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

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death.

The Introduction opens on a scene outside the Kamilombe cobalt mine, located on the outskirts of the city of Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country in central Africa. The author, Siddharth Kara, describes watching villagers being held off by armed soldiers as they try to access the mine where an accident has taken place. Kara sees a dead child on the ground, who presumably died in a mining accident. As he approaches, a guard threatens him and Kara leaves.

Kara details the “manic race to extract as much cobalt as quickly as possible” (2). Cobalt is a critical component in lithium-ion rechargeable batteries used in computers, cell phones, and electric cars. The extraction of cobalt in present-day Congo is similar to King Leopold II’s “plunder” of ivory and rubber from 1885 to 1908 in Congo under enslavement-like conditions. Kara claims international corporations like Apple and Tesla ignore the human rights abuses that go on in the Congo cobalt mines. Kara notes he “never saw or heard of any activities” (5) of watchdog coalitions that are tasked with monitoring working conditions in the mines.