“We work in our graves.”
~ Josue, a Congolese artisanal worker
“Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions.“
This illuminating and meticulously researched book discusses the cobalt industry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the workers who mine it. “Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.”
The millions of Congolese mine workers are called “artisanal miners,” and are essentially slave labor forced to suffer horrifically and often die in tragic accidents such as cave-ins and tunnel collapses, which are common and kill dozens of workers in each incident. Tunnels are three feet wide and it’s impossible to rescue workers, since they are crushed or buried alive. Workers often go barefoot or wear cheap flip flops, and possess no protective gear while extracting the cobalt with only hand tools, all at a minor cost to the Big Tech firms. The miners are paid a paltry $1-2 daily, barely enough to survive. Incredibly, tens of thousands of children or more also work at the mines.
The author states, “across twenty-one years of research into slavery and child labor, I have never seen more extreme predation for profit than I witnessed at the bottom of global cobalt supply chains. The titanic companies that sell products containing Congolese cobalt are worth trillions, yet the people who dig their cobalt out of the ground eke out a base existence characterized by extreme poverty and immense suffering…It is a system of absolute exploitation for absolute profit.”
Kara traveled to the Congo to document peoples’ testimonies first hand. In this book, he exposes child labor abuse, slavery, and other terrible issues that you would never expect in the 21st century. As the author states, we are all complicit in this ghastly problem and need to find ways to alleviate the miners’ suffering and find different methods to mine cobalt and/or find a substitute for it. We need to alert the world about this by sharing the book with others, for instance.
Kara, who considers himself an activist, is a professor of human trafficking and modern slavery at Nottingham University and a senior fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
Signal Fires, Shapiro’s first book written in 15 years, is absolutely stunning. If you are reading for only a plot or a desire for everything “spelled out,” this may not be the novel for you. Dear readers, please use your critical thinking on this one. Numerous layers of meaning make this evocative novel an especially powerful contemplation on memories and loss. It stayed with me for days.
On a summer evening in 1985, three teenagers who have been drinking heavily go joy riding. In a flash, their lives are forever changed by a tragic car accident. The secrets that ensue affect them, their friends, and their families for the rest of their lives. Shapiro crafted a poignant exploration of how traumatic experiences and secrets affect people both in the present and in the future. Gorgeous and lyrical prose, and a slow revealing of each character and their different points of views all create a profound read.
The fourth mystery in the immersing Detective Kubu series includes unique traditional and current Botswana cultural themes. Young girls begin to mysteriously disappear, and Samantha Khama, the only woman detective on the Botswana police force, suspects that the use of “muti”—a traditional African medicine utilized by an unknown, mysterious witch doctor—is the cause.
David “Kubu” Bengu, an affable, dedicated sleuth and gourmand, is the primary protagonist in the series. He takes Samantha under his wings and helps her settle in as a brand-new detective on the force. I especially enjoy these novels because they incorporate the personal lives of the characters, illuminate African history and culture, and address pertinent social issues. In this book, both HIV and “muti,” a form of African witchcraft are explored. Readers will appreciate this engaging page turner, and hopefully continue on to read the entire series about Detective Kubu’s intriguing adventures.
The Michael Stanley crime thrillers can all be read on a stand-alone basis but best to read the novels in order. Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Both are retired professors who have worked in academia and business. Sears is a mathematician, specializing in geological remote sensing. Trollip is an educational psychologist, specializing in the application of computers to teaching and learning, and a pilot. They were both born in South Africa.
Adult book reviews are by Susanne Dominguez.
