Yaw Asamoah
yawasa.bsky.social
Yaw Asamoah
@yawasa.bsky.social
MIT MBA grad, product manager at a decently big tech firm.
Writer on African politics.
https://yawboadu.substack.com/
Pinned
I made an article on the current Sudanese civil war a year ago. I just made an update today. Sadly its only getting worse:
open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
Sudan's Economic & Geopolitical History Part IV: The Fall of Omar Al-Bashir, The Female-led Sudanese Revolution, & the Current Sudanese Civil War!
This is the story of how a barely literate camel trader from Chad committed a genocide, amassed wealth, and waged a civil war to become Sudan's head of state.
open.substack.com
Some people need a reminder of why Nigerian nationalism. The British bureaucrats were nor expert economic managers. Nigerians hated British rule during the Great Depression & Colonial Nigerian was considered too crappy for investors to lend to.

open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
Colonial Nigeria's Economic Failures & The Rise of Nationalism
Part 10: How the Great Depression, WWII, and British Mismanagement Created Three Rival Regions
open.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:43 PM
New audio/read:
I discuss my biases, Ethiopia's reforms so far, and what i think about the concept "neocolonialism".

open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
Yaw's 3-Year Mailbag: Ethiopia, My Biases, and Paleo-Colonialism
Thank you to all my subscribers!
open.substack.com
November 16, 2025 at 7:53 PM
New article/audio listen. Here I discuss British colonialism of Nigeria before WW2 (it sucked).

open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
What was Nigeria like Under Colonization?
The good, the bad, the evils, and the opportunism of British rule
open.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
Sudan’s paramilitary rebels have captured the last major city in the region of Darfur outside their control. The fate of the residents of el-Fasher looks dark
Darfur’s besieged capital falls to the Rapid Support Forces
Satellite imagery suggests a killing spree is under way
econ.st
October 31, 2025 at 7:40 PM
I made an article on the current Sudanese civil war a year ago. I just made an update today. Sadly its only getting worse:
open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
Sudan's Economic & Geopolitical History Part IV: The Fall of Omar Al-Bashir, The Female-led Sudanese Revolution, & the Current Sudanese Civil War!
This is the story of how a barely literate camel trader from Chad committed a genocide, amassed wealth, and waged a civil war to become Sudan's head of state.
open.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
Please stop promoting the infantile myth that the US invades countries "for oil" The US has been the top single producer of oil for years.
Fentanyl and coke are the new “weapons of mass destruction” lie. It’s Iraq all over again, folks. It’s always about controlling the oil.
October 28, 2025 at 6:47 AM
New article on Nigeria. How the Royal Niger Company became Nigeria.
open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
How a Corporation Became a Colony: The Creation of Northern & Southern Nigeria
Quinine, Steam Ships, and the Gatling Gun (1860s to 1900)
open.substack.com
October 13, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
Africa urgently needs to ramp up job creation to meet the demands of the continent's young people, according to the World Bank.

The report comes after Gen Z protests in Madagascar, Morocco and elsewhere, driven by frustration toward aging elites. Read more: bloom.bg/46TKgpD

📷️ Getty Images
October 7, 2025 at 9:30 AM
New Post. I talk about:
1) Botswana trying to buy a controlling stake in De Beers
2) Chinese lab grown diamonds disrupting the natural diamond market
3) How this reminds me of Peru's monopolization of Guano in the 1800s
and more
yawboadu.substack.com/p/guns-germs...
Guns, Germs, & Cobalt Q&A #9: Insights on Botswana, Chile, Peru, China, and Morocco
What Peru’s guano, Chile’s saltpeter, and Botswana’s diamonds teach us about innovation killing monopolies.
yawboadu.substack.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
Nigeria had a prospering oil and gas industry in the 1970s. But the Saudis wrecked it in the 1980s when they dumped cheap oil on the market to take out competitors. It only really recovered in the 2000s.
How did a gas pipeline to Nigeria not get built in like the 1930s? That sounds so unbelievably convenient.
October 2, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
On this week’s “Money Talks”: how lab-grown stones have upended the diamond market and what that means for De Beers
Losing its sparkle: can the natural-diamond industry survive?
Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. This week, how lab-grown stones have upended the market and what that means for De Beers
econ.st
October 3, 2025 at 8:00 AM
New piece on the colonization of Nigeria. I discuss the West African Squadron smashing Portuguese ships, how Britain replaced the slave trade with the palm oil trade, how Britain annexed Lagos, and more.

open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
The Start of How Britain Colonized of Nigeria: The Palm oil trade, the Treaties in Calabar and the Conquest of Lagos
Part 7: The start of Nigerian colonization
open.substack.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:01 PM
New post on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It covers:
1. European merchants who bought slaves.
2. Coastal Kingdom Brokers (Whydah & Allada)
3. Inland Powers that supplied captives to the Coastal Kingdoms (Oyo)
4. Kingdoms didn't participate for a bit (Benin)
yawboadu.substack.com/p/understand...
Beyond Victims and Villains: Understanding African Agency in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Part V of the Remastered Series of Nigeria (1560-1700s)
yawboadu.substack.com
August 18, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Part 3 of Nigeria up.
This one is on the Sokoto Caliphate:
open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
The Remastered History of Nigeria Part III: The Rise, Rule & Resistance of the Sokoto Caliphate
How a small group of religious devotees created an empire and got colonized
open.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Yaw Asamoah
There is a big difference between an immigrant who builds a business, a rich immigrant who invests a million into a local business, and the type of schemes some countries do where buying a mansion or a block of flats to become a landlord gives a rich foreign national a pathway to citizenship.
July 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I updated the Rwanda Part IV ep since the Trump admin mediated peace between Rwanda & Congo yesterday. Will this deal last? We'll see... The 2002 Pretoria & 2013 Addis Ababa peace talks failed. It seems that there needs to be new talks every decade.

yawboadu.substack.com/p/the-econom...
June 28, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Part 1 on Nigeria:
yawboadu.substack.com/p/the-remast...
Read below to learn more about an overview of Nigeria and pre-colonial Nigerian history from roughly 1000 BC to 1100 AD.
The Remastered Economic & Geopolitical History of Nigeria Part 1: An Overview of Nigeria and an Introduction to Nigeria's Pre-Colonial States
The country that was destined to be divided from day 1
yawboadu.substack.com
May 26, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Bucking Conventional Wisdom and the Case for "near-shoring"

open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
Insights & Book Review #4: The Globalization Myth, Why Regions Matter by Shannon K. O'Neil
Bucking Conventional Wisdom and The Case for "Near-Shoring"
open.substack.com
March 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
The Economic & Geopolitical History of Tunisia, Part 2: Banker Imperialism, French Rule, and the Road to Independence
open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
The Economic & Geopolitical History of Tunisia, Part 2: Banker Imperialism, French Rule, and the Road to Independence
Debt Trap Diplomacy requires two ingredients: greedy financiers and corrupt, short-sighted rulers. That sums up how Tunisia was colonized
open.substack.com
February 21, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Insights & Analysis Book Review #3: Where Credit is Due: How Africa's Debt Can Be a Benefit Not a Burden open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
Book Review #3: Where Credit is Due: How Africa's Debt Can Be a Benefit Not a Burden
An Outstanding Guide to Development finance in Africa
open.substack.com
February 21, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Curious about the issues in Congo? Want to understand Rwanda's economy? This is the article for you:
open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu...
The Economic & Geopolitical History of Rwanda Part IV: Rwanda-Congo Issues & Kagame's Stewardship
Kagame: Half "Mr. Security", Half "Mr. Brand Marketer"
open.substack.com
January 12, 2025 at 9:00 PM