A decade of researching China–Africa relations has been constructive but also frustrating, because the production of critical analysis has been dominated by researchers based in the ‘West’ despite a desire for co-produced knowledge. Using a series of ethnographic reflections from our research, we examine the possibilities of taking on board, but moving beyond, Connell’s critique of ‘Southern theory’. Connell argues that theory production about the global South tends to be extractive with Western epistemologies framing ‘legitimate’ knowledge. Producing theory that reflects Southern concerns and needs is not about inverting this bias but takes place through production of ‘connected’ knowledges in the sense that Bhambra invokes. She sees socia...