Increased Chinese investments in Zimbabwe’s lithium megaprojects: energy colonialism, geopolitics and new patterns of accumulation in Africa’s critical minerals

Given China’s expanding presence in Africa’s extractive industry, this article considers why China is benefiting more than Zimbabwe from the significant increase in Chinese investment in the latter’s lithium megaprojects. The article explores energy colonialism and new patterns of accumulation in the extraction, beneficiation and export of Africa’s critical minerals, drawing on Contreras et al.’s six-dimensional energy colonialism framework to enhance our understanding of the debilitating effects of these phenomena. This framework illuminates the novel extractivist logic of green extractivism that fosters economic dependency and power asymmetries to sustain and reproduce transnational capitalism. The article considers four case studies where Chinese ownership, investment and operations are substantial. The findings show that energy colonialism underlies China’s significant increase in investments in Zimbabwe’s lithium megaprojects. The Chinese extractivist and colonial model of mining promotes the accumulation of wealth on one side and the accumulation of tragedies on the other.