
The Looting Machine
Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth
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Narrated by:
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Grover Gardner
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By:
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Tom Burgis
About this listen
The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals, and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China, and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 percent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 percent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent.
In his first book, The Looting Machine, Tom Burgis exposes the truth about the African development miracle: for the resource states, it's a mirage. The oil, copper, diamonds, gold, and coltan deposits attract a global network of traders, bankers, corporate extractors, and investors who combine with venal political cabals to loot the states' value. And the vagaries of resource-dependent economies could pitch Africa's new middle class back into destitution just as quickly as they climbed out of it. The ground beneath their feet is as precarious as a Congolese mine shaft; their prosperity could spill away like crude from a busted pipeline.
This catastrophic social disintegration is not merely a continuation of Africa's past as a colonial victim. The looting now is accelerating as never before. As global demand for Africa's resources rises, a handful of Africans are becoming legitimately rich, but the vast majority, like the continent as a whole, is being fleeced. Outsiders tend to think of Africa as a great drain of philanthropy. But look more closely at the resource industry, and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world looks rather different.
©2015 Tom Burgis (P)2015 Gildan Media LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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A deep dive into some really sinister history
- By Alan D. on 05-03-24
By: Paul Kenyon
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The Darker Nations
- A People's History of the Third World
- By: Vijay Prashad, Howard Zinn - editor
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement - the idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the 20th century attempt to knit together the world's impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.
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So informative!
- By krishna chaitanya on 01-03-22
By: Vijay Prashad, and others
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A Thousand Hills
- Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country.
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Best Most Comprehensive Work on Rwanda
- By Greg on 07-30-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
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The Fate of Africa
- A History of the Continent Since Independence
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 29 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Martin Meredith has revised this classic history to incorporate important recent developments, including the Darfur crisis in Sudan, Robert Mugabe’s continued destructive rule in Zimbabwe, controversies over Western aid and exploitation of Africa’s resources, the growing importance and influence of China, and the democratic movement roiling the North African countries of Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan.
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Africa: Land of Hope and Horror
- By Jeff on 03-08-14
By: Martin Meredith
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Spies in the Congo
- America's Atomic Mission in World War II
- By: Susan Williams
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The Shinkolobwe Mine in the Belgian Congo was described by a 1943 Manhattan Project intelligence report as the "most important deposit of uranium yet discovered in the world". So long as the United States remained in control of this mine and its supply, it had a world monopoly on the primary material needed to build an atomic bomb. The uranium from this mine was used to build the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
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More little known history
- By Winifred Hinson on 08-24-16
By: Susan Williams
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Cobalt Red
- How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
- By: Siddharth Kara
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Cobalt Red is the searing first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt.
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A must read
- By Anonymous User on 02-01-23
By: Siddharth Kara
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White Malice
- The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa
- By: Susan Williams
- Narrated by: Chanté McCormick
- Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the covert operations pursued by the CIA from Ghana to the Congo to the UN in an effort to frustrate and deny Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders. This dramatically upends the conventional belief that the African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in.
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A very good read.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-20-22
By: Susan Williams
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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
- By: Walter Rodney, Angela Y. Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the West and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the repercussions of European colonialism in Africa remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
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A Superb must read for everyone
- By Joy on 04-16-19
By: Walter Rodney, and others
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America on Fire
- The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 60's
- By: Elizabeth Hinton
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Elizabeth Hinton demonstrates in America on Fire the events of 2020 had clear precursors - and any attempt to understand our current crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past. Black rebellion, America on Fire powerfully illustrates, was born in response to poverty and exclusion, but most immediately in reaction to police violence. Presenting a new framework for understanding our nation’s strife, America on Fire is also a warning: Rebellions will surely continue until an oppressive system is finally remade on the principles of justice and equality.
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Giant leaps of logic
- By Aaron Rudroff on 08-10-21
By: Elizabeth Hinton
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Butler to the World
- The Book the Oligarchs Don't Want You to Read - How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything
- By: Oliver Bullough
- Narrated by: Oliver Bullough
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Suez Crisis of 1956 was the nadir of Britain's twentieth century, the moment when the once-superpower was bullied into retreat. "Great Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role," said Dean Acherson, a former US secretary of state. Acheson's line has entered into the canon of great quotations: but it was wrong. Britain had already found a role. The leaders of the world just hadn't noticed it yet. Butler to the World reveals how Britain came to assume its role as the center of the offshore economy.
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Extraordinary
- By Brad on 12-30-22
By: Oliver Bullough
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When China Rules the World
- The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order
- By: Martin Jacques
- Narrated by: Scott Peterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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According to even the most conservative estimates, China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy by 2027 and will ascend to the position of world economic leader by 2050. But the full repercussions of China's ascendancy-for itself and the rest of the globe-have been surprisingly little explained or understood.
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Lucid explanation of global economic trends
- By David Blake on 01-04-10
By: Martin Jacques
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By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean
- The Birth of Eurasia
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 18 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering more than 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th century AD.
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Remarkable research!
- By B. Dillon on 07-21-22
By: Barry Cunliffe
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A Splendid Exchange
- How Trade Shaped the World
- By: William J. Bernstein
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Splendid Exchange, William J. Bernstein tells the extraordinary story of global commerce from its prehistoric origins to the myriad controversies surrounding it today. He transports listeners from ancient sailing ships that brought the silk trade from China to Rome in the second century to the rise and fall of the Portuguese monopoly in spices in the 16th.
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Very interesting and Germane to Today's World
- By Mark on 07-18-08
What listeners say about The Looting Machine
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- J. A. Barnaby
- 06-01-16
interesting but muddled
great narrator, interesting story, blames oil and mineral companies for intentionally looting africa but treats african politicians who squander community aid money from those same oil and mineral cos as victims of their own circumstance
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- K. Allen
- 08-01-24
Learned so much!
I disliked learning there is the dark side of international trade and finance. I liked learning about it and extrapolating explanations about things the Autor did not say. Why do we keep pumping in usd to African countries, why does the inequality and economic hardship still exist in African countries, and why??? This book answers them. It also explained, in plain English, a lot about colonialism that was hinted at in college classes but not clearly elucidated. This book was an easy listen and I highly recommend it.
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- maleye
- 08-06-18
A good overview of african continent history
The book start after the independence of most african countries and describe how corporate and warlord control africa's wealth and destiny.
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- Polk
- 07-25-22
Interesting
It's interesting to see how nations have stolen so much from African nations and how African leaders have sold out their countries.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-20-24
Stolen resources
The resources that were extracted and stoles
from Africa and never replaced or recouped assets
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- Jeff Davis
- 02-14-20
One of the best I’ve listened to
Narrative was fantastic, and the book moves along at a very nice pace. While the content was troubling, it was an entertaining read nonetheless.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Akshay Gupta
- 12-27-24
This is a masterpiece in journalism
It’s well researched and brilliantly written. Shows how capitalism has run amok and greed is hurting people.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Scott
- 07-29-18
Frightening, Fascinating, Fatiguing
When Tom Burgis tells us, at the start of this book, how he suffered a nervous breakdown, it's easy to see why. The sheer magnitude and hopelessness of the problem in Africa is almost beyond imagining.
This is an important book. One with which college students should be familiar. The wealth we enjoy is purchased on the misery of millions of Africans, and most of us remain blissfully unaware, if not totally unfeeling.
I had to take this book in pieces, it's so powerfully overwhelming. It has left me hating a system over which it seems I have no control whatever. Still, I'm glad to know the truth of it.
Listen to this book. Grover Gardner is the best narrator one can imagine, and the subject matter is of the utmost importance.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Steve Adams
- 08-25-24
A tale of greeed
The Looting Machine is a tale of many villains- both black and white. In spite of the riches of diamonds, petroleum and valuable metals and minerals, a handful of people make obscene profits while the majority of citizens barely get by.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sara Diniz
- 10-02-15
Very, very good
The content of the book was very well researched and it was written with good clarity and conciseness.
I was really surprised with the author's sharing in the beginning of the book of the emotional toll his time in Africa took on him.
I looked up many facts he describes here and they are accurately used.
The reader is also very nice. Good quality audio with clear speech and precise dictation.
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1 person found this helpful