As global awareness grows around the Congo and the silence is finally being broken on the current and historic exploitation of Black people in the heart of Africa, a myriad of Western based “prescriptions” are being proffered. Most of these prescriptions are devoid of social, political, economic and historical context and are marked by remarkable omissions. The conflict mineral approach or efforts emanating from the United States and Europe are no exception to this symptomatic approach which serves more to perpetuate the root causes of Congo’s challenges than to resolve them.
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Carter Center,
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coltan,
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tungsten,
Uganda
Coltan is a mineral necessary for making electronic things work – like cellphones, ipods, PS3s and laptops. Over 6 million Congolese have been murdered to assure that the corporations and governments involved have a corner on the market for the minerals that the Congo produces. This is “Break the Silence” Congo Week. Check out the events and get involved!
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“Break the Silence”
One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated 10 million Congolese resulted in the end of King Leopold II of Belgium’s rule in the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue, where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.
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misrepresentation of Africans,
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OM Group,
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the Congressional Budget Office,
the devaluation of Black lives,
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the humanitarian industry,
the mainstream media,
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tin,
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“Challenge of the Congo”,
“Final Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo”
Kambale Musavuli, national spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, in this interview by POCC Minister of Information JR, challenges the people of the U.S. and President Obama to stop the resource wars in the Congo that have killed 6 million people, half of them children, for minerals like the coltan that powers our cell phones and almost everything electronic.
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coltan,
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POCC Minister of Information JR,
President Obama,
Rwanda,
Uganda
The December 2008 United Nations report is the latest in a series of U.N. reports dating from 2001 that clearly documents the systematic looting and appropriation of Congolese resources by Rwanda and Uganda, two of Washington and London’s staunchest allies in Africa.
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Joe Ritchie,
Kagame's Presidential Advisory Council,
Kambale Musavuli,
National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP),
reparations,
Rev. Rick Warren,
Rwanda,
Rwanda Development Board,
Rwandan Investment Group,
Scott Ford of Alltell,
Southern African Development Community (SADC),
Tanzania,
the Rwandan Investment Group,
Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa,
Uganda
Forty-eight years ago, the first freely elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Emery Lumumba, was brutally murdered by the United States, Belgium and certain local elites because he wanted the resources of the Congo to benefit the Congolese people.
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2008 marked the 100-year anniversary of the removal of the Congo from King Leopold II of Belgium as his own personal property. Global outrage at the King’s brutal rule resulted in his losing the Congo treasure trove on Nov. 15, 1908.
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Robert Casement,
Rwanda,
sovereignty,
The Heart of Darkness,
Uganda,
William Sheppard
The New York Times piece, “Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Trouble in the Congo,” laid the foundation for a more honest dialogue about the resource war in the Congo, which has resulted in dying and suffering of holocaust proportions.
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Dan Rather,
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resource war in the Congo,
Rwanda,
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon,
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Yoweri Museveni
On Nov. 11, KPFK radio host Dedon Kamathi interviewed Kambale Musavuli from the Congo, who is the coordinator of the global student movement Breaking the Silence Congo Week. Maurice Carney of Friends of the Congo joined him for an update on the unfolding diplomatic initiative to bring peace and justice to the Congo. Former [...]
Some of us remember the first elected prime minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, as he brought to the world the vision of a prosperous Congo where this beautiful land will benefit the Congolese people and not world corporations. A modern day holocaust is occurring in this picturesque land of abundance.
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International Crisis Group study "Consolidating the Peace",
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Patrice Lumumba,
President Paul Kagame,
President-elect Barack Obama,
Rumble in the Jungle,
Rwanda,
Zaire
The war in Congo is a U.S. proxy war; the U.S. uses Kagame, the Rwandan army and terrorist Gen. Laurent Nkunda as their African proxy force in Congo, but this is war. It has been the deadliest, though barely reported, war on the planet for years.
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Katanga Province,
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Paul Kagame,
Rwanda,
U.S. State Department's Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer,
Zaire
As President Nelson Mandela said of Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, this week: “Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation, which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”
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MC Lyte,
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Miriam Makeba,
President Nelson Mandela,
Robert Greer,
Sila and the AfroFunk Experience,
Terri McMillan,
Valerie Cooper,
Vukani Mawethu Choir,
Wanda Sabir
I know no honest, informed Congo watchers who doubt that Gen. Laurent Nkunda and his ruthless militia are tools of the U.S. and its African proxy, Rwanda, in the imperial resource war now raging in Eastern Congo.
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torture
Following “Break the Silence” Congo Week, Kambale Musavuli urges the global community, and African-Americans in particular, to revitalize international attention on the Congo as a means of shedding light on the ongoing conflict and harnessing the potential for strong advocacy relationships.
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Tom Tancredo,
Uganda,
Zaire
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