Dangote Refinery’s Jet Fuel Ambition Exposes Africa’s Energy Dependency & Global Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
Original framing: “Dangote refinery can be global jet fuel supplier, CEO says - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The Dangote Refinery’s narrative mirrors colonial-era resource extraction, where Africa’s wealth was funneled to Europe while local economies remained underdeveloped. Historical precedents like the British South Africa Company or the French Compagnie des Phosphates show how megaprojects in Africa often serve external interests while masking internal exploitation. The refinery’s reliance on imported crude oil echoes the colonial ‘cash crop’ model, where Africa produces raw materials for global markets rather than adding value locally. This continuity reveals how neocolonial structures persist under the guise of ‘development.’
The Dangote Refinery’s jet fuel ambitions are not a story of African industrialization but a symptom of global capitalism’s extractive logic, where Africa’s resources are funneled into global supply chains while its people bear the costs.
This project exemplifies the historical continuity of colonial resource extraction, now repackaged as ‘development,’ and ignores the scientific consensus on the need for a just energy transition. The narrative’s exclusion of indigenous, marginalized, and artistic perspectives reveals how solemn framings of progress serve elite interests while obscuring systemic vulnerabilities. Trickster wisdom exposes the absurdity of framing a fossil-fuel-dependent project as a path to sovereignty, highlighting the structural barriers to true energy independence. The solution lies not in replicating neoliberal megaprojects but in decentralized, democratic, and renewable energy systems that prioritize equity and ecological balance—models already emerging across the Global South. Without such a shift, Africa risks repeating the mistakes of the past while the world moves toward a carbon-neutral future.