Third Worlds focuses attention on the relationship between the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, examining the alternative Islamic development agenda for Africa which, in part, mirrors that of the the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The grouping of the Middle East and Africa within the umbrella term 'Third World', has masked not only the contrasts and contradictions of the two areas but also their cultural and historic similarities. This study exlores: the contrast between Western and Islamic notions of democracy the contrast between Western International aid agencies and the Islamic Development Bank Islamic economics and the potential for reviving the more impoverished African states Once removed from the 'Third World', the Middle East and Africa display changing power relationships and different pictures emerge: ones of dominance and subservience, of aid and development strategies, of religious aggrandisement and revivalism, of tension and conflict and cultural and religious affinities. By adopting a different approach, Third Worlds changes our thinking about the Third World in general and the Middle East and Africa in particular.