When I’m speaking about Congo I make sure that I provide a political and historical context often not presented in Western media – “What is taking place in the Congo is a resource war, a geo-strategic battle being waged on the backs of the Congolese people and in the wombs of Congolese women. Congo is the home of the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world and since 1996, nearly six million people have died.

As I awoke on this Christmas morning from my dream in which I was in Eastern Congo again, I realized that too often I suppress what it was like to experience the energy of war, for the first time when I visited Congo earlier this year. In my dream I felt the intensity of these feelings again. The part of the dream I recalled began with an officer stopping me in the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, asking to see my papers. I questioned the officer’s request, but while in the D.R.C. this year when asked for my passport, I contained my righteous indignation. The surge of anxiety I walked with, in the dream and in my recent visit was emotionally paralyzing, as I was starkly aware that there was no real safe harbor anywhere in my sight. Everywhere in my dream just as in my visit, armed soldiers lined up against store walls as if they owned the air that the Congolese people breathed and it was hard for me to differentiate between the varied armed groups I passed on the street. The UN forces, foreign troops from the neighboring countries of Rwanda & Uganda and the Congolese army all seemed to have one thing in common – their presence was elusive at best and deadly at worst. These young soldiers were now reduced to mere mercenaries for US and foreign corporate interests and governments such as Rwanda and the small percentage of Congolese élite – hired hands in a global resource game in which Congo loses while the rest of the world wins.

As I continued walking down the streets of Congo in my dream, a woman in her early 60’s, held her breath as she briskly walked ahead of me, passing a group of soldiers. She seemed to have mastered the stealth of a samurai warrior – deliberately disengaged with the sights and sounds in her line of vision, possessing the ability to stay almost undetected by the human eye. Within seconds, I saw a soldier raise his machine gun as if he was lifting an amulet to the sky to receive God’s blessing and fire into a crowd of people. I attempted to slide under a table when a soldier grabbed my ankle  flinging me against a wall to be used as cannon fodder.  A slew of soldiers were already firing in my direction and seemed eager  to find the “right landing” for their bullets to pierce. Lucky for me, I was in a dream and was able to escape from the onslaught of machine gunfire, possessing the power to defy gravity and my likely fate.

I woke up in my warm bed relieved and thankful that this dream wasn’t my life. I thought about how I stood out as a foreigner in the refugee camps of the Congo months earlier during my “real” visit – how the eyes of the displaced men and women seemed to meet mine with fury and envy and say,  “You get to go home.” The intense guilt I felt was palpable, as I knew that I had personally benefited from the Coltan and Cobalt in their soil and yet did not have to live their nightmare.  I could go back home, in my nice warm bed and forget their faces if I chose to and on this Christmas morning I could even pretend that they don’t exist.



Dear Family,

Almost a year ago, I was compelled to contact, Friends of the Congo, a DC-based advocacy organization, after viewing the, Nov. 13, 2008 interview,   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07P7T-_Ano on the Democracy Now program.  I was attempting to understand why there was a “veil of silence “, around the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in Western media – a country which the UN  reports  as the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world since World War II, in which nearly 6 million people have died, and hundreds of thousands of women have been systematically raped as a tool of war.  Friends of the Congo, Executive Director, Maurice Carney explained how the conflict in the Congo is a resource war and not an ethnic conflict.  The Congo happens to be one of the richest stretches of real estate in the world, endowed with an abundance of vast mineral deposits, such as coltan and cobalt, which are key to the functioning of modern-day society.

During this time (Winter 2008), my father Ernest Crane had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months earlier and I was grappling with the imminence of his death. I questioned  whether my inquiry into the Congo should be postponed for a less intense time, but I couldn’t ignore the yearning to do something. This compulsion moved me to join the delegation of independent journalists going to the Democratic Republic of Congo, organized by Friends of the Congo. I would go to the Congo in tribute to my father and raised funds on facebook with the assistance of my friends and family to cover my expenses for this trip.  Ultimately, it was my father’s ideals of freedom that  would give me the courage to go to Congo on January 5, 2009  two days after he died.

While in Congo I was given the opportunity to speak to Congolese face-to face and extract the truth directly from their mouths. I pledged  to the Congolese who courageously spoke about their realities, that I would let U.S. citizens and the world know about why we should care about what’s happening in the Congo and how we are directly connected to the conflict in the Congo.

Since I returned, I have written about my experience in the Congo and have spoken in a variety of venues, advocating for diplomatic and political solutions to ending the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo; as opposed to the current military solutions being backed by the US government.  Upon returning from the Congo in January 2009, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at: Loyola College, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Coppin State University, Morgan State University, the University of Toronto, CUPE labor union in Toronto, Canada, Columbia University’s IMPACT program, the Congo in Harlem Film Festival and have conducted multiple radio interviews on this issue.

I would like to thank all of my friends, families and strangers who trusted me enough to offer their support in the form of prayers, well wishes and monetary contributions. Your contributions were valuable  and honored – know that you have made a difference in the global movement to end the conflict in the Congo. This is just the beginning, as I will continue to stand for a free and liberated Congo. Family, I encourage you to learn more about the Congo from Congolese and tell someone else about the Congo. We must open our ears and our mouths and remove the veil of silence around the Congo. Lets’ do this in solidarity with the people of the Congo. To a peace-filled Congo, and a peace-filled world. Let justice and peace shake hands! Happy 2010! Join the global movement!

To follow your heart, take a leap: A father’s commitment to Africa lives on in his daughter’s work for justice
By Makeda Crane ~makeda.crane@yahoo.com

(This article originally appeared in the Baltimore Sun in the Maryland closeup section, Sun, February 22, 2009)

On the weekend after Thanksgiving, I went home to Brooklyn, N.Y., to visit my father – the man whose height and stature always felt like a wall of protection between me and the world. As I sat beside his hospital bed in these last few months of his life, I had watched the body of this once robust, 6-foot-2, 240-pound man slowly transform into a wilted flower.

Now he was down to about 130 pounds. I whispered in his ear, “Daddy, do you remember me telling you that I’m going to the Congo”? He nodded back, but I wasn’t sure if it was a mere nod of recognition or true comprehension.

My personal connection to the Congo had been forged by my father, Ernest Crane. Born and raised in Harlem, he would often say, “I feel like a walking history book,” as he recalled the important moments he participated in and lived through: Jim Crow, the March on Washington, Vietnam, Watergate. He often credited “Mama Lilla,” his grandmother, with giving him a love of history. She would tell him bedtime stories of her parent’s lives as slaves – this was the root of his interest in his African ancestors.

It is no wonder that he was a lifelong student of liberation movements in America and abroad, and an avid reader of African history. Later, as a professor of psychology and African-American history, he taught students to value, study and honor their collective history.

I had never been to the Congo but had been transplanted there by my father’s accounts of its history. He spoke of the Congo as a beautiful, lush country that had been sought after, first by Portugal and Belgium, then by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. I recall him saying, “The Congo is one of the most underreported massacres in history, how can 6 million people die and the world stands by, in silence?” He spoke of the courage of Patrice Lumumba, a personal hero of his, who stood up against Belgian colonial rule.

I got closer to the Congo after watching a news program on which a guest spoke about the plight of the Congolese people. Later, flipping through the channels on my TV, I accidentally turned to a program about the systematic rape of women in Eastern Congo. I found myself drawn to stories about the area, and even though these were coincidences, there were too many for me to ignore the call.

I felt compelled to act and battled with myself about how – and if – I could make a difference from thousands of miles away. It was increasingly difficult to continue living the awful cliche of the sympathizing American who talks about the world’s suffering over a chai latte, but goes home and does nothing.
“As I met the eyes of an armed soldier, I felt my stomach drop.”

Instinctively, I realized the hidden message in my father’s words: “Makeda, always follow your heart.” It was his love of freedom and dignity that compelled me to ask 150 people for $33 so I could go to Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, as an independent journalist through Friends of the Congo [2], a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization.

My father passed away on Jan. 3, and two days later, I left for the Congo. As I crossed the border into Goma and met the eyes of an armed soldier, I felt my stomach drop, as if I were on a roller coaster that had just made a sharp plunge. The nearly 6 million people who had died in the 12 years of conflict seemed to loom over the dusty streets of Goma and its people.

At Goma’s main hospital, I looked into the pupils of a woman who represented the hundreds of thousands of women who had been systematically raped by foreign troops and Congolese militiamen; I sought evidence that she still had breath in her body. I felt a bond with her that surpassed sympathy; I knew her struggle was my own.

I listened like an empty vessel to a Congolese trader of coltan (a mineral vital to cell phones and other electronics) say, “The voice of a poor man doesn’t have any importance.” He spoke of U.S., Britain, Rwandan and Ugandan companies profiting from the unregulated mining and selling of Congo’s vast mineral deposits, and I wondered: How many Congolese lives had been sacrificed to produce the coltan in my cell phone?

At refugee camps, I witnessed the inadequate food rations dispensed to the refugees, while in the distance were vast green forests. When I asked children whose villages had been destroyed in the conflict how long they had been in the camps, many couldn’t recall living anywhere else.

As I walked through the last refugee camp on the line of conflict between Rwandan troops and Congolese rebels, I again felt the uneasiness that had accompanied my first steps onto Congo soil. I pulled out my father’s picture and looked at his smile, which assured me that I was protected.

Someone once told me: “People rarely take risks because they want to, but they take a leap of faith because of the persistent yearning that can only be resolved through action.” I knew this trip was the start of an intimate relationship with the Congo.

Paying the highest tribute to my father, I vowed that when I returned home I would talk and write about the Congo in as many public forums as possible. To advocate for the Congolese, I must teach friends, family and others that the deaths of millions is a global issue that cannot be ignored. And people must be told that the root cause of the conflict is not ethnic division between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, but control of the Congo’s natural resources.

I will continue to act on behalf of those who have been silenced, grabbing the torch that was given to me, and keeping my father’s legacy in front of me as a guide in creating my own.

04 Dec 06

Congo, despite being a country rich in gold and diamonds, has a poverty-stricken population. Al Jazeera’s John Cookson investigates the corruption, smuggling and poverty blighting the central African nation.

Learn more about Canada’s role in perpetuating the violence against women in the DR of Congo. Visit: http://www.drc.moonfruit.org/

This mass amount of mobile phones use is having a bad effect on gorilla habitat and this is because we are not recycling our old phones. Mobile phones contain the metal Coltan witch is mined in gorilla habitat, this is something that does not need to happen if we hand in our mobile phones for recycling then less mining needs to take place saving habitat.
How many phones have your been through? What did you do with them once you got a new one? If you don’t recycle your phone then you are potentially endangering the gorilla.
85% of Australians have a mobile phone witch is about 17.5 million phones this does not include the 12 million that are not in use.

Where can you drop them off?
The Melbourne zoo is currently in a program were they are recycling your mobile phone to support the gorillas but you can also drop them off at places like the post office.

Interview with average mobile phone user

Q.How many mobiles have you had?
A.7
Q.What do u do with them when you are done with them?
A.Pass them on to people who need the or put them in a draw I have about 5 in a draw at the moment
Q.Did you ever know about recycling?
A.No, thought had a idea that you could
Q.Have you ever thought about what goes into making a mobile?
A.I know that computers take a lot so I assume mobiles do to
Q.Do u think you should recycle in the future
A.I feel that I should start recycling in the future.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is in a deep hole. And it is not just because its president, the younger Kabila, wants to extend presidential terms by 2 years and then may be abolish term limits, at least according to the Economist.  It is primarily because almost everyone in the country seems to have incentives to keep the war in the east raging on – well, everyone except the civilians on the ground. The New York Times reports that an upcoming UN Report will implicate bigwigs in the Congolese army of colluding with rebels in the east to profit from illegal mineral exports, among other commodities. FDLR, the rebel outfit which has among its ranks remnants of the genocidal Intarahamwe from Rwanda, is among the chief beneficiaries.

Quoting the Times:

“There is ….. creeping warlordism. Local army commanders are taxing timber, charcoal, tomatoes, anything that passes through their roadblocks, making $250,000 a month, the report said. Commanders are even conscripting civilians to haul wood through the forest, reminiscent of the Belgian colonial days when pith-helmeted officers whipped Congolese porters with hippopotamus hide.”

The Congo conflict is more than anything else an economic conflict. It will only stop when those profiting from it come to their senses (I don’t know what will prompt this if 5 million deaths and counting can’t do the trick). And the web of war-profiteers  is huge.

Meanwhile in Zambia, it’s everything goes like it is still 1991. A section of donors have suspended aid to the health ministry because $ 2.1 million went missing (“more than 100,000 Zambians die every year from malaria and HIV/AIDS”– Economist). The government is reluctant to fight corruption. Mr. Rupiah Banda, the current president, seems bent on becoming the new Frederick Chiluba – the kleptocrat who ruled Zambia for ten years. Things never change.

• UN debates sanctions on Eritrea for backing Somali Islamist rebels and threatening Djibouti [Times South Africa]
• EU sign $1bn development pact with Nigeria, aimed at tackling corruption and promoting peace [BBC online]
• Rep. Jim McDermott introduces bill aiming to curb that trade US trade in conflict minerals [Seattle Times]
• Officially sanctioned Northern Italian ethnic cleansing [Independent]
• Diplomatic Row between Thailand and Cambodia over Shinawatra [Bangkok Post]
• Armenia will be ready to make concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh problem: Ukrainian analyst [Today.Az]
• Corruption threatens global economic recovery, greatly challenges countries in conflict [Transparency International]
• Bosnia’s Chaos Continues [International Crisis Group]
• Berlin Wall: 223 dead. Wall that separates the USA from Mexico: 5.6 thousand dead [Pravda]
• USSR Still Respected Internationally for Its Bombs and Guns [Pravda]

The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is arguably the greatest stealth conflict of all time. It is a tragic irony that in spite of the fact that the availability of information about the world is at a level unprecedented in human history, the deadliest conflict since World War II can remain largely unknown to the world at large. This doesn’t say much for the real-world value (in terms of awareness about conflict) of the internet, jet airplanes, satellite videophones and other forms of technology that have supposedly made our world so much smaller.

The media have to take a large portion of the blame for this. The amount of reporting devoted to international news has dropped considerably since the end of the Cold War and regional biases (heavy on the ‘home’ region and almost always very light on Africa) are as pronounced as ever. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Japan. International news in Japanese newspapers accounts for just 1 (sometimes 2) of the roughly 30 pages printed, and Africa is even more neglected in Japan than it is in Western media. The Yomiuri Newspaper devoted just 1.9 percent of its international news to the African continent in 2000 (compared to 6.9 percent in the New York Times – see here for more).

The results are evident in the levels of public awareness of the conflict. In a simple survey conducted by the author in 2008, a class of 151 first year university students were asked a single question “Which armed conflict in the world since the end of the Cold War do you think has been the deadliest?” The top three answers were Iraq (death toll: >500,000?), Kosovo (death toll: 10,000) and Israel-Palestine (death toll: 5,000). Of the 151 students, not a single one could come up with the DRC (death toll: 5,400,000). The results are also evident in government policy. Over the past ten years, the Japanese government has given 47 times more aid to Iraq than it has to the DRC. It is also worth noting that the amount of research produced at Japanese universities about the world’s deadliest conflict is negligible.

All of this is rather odd, given the heavy reliance of the Japanese electronics industry on rare metals – many of which are found in abundance in the DRC (not least tantalum, of which Japan is a major consumer). The issue of rare metals was recently a front-page story on the Japanese edition of the Economist, and campaigns to recycle mobile phones and other electronic devices in Japan for the rare metals inside are taking place around the country. Economically, concern over access to rare metals seems to be of growing importance for Japan.

Some have even referred to the DRC conflict as the ‘PlayStation War’. The peak of tantalum prices in 2000 coincided with the release of Sony’s PlayStation 2. Global shortages in tantalum contributed to the failure of Sony to produce enough consoles to keep up with demand, and at the same time, the boosted demand for tantalum contributed to the violent scramble for the mineral in the DRC. Similarly, when environmental concerns over the use of lead in solder brought about a change in policy in Japan, tin (cassiterite) became the alternative component – contributing to a scramble for cassiterite in the DRC (see this video).

But few in Japan seem to be making the connection between these minerals and the situation in the DRC. Admittedly, the fact that the severely underpaid worker with the shovel digging for coltan (possibly under the barrel of a gun) is removed by some four or five stages (transporting, trading, refining and manufacturing) from the insertion of the tantalum capacitors into the Japanese mobile phones has something to do with this. Coltan changes hands many times before reaching the final consumer, and changes into an unrecognizable form hidden deep within the circuit boards of our electronic devices.

What all this means is that Japan makes for a very challenging environment to make traction in getting the issue of the DRC conflict on the agenda. With so little attention and awareness to begin with, there is not much of a base to build on. But at the same time, the rare metal connection should come in handy in some way in bridging the ‘it doesn’t affect me’ gap.

I have recently been involved in a number of events at Osaka University aimed at raising awareness that have left me with some optimism regarding what can be achieved in breaking the cycle of silence on this and other conflicts. My next post will cover some of these events.

Ik heb het geluk gehad dat ik binnen een jaar tijd twee maal naar Afrika ben geweest. Beide keren was het voor mijn opleiding. Door die reizen ben ik besmet geraakt met het ‘Afrika-virus’: voorheen had ik helemaal niets met het continent, maar nu zit het onder mijn huid. Zo erg, dat ik Afrika zo veel mogelijk in de gaten probeer te houden en nu al zeker weet dat ik er ga werken. Maar ik heb soms het gevoel dat ik niet het echte Afrika in onze media te zien krijg.


DR Congo
Mijn eerste reis naar Afrika was met voor tweede stage. Ik deed onderzoek voor een documentaire en de maker van de documentaire, Peter Tetteroo, ging naar de Democratische Republiek Congo, om daar in artisanale mijnen (mijnen waar zonder machines in gewerkt wordt) te filmen. Ik mocht mee als producer.

We zijn in twee verschillende mijnen geweest: één waar coltan wordt gewonnen en één waar goud wordt gedolven. Beide mijnen zijn door dorpen opgezet en er wordt door iedereen uit het dorp in de mijnen gewerkt; kinderen van amper vijf jaar oud tot de ouderlingen. Al het werk wordt met de hand gedaan; er komen geen machines aan te pas. Veel van deze mijnen zijn in handen van rebellen. Tot mijn verbazing had ik er in Nederland vrijwel nog nooit wat van gehoord.

Tanzania
Mijn tweede reis was naar Tanzania. Dit was met het project Join! We gingen daarheen om artikelen te schrijven voor het tijdschrift Join! In Tanzania werkten we samen met studenten van de school voor Journalistiek in Dar es Salaam. Via hen ontdekten we verhalen die je anders niet zo snel zou vinden, omdat verhalen uit dergelijke landen – die relatief gezien rustig zijn – vaak gaan over onder andere hiv/aids of problemen in de politiek.

Maar dankzij onze vrienden in Tanzania kwamen we ook achter andere verhalen. Bijvoorbeeld wat voor werk jongeren doen naast hun opleiding, hoe mensen hun vrije tijd doorbrengen en dat niet alleen de politici corrupt zijn.

Beeld van Afrika
Deze reizen hebben ervoor gezorgd dat ik me ging afvragen of ik in onze media wel een juist beeld kreeg van Afrika. Zo kwam ik op het idee om een reflectie te schrijven over dit onderwerp.

Ik heb het ten eerste gebaseerd op mijn eigen ervaringen en ideeën. Vervolgens heb ik een krantenanalyse gedaan en heb ik gesproken met correspondenten en chefs van de buitenland-redacties van de NOS, RTL en de GPD. Met hen heb ik gesproken over hun keuze van nieuws uit Afrika. Met de correspondenten over hun manier van werken.

Bram Vermeulen
Een van de correspondenten was Bram Vermeulen. Hij was even in Nederland en ik mocht hem interviewen. Hij denkt ook dat ‘het echte Afrika’ niet goed naar voren komt. Volgens Bram heeft dat vooral te maken met westerse belangen, die in bepaalde landen groter zijn dan in andere. Die landen krijgen daarom meer aandacht.

Afrikaanse journalisten
Ik heb ook met Afrikaanse journalisten gemaild, met de vraag hoe zij erover denken. Al deze gesprekken en de krantenanalyse hebben mijn gedachte – dat ik in onze media niet het echte beeld van Afrika krijg – bevestigd. Dat is wat mij betreft een gemiste kans, want er is veel op het continent te halen, waar wij nog wat van kunnen leren. Dat is ook een van de redenen dat ik in Afrika wil gaan werken, om die verhalen te vertellen.

El coltan o coltán no es un mineral propiamente dicho sino la abreviatura de dos minerales: columbita y tantalita. Hoy en día está más valorado que el oro y los diamantes.  Son escasos en la naturaleza y dan un claro ejemplo de materiales que han pasado de ser considerados simples curiosidades mineralógicas a cruciales para el avance tecnológico debido a sus nuevas aplicaciones. Una idea de su importancia es que SONY se vio obligada a retrasar la salida de la Playstation 2 por la carencia de dicho material.

Mineral del Coltan

De él se extrae el metal tantalio, que presenta una gran resistencia al calor así como propiedades eléctricas y que es utilizado en casi la totalidad de dispositivos electrónicos: satélites, videoconsolas, móviles, GPS, televisiones de plasma, ordenadores portátiles, PDAs, MP3, MP4…

Más tras el corte.

I. Land

El 80% del nuevo “oro” negro se encuentra en la República Democrática del Congo. Y aquí empiezan los problemas. Guerras, matanzas y sobretodo la explotación de millones de africanos por el ambiciado bien. Se calcula que unos 3 millones de personas han muerto directa o indirectamente por culpa del coltan. También hay que tener en cuenta las condiciones de los mineros, en su mayoría niños, en condiciones casi de esclavismo.

¿Quién esta detrás de esto? Nokia, Ericsonn, Siemens, Sony, Bayer, Intel, Hitachi, IBM, ( y otras muchas) que pagan, financian y potencian conflictos entre los (des)gobiernos, guerrillas y demás asesinos para conseguir el control de las minas.

The Coltan Miners’ Slaughter: the Congo Holocaust(s) for Absolute Beginners
by Lorette C. Luzajic

We talk about a lot of atrocity in the past tense. Slavery and witch burnings and the holocaust are tidily behind us, and so it’s safe to introspect about our evil forebears and how we’re not like them. We think we’re doing pretty good: the only problems left in the world are the war in Iraq, the sprawling of Wal Mart, and the economic repercussions making it harder to afford Playstations.

So you may be surprised to learn that never in history has slavery been more widespread. You may have caught the film Hotel Rwanda and cried like a baby when the hotelier tells his wife that when danger comes, she should jump off of the roof with all the children. That would be a more pleasant ending than by rebel machetes. But you may not know that there is a holocaust in the Congo, a genocide bigger than the Nazi exterminations, and one that is taking place today.

I was walking with a friend with whom I seldom see eye to eye. Usually, I don’t need to agree with someone to get along with him or her, but what came out his mouth was unbelievable. I offhandedly mentioned something about violence against women, shamefully having been recently made aware of the situation in the Congo, where women (and men and boys) are being raped as terrorism. Stunned at his apathy, I said, “There’s a genocide going on there right now.”

To my amazement, my pal said, “That’s what happens when you let Africans run a country.”

There are a few dozen problems I have with that statement, including the implications of “let.” I was gobsmacked, And I was feeling superior because I now knew the holocaust was happening, though had I not picked up that small-circulating women’s politics magazine at the coffee shop, I might still be in the dark today. Said Africans seldom make the big dailies- a few tiny paragraphs after the Who Wore What pages hardly register when you’re talking about a genocide. Genocide.

“Actually,” I said, “that’s what happens when you let North American multinationals run the world. It’s all about mining.”

My friend thought this was bullshit, that it was all about rebel tribes, to which I retorted, “Looks like you better learn to read.”

It was an unpleasant exchange that soured our evening. Usually, we agree to stay off topics that incite our respective furies. I’m used to conservative philosophy, having been raised by new-earth-creationist-inerrancy fundies who know “these people” are paying the consequence of sin. In contrast, this particular pal was a liberal nutter.  I didn’t bother asking if it would be okay for someone to bang at this friend’s door, barge in, torture him, and make off with any diamonds or rubies that happened he happened to be growing in his backyard. I already knew the answer- that somehow, that would be “different,” a simplistic rendering of a scenario I just shouldn’t worry my pretty little head about.

It is simplistic, yes. But accurate nonetheless. The Congo is home to untold riches of natural resources, and home to most of the world’s coltan. Most of us have heard of emeralds but not coltan. Just as the Spanish fled to South America to kill the heathens and help themselves to the beauty booty, today the multinationals are helping themselves to the coltan. The only real difference is that instead of getting their own hands dirty, they’re using tribal politics and corrupt governments to fuel sick massacres so that people like my pal can blame it all on black people.

As Cindy Lauper sings, “it’s the same old fucking story.”

But it has nothing to do with us, right? What is coltan anyways? We’ve never even heard of it, so we’re definitely not wearing it, right?

Aye, there’s the rub. The reason we don’t know much about the situation in the Congo is because the psychopathic corporate kings don’t want us to know. There might be a dent in their profits. Because you and I are buying coltan all the time. Would you willingly buy something knowing another had been murdered for it, or had her uterus ripped out by machete? Maybe. Never seemed to stop anyone from buying cocaine. But then, maybe your cocaine didn’t kill anyone. Your coltan did, though. It absolutely did.

Columbite-tantalite is a magic metallic ore that turns into metallic tantalum after refining. This heat resistant powder can hold high electrical charges, making it vital to the creation of capacitors, which control current flow inside almost all electronic communication devices- you know, your cell phone, laptop, pager and gaming electronica.

The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, started in 1996. (Well, technically there are two wars. One was from 1996 to 1997. Then, in 1998 the war continued.) Six million people have lost their lives.

Let me say that again- six million people have lost their lives.

Starvation, disease, rape, torture and murder cause 45 000 deaths each and every month.

The war is indeed a very complex web of alliances and betrayals, of historical feuding, of poverty, of government corruptions, of tribal conflicts, of rebel militia, of mutiny, of land ownership, of diamonds, other natural resources, and wars within wars.

The war implicates a mish mash of alliances that seemingly change on a daily basis, a testament to the instability of east Africa, a legacy with many origins.  Foreign militia such as Uganda and the post-genocidal Rwanda pay themselves by trading off diamonds, timber, and coltan from east Congo. Considering Rwanda has no coltan of its own, it is surprising that the tiny country is earning hundreds of millions of dollars from the ore. All countries deny participating in the coltan black market, making a convenient conspiracy of silence. There are other valuable minerals, too- gold, silver, copper, zinc, uranium, magnesium and more.

Land where coltan might exist is simply seized and mines are set up, and families who live there are simply cast out or else raped, tortured and killed. Rebel thieves, who sell their wares to the countries who use coltan- us- have torn apart the gorgeous national parks, decimated the lush forests, and poisoned the environment. Congolese who participate willingly in mining can make 50 bucks a week, instead of the national Congo average salary of about ten bucks a month. Still, with so many sick, maimed, orphaned and homeless, starvation has meant hunting endangered species like elephants, for food. The gorilla population in some parks has been cut in half. Virunga National Park’s hippo population has gone from nearly 30 thousand to under 1000.

Sexual violence in the Congo is considered the worst in the entire world. Amnesty International reports that ALL of the armed forces involved in the Congo war have committed rape. In the tens of thousands, from children to grandmothers, women have been raped.

If this alone were not disgusting enough, the creativity with which these monsters employ their degradation tactics is beyond belief. Many girls are taken into captivity as sex slaves for one or more soldiers. This can last a few days or a few years. Little girls are taken and FORCED INTO COMBAT, as well as acting as “wives” for combatants. Many children and women are gang raped by 20 men, and many have had been rape victims on numerous, different occasions. Women are raped publicly in front of their helpless captive family, and often forced to perform live sex shows to entertain the rebels. These sex shows may include being forced to perform sex acts with their own fathers or sons.  Women are frequently raped with machetes- yes, chopped up- and with sticks, broken bottles, hot peppers, rusty nails, rifles, and knives. Sometimes they are shot in the vagina.

The motivations for such depravity are humiliation, intimidation, and the cessation of fertility (genocide.) Rape is punishment for noncompliance, and it is simply entertainment that clearly expresses that women are playthings and nothing more. There is no punishment for rape because literally every one is doing it.

Sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, including HIV and AIDS. But there are barely any hospitals in the Congo, not many doctors, and no money for patients to pay them with. Which means no one can afford to go. Many bleed to death, die of reproductive complications, STDs, and infection. Then there’s exile, humiliation, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks, pregnancies by the enemy, and nightmares.

Then there’s a little matter of child labour. Children form a significant part of the workforce in Congo mines. Children also work for the various armies, including in combat.

The consequences for anyone who opens their mouth about the situation in the Congo are also a little inconvenient.

Mattias Söderberg, a campaign officer for DanChurchAid work in DRC Congo writes online, “It can be dangerous to ask questions.” He notes that the organization’ former partner, Heritiers de la Justice experienced assassinations. Silence is golden.

It can’t get much worse, but it does. As terrifying as life is for the Congolese, it’s even worse, as usual, for the Congolese natives. Homer mentioned a tribe of dwarves living south of Ethiopia, called Pygmies in Greek mythology. But the pygmies are not mythical dwarves- they are the original forest dwellers of the Congo and beyond. There are pygmy tribes all over the world. It’s considered somewhat but not terribly pejorative to say “pygmy” not because it emphasizes their short stature, but because they are not one kind of people. Just in the Congo, there are numerous tribes, such as the Mbenga, the Mbuti, and the Twa.

There are many theories why pygmy people are shorter on average than other groups of people, ranging from vitamin d deficiency to evolutionary adaptation to adolescent reproduction in history. But the most popular theory of all is that pygmies are not humans, an opinion sadly shared by other Congolese and by rebel groups, not to mention many Christian missionaries.

The Congolese pygmies are old-world hunter-gatherers who love the equatorial forests. They are a peaceful lot, preferring their own way of life without imposing it on others. Their carbon footprint is pretty much nil, and they survive on game and forest plants, sometimes trading with other groups nearby who farm. Some of the Congolese pygmy tribes, but not all, appear to have the oldest bloodlines we know of. This ancient indigenous beauty should be a source of pride for all of us, not some sick assumption that they are subhuman.

The forest dwellers are highly intelligent people who know the secrets of the rainforest intimately, familiar with its dangers, paths, plants and so on. They are skilled hunters and trackers. Though they have never taken up arms in any of the Congo conflicts, their superb knowledge of their surroundings is very useful to other Congolese, rebel militia, and more. So the pygmy people are kidnapped and used as guides. Furthermore, the rainforests are being decimated to unearth more coltan mines, leaving tribes homeless or dead. Historically, they have been kept as pets. Still, these are nicer fates than the frequent alternatives: sex slave, human mule, or food.

Yes, in addition to being raped, tortured, decapitated, or enslaved, the pygmies are being hunted for sport and for food. The cannibalization of these groups by rebel forces is justified because they are meat, not human beings. There is a literal meat market selling pygmy pork. And yes, this is happening today, not millennia ago. Today.

While pygmy hunters justify their actions by pointing out that monkey is familiar game in the Congo, they also hold bizarre beliefs that the sex parts of pygmies will imbue them with magical superpowers.

The London-based Minority Rights Group has been gathering evidence of rape, mass murder and cannibalism, appealing to the International Court of Justice to charge those responsible with war crimes or crimes against humanity. Individuals may do the hunting, but there are also groups like The Erasers who hunt, feast, then erase the forest and set up coltan mines.

That’s an awful lot of bang for your buck, now, isn’t it? Cutting down one of the world’s largest rainforest isn’t great for our oxygen supply or global warming. Genocide and destruction of the land is a foolish thing to close our eyes on when the Congo has the agricultural capacity to feed everyone in the world for the next quarter century. So why are the inhabitants starving to death? Why are they eating each other?

It always comes down to money. I feel sick every time I answer my cell phone. I didn’t know when I bought it. Can we live in a world without cell phones? Computers? Video games?

I need mine. I’m not willing to go without it, but now that I know I’ve been an unwitting accomplice to crimes against humanity, to rainforest destruction and hippo extinction, to cannibalism and gang rape, I want to take responsibility. I want multinational corporations to take responsibility, too, and start telling the truth about war. The kind of racism that still passes for truth here has kept us “minding our own business” with no knowledge of our complicity in atrocity.

The friend I mentioned earlier who made a very racist comment about black people not being able to run a country was merely reiterating the kind of theology we are puppeteered with. And while there is no doubt that African groups, like European groups, Asian groups, Middle Eastern groups and all groups, are historically shattered by conflict, that’s not the whole story. I doubt my friend is aware that much of Rwanda’s and next-door Congo’s tribal distress are inheritances of Belgium’s colonial plundering. The Congo region and all that was in it was “given” to the King of Belgium as a gift, creating a perpetual turmoil ever since.

Indeed, the situation we’ve got is a little bit of a déjà vu. For some reason, we decry the inhumanity of Hitler, yet have never heard of the Congo’s previous holocaust. The tyrant King Leopold the second murdered around TEN MILLION people (1885 – 1908). Leo took and ran the Congo as a business venture, wanting the profits from its rubber and ivory resources. He studied the colonial trades of the Spanish in Latin America as inspiring models.

“The real reasons for the ongoing war in the Congo is described in great detail in several United Nations Security Council Expert Reports, make clear that war and massive civilian deaths in the Eastern Congo since 1996 have little, if anything to do with “tribalism,” “ethnicity,” or even the “Rwanda genocide.”  But, rather, have everything to do with the rape of the Congo’s resources by the militaries of Rwanda and Uganda and their local surrogates,” writes by Prof. Peter Erlinder at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10815. “According to three separate UN Security Council Reports, issued between 2001 and 2003, war on the Congo began when Uganda and Rwanda made common-cause with local Congolese leader Laurent Kabila, and other Congolese elites, to control the vast resources of the Eastern Congo in 1996. The UN Reports show that that since, the 1996 invasion and a second invasion in 1998, Rwanda and Uganda have become the major trading centres for diamonds, precious metals and other natural resources that are not found in either country…but which exist in great quantities in the Congo.”

Massive corporations justify their participation in the massacre with the old standard: “they should be happy they have jobs.” Indeed, the mess is so huge and poverty and disease so widespread, that the argument often resonates as reasonable. Yet the root of most of the unrest, violence, poverty, displacement, orphaning, rape, and joblessness is mining. The people have become dependent on it- especially the people who don’t even live in the Congo yet wish to profit from it.

So what can I do if I’m not willing to throw away my cell phone? Throwing it away after the fact will mean that millions died in complete vain, rather than dying so you can check every thirty three seconds if that hottie texted you yet.

The coltan boycott may be too late- it’s already all here in our stuff. It’s no coincidence that we didn’t hear about this mineral for the past decade as cell phones and laptops became part of every day life, from veritable inexistence into staples of our existence, making a few honchos rich at the cost of millions of lives.

But you can indeed refuse to buy more of this shit. Do you really want a fancier phone now, knowing a baby got raped with a broken bottle to get it to you? Buy secondhand. Buy from companies who refuse to use Congo coltan. Though coltan is rare in other parts of the world, and will cost you more, it won’t cost you your life so do the right thing.

Manufacturers respond quickly to your money. Withhold it, making clear why you’re giving it somewhere else. If we all promise our dollars to Congo-clean companies, more companies will follow suit. Activist Maurice Carney told Alternatives.ca that we should all call our electronics manufacturers and ask whether they buy Congo coltan or mining, otherwise do business in Congo. He said it’s not just about refusing to use coltan- huge companies can pressure the Congo government to reform it’s closed eye policies, and come up with a system that benefits the country instead of benefiting Rwandan rapists and the American elite.

Recycling cell phones and electronics seems inconsequential, but the extra effort may mean an acre of rainforest or a life saved. If you invest in stocks, take care that your mining investments or other investments are not bloody by researching the sources of your stocks, as well as other investments your company may make and business it may do. Refuse to earn money on death.

You can also campaign in support of the Congo Conflict Minerals Act 2009, urging your politicians to stand up for it. The Act would be a great step forward in demanding disclosure from companies that use blood minerals, including stocks. In addition, it calls for ways to reinvent the Congo resource system as humane and beneficial to the victims in the aftermath of this genocide.

You can support Friends of the Congo financially or by spreading the word. Head to http://friendsofthecongo.org/friends/index.php to find about the projects they do for the sick, impoverished, orphaned, and raped. They have excellent resources online to help you understand the histories, and why it matters.

You can also visit http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/ to find ways to help support and empower Congo’s rape victims and other women.

Or check out Breaking the Silence’s cool Congo week. They’ve got some great projects we can help out on. http://congoweek.org/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=101 Friends of the Congo team up with the Association of Widows to help out poor ladies who’ve witnessed their husband’s decapitations or impalings. They help rape victims and families. Another really important project we can help with is with RENEC. “RENEC is made up of institutions from diverse sectors of the Congolese society: youth/students, religious, women’s groups, grassroots civil society groups, environmental groups and labor coalitions. RENEC provides education and training to the

forest pygmies

Congolese population regarding their civic responsibilities in a newly democratic society. Also, RENEC builds the capacity of grassroots organizations seeking to provide social, human rights and civic support to the people of the Congo.”

A great resource for getting started is  http://www.congoglobalaction.org.

I’m going to be picking up a copy of King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild, which is apparently an amazing, readable account of the Congo’s problems at the turn of last century. The book has garnered criticism from Belgium for not being objective enough, and from reviewers who feel Leo was simply an opportunist who was passive when everybody else suddenly started killing each other over the wares he insisted were his own. I’ll continue reading after that, to get a better understanding of the complex web of conflict.

Congo has one of the darkest histories of any part on earth, and yet up until a few months ago I knew nothing about it at all except for a vague recollection of Michael Crichton plague novels when I worked for Chapters. I’m quite interested in Africa and even took a couple of courses in university on it, but my impressions about the specifics were vague. How can this be when this war is much huger than the one in Iraq, much more current than the Second World War?

Indeed, the war in the Congo (which has “officially” ended, by the way, which is a farce) is also called the African World War. But it’s not just Africa. It IS a world war. You and I are players in it. Our countries are massive contributors. All developed nations and their citizens who own technology are part of this world war, and we deserve to know more. Any war that involves heavyweight players like the United States, Japan, China, all of Europe, and most African countries is a world war no matter how you spin it.

It is imperative now that we know, to choose not to participate in the war. And perhaps, to choose to help the world work toward the healing of this precious part of our world.

The Congo is a land we must cherish and share. We have no choice. Maybe you’re a real creep and don’t actually care about the Pygmies or about someone raping grandmothers and babies.

But The Congo isn’t just about weird jungle diseases and tribal massacres over superstition and so on that don’t really affect you. That forest is the world’s crowning jewel of our oxygen, curing us of over a billion tons of carbon emissions per year. We can’t live without it.

Mine d’enfants

Vues du ciel, des milliers de fourmis
Grouillent dans l’ocre ventre du Kasaï,
Telles des sangsues traquant la rouge vie
Rempart contre l’étisie, chère victuaille.

Au sol fangeux s’exécute la partition
Et les dos éprouvés des minots minés
Résistent aux assauts de la pâmoison,
Comme le crin harassé de l’archet.

Les petites mains du creuseur rongent
La terre que les épaules hypertrophiées
Du porteur supportent sans un songe
Jusqu’au tamiseur aux yeux acérés.

Les cuisses écartées des petits canetons
Soumis se noient au cœur d’une tragédie
D’enfants naufragés dans l’excavation
Des tombes de leurs tout jeunes amis.

Ce trésor à ciel ouvert éructe à foison
De minerais aux richesses chamarrées.
La mosaïque respire pourtant le poison
Des ruisseaux écarlates de sang versé.

Dépouillée d’un développement attendu,
Coffre-fort des puissants nordistes nantis,
Cimetière des jeunes âmes noires perdues,
Ô mine généreuse, pourquoi t’a-t-on avilie ?