Abstract
This dissertation examines the complex intersection between the sustainability revolution and cobalt mining in Democratic Republic of the Congo, a nation disproportionately affected by both climate change consequences and the global push for renewable energy. While electric vehicles are touted as vital to decarbonisation, and therefore, climate change solutions, the extraction of cobalt — a key component of rechargeable batteries — exacerbates environmental degradation, worsens human health, and is linked to human rights abuses. I detail the costs of the sustainability revolution, revealing how sustainability narratives often replicate colonial and development discourses, perpetuating cycles of exploitation and marginalisation.
I demonstrate how historical legacies and structural power imbalances shape contemporary narrative representations of Congolese citizens and influence their position in global affairs. By engaging Johannes Fabian’s ‘Forgetting Africa’ theory — and drawing on other relevant concepts — this study critiques dominant discourses which obscure the contributions of Congolese cobalt miners in the sustainability story and omit them from the global green future. I engage with discourses of electric vehicle promotion and representations of cobalt miners in journalistic content.
A nuanced examination shows that within the confines of the above context, sustainability is paradoxical. Depoliticised discourses mask the unsustainability of sustainability. I propose sustainability narratives contribute to ‘Forgetting Africa’, by highlighting the performative contradictions intrinsic to sustainability and subsequent implications for African communities. Additionally, I argue when reductive and stereotypical tropes are employed — even in the name of awareness, they serve to justify structural inequities, exploitation, and white saviourism. I advocate for the use of discourse that empowers communities affected by climate change and its solutions, in a way that fosters a just energy transition. Ultimately, this work calls for the recentring of Congolese — and more broadly, African — voices in the story.