As scrutiny over the conditions under which cobalt is mined has increased, stakeholders have formulated international coalitions to help ensure that their supply chains are clean. Imagine for a moment if almost three-fourths of all fossil fuel beneath the earth’s surface was instead extracted from a single patch of earth roughly four hundred by one hundred kilometers in size. I may not have come away with a plan or many thoughts on how to help this crisis, but I was emotionally affected and was educated and this is what will fuel my future actions.

In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo―because we are all implicated. I have a small specimen of good coal; other minerals such as gold, copper, iron and silver are abundant, and I am confident that with a wise and liberal (not lavish) expenditure of capital, one of the greatest systems of inland navigation in the world might be utilized, and from 30 months to 36 months begin to repay any enterprising capitalist that might take the matter in hand. And that the author didn’t provide any ‘solutions’ until the epilogue, which ended up being about 2 sentences and then turned into more of the same repetition was just ridiculous.Few people sitting for breakfast in England in the 1700s knew that their tea was sweetened by sugar harvested under brutal conditions by African slaves toiling in the West Indies. In the modern era, slavery has been universally rejected and basic human rights are deemed erga omnes and jus cogens in international law. To obtain the testimonies included in this book, I devoted as much time as possible listening to the stories of those living and working in the mining provinces.

Although the two ends of the chain could not be more disconnected in terms of human and economic valuation, they are nevertheless linked through a complicated set of formal and informal relationships. Artisanal miners are almost always paid paltry wages on a piece-rate basis and must assume all risks of injury, illness, or death.The harsh realities of cobalt mining in the Congo are an inconvenience to every stakeholder in the chain. Did you know that during the pandemic there was increased pressure put on Congolese cobalt extraction? It is unavoidable, these devices are essential to our lives and are woven into the fabric of society. Foreign powers have penetrated every inch of this nation to extract its rich supplies of ivory, palm oil, diamonds, timber, rubber … and to make slaves of its people. The GBA has developed a Cobalt Action Partnership to “immediately and urgently eliminate child and forced labour from the cobalt value chain”2 through on-ground monitoring and third-party assessments.

This system of obfuscating the severity of exploitation of poor people of color at the bottom of global supply chains goes back centuries. Your mother is also under constant threat of sexual harassment, assault and rape as she works at the mines. The mines in Congo represent a hierarchy of exploitation from every level to the top where the level below is exploited by the level above in a long series of steps in its supply chain. The conditions in the mines are brutal, the book features heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story of gruesome injuries occurring often times to children.Installing a crude dictator in exchange for access to resources and an ally that would not do dealings with the soviet union. One might reasonably expect Kolwezi to be a boom town in which fortunes are made by intrepid prospectors. Overall I feel this book itself is more 3 stars but I think the author deserves more credit for his efforts to document what really happens behind the scenes of mining in the age of the energy transition. Siddharth Kara (Sociology and Social Policy) is part of the Rights Lab's Measurement and Geographies Programme and is a British Academy Global Professor (2020-2024).