atlantic were inserted into the world system within the Portuguese Maritime Empire. What would eventually become Brazil was Europeanised and Africanised simultaneously, and it was the contribution of enslaved Africans that enabled colonisation. They knew the tropical environment, which was often fatal to Europeans. The slave trade lasted approximately three and a half centuries and in Portuguese America miscegenation was more frequent than in Anglo-Saxon and French America.

The contacts between the two South Atlantic shores (of people and goods) continued for nearly half a century after Brazil's independence in 1822, being interrupted only by the anti-slavery patrols of the British Navy and the European occupation of the African continent. The economic structure that gave rise to these transatlantic relations ceased to exist. As each side evolved separately, despite cultural and environmental similarities, mutual ignorance deepened. European and North American studies on Brazil and Africa were the only references to a scarce number of readers on the reality of ‘the other side’. Brazil and Africa began to see each other through a mirror, distorted by the gaze of third parties (i.e. colonial powers).