4/C proCess Coarse matte uv + spot gloss Dm(ceoinlntetari analun meddi ncfrero oismns eifnarsgotn eatr nfwl aCapro)znognoe. ttoh er reeascuhl ta i sr eam bolitse- c u r r e n t e v e n t s / A f ric A $27.99/$34.99 Can tering, page-turning investigation that throws a afriCa is the world’s poorest completely fresh light on the workings of the global continent and, arguably, its richest. although economy and will make you think twice about accounting for just 2 percent of global gdp, it is what goes into the phone in your pocket and the the repository of 15 percent of the planet’s crude tank of your car. oil reserves, 40 percent of its gold, and 80 percent of its platinum. Beneath its soils lies a third of the m Burgis, nolA, centrAl AfricAn repuBlic, in 2010, By chArlie BiBBy thetr mehh-aoeessn ltgms opiynaosoinetwsteea ermnigrenaoef dt udgcc h aloo t aamfennottnn ssea udigpprsCn iiiht tnrrchahahaaoelievewccvsn e yty epeao.h ,er bo nyftit o edanshoth“er n khfeseoa nfdpr avoeftt e otg romhtti oselhhissaves rt yeetvi n et ns paniitrCovtne gh tsdeoibog.e dymi letp t sd srrcrpls o tuieaiwwoececm euhrchmha.st te iBrrt e.cr.o a uhhi onitr etf ewg ris sieo aso fsa f mttjgfgusooraulrruiorikoacntmvrihweltenne es rrt ao er haheytsifrlasn e fiihCodstgasnh ueh edphdaprrier nernocoroialeuacssvvsdii.go eea t qohindsflounnir zfttboa toeothamyrudhi et b nnet eg cerh ardrosg asenn ilhopp o ooovanipnntmfdod i i eylranwaoayama wlgh sricC eosatsaiammhouh,lt nvu. sae.a iad Bs rnAmnbt guihofoeeooirtutfannu itw,tnrc ge nhdabgton ti’ruereosss okctr ms obtto harfoom onooe Bfocoars acmuut m k snrnrrauiiaigasennnerdewtiggdses--. to ers, bankers, and corporate raiders has sprung up the individuals who have adapted the wholesale looting of tom Burgis has been reporting for to grease the palms of venal local political elites. Africa’s mineral resources for the benefit of oligarchic and state the financial times for eight years, including as interests around the world. french, Chinese, americans, russians, what is happening in africa’s resource states is a correspondent in Johannesburg and lagos, and Israelis, Brits, Brazilians—not to mention small but rapacious systematic looting. in country after country across won the ft’s 2013 Jones-Mauthner Memorial Prize African elites—are all involved in pillaging Africa’s natural the continent, the resource industry tears at the for his superb exposés of corruption. he was short- resources to line their pockets with unbelievable sums and offer very fabric of society. the currencies of the trade listed as a young journalist of the year for his states strategic advantages in the distribution of critical in oil, precious stones, and ores are corruption, africa reports, and also won the Jerwood award commodities. Burgis, a gifted young journalist with the financial oppression, and violence. But, like its victims, the for a first nonfiction book in progress. times, has tracked down these characters beneficiaries of this looting machine have names. across some of africa’s most dangerous for six years tom Burgis has been on a mission hotspots and beyond in asia, europe, and to expose corruption and give voice to the millions america. the reporting is vivid, eye- of ordinary africans who suffer the consequences of popping, and even at times very funny.” living under this curse. Combining deep reporting JaCket design By theBookdesigners $27.99/$34.99 Can —MIshA Glenny, author with an action-packed narrative, he travels to the of mcmafia and the Balkans heart of africa’s resource states, along the way meeting a warlord in nigeria’s oil-soaked niger availaBle as an e-Book visit www.puBliCaffairsBooks.Com (continued on back flap) follow @puBliC_affairs on twitter www.publicaffairsbooks.com spot gloss is indiCated on page 2 T h e L o o T i n g M a c h i n e 9781610394390-text.indd 1 1/13/15 12:14 PM 9781610394390-text.indd 2 1/13/15 12:14 PM T h e L o o T i n g M a c h i n e Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa’s Wealth T o m B u r g i s PublicAffairs New York 9781610394390-text.indd 3 1/13/15 12:14 PM Copyright © 2015 by Tom Burgis Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107. PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. Editorial production by Marrathon Production Services. www.marrathon.net Book design by Jane Raese Set in 12-point Bulmer Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930296 ISBN 978-1-61039-439-0 (HC) ISBN 978-1-61039-440-6 (EB) First edition 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 9781610394390-text.indd 4 1/13/15 12:14 PM For my mother and father, and their kitchen table 9781610394390-text.indd 5 1/13/15 12:14 PM 9781610394390-text.indd 6 1/13/15 12:14 PM Contents Author’s Note ix Introduction: A Curse of Riches 1 1 Futungo, Inc. 9 2 “It Is Forbidden to Piss in the Park” 29 3 Incubators of Poverty 61 4 Guanxi 81 5 When Elephants Fight, the Grass Gets Trampled 103 6 A Bridge to Beijing 131 7 Finance and Cyanide 151 8 God Has Nothing to Do with It 175 9 Black Gold 209 10 The New Money Kings 219 Epilogue: Complicity 245 Notes 249 Acknowledgments 301 Index 305 About the Author 321 Photo section follows page 150 vii 9781610394390-text.indd 7 1/13/15 12:14 PM 9781610394390-text.indd 8 1/13/15 12:14 PM Author’s Note in late 2010 I started to feel sick. At first I put the constant nausea down to a bout of malaria and a stomach bug I’d picked up during a trip a few months earlier to cover an election in Guinea, but the sickness persisted. I went back to the UK for what was meant to be a week’s break before wrapping up in Lagos, the Nigerian megacity where I was based as the Financial Times’ west Africa correspondent. A doctor put a camera down my throat and found nothing. I stopped sleeping. I jumped at noises and found myself bursting into tears. At the end of the week I was walking to a shop to buy a newspaper for the train ride to the airport when my legs gave way. I postponed my flight and went to another doctor, who sent me to a psychiatrist. In the psychiatrist’s office I started to explain that I was exhausted and bewildered, and I was soon sobbing uncontrollably. The psychiatrist told me I had severe depression and that I should be admit- ted to a psychiatric ward immediately. There I was put on diazepam, a drug for anxiety, and antidepressants. After a few days in the hospital it became apparent that there was something else tormenting me in tandem with depression. Eighteen months earlier I had traveled from Lagos to Jos, a city on the fault line between Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and largely Christian south, to cover an outbreak of communal violence. I arrived in a village on the outskirts not long after a mob had set fire to houses and their occupants, among them children and a baby. I took photographs, counted bodies, and filed my story. After a few days trying to understand the causes of the slaughter, I set off for the next assignment. Over the months that fol- lowed, when images of the corpses flashed before my mind’s eye, I would instinctively force them out, unable to look at them. The ghosts of Jos appeared at the end of my hospital bed. The women who had been stuffed down a well. The old man with the broken neck. ix 9781610394390-text.indd 9 1/13/15 12:14 PM