Mtoto wa nyoka ni nyoka – “The child of a snake is a snake”
This Swahili proverb is quoted by one of the indelible subjects we meet in Siddharth Kara’s gut-punch of investigative journalism, Cobalt Red. The full-time guardian for her three grandchildren, at 69 Lubuya is the oldest person Kara interviewed on his many sojourns to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She captures the corruption and evil wrought in her homeland amidst the endless mining for cobalt, the core mineral and critical component of rechargeable batteries. Rwandan “liberators,” Chinese conglomerates, even corrupt government officials (imagine that) have been ravaging the land for generations, so Lubuya skeptically challenges the point of the author’s mission. “Why are you really here?” she presses. When told that it’s a quest to report on the conditions in the DRC in hopes of inspiring change, her hardened expression suggests she’s looking at a fool. “Every day people are dying because of the cobalt,” she says. “Describing this will not change anything.” Sounds accurate.
The primary issue to address is slave wages. Note that we’re not talking about a tight-margin industry; on the contrary, there is scads to be made, especially given the brutal treatment of those who dig, artfully called artisanal miners. Ones without motorbikes face limited local options to sell what they unearth, wash, and bag, in most cases netting only about a dollar or two per day per person (including pregnant women and school-aged children). With the London Metal Exchange setting the global market price for fully refined cobalt, “the cooperatives emerged from the system as massive profit-generating businesses,” Kara writes. “These profits largely went into the pockets of their owners, who tended to be the business leaders or government officials.” And no such business book would be complete without exposing all manner of hollow corporate values about being transparent, accountable, and responsible while making safety the number one priority. What a crock. The author generously describes the supply chain as “murky.” He witnessed roughly zero inspections of mines but does share countless examples of inebriated laborers descending into those treacherous holes, many never to return.
Perhaps last week’s news that the DRC qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1974 (the only other time it participated, when it was called Zaire) will help shed more light on the nation’s atrocities. In the meantime, Kara shares his thoughts on affecting change there. He writes: “The biggest problem faced by the Congo’s artisanal miners is that stakeholders up the chain refuse to accept responsibility for them, even though they all profit in one way or another from their work.” Tech companies, electric vehicle manufacturers, and mining companies gross enough margin to treat those who source such an important chemical element with some humanity and should help ensure they’re paid a dignified wage. Kara took enormous personal risks over many years of investigation and has brought into harsh light the struggles of these miners, the massive costs of undertaking this dangerous work. The time to address and fix such obvious calamities has arrived and now shareholder accountability is required.
If you have anything to say about this – or book recommendations – kindly post below (rather than emailing me) to spark conversation. Thank you!
Brutal.
Well put, Alan. Just gutting.
Horrific. Besides raising awareness of this catastrophic circumstance, does Kara offer any insights on what to do to improve conditions? Seems unlikely people will boycott tech they’ve come to rely on.
Exactly, Eveyln. And yes, he calls for the artisanal miners to be paid a fair wage, to be cut in on the enormous gains realized by the conglomerates for whom they dig. Seems about as likely as ride share drivers getting health insurance, but one can hope, right?