Congo — Cannon Fodder For Our Industries; Coltan, A Mineral To Die For

December 18th, 2009 - by: danny

‘Congo is the vilest scramble for loot
that ever disfigured the human conscience
and geographical exploration.‘
– Joseph Conrad, Author “Heart of Darkness“

“Heart of Darkness has been considered for most of this century as a literary classic, and also as a powerful indictment of the evils of imperialism. [extract of book]

It reflects the savage repressions carried out in the Congo by the Belgians in one of the largest acts of genocide committed up to that time. Conrad’s narrator encounters at the end of the story a man named Kurtz, dying, insane, and guilty of unspeakable atrocities.”

Danny will be returning stateside on Monday. To better envision what he has been filming, these links to YouTube.com videos from Journeyman Pictures, which cannot be embedded, tell the story. — dissectrix

• Kabila’s Congo – Democratic Republic of Congo

June 1999

Following Kabila’s takeover, Kinshasa’s unpaid and undervalued middle classes urgently want a better life. We examine the future of a new regime which rode to power promising real change. At informal ‘street parliaments’, the educated classes scrutinise every aspect of Kabila’s rule and what they find makes them nervous – they’re awaiting democracy and jobs. In one group lawyers and doctors gather for anxious political debate. At Kinshasa’s version of Wall Street, located on a muddy road, American dollars change hands for local currency during vigorous trading: official banks have little or no cash. American-educated Deogratias Baharama works unpaid at the dilapidated Ministry of Agriculture. His wife Jean sells beans at market just to keep their dingy home. Finance Minister Mwampanga Mwana Nanga wants to kick start the economy but has a problem, “I need hard cash. I need money”, he sighs. A printing press still churns out sheets of virtually worthless paper money. At a political rally Laurent Kabila provokes a frenzy with a promise to end unemployment. Though wary of the future, people are, for now, prepared to ‘wait and see’.

Ten Years Later

• Grand Theft Congo – DRC

“The major problem facing Africa is corruption and control of resources. In the DRC, the military is stealing minerals to sell to Western companies.

At a remote mine in central DRC, workers with torches and pick axes hack at the ruddy earth. They are mining cassiterite, a mineral vital in the production of laptops and mobile phones. But dispersed among the miners are Congolese Government troops — in plain clothes for the camera — literally forcing most workers to work at gunpoint. ‘The soldiers always steal everything. They even come to shoot people down the mineshafts,’ complains Regina Maponda. Western greed for cassiterite is fuelling the boom — at an airfield near the mine, soldiers jealously guard their loot as it makes it way to Japan and the West. Conflict mining is a curse, and it is difficult to see what the G8 leaders can do.

• The Real Mobile Phone Wars – DRC

“As the high tech age takes over more and more of our lives manufacturers will go to any lengths to get the sometimes scarce minerals that go into them. Tantalum is one such rare ingredient. Few of us know that in the middle of Africa much human suffering is created in the pursuit of it.”

• Congo’s Tin Soldiers – Democratic Republic of Congo

The West’s demand for Cassiterite is fuelling the killings in Congo. Militias rely on slave labour to extract the ore, forcing locals to work in sub-human conditions.

“Once you get down there, there’s no air,” describes one worker.

“The rocks often bury us and you have to crawl through the tiny hole, using your fingers to dig.”

Labourers like him often go unpaid. They’re forced to work at gunpoint by militias operating outside the control of the government.

“Different armed groups do what they want with the population”, laments minister Buta Muiso. But British businessman Ketankumar Kotecha sees nothing wrong in buying cassiterite from the militias. ”

If I didn’t do it, someone else would. I am not here as some kind of moral saviour.”

Related:

• Congo’s Tin Soldiers by Jonathan Miller | Watch the report.

Congo (DRC): Hope for 2009

The News Dissector