As China's growth falters and its economy turns outward, Africa finds itself at the receiving end of a transformation it did not choose. The continent's fortunes are diverging along the fault lines of what China now needs versus what it no longer does — rewarding those who hold the minerals of the energy transition while leaving oil-dependent nations stranded by the very modernization they helped fuel. The deeper question is not merely which African economies win or lose in this reshuffling, but whether the continent can convert its commodity moment into something more lasting before the terms