This paper contributes to the analysis of the effect of the global financial crisis (Claessens et al., 2010) on African coutries (IMF, 2009) inspecting the effect of the crises on bilateral trade flows. The empirical analysis makes intensive use of network analysis techniques, describing the international trade of SSA countries as part of the world trade network. The paper analyzes the change in the topology of the trade network during the crisis. Single SSA countries participation to the network is reported in terms of link strength and centrality, showing if some specific countries were more radically disconnected from the giant component of the network. Finally, evidence of a change in relative preferential connection with specific industrialized country detects if SSA countries have moved eastward in term of their relative position in the world trade network, substituting US and European bilateral links with Asian links. The short answer is: not really.