Themes: neocolonialism, slavery, child labor, ecology, supply chains

Meeting Time & Location: Thursdays at 6:30 pm (In-Person, locations will change and are listed below)

Dates: October 18 - 23, 2025

The Bleeding Heart of Africa is a reading group hosted by the NYC-DSA Anti-Imperialist Political Education Subcommittee that will discuss resource extraction in Congo. 75% of the world's cobalt, an essential mineral used in every rechargeable battery, is mined in Congo under subhuman and exploitative working conditions. These brutal, material realities are the latest manifestation of a violent colonial and neocolonial history, in which imperial powers have viciously exploited Congolese labor and natural resources at the expense of their political and economic sovereignty. Additionally, this mining has devastating ecological consequences for the Congolese rainforests, the world’s second largest after the Amazon. 

Our primary text will be Siddharth Kara’s Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. This book discusses the history of cobalt mining in Congo and contains a large number of interviews with miners in the region. Additional texts include The Congo From Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History by Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja and My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin.

We will kick off on October 17th with a screening of Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. The reading group will begin the following week on October 23rd. This coincides with Congo Week, organized by Friends of the Congo.

Schedule & Readings