Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi exists because copper exists beneath it—and almost nothing else about the city's history can be understood without that geological fact. Belgian colonizers founded Élisabethville (renamed Lubumbashi at independence) in 1910 as the administrative center for Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, the mining conglomerate that extracted copper, cobalt, uranium, and tin from the Katanga Copperbelt. The uranium for the Hiroshima bomb came from Shinkolobwe mine, 150 kilometers northwest.

Katanga's mineral wealth made it the prize of Congolese politics. Within weeks of independence in 1960, Moïse Tshombe declared Katanga's secession—backed by Belgian mining interests and white mercenaries—triggering a crisis that drew in the UN, the CIA, and the Soviet Union. Patrice Lumumba's assassination was partly motivated by control of Katangan resources. The secession ended in 1963, but the political logic persists: whoever controls Katanga's minerals controls the Congo's revenue.

Gécamines (the state mining company that inherited Union Minière's assets) collapsed through mismanagement under Mobutu's kleptocracy. Production fell from over 400,000 tons of copper annually in the 1980s to under 20,000 tons by 2002. The Chinese-backed revival—Sicomines and other joint ventures exchanging infrastructure for mineral rights—has partially restored output, and the DRC is now the world's largest cobalt producer, supplying over 70% of global output critical for electric vehicle batteries.

Lubumbashi's University of Lubumbashi (founded 1955 as Université Officielle du Congo) is the DRC's second-oldest university and the intellectual center of the Katangan elite. The city's copper-smelting culture extends to its art scene: Lubumbashi Biennale showcases contemporary African art.

Lubumbashi produces the cobalt that powers the world's electric vehicle revolution—and the miners who extract it earn among the lowest wages on Earth.

The city's question remains what it was in 1910: who benefits from what lies beneath?