Devils Below

The World Was Stunned: How Gold Let Ancient Africans Build a Nation from Scratch [ History ] 🌍 Today, all nations are built in the European image: laws, parliaments, courts, armies, and police — mainly in the French or English style (some have the Portuguese version, but we pity them). It might seem that the very concept of a state is inherently European. And, in today’s Africa, that’s largely true. ⏱ But a thousand years ago, near Limpopo, there existed a unique and original state whose complete isolation from Europe and Asia suggests a true birth of a nation from scratch—without outside influence or financial support from parents. The kingdom was called Mapungubwe. It emerged in the 11th century from a local tribe that, within just a few decades, subjugated its neighbors, established a complex hierarchy, and built a stone capital for thousands of people. At the heart of its rise was gold—just as usually, it was exported. Selling gold through eastern neighbors to Asia created inequality and gave rise to a king and an elite. The same gold wealth allowed rulers to use a "divide and conquer"strategy to control neighboring tribes. ⛔️ As legendary ancient states usually do, Mapungubwe mysteriously vanished after about 200 years. All that remains is a hill where the capital once stood—and this golden rhino, discovered by scientists in 1932. #History ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Nigerian Company Loses Asset in Equatorial Guinea 🌐 American oil giant Chevron has terminated its partnership with Nigerian companyAtlas Petroleum for the joint development of an offshore oil block in Equatorial Guinea, with Atlas’s 27.55% stake set to be transferred to the state-owned GEPetrol. ⏩ The Nigerians let Chevron down by delaying mandatory payments. The American company had been trying to ditch its Nigerian partner since at least September, but struggled to secure the support of Equatorial Guinea’s government, which had no intention of investing in the project after Atlas’s exit. ⏩ In the end, a solution acceptable to all was found: the Guinean government will receive Atlas’s stake for free, but Chevron will take an equivalent share of the state’s future gas sales revenue. Atlas Petroleum is owned by Nigerian businessman Arthur Eze, whose business empire is going through tough times—just recently, Atlas lost assets in Senegal as well. Meanwhile, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea have plans to build a gas pipeline to Bioko Island, and its fate will soon reveal whether Atlas’s owner still has enough influence in Abuja to protect his projects. ⚠️ Not only for Arthur Eze, but for West Africa as a whole this is a troubling trend: nascent local companies may compete with international giants at home, but they still appear to be systematically blocked from expanding into neighboring countries. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵U.S. Bureau of African Affairs Reveals Its Strategy🔵 A unique offer—two news stories in one! First, a State Department official revealed the US strategy for Africa. Second, there essentially is no strategy. ➡️ In a new interview with Semafor, the head of the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs attempts to outline what the US plans to do in Africa. First the US won’t engage in all-out competition with China across the board. This is considered pointless and too costly. Instead, the US intends to displace Chinese influence in key areas—primarily in mineral extraction and supply chain projects. ➡️ Second, the era of moralizing and unconditional aid is over: it’s all about mutual benefit and equal investment in projects now. Even humanitarian programs will now be evaluated through the lens of political and economic returns. 🔴With a lot of African countries, [we] went in and were lecturing, moralizing about different things. And that’s not what they want to hear. Security, economic growth—that’s what they want. ❓ ...And, that's it. No fine-tuned approach, no region-specific details. A year into this administration, they still haven’t decided which countries are priorities — and Africa as a whole remains a secondary focus. The Bureau's head may have chosen not to reveal much, but, from what he told journalists, Washington seemingly knows what it doesn't want to do, but has no fresh vision. Instead of a strategy, there is opportunism — or a "ready, fire, aim" approach. US is more likely to grab whatever projects come its way than to actively seek out strategic opportunities. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵I Don't Want to Play with You Anymore🔵 Why Does Mali Need So Many State-Owned Mining Companies? 🇲🇱 On Friday February 6, Mali’s government established a new state-owned company, SOPAMIM, which is expected to manage the state’s stakes in mineral projects. But what did Bamako do to their previous, 2022 public mining company, SOREM? 🔸 Few countries can boast two state-owned mining companies operating in the same sector. Typically, one corporation is created — like Nigeria’s NNPC — which does it all: produces, manages state shares, and collects sector-wide bribes. This makes sense because the line between production and managing state stakes is razor-thin. ⏩ Rejecting Occam’s Razor as a colonial relic Mali has now created another separate company for everything: SOREM — for new projects, SOPAMIM — for state shares. Nice, but what's actually the reason? 1️⃣First, SOREM clearly lacked competence and efficiency. Since its creation in 2022, it has taken over several gold assets, but there’s no evidence of it succeeding in running them. At best, it managed to attract a foreign partner. 2️⃣Second, the government is increasingly demanding maximum state participation(35% by law) in new projects. This means neither SOREM nor the traditional ministries who previously managed the stakes may be able to handle the new volume and responsibility. It makes sense to gather all assets in one place with professional accountants and auditors. In other words, the new company is Bamako's second attempt to find a workable model for state involvement in the mining sector—this time, with higher stakes. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🌐Weekly News Digest [ February 2 – February 8 ] That was a week when we learned about what Epsteinhad to do with Africa's oil... 💡...and, there were other highlights: 🇦🇴 Angola — Opposition Group Declares Independence of Oil-Rich Enclave of Cabinda from Angola 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso Boasts of Record Gold Extraction 🇨🇩 DR Congo — DRC Government Releases Official Response to Rubaya Mine Collapse — US State-Backed Consortium Buys 40% Shares of Two Large Copper-Cobalt Mines From Swiss Company — US Virtus Minerals to Purchase Congolese Copper Producer Chemaf 🇬🇭 Ghana — Private Refinery Makes First Bars From Artisanal Gold Collected by State — French Troops Train Ghanaian Army to Fight Illegal Gold Miners 🇱🇷 Liberia — Ivanhoe Atlantic Appoints Team of US Nationals to Its Board to Facilitate Its Iron Project 🇳🇦 Namibia — Brazil’s Petrobras and France’s TotalEnergies Acquire 85% of Namibia's Oil Field 🇳🇬 Nigeria — Nigeria’s State Oil Corporation Faces Corruption Lawsuit from Local NGO — Nigerians Protest Against Rampimg Up Oil Production In Niger Delta — Nigerian Court Delivers Guilty Verdict Against UK 🇿🇲 Zambia — Delegation From Finland Arrives in Zambia 🌍 Global — US Creates Reserve of Critical Minerals for Civilian Industry #NewsDigest ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵They Remember the People: Mining Ministry Reminds Foreign Companies of the Law🔵 🌐 In the wake of Félix Tshisekedi’s US visit and the massive American takeover of Congolese deposits, the Congolese Ministry of Mines(not as a distraction, for sure) has publicly reminded companies that a portion of their shares must belong to local workers. ⏩ The ministry’s generous PR gift for pro-government media is based on its reading of what the ministry call legal requirements that local workers must own up to 5% of mining companies’ shares. ⏩ No one will actually hand out shares to miners, for sure. After all, DRC law doesn’t force companies to give away 5% to workers for free — it only mandates 10% Congolese ownership. So, most likely, the ministry will be ignored—at best, companies with shaky relations with Kinshasa might be pressured to bring in a local contractor or union boss as a token partner. In the end, everyone stays where they are—because the real point of this announcement is for the government to drown out the endless headlines about handing over assets and mineral rights to the US. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

"I Survived 21 Hours Buried Alive": DRC Mine Collapse Survivor Speaks 📣 Journalists from Al Jazeera managed to track down and interview one of the survivors of the January 28 landslide at the Rubaya coltan mine in the DRC's AFC/M23-controlled territory. According to Grace Barata, he and other miners were trapped when they took shelter in the mine from the rain: 🔴It started raining around 3 PM local time, and we took shelter from the rain in the mine... I heard rocks rubbing together and thought it was just pebbles being washed away by the water. Then I found myself in total darkness. Ironically, the same rain that softened the soil and triggered the landslide may have saved Barata and his colleagues as they were inside the mine when the collapse happened and weren’t crushed by falling rocks. After 21 hours underground, rescuers finally pulled Barata from the earth on Thursday at around 1 PM. 🔴We saw the light from afar and knew we would be rescued. The others died before our eyes, without saying a word. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵A Nation Finds Itself Encircled By French Oil Company🔵 🌐 Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras and France’s TotalEnergies have jointly acquired 85% of the PEL104 offshore oil field in Namibia, a country still awaiting the start of commercial oil production. For the French company this will become the 3rd asset in a country still awaiting the start of commercial oil production. In December 2025, TotalEnergies already acquired a 40% stake in another Namibian oil field. 📊How was it divided? 🇧🇷42.5% — acquired by Brazil’s Petrobras. 🇫🇷42.5% — secured by France’s TotalEnergies, which will serve as the operator. 🇳🇦 State-owned Namcor only got 10% and Eight keeps the remaining 5%. 📄 Interestingly, the buyers were in such a hurry to announce the deal that they seemingly forgot to ask Namibia’s government, which had to issue a separate reminder yesterday about the need to approve such transactions with the authorities. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Good morning! 💡 Anytime you've ideas to suggest, interesting topics to share, or feel that some facts are unfairly overlooked — don’t hesitate to drop a comment here or DM the channel. P.S. People in the video were allegedly digging for water but struck oil instead somewhere in Somalia. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵The Weirdest Declaration of Independence🔵 📣 Wearing a funny hat on the edge of the forest—this is how, on February 2, representatives of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) declared the independence of the oil-rich enclave from Angola. A cruel irony: the international indifference that FLEC complains about in their video followed this declaration as well. A geographically detached enclave of approximately 7,200 km², sandwiched between Congo (Brazzaville) and the DRC, Cabinda accounts for roughly 60% of Angola’s oil production — and historically, up to 80% of state revenues during peak periods. This asymmetry has created a paradox: Cabinda is Angola’s most economically strategic region, yet one of the most politically constrained. ❗️ The decolonization advocates in the video are particularly stung by the world’s indifference to their struggle— "and especially Portugal’s." The very independence declaration is also aimed at shifting a dispute from a domestic matter into an international self-determination case. However, Europeans, Americans, and Chinese have always been too invested in maintaining Angola’s oil exports to support them, and now the U.S. and Europe are also building the Lobito railway corridor through Angola — with the involvement of Portuguese companies. Above all, this desperate bid for international attention clearly signals that the FLEC lacks both the its own strength and the geopolitical awareness to wage an effective struggle. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵How Late Can Justice Be?🔵 A court in Nigeria’s Enugu State has delivered a guilty verdict against the United Kingdom in one of the most infamous episodes of Nigeria’s colonial history: the 1949 massacre of coal miners. 🆓 Enugu first became a coal source for the British Empire in 1915 — interestingly, the mines were state (colonial) assets, not private. In 1944, tensions escalated when the head of a local workers’ union demanded a seven-hour workday and underground allowances, aligning with industrial health standards in national labor codes. The following 4 years of lingering conflict with the colonial administration pushed the miners to occupy one of the mines in 1949 to protest the oppressive policies—an uprising that ended in bloodshed. ⚡️ For today’s Nigeria, this case holds symbolic value: both the massacre and the trial took place in Enugu State, the heartland of the secessionist movement for the independence of NIgeria's southeast. In November, the government sentenced the leader of this movement Nnamdi Kanu to life imprisonment. Now, this verdict is meant to reaffirm the unity between the government and the people. Under the court’s ruling, the UK must now pay £20 million to each of the 21 victims’ families (totaling £420 million) and issue a public written apology. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

On Paper and in Reality, the Congo Keeps Handing Over Deposits to the US 🇺🇸 American company Virtus Minerals has signed an agreement to purchase the shares of Chemaf, a copper producer in Africa’s Copperbelt in southern DRC. Put up for sale in 2023, the company received six offers from new investors, but Congolese authorities insisted it be sold to the Americans. January reports indicated that Chemaf and its Mutoshi mine were on a list of assets Congo offered to American investors — despite the fact that the asset already had and still has current owners from India. Earlier, Chinese company Norinco had offered to buy Chemaf for $1.4 billion, but Congolese authorities refused to approve the deal and instead proposed to buy the company themselves for $1 million — planning to sell at least 75% of the asset shares to an unspecified partner, supposedly a US one. ➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow