About the Book
Congolese logging camps are places where mud, rain, fuel smugglers, and village roadblocks slow down multinational timber firms; where workers wage wars against trees while evading company surveillance deep in the forest; where labor compounds trigger disturbing colonial memories; and where blunt racism, logger machismo, and homoerotic desires reproduce violence. In Rainforest Capitalism Thomas Hendriks examines the rowdy world of industrial timber production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to theorize racialized and gendered power dynamics in capitalist extraction. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Congolese workers and European company managers as well as traders, farmers, smugglers, and barkeepers, Hendriks shows how logging is deeply tied to feelings of existential vulnerability in the face of larger forces, structures, and histories. These feelings, Hendriks contends, reveal a precarious side of power in an environment where companies, workers, and local residents frequently find themselves out of control. An ethnography of complicity, ecstasis, and paranoia, Rainforest Capitalism queers assumptions of corporate strength and opens up new ways to understand the complexities and contradictions of capitalist extraction.
Table of Contents:
Note on Anonymity ix
Note on Photography xi
Prologue xv
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction. Thinking with Loggers 1
1. Awkward Beginnings 29
2. Forest Work 48
3. Remembering Labor 75
4. Sharing the Company 98
5. Out of Here 120
6. A Darker Shade of White 143
7. Cannibals and Corned Beef 161
8. Men and Trees 187
9. Women and Chainsaws 207
Conclusion. Capitalism and Ecstasis 230
Epilogue 249
Notes 253
References 263
Index 285
About the Author :
Thomas Hendriks is FWO Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa at KU Leuven and coeditor of Readings in Sexualities from Africa.
Review :
“Offering a rare look at the everyday lives of the people who live in and around Congolese timber labor camps, Thomas Hendriks draws out the continuities and discontinuities of racialized colonial extraction. Artfully written, Rainforest Capitalism will make a major contribution to theories of capitalism, race, and sexuality.” - Jessica M. Smith, author of (Mining Coal and Undermining Gender: Rhythms of Work and Family in the American West) “In this fresh and captivating book, Thomas Hendriks offers precious insights into the precarity of logging in the Congolese rainforest. His lively ethnography demonstrates that the analysis of neoliberal capitalist extraction should address not only labor and political economy but also memory, affect, sexual desire, and racial fetishism. His sophisticated theoretical framework allows him to capture the fleeting character of logging and brings together forestry, anthropology, and queer studies in visionary ways that will inspire many scholars.” - Peter Geschiere, author of (Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust: Africa in Comparison) "Based on a lengthy period of ethnographic research, this book is a lively, readable account of life in a logging camp, and the author makes a useful, thought-provoking contribution to the literature on power, capitalism, gender, sexuality, and race/racism in anthropology, African studies, and related fields. . . . Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." - E. E. Stiles (Choice) “Thomas Hendriks’ compelling book is an intricate tale of felled trees and their capitalist value, of the inhabitants of logging camps such as Congolese labourers and expat managers, but also of jobseekers, traders, prostitutes, farmers, and smugglers. Rainforest Capitalism is eloquent and captivating.” - Rachel Spronk (African Studies Review) "A striking and thought-provoking ethnography. . . . I have deeply enjoyed Hendriks’ ethnographic work, evocative writing and post-critical approach to the study of capitalism focused on the unpredictable and fragile sides of power. . . ." - Alice Vittoria (Anthropos) “Hendriks presents a well written and argued work about how power operates in a Congo timber concession.” - Christopher R. Cook (African Studies Quarterly) “Hendriks’s work poses many intriguing questions about power, capitalism, the rainforest, masculinity, and globalization. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students will find much to ponder and discuss in this work.” - Cathy Skidmore-Hess (Journal of Global South Studies) “Hendriks provides haunting glimpses of rural Congolese desperate to renew opportunities for social and commercial advancement . . . Rainforest Capitalism is a significant and innovative contribution to the literature on labor, foreign investment, and Congolese society.” - Jeremy Rich (Ufahamu) “A talented and sensitive narrator, Hendriks is attentive to the forest’s smells, sounds and textures as much as to the sentiments, words and gestures of its inhabitants. His ability to bring together multiple layers of ethnographic observation, ranging from class and race relations to the evocative realms of affects and perceptions, brings a remarkable epistemic depth to his work.” - Benoît Henriet (Canadian Journal of African Studies)
