Welcome to Sodom

This gripping exposé of a dumpsite for electronics in Ghana gives voice to its marginalized population of recyclers, as it explores a poisonous side of globalization and the systematic exploitation of the people and environment of Africa.

Agbogbloshie is a wetland outside Accra, Ghana known as the world’s foremost dumping site for unwanted electronics.  Every year, about 250,000 tons of discarded computers, smartphones, air conditioners and other devices from the electrified, digital world continents away are shipped here illegally.  Aptly renamed “Sodom” by its disillusioned inhabitants, the constant flames of burning plastic over the blackened ground of scorched computer parts accumulate into an apocalyptic sight that evokes visions of biblical infernos.  And because the landfill is built on water, sometimes people do sink and never reappear.  

Over 6,000 men, women, and children live here in desperate poverty, using simple yet inventive means to extract recyclable value from endless piles of discarded electronics, subjecting themselves to grave health risks in the process.  The most demanding physical labor is often done by the many young migrants who arrive in search of work.  One university-educated Gambian, both Jewish and gay, lives here in exile from persecution back home.  Children tend to comb the ground for scraps of iron; one hopes to someday become an astronaut.  Despite the reality of Agbogbloshie, he is far from its only inhabitant to hold onto big dreams, the most of common of which may be migrating to Europe.