The New York Times Book Review - Michela Wrong
This is a brave, defiant book, for the bleakness of Burgis's vision jars with the tenor of the times. "Africa Rising" has become the obligatory catch phrase applied to the continent in recent years, a label inspired by the growth of an aspirational African middle class, the invigorating impact of mobile-phone and Internet technology, and growth rates in gross domestic product that European countries can only envy. It is fashionable, these days, to be upbeat about Africa. Burgis is having none of it…Burgis…has a brisk, muscular writing style…The book is at its best when [he] puts percentages and statistics aside and hits the road, interviewing the fishermen, artisanal miners and slum dwellers dispossessed and bankrupted by the deals described.
From the Publisher
A Financial Times Best Book of the Year, 2015
"A great scrapbook of exploitation. It is written in a way that will appeal to the general reader, but still interest specialists...Burgis has the good sense not to present [the cruel contrast between individual poverty and national wealth] in an alarmist way, but with an understatement that is far more powerful...The Looting Machine is in part a means of self‑exoneration, a way of making amends to those he ultimately could not help...[In this book he] has done a service to some of the world’s poorest people."—Financial Times
"[An] impressive study… It is to Mr. Burgis's tremendous credit that he writes with such tenacity."—Wall Street Journal
"[Burgis] presents a lively portrait of the rapacious ‘looting machine’...a rich collage of examples showing the links between corrupt companies and African elites."—Economist
"[Burgis] brings the tools of an investigative reporter and the sensibility of a foreign correspondent. [He] transcends the tired binary debate about the root causes of the continent's misery."—Howard French, Foreign Affairs
"A brave and defiant book."—New York Times Sunday Book Review
"A rollercoaster read. Filled with vignettes on spooks, smugglers and kleptocratic warlords with suitcases of cash, it reads like a crime thriller, while at the same time being a well‑researched, accessible account of the extractives industry; the privatisation of power in Africa and its impact on the continent’s people."—African Arguments
"Brilliant fascinating detail. The book lives up to its colourful subtitle: ‘Warlords, tycoons, smugglers and the systematic theft of Africa's wealth.’ Showing the finesse and determination that has won him awards at the FT, and at considerable risk to his own well‑being, Burgis tracks down and confronts the people at the centre of this plunder."—African Research Institute
"This fine book...catalogues the grotesque self‑enrichment of the callous rulers of Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, countries that should be immensely wealthy, but which remain poor, even by African standards. In each case, this theft of national treasure would be impossible without non‑African facilitators. ... Burgis’s book is essential to understanding why poverty, ignorance and conflict persist in Africa."—Independent Catholic News
"After nine years reporting on Africa for the Financial Times, Tom Burgis exposes how the extractive industries have turned into a hideous looting machine [an] informative book."—The Guardian (UK)
"[Burgis] makes a powerful case, through anecdote and evidence, that the dirty trade in raw materials serves individuals’ own enrichment and the demands of oligarchic and state interests worldwide."—The Times (UK)
"Burgis shows how even the World Bank is linked to this looting [of Africa, and he] makes an important case colourfully, convincingly and at times courageously as he confronts some of those involved in the pillaging."—Observer (UK)
"Revealing... Burgis explains lucidly how the oil and mineral bonanza subverts societies and corrupts western multinational companies trying to cash in... [He] is particularly acute in analysing how multinationals connive in this institutionalised theft. This intelligent book should give us all pause for thought when we fill our cars with petrol."—The Sunday Times (UK)
"An excellent book. Despite Africa's impressive economic 5% growth rate, Tom Burgis ensures that we don't stop wondering who does what in Africa and how we are all party to what Western investors” are up to. The post‑colonial corruption and rape of African resource to the benefit of western consumption is still alive and horribly well."—Jon Snow, presenter, Channel 4 News (UK)
"Essential for understanding the colonial Africa of the past and, even more so, the diverse Africa of today."—Library Journal
"A brave, excoriating exposé of the systematic ruination of resource‑rich countries of Africa, leaving ‘penury and strife’ for its millions of inhabitants...An earnest, eye‑opening, important account for Western readers."—Kirkus (Starred)
"[An] excellent, finely reported book...The great value of The Looting Machine lies in its fresh detail, storytelling and the characters Burgis introduces. The Looting Machine is crammed with colour and lively investigative reporting."—Literary Review (UK)
Kirkus Review
★ 2015-01-14
A brave, excoriating exposé of the systematic ruination of resource-rich countries of Africa, leaving "penury and strife" for its millions of inhabitants.A Financial Times journalist based at various points in Africa since 2008 (Johannesburg, Lagos), Burgis makes some astonishing assertions and revelations about the ongoing kleptocracy in the most resource-rich countries of Africa—e.g., Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. In many cases, China has been the dark force behind the extraction. The author examines the much-debated "resource curse" for countries in which "extractive industries" such as oil and mining dominate: These richest African countries also rank at the top of the world's extreme poverty rates. The pot of resources is rife for the taking by those who control the state ("big man" politics), and because the rulers do not need to tax the people to fund government, there is no need for their consent. Burgis explains how this inversion of "no taxation without representation" ruptures the social contract between the rulers and the people, who have no ability to hold them accountable. Specifically, the author delves into Angola's shadowy Futungo cartel, by which the family of leader José Eduardo dos Santos has amassed a "war chest" from the country's oil industry. Burgis also looks at the destruction of Nigeria's textile industry by Chinese imitators and smugglers, thrusting millions of Nigerians into horrendous poverty, as well as the Chinese middlemen who prey on African industries and the massive investment provided by the Chinese to spur development, mining and drilling. The author destroys the argument that a commodity boom actually creates economic growth and better lives for people—indeed, the opposite is true when one considers the human development index. Moreover, Burgis strenuously blames the West for its "complicity" in encouraging the commodity rape of Africa. An earnest, eye-opening, important account for Western readers.
