ABSTRACT
Coal is a fungible commodity because it is almost 100 per cent carbon, but this purity and substitutability is deceptive, for in its relations it is unique and even institutionalised, as in the imposition of a carbon tax to offset its destructive effects on ecosystems. There are processes of decomposition of commodities going on all the time: 'banning', 'use by date', 'out of fashion', 'passé', 'antiquated'. Affect was a key element in the composition and decomposition of ivory as commodity. Ivory's colonial career moved it into industrialisation and commodification, this modernisation has not necessarily meant decolonisation. Nations in Africa have political independence, but their continued dependence on an asymmetrical global trade in commodities points to a colonisation continued by economic means. The colonial configuration of power that gave us the ivory trade is still largely in place to the extent that African voices are not heeded, for instance an African politician's offer to those advocating a total ban on ivory.
