The Looting Machine

Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth

By: Tom Burgis

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals, and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China, and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 percent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 percent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent.

In his first book, The Looting Machine, Tom Burgis exposes the truth about the African development miracle: for the resource states, it's a mirage. The oil, copper, diamonds, gold, and coltan deposits attract a global network of traders, bankers, corporate extractors, and investors who combine with venal political cabals to loot the states' value. And the vagaries of resource-dependent economies could pitch Africa's new middle class back into destitution just as quickly as they climbed out of it. The ground beneath their feet is as precarious as a Congolese mine shaft; their prosperity could spill away like crude from a busted pipeline.

This catastrophic social disintegration is not merely a continuation of Africa's past as a colonial victim. The looting now is accelerating as never before. As global demand for Africa's resources rises, a handful of Africans are becoming legitimately rich, but the vast majority, like the continent as a whole, is being fleeced. Outsiders tend to think of Africa as a great drain of philanthropy. But look more closely at the resource industry, and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world looks rather different.

©2015 Tom Burgis (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC

One of the best I’ve listened to

Narrative was fantastic, and the book moves along at a very nice pace. While the content was troubling, it was an entertaining read nonetheless.

Frightening, Fascinating, Fatiguing

When Tom Burgis tells us, at the start of this book, how he suffered a nervous breakdown, it's easy to see why. The sheer magnitude and hopelessness of the problem in Africa is almost beyond imagining.
This is an important book. One with which college students should be familiar. The wealth we enjoy is purchased on the misery of millions of Africans, and most of us remain blissfully unaware, if not totally unfeeling.
I had to take this book in pieces, it's so powerfully overwhelming. It has left me hating a system over which it seems I have no control whatever. Still, I'm glad to know the truth of it.
Listen to this book. Grover Gardner is the best narrator one can imagine, and the subject matter is of the utmost importance.

interesting but muddled

great narrator, interesting story, blames oil and mineral companies for intentionally looting africa but treats african politicians who squander community aid money from those same oil and mineral cos as victims of their own circumstance

A good overview of african continent history

The book start after the independence of most african countries and describe how corporate and warlord control africa's wealth and destiny.

Interesting

It's interesting to see how nations have stolen so much from African nations and how African leaders have sold out their countries.

Great book

This is an outline of the countries discussed. You'll have to dive a bit deeper to learn about all the legal crime that's robbing so many Africans of their own wealth. Very sobering.

1. Angola
2. DR Congo
3. Nigeria
4. China
5. Guinea
6. Niger
7. Ghana
8. Niger Delta (Nigerian oil province)
9. South Africa
10. Zimbabwe

The unbelievable Africa wealth story

I've spent a lifetime loving all things Africa. This book points out just how off the mark I am. Africa and poverty are contradictions that becomes clear after reading Tom Burgis brilliant and brave book.

great book hard to read cuz it's so heartbreaking

Facebook shows where the wealth of the western world come from and why Africa is poor it shows why it will continue to be poor

Very, very good

The content of the book was very well researched and it was written with good clarity and conciseness.
I was really surprised with the author's sharing in the beginning of the book of the emotional toll his time in Africa took on him.
I looked up many facts he describes here and they are accurately used.
The reader is also very nice. Good quality audio with clear speech and precise dictation.

Deep Powerful Insight into the Why's of Africa

Especially insightful to read and listen to. Gave deep and insightful understanding on why and how Africa was and is being recolonized. As an African, I think more about resource control.