Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World's Deadliest Place

by Peter Eichstaedt

Every time you use a cell phone or log on to a computer, you could be contributing to the death toll in the bloodiest, most violent region in the world: the eastern Congo. Rich in “conflict minerals”--valuable resources mined in the midst of armed conflict and egregious human rights abuses--this remote and lawless land is home to deposits of gold and diamonds as well as coltan, tin, and tungsten, all critical to cell phones, computers, and other popular electronics.

In Consuming the Congo, veteran journalist and author Peter Eichstaedt goes into these killing fields to find what is behind the bloodshed, hearing the stories of those who live this nightmarish reality. He talks with survivors of villages decimated by war and miners slogging knee-deep in muck, desperately digging up the gold, tin, and coltan on which Western culture depends. While these men work with picks, shovels, and iron bars, marauding militias and renegade army units who control the mines roam the jungles, killing and raping with impunity, taking their profits, and leaving villagers to a life of grueling manual labor, brutality, and disease.

Some five million Congolese have died unnecessarily, the worst loss of human life since World War II, yet the pillaging and bloodletting continue at a frightening pace. Consuming the Congo not only explores the violence suffered by the Congolese but also examines how we, as part of the problem, can become part of the solution.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, History, Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Politics, Economics, War

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 27, 2014

About the author

Peter Eichstaedt is an award-winning author who has worked in locations worldwide, including the Balkans, eastern Europe, Afghanistan, and Eastern and Central Africa. He is the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including his most recent, a mystery thriller titled Enemy of the People. In it, a journalist exposes a conspiracy behind the kidnapping of the US president, who agrees to meet with his political adversaries in a swank resort in northern New Mexico.

Reviews

[Nils · Rating 1 out of 5]

A formless, untheorized travelogue through the hellish postmodern battlespace of Eastern Congo. There's a little potted history of how Congo got to be such a cauldron of humanitarian abuse, and a vague sense that there are faraway factors that drive the cycles of violence, but no sense of how Congo's travails are symptoms of larger problems, or that the things that go on in Congo are continuous and importantly similar to problems elsewhere in the world. The total inattention to the demand-side of the conflict minerals makes the problems of Congo seem entirely without context, replicating the Conradian cliches about the place (which, naturally, the books opens with). And even the book's effort to see the nuance in the situation, eg. that there are in fact many people, including locals, who benefit and profit from the chaos and violence. In sum, there is no ANALYSIS of the STRUCTURAL factors that produce and perpetuate the awfulness, and hence little explanation for what we see. Ironically, the lack of adequate explanation of why and how Congo got to be in the state it is in reduces what is meant to be earnest lament about human rights abuses into a kind of pornography, where we can only stare at the surface, but gain no deeper understanding. In sum, the book invites pity, rather than providing comprehension.

[Drew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to start by thanking Nils—because of your review of this book I feel like I don't have to start from scratch. Still, I would like to build on your critique of this very problematic book... a truly wasted opportunity.

The biggest problem with this book is that it fails to break the centuries-old Heart of Darkness approach to Africa and Africans. In fact, it actively reinforces it! At one point, I was disappointed to find myself trudging through two chapters about Sudan/Darfur/South Sudan. Congo, Sudan... it's all basically the same, right? No biggie.

Before I continue this roast, I would like to acknowledge two important things I did learn from this book:

1. The coltan, tin, and gold extracted from the DRC represents a relatively small portion of the total amount extracted across the world. I was under the impression that virtually all of the world's coltan comes from DRC. Not true.

2. In terms of monetary value, coltan represents a relatively small portion of the mineral resources extracted from DRC. Gold is the big money maker there.

So, thank you to the author for sharing that with me.

Now, back to the roast. This book reads like a he-said, she-said argument, offering no synthesis or BS filter. At times it felt like I was just reading a list of quotes from different sources... and the skeptical reader wouldn't take those quotes at face value. My question is "If you're going to write a book about a complex issue, then shouldn't you, as a more knowledgeable person on the subject, be helping your readers tell fact from fiction? "

Another frustration is that the very few times that the author chooses to present an opinion, he presents it as undeniable fact. Towards the end of the book he states that simply leaving the minerals in the ground is simply "not an option." One reason he offers is that it would hurt local congolese miners who presumably would never ever ever be able to sustain themselves in any other way than by continuing the centuries old pillaging of the continent to satisfy foreign appetites. But pages later, to make his argument AGAINST having MNCs avoid Congolese minerals, he argues that if Western MNCs pull out, then less scrupulous (read: less civilized and less white) companies from China and India would just move in and continue buying up the resources, while ignoring any regulations currently in place. I'm confused: will Poor Congolese miners have a market for their minerals or not? Can't have it both ways.

In the same way that the author carelessly adds to the Africa-is-a-country mentality, he fails to make some critical distinctions between the different natural resources being plundered/harvested/exploited. There is a Western-Europe sized difference between Multinational corporations extracting gold, and the individuals who live in refugee camps harvesting wood/charcoal from a National park, thereby decimating wildlife habitats.

The biggest one for me is the difference between how gold and coltan are actually used around the world. Coltan has some properties that make it critical for electronics and other processes. Gold also has some good things going for it, but 50% of the world's gold consumption is for JEWELRY! Another 40% is for "investments," while only 10% is used for industry. I actually think we should consider leaving a lot more of it in the ground! If you ask me, every ounce of gold in the city of Brussels should be melted down and used to finance the actual development of the DRC's economy (as in, transitioning away from mineral and resource extraction). On the flipside, we learned from the author that the DRC's tin and gold reserves make up a very small portion of what's out there. So again, why is leaving it in the ground "not an option?"

You can tell a lot about a book, or the underlying theory being presented, by which ideas get the last word. In this case, the book closes by doing two things:

1. Slamming advocacy groups, whose advocacy work has done a lot more to help the situation this book has.

2. Pushing virtually all responsibility for solving the problems onto residents of the DRC. He asks, "Can the estimated two million people in eastern Congo who are involved in minerals and mining rise to the task? Can the local leaders forego the the temptation to enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow countrymen? Will the people of the Congo demand to have the kind of leadership and government they so badly need and deserve?"

If you are a voyeur of African savagery just looking for yet another travelogue where a white guy celebrates being called "muzungu" by a gaggle of African beggar children (is that some kind of rite of passage?), then you will enjoy this. In the meantime, I will be searching for another book that offers a critical analysis, maybe even ideas, to help me deepen my understanding of this complex situation.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by no means a bad book, but it is a book that is very disappointing and one that reveals that the author likely did not know quite what he was doing with this book except feeling the need to pad a bit to reach its length and that the person who gave this book its title likely did not do due diligence in reading the book to make sure that it actually delivers what it promises.  The author appears to be some journalist who is attached to European norms of global governance (not my favorite thing) and unable to stay on topic, which makes this book a bit frustrating because the author does not do a good job at making his various rambles form part of a coherent whole, and after presenting this book as if the Congo has a great deal to do with the electronics that we have in the West, the author manages to present evidence that undercuts these claims and that states that Congo may only be responsible for some 5% of the West's tin supply, making it a sufficiently miniscule source of such materials so that it can safely be disregarded, and so it is.

This book is just over 200 pages and is divided into fifteen relatively short chapters.  The author begins with a map of Congo and then discusses the Congo as the gates of hell in a Prologue.  After that there is a discussion of the author's experiences in arguing in a Mandro hut (1) and visiting a village of skulls that had suffered repeated massacres (2) as well as viewing the gold that was mined on bloody ground (3).  After that the author discusses the chaos (4) and rape (5) that were faced by many people in Congo over the past couple of decades.  After that the author, for some reason, looks at the agony of Abyei in South Sudan (6) as well as a look at the division of Sudan before South Sudanese independence (7) before looking at the armies and exploitation of Congo again (8) as well as the woes of the region of Walikale (9).  After that there is a discussion about the fight over the control of the flow of minerals to the outside world by various groups (10), the author's journey into the coltan mining country (11), and the realities of the lives of refugees in Congo (12).  There are then chapters of the Mai-Mai and the search for charcoal even in national parks (13), the falling apart of life in Congo (14), and the search for resolution in Congo's conflicts (15) before the book closes with acknowledgments, notes, and an index.

Congo may have been the deadliest place on earth when the author was writing the book, but that fact alone does not give a reason why the rest of the world is responsible for doing anything about it, especially when the supply of minerals that come from there are such a small portion of those used by the West for technological items?  Perhaps the author thinks that the human interest of the Congo and the immense suffering of its unfortunate people is enough to sustain the interest of the West in the subject, but Congo has been suffering for centuries for a variety of reasons and the world has not paid a lot of attention so far, so the author is probably mistaken in thinking that the suffering of the last few years is enough for the world to start to care about the Congo to any great degree.  The United States does not view it as a place of vital concern and if hundreds of years of suffering and millions of deaths is not enough than it is likely that nothing would be enough until and unless Congo did start playing a more decisive role with regards to its conflict minerals.

[Harmony Devaney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth your time. The most valuable parts come from quotes of the people Eichstaedt interviewed. It is incredibly euro-centric.

The chapter about the rape epidemic was incredibly frustrating. Peter asked basic questions like “don’t these people have mothers or sisters?” “Doesn’t the law deter people?” We have the same problem (though obviously not nearly to the scale) rapist in the US RARELY even see one day in jail.

As we enter 2024 let’s all move towards centering Congolese authors and voices!

[Social Good Moms · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has increasingly been more attention paid to conflict minerals - the minerals that are extracted from mainly developing countries - that are used to power the technology we all cannot live without. These minerals cause problems for a great many of us. We cannot go a day or even a few hours without our cell phones, tablets, and laptops even though we realize that the minerals inside of them most likely caused suffering from some African miner working to earn very little wages. With every social media update and email we send it seems we don't care, but conflict minerals put us into an unimaginable bind. Whereas the great many of us can go without buying conflict diamonds none of us can seriously go without our technology. Therein lies the rub.

Celebrities, activists, and humanitarians shout from the rooftops about conflict minerals and how multinationals are grabbing mines at breakneck speeds to claim the riches beneath the earth. But no one is taking the next step and doing away with their technology to take a stand against the minerals that today cause undue harship for so many. We remain largely nonplussed. It's not that most of us don't care, it's that we don't understand the history of it all and the devastation surrounding conflict minerals. It's a "them" problem, not ours.

That is why Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World's Deadliest Place is so importnt to this global dialogue. Instead of the problem being simplified into soundbites, the history and repercussions of conflict minerals in the DRC is laid out in great detail by veteran journalist and Africa editor of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting at the Hague, Peter Eichstaedt. In reading Consuming the Congo you get an overwhelming sense that it's not Eichstaedt's first time at the rodeo. He already has great knowledge of the history of the region, but also has excellent resources who are not afraid to talk to him and provide inside information about the goings-on of the area and provide insight about who is fighting whom. It is a difficult task to undergo, to be sure: putting the pieces together for an audience that largely couldn't point the Congo out on a map.

Eichstaedt makes the narrative easy to follow and the history relatively easy to comprehend although the actors are so rife it's hard to keep up with who is who. Perhaps some of the bit players could have been left out of the narrative, but I have a feeling the story would be left rather incomplete to the book would have holes that would grow larger as history goes on. Every bit person counts. Every militia and rebel group counts. Every multinational country counts and every country that is vying for supremacy over the region counts, even though for the reader it can become redious.

Eichstaedt does, however, a masterful job explaining why conflict diamonds exist and why they are so extremely valuable. We know it is because they are essential to every electronic device on the planet, but he does a great job of explaining the why. He also does a materful job at discribing how the rush for conflict diamonds is negatively affecting the people and the terrain of the Democratic Republic of Congo while nothing seems to be getting better.

Consuming the Congo is essential reading for those who want to get to the bottom of the conflict minerals debate and see why it really is important as consumers to fight for nonconflict minerals. However, the book is also quite disturbing because it seems no one is doing anything about the suffering. It just goes on while we fire up our devices and seemingly don't care.

[Peter Eichstaedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, since I wrote it.

[CTEP]

I first became aware of conflict minerals and their prevalence in consumer electronics several years ago when a friend complained to me that she had no options for a smartphone that didn't contain tantalum, tungsten, and tin. Since then, I have unsuccessfully tried to remedy my own reliance (dependence?) on items like smartphones with my desire to cause as little harm as possible to the world and the people I share it with. Consuming the Congo helped me develop a better understanding of both the conflicts that have necessitated the term "conflict minerals" and the various efforts to combat the necessity of this term. A journalist by profession, author Peter Eichstaedt spent 2006 through 2009 living in and documenting the ongoing conflicts in the eastern DRC, located in the opposite side of the country from the capital city of Kinshasa. He has interviewed politicians, soldiers, businesspeople, and citizens who have been affected by the conflicts in order to offer a more complete analysis of how conflict minerals became so widespread and why they continue to be used despite non-governmental organizations' and consumers' growing awareness and opposition. Through these interviews, Eichstaedt is able to trace the links between mines in the Congolese forests and powerful Western corporations.

One group that is not included in Eichstaedt's interviews is those who purchase conflict minerals on behalf of Western electronics companies. In an interview with a Congolese man who works with a co-operative of mines in the eastern DRC, the subject states that although many mines do make an effort to inform electronics companies whether or not they are purchasing conflict minerals, these companies often do not care and continue to conduct business with the politicians and soldiers who have participated in the prolonged violence despite the civil war's official end in 2003.

Less than twenty percent of the coltan (the mineral from which tantalum is extracted) that has been mined has come from the DRC, with nearly half of the world's coltan production being based in Rwanda and Brazil. Many companies have adopted codes of practice that attempt to erode the prevalence of conflict minerals in electronics. While this change is certainly a positive one, it also makes it more difficult for users to know whether or not the device they're using contains conflict minerals without doing their own independent research. Companies don't typically label their electronics as being conflict-free due to the fear that companies that do use conflict minerals in their products will need to alert their customers to the fact. Personally, I think that labeling products as conflict-free will encourage a greater number of companies to incorporate more ethically derived minerals into their electronics.

Conflict minerals certainly don't constitute the only controversy in the production of electronics. Electronics manufacturing companies such as Foxconn have come under fire due to their poor treatment of laborers, and pro-Palestine groups have criticized HP for provide equipment and services to the Israeli army and the West Bank settlement project. As products like computers and smartphones have started to become more of a necessity than a luxury, and as politics and corporations have become even more intertwined, it has become increasingly difficult for consumers to avoid purchasing products that are, for lack of a better word, problematic. Sure, I could get rid of my computer and cell phone and tell everyone to start writing me letters if they want to hear from me ever again, but that would probably lead to a pretty lonely existence since it's so much easier to communicate with people who are actually able to check their email or text messages or whatever. Therefore, I think the most plausible approach is a combination of education and increased labeling of conflict-free products. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what "education" could or should entail -- I imagine it would not be very advisable for me to go on a rant about conflict minerals while I'm teaching basic computer skills. I do, however, think it's important for people to understand all of the ways in which technology has touched people's lives, positively and negatively, directly and indirectly.

[Joelle Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skimmed some parts, because I've been reading several related books simultaneously, and they were all the same

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eichstaedt gives us one journalist/activist's view of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a basic history of why the violence is happening. He attempts to weave together the histories of the various factions involved in the mess that is Eastern DRC, while recounting first and third-person stories of atrocities and corruption perpetrated but these groups. We get a good sense for how desperately violent the region can early in the book, and then a sometimes basic recounting of why the groups do what they do in the second half. We are brought to understand that corruption at all levels, easily available arms, wretched levels of poverty all feed into the ever-growing constant of a consumer demand for the minerals extracted from Congo's mines.

I feel there are parts of the book that seem like filler to get it to 200 pages (I'm still not clear why the chapter about Sudan exists in context to the issues in eastern DRC, but perhaps I just missed something) and I was distracted by the overuse of brackets constantly re-explaining which sides which groups where on. If you can't recognize that the FDLR backs the Hutu interahamwe by the midpoint of the book, for example, perhaps you need to find a different subject.

While there is good background information here on the conflict and the atrocities perpetuated by it, I thought the best chapters where the final two, where he finally looks into various actions by international rights groups and mineral groups and what can be done by them. The final chapter does this too, though the conclusions and questions he posits are obvious at that point anyway. It almost seems like he had the final two chapters written first and spent his time filling in the "why" with the rest of the book.

Again, it is a decent, if loose, overview of the who's, how's and why's of the catastrphic problem in eastern DRC. But continued reading on the subject is a good idea if you want to get down to the depth of the problems and their players.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, Peter Eichstaedt is a writer and editor who has worked and traveled in Africa. Here he writes of the eastern Congo, a region being destroyed by an entrenched war the scale of which exceeds any previous conflict by any measure.

The book's chapters are each like their own essay on the various topics such as mining, armies, individual locations, the effects of war on people, the rape epidemic, the minerals themselves, reform proposals and others. There are descriptions of mines, a buying cooperative, a refugee camp, a rape victim's clinic, a trip to Sudan and more.

Some of the story is told through interviews. A wide range of people are interviewed, such as villagers, miners, a Mai-Mai militia commander, a metals middleman (comptoir), women's rape counselors and a victim, refugees, a reform advocate and politicians. There are discussions of the wars' effects on the civilians (worn out), agriculture (disappearing with some exceptions) and wildlife (rapidly disappearing).

There are recurrent themes. The vast mineral wealth is not trickling down to the people. The government is too weak to protect the people and its own soldiers, because they are not paid, find ways to make a living off civilians. The fighting is over the wealth and who runs the mines, but ethnic hatred is a factor as there is a lot of senseless violence.

Reformers propose systems to identify "conflict minerals" will deter buyers. Critics of the system say that European buyers will shun these minerals, but others will not. Critics are also skeptical that those who tag these minerals will not be honest.

There are excellent photos and a good index. The last chapter offers mixed hope for measures that may stem the trade of "conflict metals".

[rita ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quite interesting in a disturbing way. Knowing what's happening in such a country was mind blowing. But truth to be told i wouldn't have read this if it was for college...it was one of those books that really opens up your mind and even if you don't find interest in such a theme, i advise you to read the book because if it changed my mind, it can also change yours.

[Aileen Lord · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a Good reads giveaway and found it a very interesting book. I knew Congo was a waring country but had no idea of the extent. We always hear of the exploiting of minerals in these countries but the extent is enormous. This book is very enlightening and also offers a glimmer of hope with possible reforms.

[Ruth Rowlands · Rating 4 out of 5]

A disturbing book that highlights one of the biggest tragedies in the world. My goal when reading it was to try and picture individual people rather than the masses. When put in difficult circumstances us humans can inflict horrific things on each other.

[Peter Eichstaedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reality behind the headlines. A compelling book.

[Nuno Miguel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting in some chapters. Boring because the only thing that changes is people's opinion.

[Tarmo Syvapuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is only part of the truth. Other areas in DRC are very different. Problems are in Eastern region as described.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched book and sad state of affairs.

[San Diego Book Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Kevin Winters for San Diego Book Review

It is a region of the world that the vast majority of Americans would not be able to find on a map. But it has been the heart of one of the longest running, and deadliest, wars ever. It is the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and at one point it had the armies of several countries within its border.

You can read this entire review and others like it at San Diego Book Review.