Looking at the statistics behind the claims Africa’s share of global trade has not changed significantly in twenty years – from around 2.4% or thereabouts between the early 2000s and now. From habits forced by colonialism, African nations have historically relied too heavily on export income from primary commodities, including oil, minerals and raw materials […]
Author Archives: Lionel Stanbrook
2026 Ahem
PEAGE PINTXOS BANISTER: May 2026
Ahem, I travelled down to La Hune with Jurrat and Jessie in a well-loaded car [...]
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01
Jun
Jun
2026 Ahem
MUSKETS SHRIFT RAPT: April 2026
Ahem Alli and I were up and early on Good Friday to be driven with [...]
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30
Apr
Apr
Professional Writing Writing
They awoke…
The hidden past of the bisexual pronoun Those of all political and cultural persuasions [...]
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2026 Ahem
BABY FAIRYLAND TWITTEN: March 2026
Ahem I was about to open a pile of birthday cards when I was encouraged [...]
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30
Mar
Mar
2026 Ahem
QUOTIDIAN HAMMERHEAD HIPPO: February 2026
Ahem Rain and colder weather in southern England dominated the first few days of the [...]
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Mar
Mar
30
Nov
Nov
Ahem Alli’s difficult and frustrating work selling our house in Leymen has finished with the transaction formally concluded at the beginning of the month, after some brain-cell and wallet-reducing last-minute hitches. The sale took place almost exactly ten years after we bought it (we beat the national average by 3 years). Kind-hearted brother-in-law Anthony drove […]
Cote d’Ivoire is by some accounts one of Africa’s best performing economies, with a reported GDP of 7.4% in 2018. It seems to do well in foreign direct investment, with total FDI stock of $10.2 billion, representing 23.8% of the country’s GDP . Above all, President Ouattara claims to have resolved the problems associated with the bloody […]
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Nov
Nov
Ahem Recently I described a visit to a traditional healer who had diagnosed an ailment affecting an Ivoirian friend of mine whose hand was inexplicably painful. The healer had also suggested that a curse by someone nearby might be the cause. The plant medicines prescribed for the hand had worked well but my friend Benedicta […]
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Oct
Oct
Words are the most misunderstood part of that crowded, undisciplined and noisy group of ill-fitting elements that together make up what we call communications. In fact, words often get in the way of communications, like rider-less horses in a race or hooting stationary cars in a traffic jam. We all misunderstand each other in some […]
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Oct
Oct
Africa’s fast-growing markets should be producing far more commercial opportunities for its businesses and yielding far more jobs for its people, but they are not. If there is genuine economic growth occurring in Africa’s major cities then current data and the view from the street are not reflecting it. Jobless growth haunts the cities of […]
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Oct
Oct
The ‘Green Revolution’ that transformed agricultural production in Asia and Latin America in the 1960s was driven by two main factors. First, technology and innovation. Rapid advances in agricultural research and development, especially the science of breeding and release of improved seed varieties of main staple crops – wheat and rice – were a precursor […]
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Oct
Oct
Ahem I had a party at my house one night and my mobile phone must have been stolen since I could not find it in hours of post-party searching nooks and crannies. I had to go to the local police commissariat the following Monday to register the loss and obtain a document verifying this. My […]
Neither Oxfam or the USA appear keen to see Rwanda start up a garment business. Here’s why… What do you think happens to the used clothes we give to clothes banks? Some go to charities for the poor, some to emergency aid, but most go to maintain a multi-million dollar international business, with companies exporting […]
Ahem A friend of mine decided to visit a traditional healer in order to remedy an unexplained pain in her finger after conventional medication and clinical diagnosis had not worked. Fascinated, I came with her and some knowledgeable companions to see the healer, who lived in a small isolated community near the village of Anyama. We […]