Dimensions
159 x 240 x 32mm
An investigative journey into the ways the resource trade wreaks havoc on Africa, The Looting Machine uncovers the shadowy networks that bind together the likes of Goldman Sachs, BP, the Hong Kong underworld and the murderous cabals that rule some oil states, shedding light on an industry entrenched in the structures of empire. The discovery of one of the world's most promising oil frontiers along Africa's west coast has seen the area touted as a prime investment destination. But talk of the reinvention of a continent masks a more troubling truth. The dirty trade in African resources has been grossly underreported. We have failed to grasp the importance of African commodities in our daily lives, be it the Guinean aluminium in our cutlery or the Nigerian petrol in our cars. As our dependency on these resources increases, the stories of those who live under their curse become all the more urgent. In this vital and arresting book, investigative journalist Tom Burgis hunts out the human stories both of the power brokers who run the looting machine and of those whose lives have been shattered by it, discovering how the price of the raw ingredients that fuel the global economy is rightly measured not in dollars, but in minds scarred by fear and lives lost.
