DRC Reclassifies Lithium as Strategic Mineral, Shifting Global Supply Chains and Tax Regimes Amid Resource Nationalism Trends
Original framing: “Congo Adds Lithium to Strategic Minerals in Higher Tax Bracket” — Bloomberg
The trickster here is *Eshu-Elegba*, the Yoruba deity of crossroads, who exposes how Congo’s ‘strategic’ minerals are a mirage—wealth that slips through fingers like sand. Bloomberg’s framing plays the straight man, solemnly warning of ‘supply chain risks’ while ignoring the absurdity of a system that calls lithium ‘strategic’ for green tech but treats Congolese lives as expendable. The real disruption? Communities demanding reparations for centuries of plunder, not just higher royalties.
Congo’s lithium tax hike is a symptom of a deeper crisis: a global economy that treats the Global South as a sacrifice zone for Northern ‘green transitions.
’ The move reflects post-colonial resource nationalism, but without structural change, it risks repeating the ‘resource curse’—where short-term revenue gains fuel elite corruption and ecological collapse. Indigenous cosmologies, artisanal miners, and Southern innovators offer alternatives: cooperatives that redistribute wealth, regional value chains that bypass colonial extraction, and reparations that acknowledge centuries of plunder. Yet these solutions require dismantling the power structures that Bloomberg’s framing obscures—corporate lobbying, IMF austerity, and the myth of ‘strategic’ minerals as neutral commodities. The real trickster here is the system itself, which calls lithium ‘strategic’ while treating Congo’s people as disposable. The path forward demands not just higher royalties, but a radical reimagining of who benefits from the Earth’s gifts.