Cobalt Red

2. The slave traders had also prevented Verney Lovett Cameron (who wrote about “unspeakable richness” awaiting an “enterprising capitalist”) from passing Nyangwe on the Lualaba in 1872.

3. Despite Casement’s extraordinary achievements for human rights, his story ends in tragedy. During World War I, Casement supported the Easter Rising for Irish freedom. He was charged under an arcane treason statute and sentenced to hang. The likes of Woodrow Wilson, the archbishop of Canterbury, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Joseph Conrad urged that he be reprieved. In response, the Crown prosecutors produced Casement’s diaries, which revealed that he was gay. Homosexuality was a mortal sin in the United Kingdom, and public opinion swayed against Casement. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison on August 3, 1916, at the age of fifty-one.

4. Van Lierde (1972), pp. 220–224.

5. De Witte (2003), p. 16.

CHAPTER 5: “IF WE DO NOT DIG, WE DO NOT EAT”

1. Darton Commodities (2022), p. 9.

2. “Chinese Company Removed as Operator of Cobalt Mine in Congo,” available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/world/congo-cobalt-mining-china.html

3. Data from: “Glencore Full Year 2018 Production Report,” p. 10, available at: https://www.glencore.com/dam/jcr:3c1bb66d-e4f6-43f8-9664-b4541396c297/GLEN_2018-Q4_ProductionReport-.pdf.

4. See: 1) “Subpoena from United States Department of Justice,” available at: https://www.glencore. com/media-and-insights/news/Subpoena-from-United-States-Department-of-Justice; 2) “Investigation by the Serious Fraud Office,” available at: https://www.glencore.com/ media-and-insights/news/investigation-by-the-serious-fraud-office; and 3) “Investigation by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland,” available at: https://www. glencore.com/media-and-insights/news/investigation-by-the-office-of-the-attorney-general-of-switzerland.

5. “Panorama questions over Glencore mines,” available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/17702487.

6. International Labour Organisation Convention No. 29, Article 2(1) defines forced labor as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

CHAPTER 6: “WE WORK IN OUR GRAVES”

1. Data from: “Glencore Full Year 2021 Production Report,” p. 11, available at: https://www.glencore.com/dam/jcr:90d4d8f9-a85e-42ec-ad8a-b75b657f55d2/GLEN_2021-full-year_ProductionReport.pdf.

2. “Lualaba: Richard Muyej destitué de ses fonctions,” available at: https://cas-info.ca/2021/09/lualaba-richard-muyej-destitue-de-ses-fonctions/.

3. Available at: https://budget.gouv.cd/wp-content/uploads/budget2021/plf2021/doc1_expose_des_motifs_projet_de_loi-de_finances%202021%20et%20ses%20annexes.pdf.

4. “Announcement Regarding Fatalities of Illegal Artisanal Miners at KCC,” available at: https://www.glencore.com/media-and-insights/news/announcement-regarding-fatalities-of-illegal-artisanal-miners-at-kcc.

5. “The Terrorists’ Treasury: How a Bank Linked to Congo’s President Enabled Hezbollah Financiers to Bust U.S. Sanctions,” October 2017, available at: https://cdn.thesentry.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/TerroristsTreasury_TheSentry_October2017_final.pdf.

6. Darton Commodities (2022), p. 9.

7. Ibid.

EPILOGUE

1. See: “Lualaba: l’inauguration du Centre de négoce de Musompo en août 2020 va mettre fin aux comptoirs clandestins des minerais,” available at: https://deskeco.com/2020/07/13/lualaba-linauguration-du-centre-de-negoce-de-musompo-en-aout-2020-va-mettre-fin-aux-comptoirs; and “Lualaba: Richard Muyej déterminé à réformer le secteur de l’artisanant minier,” available at: https://editeur.cd/newsdetails.php?newsid=41&cat=2&refid=4QZT2VjNt53E8eSIB7yUcvsYHFa0lzCdbMwnKoq9GmJWuifDPRxgp61hOkLrXA.

2. Van Lierde (1972), pp. 421–422.