[allAfrica] Nairobi/Cape Town -- Writing about the minerals beneath Africa's soil often feels like unpacking a suitcase of clichés. We've all read the tired tropes: "land of contrasts", "resource curse", and "continent of paradoxes''. While sometimes rooted in truth, these phrases risk reducing complex realities to oversimplified narratives. However, the persistence of these clichés speaks to a deeper, more troubling reality: the facts on the ground have remained stubbornly unchanged for far too long.
