Is China’s Growing Zimbabwe Alliance Key To Its Bigger Plans For Southern Africa?
February 28th, 2025
Via South China Morning Post, a look at how Beijing is betting on resources, labour and long ties to makes Zimbabwe a major steel hub, and a strategic foothold in the region, experts say In Beitbridge, a border town in southern Zimbabwe, a mega industrial park that will eventually produce electricity, chromium-based materials and steel […]
Read more »How The Race For Green Energy Is Shaping Relations Between China and Africa
September 3rd, 2024
Via The Conversation, a report on how China’s interests in Africa are being shaped by the race for renewable energy: The global climate crisis has created a push for renewable energy technology – like solar or wind power – which would lessen reliance on polluting energy sources. China saw some years ago it had a […]
Read more »China Drives African Lithium Surge to Lock in Key Battery Metal
August 13th, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a report on how Chinese miners and refiners are driving a surge in African lithium output: African mines projected to account for 14% of supply by 2028 West is lagging behind China in securing critical minerals Chinese miners and refiners are driving a surge in African lithium output, shrugging off concerns over a […]
Read more »Fintechs Fly Planes of Cash Into Zimbabwe to Meet Demand for Dollars
July 21st, 2024
Via Bloomberg, an article on how African mobile money services are booming as citizens are reluctant to adopt the country’s new currency: At least once a month — and sometimes as often as three times a week — a private plane lands in a secure part of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on the outskirts […]
Read more »Rise of Chinese Surveillance Tech in Africa: Development or Espionage?
July 11th, 2024
Courtesy of The Africa Report, commentary on the growing deployment of Chinese CCTV equipment in African cities: Chinese technology companies like Huawei and ZTE are contributing to smart city development on the continent, but analysts warn that their tools provide authoritarian governments with the means to spy on citizens and promote repression. More than a […]
Read more »As China Scrambles for Zimbabwe’s Lithium, Small Miners Are Left Behind
June 16th, 2024
Via Al Jazeera, an article on how small miners in Zimbabwe are impacted by China’s growing role in the market: On a winter’s morning in Shamva, in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland Central province, Brenda, a single mother of three, is on the hunt for lithium ore. The 39-year-old, who asked that only her first name be used, […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.