Journal
Europe and Africa, honestly.
Notes on the economic ties between the two continents — what works, what doesn’t, and what never makes the brochure. Every number carries its source.
Two weeks in Cape Town — and a door sign in Stellenbosch
A holiday, no research plan. Still: African tech funding grew by a quarter in 2025, South Africa led the continent on equity rounds — and in Stellenbosch there is a sign carrying almost exactly my own company's name.
Europe buys raw material. And sells machines back.
82 percent of what the EU imports from sub-Saharan Africa is primary goods. 67 percent of what it sells back is manufactures. The numbers come from the European Commission's own statistics — and three of the things I set out to prove did not survive checking.
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
A series on the economic entanglement of Europe and Africa — and a promise about how it will be written.