To the Digo people of Kenya who have inhabited the area for hundreds of years Mrima hill is not only home. It is also a sacred site, known as a kaya. For US consortiums in high-stakes competition with Chinese and Australian companies to mine the area, the hill and neighbouring volcanic outcrops bear a trove of rare-earth and critical minerals essential for defence and energy technology. Specifically a 2025 Kenyan geological survey, shows that it sits on top of huge deposits of niobium, which is used to fortify steel, neodymium — used in magnets — and yttrium for superconductors. There is community resistance because people fear for their own livelihoods, title deeds for their lands and desecration of the “Tree of Souls”:, the sacred site where the ancestral spirits and cultural memories of the Digo people reside. Whichever company gets the nod from a notoriously corrupt Kenyan government, for whom extreme violence to protest and opposition is always the FIRST resort, its operations will be backed by it regardless.
The grabbing of land and its water and energy resources for “data centres” is being met with popular opposition from localities in the USA, Africa and around the world. This obsessive need is stretching to city locations in the rich world. Areas of London, capital of the UK with a long-term housing shortage are now facing such grabs presented as fait accompli. The areas involved are diverse; Potters Bar and Brick Lane where resistance to racist and openly fascist organized incursions were resisted at the end of the 1970s. Where cities like Amsterdam or countries like Singapore place or attempt to place moratorium on such grabs the paid gobshites of oligarchic self-representation instantly accuse say such restrictions mean they will “fall behind in the race”. What race is that? Is it a race worth winning or even competing in when it involves such localized resource greed and when the AI business is increasingly desperate in selling itself.
Communities in South Africa’s Eastern Cape are opposing plans by Vendicom Minerals Beneficiation Group to develop a large heavy mineral sand mine on their communal land. The proposed project would operate for up to 30 years – however, residents say that the land currently supports more than 1,000 cattle, as well as traditional medicine gathering, fishing, tourism and access to ancestral sites. The project is near protected areas and an estuary containing endangered species. Local communities fear that mining could cut off access to resources that sustain their livelihoods, while also polluting water supplies, damaging biodiversity, coastal ecosystems and cultural heritage.