Within a few years of independence, African governments claimed sovereignty over their metal and mineral resources. Before this, the resources were exploited by European mining corporations. Since the 1990s, transnational corporations have once again become the dominant force as owners and managers of major mining projects.

Ben Radley has researched economic transformation in Central Africa, with a particular focus on resource-based industrialization. He argues in this excerpt from his new book, Disrupted Development in the Congo: The Fragile Foundations of the African Mining Consensus, that the withdrawal of internationals was carried out through a three-stage process, beginning with a flawed study of African economic stability. It happened from. Since the mid-1970s. The violation of resource sovereignty was made possible by distorting the African state and demonizing African miners.

Source: Business News