The Hell of Copper Series

Summary

A black man stands on the right side of the photograph seen from the chest up. He wears a grey T shirt with a yellow and purple pattern on the front. On his head he has fashioned a ‘hat’ from black, white and red computer cables twisted together. Behind him we see a desolate landscape, bare earth covered with remnants of computers. On the left of the photograph is what looks like a football goal without a net. The sky is blue with some white clouds but there is also some black smoke which rises up from the computer waste dump.

Display Label

The Hell of Copper 2008 387 ppm CO2 Nyaba Leon Oedraogo Photographic print on paper The recycling of e-waste from Europe and the USA can show the creativity and resilience of people in African countries such as Ghana. Yet here we see fire in the middle of a city, no longer just far away in forests. People’s lives and the environment are destroyed for lack of waste management systems. Without good systems in place, ‘developing countries’ are toxic dumping grounds for ‘developed countries’ like the UK. Some of the biggest producers of copper are ‘developing countries’ such as the DR Congo, which mines other materials such as coltan (used for mobile phones). Yet the people in Congo can only consume goods made out of these materials after they have been used by others miles away. Capitalism, neo-colonialism and our silence enables this to be, and supposedly make sense. Emmanuela Yogolelo Gift of the artist 2014.27