Trade/Commerce Posts filed under Trade/Commerce.
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The Investigation: What Colonial Officials Found When They Finally Asked
A Historical In-depth Discovery of Trade in West Africa Since 1896 Here’s what you need to know: At a formal hearing in the coastal town of Salt…
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The Numbers Game: Four Small Countries vs. Two Trade Superpowers
Here’s what you need to know: The C-4 countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali — together account for barely 5% of global cotton producti…
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The Trial That Never Happened: Burkina Faso vs. Monsanto
A Historical In-depth Discovery of Trade in West Africa Since 1896 Here’s what you need to know: In April 2016, Burkina Faso’s cotton indu…
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1979: The Day Burkina Faso “Owned” Its Cotton Company — On Paper
A Historical In-depth Discovery of Trade in West Africa Since 1896 Here’s what you need to know: On paper, June 20, 1979, looks like a genuine m…
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1924: The Cotton Policy So Disastrous It Erased a Colony
Here’s what you need to know: A cotton policy failed so badly that the colony enforcing it was dissolved — wiped off the map entirely for fiftee…
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The Geopolitical Chess Match Over Niger’s Uranium
Niger nationalizes the SOMAÏR uranium mine, stripping French firm Orano ofcontrol and citing decades of disproportionate extraction (86% of output vs….
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Niger Nationalized Its Uranium Mine Over an “86% vs. 63%”Number — But Orano Says That Number Tells Only Half theStory
Orano held a 63.4% stake in the SOMAÏR uranium mine. Between 1971 and 2024,the company had taken 86.3% of everything the mine produced. A gap that big…
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Niger Just Told an International Court “No” — Twice — &Shipped 1,000 Tonnes of Uranium Anyway
An international arbitration tribunal ordered Niger not to sell, transfer, or evenfacilitate the movement of uranium from a specific mine. In November…
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Guinea Celebrated Simandou’s Launch With aRibbon-Cutting — Then a Locomotive Dispute Left the FirstShip Stuck at Anchor for Weeks
On November 11, 2025, Guinea’s President Mamadi Doumbouya stood at a portceremony in Forécariah prefecture alongside Rio Tinto’s CEO and C…
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Guinea’s First Simandou Shipment Took 20 Years —Because the Deal That Started It Was Built on an $8.5Million Bribe
In December 2025, Guinea shipped its first cargo of Simandou iron ore to China,ending over two decades of delays on what’s considered AfricaR…