Presentation short abstract

This paper examines the long-term socio-ecological and emotional harms of illegal gold mining in northern Cauca, Colombia, through Afro-Colombian communities’ relationships with two rivers.

Presentation long abstract

This paper examines the long-term socio-ecological, emotional and relational harms of illegal gold mining in northern Cauca, Colombia, focusing on Afro-Colombian communities’ relations with rivers. Drawing on political ecology, feminist geography, and posthuman scholarship on place, emotions, and care, I develop the concept of slow relational harm to capture how extractivism disrupts the networks of meaning and practice that humans and more-than-human beings weave together to sustain life. I argue that these harms extend beyond material destruction, embedding themselves in affective and sensitive relations that shape everyday life and place-based identities. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork, including narrative interviews with community members. The analysis focuses on the crucial more-than-human entanglements between people and the rivers Quinamayó and Agua Limpio, to show how emotional and relational dynamics mediate harm and possibilities for care. Findings reveal that emotions express the disruption of life-sustaining relations with rivers while also guiding resilience and forms of more-than-human care. These affective responses illuminate how extractivist violence is produced, experienced, and resisted, challenging the assumption that slow harms are invisible. By integrating relational, emotional, and more-than-human perspectives, this study contributes to feminist and decolonial critiques of extractivism, emphasizing that reparation must address not only material restoration but also the ethical and emotional capacities to sustain socio-ecological life.