WSJ story on US companies seeking to "catch up" in Africa. As the chart indicates, US trade with the region has remained steady in the high teens (percentage), while it's Europe that has lost ground to emerging south-south trade (emerging and developing markets trading with each other). That share was about one-third at Cold War's end, but now it's up to more than half.
Old Core demand for African commodities has long been an up and down affair (boom and bust according to its business cycle), but with rising New Core economies creating plenty more demand, Africa enters into a supercycle of demand that floods the local economies with money and cheap consumer goods in reply. In combination, Old and New Core demand create a lift-off moment for the continent, the likes of which it has never seen before.
Many good things will come of this, but so will a host of painful transitions, the trick being that the primary integrating agent right now on the continent is the one country famous for not caring about its local impact whatsoever. This is touted as a virtue by many (Beijing consensus), but it comes with a price - this indifference.