From Penelope Abraham – Justice Congo Group.

People often ask me why I started the Justice Congo Group in March 2022. Here is why: 

Congo, or Kongo as it was called before colonization, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is a country the size of Western Europe, extraordinarily rich in natural resources – minerals, fertile land, vast and mostly intact rainforest. 47% of the total forest of Africa is within DRC, and it provides 70% of the world’s cobalt, as well as vast amounts of koltan, gold and other minerals for mobile phones. 

Unsurprisingly, this beautiful and rich country has been ruthlessly pillaged by colonialists for centuries. 

First came the Portuguese in the 15th century seeking trade and slaves. They started the decimation of the Congolese people, taking the young men of the country to Brazil as slaves. 

Congo’s colonial history

In the latter part of the 19th century, Western European nations took part in the “scramble for Africa”. At the 1884 Berlin Conference, shocking arbitrary maps were drawn to annex and divide the Continent. King Leopold II of Belgium managed to acquire the whole of the Congo to be his private “garden” – which, by the way, he never once visited. 

He proceeded to enslave the Congolese people, through horrendous violence and murder, in order to acquire the vast wealth of this beautiful country. Between 1895 and 1908, he carried out the Rubber Terror in the pursuit of the plentiful wild rubber in the Congo forests. During this time, 10 million Congolese people were killed, starved to death or died of European diseases such as measles, smallpox etc. The Hidden Holocaust which few people know about. 

When these horrors came to light in the early 1900s, the Belgian government eventually took over the running of Congo, bringing to an end the worst excesses of Leopold’s tenure. In 1960, Congo was “given” independence by the Belgian government, but immediately the US CIA intervened by murdering the first and charismatic Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, because of his socialist ideas. 

Colonial and effects

This ushered in a period of gross interference in Congolese affairs by many parties, including – to this day – Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, the DRC’s immediate neighbours. Greed for the DRC’s resources drives these actors, and they have destabilized the country in multiple different ways since Congolese independence. The current strategy of Rwanda, in particular, is to terrorize the local population in the east of DRC with violence, rape and murder, through proxy militias, in order to get their hands on the DRC’s valuable minerals. These minerals are then smuggled into Rwanda, and the profits enjoyed by Rwanda. Can you imagine the outcry if such a situation was going on in Europe? 

Public awareness

It is the total lack of public awareness of these multiple horrors that led me to establish the Justice Congo Group. 

In 2022, this lack of public awareness includes the fact that the DRC is once again being pillaged by the Global North – this time for cobalt, koltan, gold and other minerals required for technological solutions to climate change.

The Global North wants electric batteries to save the planet, but, as one Congolese woman put it “you talk a better planet, but our children are dying for your green energy”. And a Congolese man remarked “None of the affected Congolese workers will ever be able to buy or drive an electric car”. While mining companies make fortunes, 7 out of 10 Congolese people live on less than $2 per day, and “artisanal” miners are risking their lives to obtain a meagre living from the riches of their country. 

The inequalities, human rights abuses and bare-faced greed of multinational companies live on in the DRC in 2022, fuelled by European and American consumers’ expectations that their way of life can continue as before, at a time of climate change. 

Yes we are all responsible, and we must recognise this, and lobby for the Congolese people to benefit from the 21st century electric battery boom. It is their beautiful country, their minerals, their immense rainforest, and they must benefit. 

It is so long past the time for a better life in Congo DRC. Such a change is possible if we all pull together to recognise the agony of the Congolese people, and act to improve things. 

Penelope Abraham represents the Justice Congo Group.

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