The stage is set for the next contest to control Katanga’s riches. Will the Western-leaning Tshisekedi consolidate power, or will Kabila reclaim the nation and push it further toward China? The flow of cobalt is at stake, and with it, control of our rechargeable future. Who is to say that, either way, anything would improve in the lives of the Congolese people? From the moment Diego Cão introduced Europeans to the Kongo in 1482, the heart of Africa was made colony to the world. Patrice Lumumba offered a fleeting chance at a different fate, but the neocolonial machinery of the West chopped him
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