Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Siddharth Kara is an expert in contemporary enslavement and human trafficking around the world. He wrote a series of popular non-fiction texts on the subject: Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009), Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012), and Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017). The books were praised by academics, policy makers, and other experts in the field.

Kara has a BA in English and Philosophy from Duke University, an MBA from Columbia, and a law degree from the private British university BPP. He is the British Academy Global Professor and Rights Lab Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at the University of Nottingham, and a senior fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. He “advises several UN agencies and numerous governments on anti-slavery policy and law” (“Siddharth Kara.” University of Nottingham). Cobalt Red is an extension of his previous research on forced labor and human rights abuses in developing countries. Kara describes his research for Cobalt Red and his other projects as “self-funded,” although he notes in the Acknowledgements for Cobalt Red that he received support for his work from “Humanity United, the British Academy, the Schooner Foundation, Bruce Korman, Peggy Koenig, and John Hayes” (252).

Kara’s background presents both opportunities and disadvantages in his reporting. Kara is Indian American. He uses his Indian appearance to assume a “range of cover stories” (39) including businessman, trader, and researcher while traveling to mines, as there are many Indian workers and businessmen in Congo. However, Kara does not speak the local languages and he is reliant on local translators and guides to conduct his interviews and secure access. This creates possibilities for miscommunication, such as when his translator Augustin becomes overwhelmed and “sob[bed] before attempting to translate what was said” (155). At the end of the book, Kara notes that the Congolese ambassador to the US advises it would be better for Congolese people to tell their own story rather than have it told by a foreigner such as Kara. Kara acknowledges the truth of this view and argues that it is necessary to “advanc[e] the ability of the Congolese people to conduct their own research and safely speak for themselves” (242), rather than having foreigners like himself do such work.