  This paper is a contribution to interweaving two lines of research that have
progressed in separate ways: network analyses of international trade and the
literature on African trade and development. Gathering empirical data on
African countries has important limitations and so does the space occupied by
African countries in the analyses of trade networks. Here, these limitations
are dealt with by the definition of two independent bipartite networks: a
destination share network and\ a\ commodity share network. These networks -
together with their corresponding minimal spanning trees - allow to uncover
some ordering emerging from African exports in the broader context of
international trade. The emerging patterns help to understand important
characteristics of African exports and its binding relations to other economic,
geographic and organizational concerns as the recent literature on African
trade, development and growth has shown.
