This report evaluates the links between coltan trade and violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and examines the potential for recent legislation to break such links and reduce conflict.

Irit Back’s book From Sudan to South Sudan: IGAD and the Role of Regional Mediation in Africa comprehensively analyses the full achievements, shortcomings, and implications of IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) mediation efforts in Sudan and South Sudan. IGAD’s active mediation was a primary force behind the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the south and the north that eventually resulted in South Sudan’s declaration of independence in 2011. The euphoria of this historic achievement was, however, almost immediately overshadowed by internal strife, which has, since 2013, escalated to a large-scale conflict in the new-born nation that demanded IGAD’s renewed mediation efforts. The book offers readers new insights and perspectives to apply when seeking to develop a more balanced understanding of Africa’s contemporary conflicts and the efforts to resolve them. More specifically, the book will also help readers to better comprehend the potential role of regional mediation in East Africa, a region with a turbulent history in the post-Cold War era.

The Eyes of the World focuses on the lives and experiences of Eastern Congolese people involved in extracting and transporting the minerals needed for digital devices. The digital devices that, many would argue, define this era exist not only because of Silicon Valley innovations but also because of a burgeoning trade in dense, artisanally mined substances like tantalum, tin, and tungsten. In the tentatively postwar Eastern DR Congo, where many lives have been reoriented around artisanal mining, these minerals are socially dense, fueling movement and innovative collaborations that encompass diverse actors, geographies, temporalities, and dimensions. Focusing on the miners and traders of some of these “digital minerals,” The Eyes of the World examines how Eastern Congolese understand the work in which they are engaged, the forces pitted against them, and the complicated process through which substances in the earth and forest are converted into commodified resources. Smith shows how violent dispossession has fueled a bottom-up social theory that valorizes movement and collaboration—one that directly confronts both private mining companies and the tracking initiatives implemented by international companies aspiring to ensure that the minerals in digital devices are purified of blood.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the second-largest country in Africa by area, has had a fractured and bloody history, variously undone by decades of colonialism, civil war, corruption, and totalitarian rule. The country has played a crucial role in the economic growth of the Global North, but in doing so, has suffered immensely. So many seminal advances in technology were possible only through the extraction of materials from Congo, from rubber to copper to uranium to coltan. In each case, the Congolese people paid a great price exacerbated by the weight of colonial exploitation and dictatorial rule. In this comprehensive graphic history, author and illustrator Edmund Trueman explores the fractious story of Congo. Through deft illustrations and storytelling, Congo’s history―not widely known to Western readers―comes vividly alive. We see how Congolese musicians have spread their language across Africa by creating some of the most popular music on the continent, and how Congolese women have spent decades sidestepping sexist legislation to become leaders in local business. From resistance against colonialism to the fight for independence and the self-determination to make a life in an almost stateless place, Postcards from Congo depicts how the Congolese people have resisted and survived in order to take control of their lives and the country they call home. Includes a foreword by historian Didier Gondola, Professor of African History at Johns Hopkins University. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A book with many images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

Elections in Africa are competitive in nature and can be manipulated by incumbents to extend and entrench their rule through changes to constitutions, intimidation of opponents, excess use of police force and, in some cases, assassinations of dissident voices. Ethnic cleavages are also exploited by contestants to incite and mobilize unsuspecting masses to pursue their electoral ambitions which can lead to political instability. In many African countries, violence before, during and after elections has become a regrettable norm rather than the exception. The function of transitional justice is to address the legacy of human rights atrocities, political violence and societal harm resulting from prior misrule or violent conflicts, with a view to establishing fair, democratic and inclusive societies. This book interrogates the potential intersection between transitional justice and electoral processes. Specifically, it examines the hypothesis that transitional justice interventions that strive to address historical injustices perpetrated by violence, conflict and entrenched by socio-political impunity, can initiate preventive measures against electoral violence through redress, accountability and institutional reforms. The contributors to this volume have engaged with country case studies from across Africa, while examining the intersection between transitional justice and electoral processes. Hence, this is a timely volume that highlights the uninterrogated nexus between elections, violence and transitional justice in Africa.

Science, Technology and Gender studies (STG) include the different approaches to feminist epistemologies, their current debates and also the theoretical analysis of different scientific controversies around cases that involve women's bodies and health, sex/gender, and techno-scientific practices. These studies are linked to the demand for another type of hybrid knowledge that revalorizes the practices, the embodied experience and care, as well as the subject positions traditionally excluded from the scientific community. The diversity of voices has allowed a plural knowledge in techno-scientific practices to emerge as well as the identification of gender, class, sexuality, race, functional diversity inequalities, for example. This has made possible a bioethical reflection which is not understood as abstract normative principles but linked to the practices and lived experience. Divided into three parts, this edited volume presents original and insightful research on STG from feminist epistemologies. The first part addresses fundamental theoretical questions that feminist epistemologies raise; and how they confront complex social problems, such as gender-based violence. The second part deals with research practices or processes, explicitly showing the relationship between science and policy. Finally, the third part presents some case studies that show the multidimensionality of the problems and the depth and richness of these analyses. The contributions included in the volume present original and in-depth research on local case studies within Spain. Not only challenging the hegemonic and global perspectives on different issues, this volume also opens up and enables discussion of these global narratives. This edited volume is a useful tool for researchers and university students in multiple fields such as gender studies, feminist epistemologies, STS, cultural history or transgender studies.

If you want to understand how our world works, the periodic table holds the answers. When the seventh row of the periodic table of elements was completed in June 2016 with the addition of four final elements—nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson—we at last could identify all the ingredients necessary to construct our world.In Elemental, chemist and science educator Tim James provides an informative, entertaining, and quirkily illustrated guide to the table that shows clearly how this abstract and seemingly jumbled graphic is relevant to our day-to-day lives.James tells the story of the periodic table from its ancient Greek roots, when you could count the number of elements humans were aware of on one hand, to the modern alchemists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who have used nuclear chemistry and physics to generate new elements and complete the periodic table. In addition to this, he answers questions such as: What is the chemical symbol for a human? What would happen if all of the elements were mixed together? Which liquid can teleport through walls? Why is the medieval dream of transmuting lead into gold now a reality?Whether you're studying the periodic table for the first time or are simply interested in the fundamental building blocks of the universe—from the core of the sun to the networks in your brain—Elemental is the perfect guide.