The Power of Nuclear Things

This essay explores three historical genealogies of U.S. President George W. Bush's infamous 2003 claim that Saddam Hussein sought "uranium from Africa" to fuel nuclear weapons. First, it considers the problem of when uranium counts as a "nuclear" thing, when it doesn't, and what Africa has to do with it. Second, it explores how Niger's politics, priorities, and conflicts have shaped the production and distribution of its uranium. Third, it examines an earlier moment when African provenance of uranium was geopolitically contested-the flow of Namibian uranium to the U.S., Japan, and Europe during the height of international sanctions against apartheid-showing how the entwining of licit trade and black markets made African things invisible. The essay as a whole explores how the distribution of power in material things and symbolic circulations makes some things nuclear, some things commodities, some things African, and some things all three.