TRADING PLACES: AFRICA’S CHINA PIVOT

Trump may have paused his tariff hikes, but when they are unleashed, African countries look set to be among the hardest hit. South Africa is bracing for 30%, Botswana for 37%, Madagascar 47%, and Lesotho - 50%. However, looking at trade flows over the last two decades, our continent is clearly reorientating away from the US and towards China.

The US was the main trading partner for 37 African countries in 2003. By 2023, almost all of Africa (52 nations, up from 18 in 2003) had China as its top trade partner.

Total trade between China and Africa hit $292 billion in 2024 compared with less than $80 billion for the US. The China-Africa figure is likely to increase further after Beijing announced duty-free access to the Chinese market for 33 African countries.

Continued…….. China-Africa ties are driven by mutual self-interest. With Africa in need of Chinese expertise in fields such as infrastructure development, and the Chinese being a major consumer of African resources such as oil, Beijing’s entry to Africa provided an alternative to Western finance’s exploitative approach to the continent: decades of debt accumulation with little to show, versus 100,000 km of roads and over 10,000 km of railways constructed over the past 25 years.

The bigger story, however, is the failure of African governments to boost intra-African trade, which stood at 16% of total Africa trade in 2023. In contrast, intra-EU trade stood at 70% and intra-Asian trade at 60%. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), despite being signed in 2018, hasn’t seen much progress.

Sources

https://carnegieendowment.org/carnegie-africa-program-newsletter/should-africa-brace-for-trumps-tariffs?lang=en

https://carnegieendowment.org/carnegie-africa-program-newsletter/should-africa-brace-for-trumps-tariffs?lang=en

https://mcbgroup.com/think/post/trade-report-2025-intra-trade

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/international-law-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2020/11/THE-AFRICAN-CONTINENTAL-FREE-TRADE-AREA.-TOWARD-A-NEW-LEGAL-MODEL-FOR-TRADE-AND-DEVELOPMENT.pdf

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/214270-american-and-chinese-trade-with-africa-rhetoric-vs-reality/

TRUMP NOT SORRY FOR WANTING INNOCENT BLACK TEENS DEAD

On this day, 36 years ago, a group of teenagers were hanging out in New York’s Central Park. On the same day, a 28-year-old woman, Trisha Meili, was jogging in the park. She was later found beaten and r*ped, and was in a coma for 12 days.

Thus came about the case of the Central Park 5, a group of Black and Hispanic teenagers falsely accused and jailed for sexual assault. It illustrates how the odds are stacked against our people as they struggle against injustice and oppression in the United States. None other than future US president Donald Trump would seek to subvert the justice system against them.

The businessman-cum-politician is known for his controversial statements, and Africans, in particular, have been on the receiving end of some of Trump’s most derogatory vitriol - for example, his branding Haiti and African nations’ sh*thole countries.’

Continued…….. In this 1989 clip, we get a taste of Trump’s profound disrespect for and devaluation of Black lives. At the time, he took out full-page ads in several newspapers to advocate for the death penalty - in the hope that it would be applied to the Central Park 5. The accused each served between five and thirteen years after a jury convicted them, based on a confession they said was obtained through coercion by the police - before being exonerated in 2002 when the actual attacker confessed. His DNA matched that found at the crime scene.

In 2019, when asked if he would be willing to apologise to the men for calling for their execution, Trump said he would not. In late 2024, he misstated key facts, saying the teenagers, now grown men, ‘badly hurt a person, k*lled a person, ultimately.’ The five men sued him for defamation, and a federal judge ruled on April 10 that the case could proceed despite Trump’s request to have it dropped.

Video credit: PBS America, NBC, CNN

Sources

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/judge-refuses-dismiss-central-park-fives-defamation-case-120719536

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-48609693

https://apnews.com/article/central-park-five-donald-trump-defamation-lawsuit-d7107a64130be9723d79c6cc52dfd0dd

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/feb/17/donald-trump-central-park-five-jogger-death-penalty-new-york-video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67pQmshOOvA

NASSER AND LUMUMBA

What do Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and Congo’s Patrice Lumumba have in common? Well, most obviously, they were both revolutionary giants who stood up to colonialism and the West. But did you know that the Egyptian president gave shelter to the family of DRC’s first prime minister when the knives were out for him? Our video tells the story of this inspiring act of solidarity.

Sources

https://focmedia.org/2022/07/escape-to-cairo-from-kerning-cultures/

https://africa.sis.gov.eg/english/figures/politics/patrice-lumumba/

BURKINA FASO: CASHING IN ON CASHEW

Burkina Faso has seized another opportunity to boost economic sovereignty - it’s banned raw cashew exports. The idea is to process the nut at home and thereby increase profits and create jobs. Last year, 90% of the harvest wasn’t processed in-country - a squandering of potential wealth now intolerable to Ouagadougou.

Sources

https://www.aa.com.tr/fr/afrique/burkina-faso-suspension-de-lexportation-de-la-noix-brute-de-cajou/3526658

https://www.agenceecofin.com/actualites-agro/0304-127235-le-burkina-faso-interdit-les-exportations-de-noix-de-cajou-jusqu-a-nouvel-ordre

MUSEUMS ISOLATE EGYPTIAN ARTEFACTS AS NOT AFRICAN

You may have seen the meme about aliens building Egyptian pyramids. 

According to Instagram user @museumteachingfun, European archaeologists didn’t think too differently. Fascinated by Egyptian advancements, Europeans couldn’t believe Africans pulled them off. And, so, racism explains why trinkets of Egyptian culture are isolated from African artefacts in Western museums.

However, many accounts, including the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, indicate native Egyptians looked like today’s Nubians, who had been pushed to the south of the country over the centuries.

Have a listen, and let us know what you think.

Video credit: @museumteachingfun (IG)

Sources

https://www.academia.edu/68018551/Challenging_the_Museum_Narrative_of_Ancient_Egypt

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decolonisation/coloniality-and-the-british-museums

https://isac.uchicago.edu/museum-exhibits/nubia/images-nubians

IS RUTO ‘MAKING A KILLING’ IN DRC?

William Ruto’s greed is putting the eastern African region at risk - so alleges the Kenyan president’s ex deputy, Rigathi Gachagua. The former VP, who was removed from office last October after an impeachment vote, has been busy blowing the whistle on the inner workings of the Ruto government, sharing what he claims is privileged insider knowledge.

In a recent interview with Kenya Television Network (@KTNNewsKE on X), Gachagua made serious allegations about Ruto’s involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly regarding the gold industry. While the latter has positioned himself as a pan-Africanist, he faces accusations of betraying the core values of pan-Africanism by catering to imperialist interests.

Continued….. Notably, as France faces increasing pushback in Africa, especially in the Sahel region, Ruto turned to French President Emmanuel Macron for assistance in addressing the crisis in DRC.

This led to outrage in Kinshasa, whose residents protested violently at the Kenyan embassy, viewing Kenya as complicit in selling out their nation to foreign powers. The incident was part of a spate of attacks on foreign embassies of countries seen as implicated in DRC’s turmoil during the M23 rebels’ takeover of Goma.

Kenya also faced criticism for hosting the Congo River Alliance, a political-military group of Congolese rebels, with the Rwanda-backed M23 being the most preeminent faction. Gachagua argues that Ruto’s diplomatic blunders and exploitation of the conflict in the DRC are key factors contributing to the region’s instability.

Video credit: KTN News Kenya

Sources

https://trtafrika.com/africa/kenya-denies-backing-drcs-new-rebel-alliance-16275045

https://www.csis.org/analysis/kenya-and-democratic-republic-congo

https://shahidinews.co.ke/2023/12/17/kenya-distances-itself-from-the-launch-of-new-congolese-military-alliance-in-nairobi/

https://www.theafricareport.com/381267/kenya-ex-allies-lambast-ruto-accuse-him-of-war-profiteering/

https://kenyanforeignpolicy.com/ruto-preaching-pan-africanism-dialling-the-west/

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/congo-summons-its-kenyan-ambassador-over-rebel-alliance/3084722