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Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddarth Kara examines the human and environmental cost of cobalt mining in the DRC, and in doing so reminds us of the problematic nature of advocating for a group of people with whom you do not identify. I cringed at Kara’s frequently drawn parallels to and quoting of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a book whose pervasive and problematic depiction of Africa has been widely acknowledged. Chinua Achebe wrote that “Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation but was strangely unaware of the racism on which it sharpened its iron tooth. But the victims of racist slander who for centuries have had to live with the inhumanity it makes them heir to have always known better than any casual visitor even when he comes loaded with the gifts of a Conrad.” Kara goes on to quote Achebe’s novel and counternarrative to Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart. The dissonance is real. An article by Sarah Katz-Lavigne on Open Democracy speaks about the issues with Kara’s research more eloquently and intelligently than I can, and I encourage you to pair that article with this book, should you choose to read it. While Cobalt Red gave me a broader context for understanding the horrific and inhumane mining practices, it also begs questions about whether Western advocacy does more harm than good. 📸: I’m holding up a kindle displaying the ebook cover of Cobalt Red. via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C7jaNpOgBtJ/