We examine the real and financial connectedness of selected African economies with the global economy using a network approach. We find that the connectedness of African economies with the global economy is quite sizable, with the global financial crisis increasing the connectedness measures above their pre‐crisis levels. The results show that U.S., EU and Canada dominate Africa's equity markets, while China, India and Japan dominate Africa's real activities. Our results suggest that African economies are predominantly small open economies, deeply interconnected but systemically unimportant and vulnerable to headwinds emanating from the dominant economies in the overall global economy.