Amid the turbulence of a fractured global economy, African nations are turning toward one another — not out of isolation, but out of hard-won pragmatism. The continent's most ambitious trade experiment, the AfCFTA, is advancing slowly but with growing conviction, even as 2024's contraction in intra-African exports reminds observers that aspiration and reality do not always move in step. South Africa's export surge and Afreximbank's oversubscribed $1.5 billion bond offering suggest that the world is watching Africa's self-determination with genuine interest — and that the continent may be writi