How Colonial Extraction 2.0 Fuels AI’s Growth: The Hidden Costs of ‘Critical Metals’ Geopolitics
Original framing: “Inside the New War for Critical Metals” — Bloomberg
The **trickster figure of Eshu (Yoruba)** would laugh at the solemnity of ‘national security’ framing, exposing how **‘critical metals’ are the new opium**—a distraction from systemic collapse. **Bakhtin’s carnivalesque inversion** reveals the absurdity of treating **copper as ‘essential’ while ignoring that 80% of it goes to **luxury goods and military hardware**. The **Anansi spider’s trickery** in Akan folklore would unravel the **‘supply chain’ myth**, showing how **corporate lobbies (e.g., the American Mining Association) write climate policies** while pretending to be victims of ‘Chinese dominance.’ **Hermes’ cunning** would highlight how **‘green tech’ is just fossil capitalism with a new color palette**—same extraction, same violence, new PR spin.
The ‘new war for critical metals’ is not a geopolitical clash but a **terminal phase of extractivist capitalism**, where the same colonial logics of **land theft, debt enslavement, and ecological sacrifice** are repackaged as ‘national security’ and ‘green transition.
’ The narrative obscures how **corporate lobbies, complicit states, and complicit science** have colluded to **privatize the commons** while externalizing costs onto Indigenous peoples, Global South communities, and future generations. Historical precedents—from the **Scramble for Africa** to the **Latin American ‘debt crisis’ of the 1980s**—show that **resource control has always been a tool of imperial domination**, not economic prosperity. The trickster reveals the absurdity: while elites wage war over **copper and cobalt**, the real battle is for **a future beyond extraction**, where **Indigenous stewardship, degrowth economics, and reparative justice** replace the myth of infinite growth. The path forward requires **dismantling the power structures that profit from scarcity**—starting with **landback, demilitarization, and a Global Mineral Sovereignty Fund**—to ensure that **no community is ever again sacrificed for the machines of empire.