Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of enslavement and racism.

In Cobalt Red, Siddharth Kara compares the exploitative practices of the contemporary artisanal cobalt mining industry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the nation’s colonial and post-colonial history. In Chapter 4, he describes this history in greater detail and how it connects to the present moment. However, it is helpful to keep the following timeline of Congolese history in mind throughout.

• 1482: Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão lands at the mouth of the Congo River on the west coast of Africa. The Portuguese establish a slave trade post there. It becomes a critical hub of the triangular slave trade.
• 1885-1908: King Leopold II of Belgium owns a privately-held estate called the Congo Free State. Congolese people are forced into labor through horrific violence, including mass murder and dismemberment, to produce rubber, palm oil, copper, and other resources. This history is detailed in King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (1998).
• 1908-1960: Following revelations about the horrors of the Congo Free State, the country of Belgium takes over management of the territory, which is renamed the Belgian Congo. Although the “red rubber” system is nominally ended, Belgium increases exploitation of the region’s vast mineral resources.