Latest / Soul Salon with Ayandastood / 30: free Congo 🇨🇩🤎 — overview, book (Cobalt Red 📚) & how we can help

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30: free Congo 🇨🇩🤎 — overview, book (Cobalt Red 📚) & how we can help · Soul Salon with Ayandastood

• 0:00
  The African Lives Matter, Congolese Lives Matter,
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  free Congo, free Sudan, free Palestine,
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  free Haiti, and free all people suffering
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  under colonial and supremacist violence.
• 0:13
  All forms of supremacy must end.
• 0:15
  The supremacy of the West over the global South,
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  the supremacy of settlers over the indigenous,
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  the supremacy of men over women,
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  the supremacy of cis people over trans people,
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  the supremacy of straight people over queer people,
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  the supremacy of able-bodied people over disabled people,
• 0:31
  the supremacy of governments over the people
• 0:33
  they're supposed to serve,
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  the supremacy of the rich over the poor,
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  the supremacy of big companies over the people
• 0:38
  who literally are the make the value
• 0:41
  that that company profits from possible.
• 0:43
  All supremacy has to end,
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  because if we don't end supremacy at its root,
• 0:47
  we will continue to see manifestations of it.
• 0:50
  Hello sunshine and welcome back to paradigm shift
• 0:53
  with I understood a place where we reframe what is
• 0:56
  and reimagine what could be.
• 0:58
  I hope you enjoy today's episode.
• 1:00
  Let's paradigm shift together.
• 1:03
  Hello salsa blinks.
• 1:05
  Something that I've been thinking about
• 1:06
  a lot during this time is my responsibility
• 1:10
  as a creator, as someone with a platform.
• 1:14
  And I think responsibility is such an important concept
• 1:19
  and I was reading this introduction to this book
• 1:22
  on how indigenous wisdom differs
• 1:24
  from colonial Western wisdom.
• 1:28
  And one of the tenets was the idea of rights.
• 1:31
  I have a right to express my opinion.
• 1:34
  I have a right to do this and that,
• 1:36
  versus in the indigenous wisdoms.
• 1:38
  And obviously there are so many indigenous peoples on earth
• 1:42
  and this is not to homogenize that,
• 1:44
  but just bear with me.
• 1:46
  They mentioned that responsibility to your community,
• 1:51
  to nature, to ancestors, and also to children
• 1:55
  who are yet to be born, to the future generations,
• 1:59
  is a core principle that they say runs through
• 2:04
  many different ways of thinking among indigenous peoples.
• 2:08
  And that really resonated with me as I thought
• 2:10
  about this topic because I think so many people
• 2:13
  want the perks of having a platform,
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  but don't want to grapple with any
• 2:17
  of the moral responsibilities of having one.
• 2:21
  And so I made the episode on Palestine
• 2:24
  and that's something that I have been conscious of
• 2:27
  and following for many more years, okay,
• 2:30
  because of being South African,
• 2:32
  the part-date connection and then also
• 2:35
  it's just surrounded in so much erasure and gas lighting
• 2:40
  that it's always something that I felt very fired up about.
• 2:43
  Like why does this have to be controversial?
• 2:45
  Why do I have to be labeled as something
• 2:48
  as anti-Semitic for supporting Palestine, right?
• 2:51
  So it's something that I've been conscious of for a long time.
• 2:53
  I'm not an expert at all, but I felt like
• 2:55
  more comfortable speaking on it.
• 2:57
  And I think because of the way the news is constructed
• 3:01
  to center the West, erase the global South,
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  and I've been living in the US for 10 years,
• 3:07
  but also because of the way that education systems
• 3:10
  are rooted in the, in Western hegemony.
• 3:14
  I mean, I learned about the Cold War
• 3:16
  and I learned about the European Holocaust.
• 3:18
  I did not learn about the Congolese Holocaust
• 3:21
  or the Belgian Holocaust against Congolese people
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  that King Leopold II killed what is reported
• 3:27
  to be up to 10 to 15 million Congolese people
• 3:30
  and the torture and the atrocities.
• 3:32
  So there's so many African histories that I did not learn, right?
• 3:38
  That no one made me learn.
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  Now we are also always educating ourselves
• 3:42
  and I take responsibility for that as well
• 3:43
  that I didn't take an active enough interest
• 3:46
  in really trying to learn the different histories.
• 3:49
  And this moment and all the incredible creators
• 3:53
  who have been amplifying the cause of Congolese freedom
• 3:58
  has been so inspiring and crucial.
• 4:02
  And as a result, I've been educating myself
• 4:06
  on what is happening in Congo.
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  I read the book, Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo
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  powers our lives.
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  And it's so deeply painful to me
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  and so unjust in a way that just makes you want to scream.
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  You know what I mean?
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  And so I wanted to make this episode on this topic.
• 4:24
  First, I want to read you a situation
• 4:27
  overview of what's happening in Congo.
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  And I got this information from a source
• 4:33
  called Powerful Countries on Instagram
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  and they cite all the sources that they used.
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  Then we're going to get into what I learned from this book.
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  I learned five main lessons and I'm excited
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  to tell you about them.
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  So starting with the situation overview
• 4:46
  of what is happening in Congo.
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  The Democratic Republic of the Congo
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  is currently undergoing a series of clashes
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  within its north and south Kivu regions.
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  While there are many armed militias
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  fighting the Congolese military within the Kivu regions,
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  the two most notable groups are that of the Allied
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  Democratic forces, which are a central African offshoot
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  of ISIS and the second is the M23 movement,
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  which is a militia group claiming to represent
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  the disenfranchised Tutsi and Kenyawanda peoples
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  within eastern Congo.
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  Clashes and conflict have escalated once again
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  in October of 2023, this time that we are in.
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  The Congolese government, the ADF,
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  so that was the Allied Democratic forces,
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  remember that's one of the militant groups
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  and the M23 movement are all three separate entities
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  with different goals.
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  These three entities all have their own foreign backers,
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  enemies, and mediators, but the core of all of the actors
• 5:51
  within the Congo haven't come in.
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  What they haven't come in is their desire
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  to control resources within the Kivu regions,
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  most notably, Colton.
• 6:01
  Okay, so Colton is a mineral, so as cobalt,
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  Congo has the most of both.
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  So it's just got so much and in the past,
• 6:10
  it had rubber, I mean, it has had every single,
• 6:13
  it has copper, it has manganese,
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  it has so many resources and we're going to learn
• 6:17
  about that more.
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  And as a result of the greed of the rest of the world,
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  including African nations like Rwanda and Uganda,
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  and the West, of course, huge, huge backers of all of this,
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  it is literally being punished for its material wealth
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  and the people who suffer as well as the earth, okay?
• 6:36
  The battles over the resource minds
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  have led to over 1.4 million, currently displaced people,
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  okay?
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  Imagine 1.4 million people displaced, forced to move,
• 6:50
  their home lost, their sense of stability
• 6:53
  if there was ever any lost, okay?
• 6:56
  And it has caused over six million deaths since 1996.
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  That is why people are calling it a silent genocide,
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  six million, can you imagine?
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  And what is so deeply unjust and unconscionable
• 7:14
  is I just know even as I say these words,
• 7:18
  like African people, black people,
• 7:20
  dark skinned black people are so dehumanized
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  and so undervalued as beings
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  that even as I say six million plus Congolese people
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  have been killed since 1996,
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  I just feel like it doesn't hold the weight that it should
• 7:40
  in the collective imagination because we're just Africans,
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  you know, and this is what he says in the book,
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  it's people at the bottom of the global supply chain,
• 7:48
  people who have been impoverished
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  by global colonialism and global capitalism.
• 7:54
  People who have been robbed from their lives,
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  not just their safety, their sense of being,
• 7:59
  their sense of peace, can't the Congolese people have peace?
• 8:03
  Okay, so this has also been,
• 8:07
  they've also suffered genocide,
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  which they're suffering today,
• 8:10
  war crimes and human rights abuses.
• 8:14
  So why is all of this happening?
• 8:17
  What is the root of the root of the root?
• 8:19
  Well, we know it's colonial violence,
• 8:21
  we know it's greed, we know it's capitalism,
• 8:23
  and we also know, I've been thinking about this a lot,
• 8:27
  how in the global south we may have collectivist cultures,
• 8:32
  but we have individualist governments,
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  and that is also our downfall,
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  that our governments always have a price,
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  and they are willing to enrich themselves
• 8:44
  and sell their people to the literal gutter
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  for their own personal enrichment.
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  It is so fucking painful, and the West always kills,
• 8:56
  assassinate, conspires to get rid of anyone
• 8:59
  with an actual bold and anti-colonial vision for the nation.
• 9:04
  And that is why Patrice Lumumba,
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  who was Congo's hope at the dawn of independence in 1960,
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  was assassinated by the West, assassinated,
• 9:14
  tortured and then assassinated,
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  and the book co-bought red ends with a letter that he writes
• 9:20
  to his wife before he is murdered,
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  his final words documented.
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  It's so painful because he had a bold vision
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  where the Congolese people would be in charge
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  of their own resources and wealth
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  and determine their own fate,
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  and all of the foreign interests,
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  which are now including the Chinese,
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  like everyone has their hand in the Congo.
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  It even includes the Lebanese.
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  It has so many bad actors,
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  I'm not saying those people are inherently bad actors,
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  I'm saying they are acting in a bad way in the Congo,
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  in a way that is colonial,
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  in a way that is torturous,
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  in a way that has a complete disregard
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  for the life of the Congolese people.
• 10:00
  Okay?
• 10:02
  And so it is now the governments that they assassinated him,
• 10:06
  they installed Joseph Mubutu,
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  who was literally siphoning money
• 10:10
  and literally resources to the West,
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  and to himself.
• 10:17
  He created, in the book it speaks about this,
• 10:20
  where he created his own private like company,
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  and so much money went into that company,
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  millions and millions, millions and millions,
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  in fact in the book it says that he enriched himself
• 10:29
  even more than King Leopold in cash money, okay?
• 10:34
  Anyways, so let me continue reading.
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  I'm so frustrated,
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  so just remember that tension.
• 10:38
  Collectivist cultures, we support each other,
• 10:41
  we help each other, individualist governments.
• 10:44
  They support themselves,
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  and it's no mistake that some of our most communist
• 10:49
  and pro-the-people leaders in Africa
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  have all been assassinated.
• 10:53
  Why did they kill Chris Hanney?
• 10:54
  Why did they kill people with a collectivist vision
• 10:56
  for South Africa?
• 10:58
  Why did they kill Steve Beekle?
• 11:00
  These people, and then why did they let you know what I mean?
• 11:03
  Okay, let's not get into it,
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  because I don't want to make this about South Africa
• 11:05
  and be accused.
• 11:06
  Okay, so, but it's all connected.
• 11:09
  So it says Colton is a metallic
• 11:12
  or that is found in many parts of the world
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  with one of the most notable mining locations
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  being the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 11:20
  Colton is used to manufacture tantalum capacitors
• 11:24
  which are used for mobile phones,
• 11:26
  personal computers,
• 11:28
  automotive electronics and cameras.
• 11:30
  So it is no irony, it's no mistake.
• 11:34
  When we say everything is connected,
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  that I'm recording this
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  using a laptop, using a camera,
• 11:39
  using electronic devices powered by the literal blood,
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  the literal suffering and torment of the Congolese people,
• 11:47
  both through Colton but also through Cobalt.
• 11:50
  Okay, it says Colton mining is an extremely labor
• 11:54
  intensive process in which primary produces
• 11:58
  such as the Congo operate in poor working conditions.
• 12:02
  And I saw this TikTok yesterday
• 12:03
  which says this could all be so different.
• 12:06
  If you honored our humanity,
• 12:08
  if you honored the humanity of Congolese people,
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  how I mean black African people.
• 12:13
  If you honored the humanity of black African poor laborers,
• 12:19
  they've been made to be poor, okay?
• 12:22
  You would pay them,
• 12:23
  you would have safe environments for them to work in,
• 12:26
  but you dehumanize them to such an extent
• 12:30
  and you view them literally as numbers on a balance sheet.
• 12:34
  Just it's so colonial,
• 12:35
  the colonial era has not ended, okay?
• 12:37
  Let me continue reading.
• 12:39
  The Congolese people are being exploited by rebel groups
• 12:43
  on behalf of the global technology trade.
• 12:46
  This is key.
• 12:47
  Remember that it said there are just so many actors involved.
• 12:51
  And so these rebel groups,
• 12:54
  who do they serve, like who are they therefore?
• 12:57
  They're there on behalf of the global technology trade.
• 13:01
  Apple, Tesla.
• 13:02
  So it says here that most of the people
• 13:04
  are working in mines unwillingly
• 13:06
  with most being children.
• 13:12
  Many companies from industrialized countries
• 13:15
  by Colton via illicit means from these rebel groups.
• 13:20
  Primarily done via Rwanda,
• 13:23
  in which many resources are smuggled into from the Congo.
• 13:28
  Companies from China, the EU, the US,
• 13:32
  and Russia are the primary consumers of illicit Colton resources.
• 13:38
  Okay, so let's talk about these multinational organizations.
• 13:42
  Multinational organizations.
• 13:44
  So think of Panasonic, Samsung, Tesla, Apple.
• 13:48
  They are using unethical Colton sources
• 13:51
  to obtain their minerals,
• 13:53
  which reinforce slave labor,
• 13:55
  including of men, women, and children
• 13:58
  and non-binary Congolese people.
• 14:00
  Okay, international avoidance leads to low coverage
• 14:04
  of the conflict.
• 14:06
  Thus finding up-to-date information is difficult.
• 14:09
  They acknowledge this.
• 14:10
  Everyone is doing the best that they can
• 14:12
  with the information that they have.
• 14:14
  So the M23 movements operations
• 14:16
  have allowed for other militias,
• 14:19
  such as the ADF, to conduct offensives
• 14:22
  with minimal Congolese defense,
• 14:25
  thus allowing conflict and death
• 14:27
  to spread across Eastern Congo.
• 14:30
  Over 1.4 million Congolese people
• 14:34
  are displaced from this conflict,
• 14:36
  with millions killed since the conflict's beginning.
• 14:39
  That was that six million or more figure.
• 14:42
  While the conflict originated from political, ethnic,
• 14:45
  and religious ideologies,
• 14:47
  the international trade of Colton
• 14:49
  has allowed for militant groups
• 14:51
  to maintain funding for their activities,
• 14:54
  while millions of civilians are caught in the middle.
• 14:59
  So I feel like perhaps this
• 15:02
  misattributes the origin origin,
• 15:06
  because it says while the conflict originated
• 15:08
  from political, ethnic, and religious ideologies.
• 15:11
  I don't know if that's true versus didn't originate.
• 15:14
  I don't know, I'm not an expert in this.
• 15:15
  So I would ask, did it not originate
• 15:17
  from, first of all, colonialism,
• 15:20
  which then spread like political, ethnic,
• 15:22
  and religious tensions,
• 15:23
  and then also did it not also originate
• 15:26
  from an exploitative supply chain,
• 15:30
  because everyone acts according to the incentives
• 15:33
  that the system gives them.
• 15:35
  And so these militia groups are incentivized
• 15:37
  to exploit and smuggle, to exploit Congolese people,
• 15:41
  and only favor the Colton that they produce, right?
• 15:46
  So what structures the tensions that this is saying
• 15:49
  are the origins, so I would question that.
• 15:51
  Okay, the conditions that the civilians
• 15:54
  have been undergoing is often described as a genocide,
• 15:57
  due to the historic ethnic targeting from groups,
• 16:00
  such as the M23 movement and the ADF.
• 16:03
  Militia groups are actively committing atrocities
• 16:06
  across the region with frequent massacres
• 16:09
  and large waves of sexual assault taking place.
• 16:12
  So these militia groups are really raiding terror,
• 16:15
  horror, sexual violence, massacres,
• 16:18
  onto the Congolese people.
• 16:20
  But they don't act alone.
• 16:23
  Let's talk about foreign involvement
• 16:25
  and external assistance.
• 16:27
  So when it comes to direct involvement, this is,
• 16:30
  the United Nations has direct security missions
• 16:33
  within the Congo in order to assist
• 16:36
  in combating militia groups and maintaining stability.
• 16:39
  Now, I have heard that the UN in Congo
• 16:42
  are responsible for human rights violations as well,
• 16:44
  such as sexually violating the women of Congo
• 16:48
  in exchange for resources.
• 16:50
  But I know that the UN is not a savior of the world.
• 16:53
  The UN was part of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba.
• 16:56
  It says that in the book, okay, and that can be verified.
• 17:00
  Rwanda and Uganda are said to currently be backing
• 17:03
  the M23 movement.
• 17:05
  These, this rebel group that is literally
• 17:07
  raping, murdering, and abusing the people of Congo
• 17:12
  as the group is made up of common tribal groups
• 17:15
  as well as smuggling Colton into Rwanda for monetary gain.
• 17:19
  Rwanda denies involvement.
• 17:21
  However, evidence showcases that they have
• 17:24
  some degree of indirect involvement
• 17:27
  in the ongoing conflict.
• 17:29
  The final word on this from this source is
• 17:33
  while not militarily nor politically involved,
• 17:37
  many people place blame on industrialized nations
• 17:39
  such as China, the countries of Europe,
• 17:41
  the United States, and Russia for doing minimal
• 17:45
  to no intervention of their companies
• 17:47
  for obtaining Colton through illegal and illicit channels.
• 17:51
  The means in which many companies
• 17:52
  obtain their Colton has allowed for the conflict
• 17:55
  to continue as well as human suffering
• 17:58
  within the Colton mines.
• 18:01
  So I think that's so critical
• 18:02
  that there's a complete lack of accountability
• 18:05
  where if these companies in these nations refused
• 18:10
  to, if they, if they human rights policies were true
• 18:12
  and they really refused human rights abuses
• 18:15
  across their supply chain, this would not be happening.
• 18:18
  In the book it says, this is the source.
• 18:20
  It starts at the top.
• 18:21
  It starts at the demand and the practices
• 18:23
  of these companies and their blatant disregard
• 18:27
  for the life of Congolese people.
• 18:29
  Okay, on this topic I have watched a documentary
• 18:34
  that's only 25 minutes that you can watch
• 18:36
  and I'll put it in the show notes
• 18:37
  called Crisis in the Congo Uncovering the Truth
• 18:40
  and it's by an amazing organization
• 18:43
  which I'm going to speak about at the end
• 18:44
  called Friends of the Congo
• 18:46
  which is Congolese run and does a lot of collaborations
• 18:50
  with international organizations
• 18:51
  but it's an amazing organization
• 18:53
  that's doing incredible work to try and help
• 18:57
  the children of Congo, the people of Congo
• 18:59
  to escape from this literal nightmare
• 19:03
  of an existence that they're being forced to live.
• 19:05
  So I'm going to play you a clip from that documentary
• 19:09
  so that you can get a little bit more context
• 19:11
  from people who are closer to the ground
• 19:15
  and to what is happening in the Congo.
• 19:17
  Listen to this.
• 19:18
  The Congo is like a nightmare in heaven.
• 19:28
  It's a heaven because, you know, Congo is the heart of Africa.
• 19:32
  So much natural resources.
• 19:34
  The people, the animals, the flowers, everything, you know.
• 19:40
  Congo is heaven but the thing is that
• 19:43
  people are living like in hell.
• 19:46
  People are dying.
• 19:48
  At first, we used to hear one million people dying.
• 19:51
  Two, three, four, five.
• 19:54
  And the situation was getting worse, worse and worse, you know.
• 19:59
  Because the money is there.
• 20:01
  The resources are out there in Congo
• 20:04
  and everybody wants a piece of Congo.
• 20:08
  Everybody wants a piece of Congo.
• 20:17
  Why are people living hand-to-mouth in one of the most
• 20:24
  mineral-rich countries in the world?
• 20:26
  The Congo produces more than a billion dollars
• 20:28
  of gold alone each year.
• 20:30
  And the cobalt and the tin and the copper
• 20:33
  and the constant, all that we're benefiting from,
• 20:36
  but yet we're silent.
• 20:40
  When people invade your country,
• 20:42
  they rape your women, they rape the kids,
• 20:46
  they morally control your mind.
• 20:51
  There's a pattern to genocide.
• 20:53
  You can see it coming and it's like a hurricane.
• 20:58
  Are we gonna have to wait for 20 more years
• 21:01
  before somebody does something to stop this Holocaust?
• 21:06
  There's a global consensus that exists that says
• 21:09
  it's okay for nearly six million black people to die
• 21:12
  in the heart of Africa and for us to be silent.
• 21:17
  So I kept asking our intelligence people,
• 21:20
  is there any truth to this?
• 21:22
  I mean, what's happening out there?
• 21:26
  I don't think policymakers could claim that they didn't know.
• 21:33
  There's something wrong.
• 21:35
  There's something wrong with us in terms of the way
• 21:38
  we think about Africa.
• 21:43
  Oh, that is so powerful.
• 21:46
  I will link to this organization's work.
• 21:49
  They're doing incredible things.
• 21:51
  And this was from 12 years ago.
• 21:53
  So just think how long it's taken for anyone
• 21:56
  to start to pay attention at a mass level.
• 21:58
  And that's why I just take my heart off
• 22:00
  to all the content creators who basically took the momentum
• 22:04
  they were seeing on the cause of Palestinian liberation
• 22:07
  and said, hey, everyone, we also need to be lifting our voices
• 22:11
  for the Congo.
• 22:14
  So because of those creators and in response
• 22:17
  to the social media movement that we're seeing,
• 22:20
  to see how linked all of these causes of liberation are.
• 22:24
  We're not free until we're all free.
• 22:26
  I read the book, Cobalt Red, by Siddharth Kara.
• 22:29
  And it's called Cobalt Red,
• 22:31
  how the blood of the Congo powers our lives.
• 22:34
  And it is so explicitly horrendous.
• 22:39
  It is horrifying.
• 22:41
  And it's so crucial.
• 22:43
  I wish everyone could read this book
• 22:46
  or could listen to this man's research.
• 22:49
  And what he says is it's so unfortunate
• 22:51
  that he is Indian-American
• 22:54
  and he's been researching modern slavery for 20 years.
• 22:57
  And he says what he's seen, he's gone to dozens of countries.
• 23:00
  What he's seen in the Congo is the worst human rights violations
• 23:04
  he has ever seen in the history of his 22-decade career.
• 23:08
  Researching, literally not anything,
• 23:10
  researching modern slavery.
• 23:12
  He wrote a book on that.
• 23:14
  This I think is his second book.
• 23:17
  And so he spent time in the Congo doing this research
• 23:21
  and collecting local stories
• 23:23
  so the book is peppered with stories
• 23:25
  of Congolese people suffering in these Cobalt minds
• 23:29
  or in what is called artisanal mining,
• 23:31
  which is a real euphemism for exploitation
• 23:35
  and literally like a slavery,
• 23:38
  literally slavery and child labor
• 23:40
  because they are condemned to do this work or die.
• 23:44
  Like literally they will either die with the work itself
• 23:47
  or from the lack of being able to pay for food and survival.
• 23:51
  So it's an awful, awful history
• 23:54
  but such an important one for us to turn our attention towards.
• 23:58
  So I highly recommend this book
• 24:00
  and I thought how can I share what I learned?
• 24:04
  So I thought okay, there's five main lessons
• 24:06
  that I learned from this book
• 24:08
  and I want to share them with you.
• 24:10
  I came into this knowing nothing
• 24:12
  and I am ashamed of that.
• 24:13
  There's so much to know in the world
• 24:15
  and what we come to know is so structured
• 24:17
  by the education we've had
• 24:19
  and what we've been taught to pay attention to and not.
• 24:22
  And unfortunately that's so much plays into the hands of the West
• 24:26
  because it's like look away, you know, I am South African.
• 24:29
  Like I feel like I should know so much more about African history
• 24:32
  and so I'm really trying to course correct that.
• 24:35
  Now I am going to keep committing myself
• 24:38
  to learning more and more about our own histories
• 24:41
  because we have so much to learn and so much to amplify.
• 24:45
  So these are the five top lessons that I learned, okay?
• 24:48
  Number one, this starts at the top of the supply chain,
• 24:51
  exploitative tech giants
• 24:53
  with names that you are very familiar with.
• 24:55
  The second is just the human rights atrocities.
• 24:58
  And before we go into this,
• 24:59
  let me quickly make this segue
• 25:02
  because we were speaking about Colton
• 25:04
  and now we're speaking about Cobalt, okay?
• 25:07
  So it's confusing because the Keevoo regions that they mentioned,
• 25:12
  that's where a lot of this conflict
• 25:14
  that we're hearing about today is happening
• 25:16
  and at the same time in Katanga,
• 25:19
  which is in the South of the Congo,
• 25:21
  that's where most of the world's Cobalt exists.
• 25:24
  And so this in the South region continues to happen
• 25:28
  and maybe I'll put a map of the Congo
• 25:31
  so you can see the different places
• 25:33
  where all of this is taking place, okay?
• 25:35
  Yes, so what you see from this map
• 25:37
  is you see that in the South region near Zambia,
• 25:42
  that is where you have the copper and the Cobalt, okay?
• 25:46
  But then in the northern regions is where you have Keevoo
• 25:50
  and there's North Keevoo and South Keevoo
• 25:52
  and that is on the border of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, okay?
• 25:56
  So those are the bordering regions.
• 25:58
  So it's just important to know that from all sides,
• 26:01
  Congo is suffering and they're suffering
• 26:03
  at the plight of their own mineral wealth
• 26:05
  and the greed and the capitalism and colonialism
• 26:07
  in response to that wealth
• 26:09
  because it could have been treated fairly,
• 26:11
  you know, it could have been treated well and yet it's not.
• 26:14
  So I just want to say that we are now going from the North
• 26:17
  to the South and why are we doing that?
• 26:19
  Because this is the book that I read and can tell you about
• 26:21
  but I encourage you to keep learning about what's happening
• 26:24
  in the North and South Keevoo regions, okay?
• 26:27
  So these are the five lessons that I learned.
• 26:29
  The second is the human rights atrocities.
• 26:31
  So this is the exploitation of Congolese people,
• 26:34
  how children are forced to work,
• 26:36
  teenage boys, teenage girls, adults, women are abused
• 26:40
  and are violated by these medicine groups.
• 26:43
  The actual experience of how the mining happens
• 26:46
  is a human rights violation.
• 26:48
  The third is the colonial history.
• 26:50
  So going back to King Leopold II
• 26:52
  and really connecting the dots because it's a continuation.
• 26:55
  It's not like a separate part of history.
• 26:58
  The fourth, I want to link to that colonial history
• 27:01
  is the stolen future of Patrice Lumumba.
• 27:03
  The reason why I want to do this is it's really important
• 27:05
  for us to not position nations as just like hopeless
• 27:09
  and never having leaders emerge who could have paved
• 27:12
  a different path.
• 27:13
  So Congo's future was stolen from them
• 27:16
  because this was truly a leader who had a bold vision,
• 27:19
  a bold anti-colonial vision for Congo.
• 27:21
  That's what the book says.
• 27:22
  And so it's important to note that when we see these leaders
• 27:25
  who are dictators or who are just greedy
• 27:28
  or who are very much focused on their own enrichment,
• 27:31
  it's by design because this is all part of the global supply chain
• 27:36
  and the global colonial and capitalist project,
• 27:39
  which ensures that the West has puppets in the global South.
• 27:43
  The last thing is the public health crisis,
• 27:46
  the toxic exposure, the birth defects, the cancers,
• 27:50
  all of the ways that cobalt is literally, he says, toxic.
• 27:53
  Cobalt is toxic.
• 27:54
  So while you're digging for the cobalt
• 27:56
  and it comes in this heterogeneite rock,
• 27:59
  so it doesn't come as pure cobalt,
• 28:01
  you dig for this rock, then you have to separate the rock
• 28:04
  and get the cobalt out, then you are paid according to how pure
• 28:08
  the cobalt is.
• 28:09
  So messed up because you are not paid according to,
• 28:11
  it's literally like the cotton farms
• 28:14
  in the transatlantic slave trade and in the enslavement
• 28:17
  of African Americans, right?
• 28:18
  It's literally like you are paid based on how much cobalt you collect,
• 28:22
  not on how much time you spend collecting.
• 28:25
  So for example, some of the purest grade cobalt
• 28:28
  is in these tunnels underground where it's extremely dangerous
• 28:31
  and these miners, like literally people like you and I,
• 28:35
  teenage boys, people like literally they are digging tunnels
• 28:40
  which sometimes takes a month,
• 28:42
  but they will not be paid for,
• 28:44
  and not to say it would justify it if they were,
• 28:46
  what I'm saying is the level of just dehumanization and exploitation,
• 28:49
  they're not paid for that month of diggling the tunnel
• 28:52
  which could kill them.
• 28:53
  They are only paid once they actually get the cobalt
• 28:56
  and then based on the pureness of that cobalt
• 28:58
  and they cannot hope to make more than two, three dollars a day,
• 29:02
  okay, which is enough for them to barely survive
• 29:05
  in terms of like getting food for the day, okay?
• 29:08
  So those are the five top lessons that I want to share with you.
• 29:11
  So the first is the exploitative tech giants, okay?
• 29:15
  This is so important, let me read you this quote from the book
• 29:18
  that I have selected to read to you, okay?
• 29:21
  Cobalt mining is the slave farm perfected.
• 29:26
  The cost of labor has been nullified.
• 29:29
  Actually, let me read that to you again because wow,
• 29:31
  Cobalt mining in the Congo today in 2023 is the slave farm perfected.
• 29:39
  The cost of labor has been nullified.
• 29:42
  There's no cost of labor, okay?
• 29:44
  These billionaire companies are paying in the end nothing.
• 29:50
  They're not doing this directly.
• 29:52
  It's a supply chain they've made to hide their connections to this.
• 29:56
  But it's in the book he proves that it is what is the word I'm looking for?
• 30:03
  Undeniable. It's literally not deniable.
• 30:06
  It's a fact that they are profiting from and receiving cobalt
• 30:09
  from these everyday miners, these artisanal miners as they say.
• 30:14
  The cost of labor has been nullified through the degradation of Africans
• 30:18
  at the bottom of an economic chain that purports to exonerate
• 30:23
  all participants of accountability.
• 30:26
  Through a shrewd scheme of obfuscation,
• 30:30
  so of hiding of obscuring adorned with hypocritical proclamations
• 30:37
  about the preservation of human rights.
• 30:40
  So a lot is happening in that sentence, let's slow it down.
• 30:43
  So they have nullified, removed the cost of labor by degrading Africans
• 30:50
  who are at the bottom of this economic chain.
• 30:53
  And it's the same supply chain that claims to completely say,
• 30:58
  well, no one is accountable for this.
• 31:01
  And the way it does that is everyone points they finger at someone else.
• 31:04
  It's wild. This book goes into this in detail.
• 31:07
  No one personally feels I am responsible for the safety and lives
• 31:11
  and working conditions of the artisanal miners.
• 31:14
  Everyone looks to someone else.
• 31:16
  It's literally like that Spider-Man meme, right?
• 31:19
  Where no one says no one goes to sleep at night thinking these people
• 31:23
  are my responsibility because they're not their employers.
• 31:26
  And because they're literally evil.
• 31:28
  That's actually the real because anyway.
• 31:31
  So hypocritical proclamations about the preservation of human rights.
• 31:35
  So if you go to Apple or Tesla or Panasonic or any of the Samsung's,
• 31:39
  if you go to their website and read their human rights clauses,
• 31:42
  they will say Apple is dedicated to ensuring the absolute safety
• 31:46
  of our supply chain.
• 31:48
  We do not participate.
• 31:50
  Laya, why are you a liar though?
• 31:52
  You're a mother of a gang liar.
• 31:54
  So it is a system of absolute exploitation for absolute profit.
• 32:01
  I have to read that again.
• 32:03
  It is a system of absolute exploitation for absolute profit.
• 32:08
  Cobalt mining is the latest in a long history of enormous
• 32:15
  and atrocious lies that have tormented the people of the Congo.
• 32:23
  That is so powerful that these enormous and atrocious lies.
• 32:27
  Oh, nothing to see here.
• 32:29
  Oh, everything is safe.
• 32:31
  Oh, we don't use our personal miners in our supply chain.
• 32:34
  Oh, in the book, he goes to a model mine, quote unquote,
• 32:38
  which is supposed to be mines that follow the highest standards
• 32:42
  of working conditions and safety.
• 32:44
  And he finds out it's literally a smoke screen.
• 32:46
  And so many of them do not actually do the checks that they claim to.
• 32:51
  So it's an enormous and atrocious lie.
• 32:53
  Even the model mines and most mines are not model mines,
• 32:56
  okay, that have tormented the people of the Congo.
• 32:59
  Because a lot of us have been speaking about being gaslit in this moment
• 33:03
  where you're forced to pretend they're on genocides happening all over the world
• 33:06
  and just continue with your day.
• 33:08
  But listen to this being tormented by lies.
• 33:10
  That's a deep form of gaslighting, right?
• 33:13
  That your whole existence is rooted in something that most people
• 33:18
  across the world don't even think they would ever be a part of.
• 33:22
  Like none of us would, so for example, in the book, he speaks about how
• 33:25
  like when people were buying tea, when the British people,
• 33:28
  like British everyday people were buying tea.
• 33:31
  Did they stop and think, oh, where did this tea come from?
• 33:34
  Oh, it came from slave plantations in the West Indies.
• 33:37
  Oh, what, what should they have done?
• 33:40
  What should they have done?
• 33:41
  And we have to ask ourselves that because it's exact parallel.
• 33:44
  We know this is happening, but what should we do?
• 33:47
  What would we have wanted them to do?
• 33:49
  And what should we do?
• 33:50
  Okay?
• 33:51
  And there are calls for a boycott of these tech companies.
• 33:54
  And I know it seems impossible because obviously I'm using my Mac laptop
• 33:58
  and my Mac phone, but Nelson Mandela did say it always seems impossible.
• 34:04
  It always seems impossible until it's done.
• 34:06
  Anyways, I'm going to continue with this idea of this lesson I learned
• 34:10
  about just how exploitative these tech giants are.
• 34:13
  So he says in the book the following quote,
• 34:16
  the Titanic companies, Titanic giant huge trillion dollars valuations.
• 34:23
  Billions and billions and billions of dollars of profits.
• 34:27
  Millions and millions and millions of dollars to CEOs in terms of salaries,
• 34:32
  to shareholders in terms of stocks.
• 34:35
  These Titanic companies that sell products containing Congolese cobalt are worth trillions.
• 34:42
  Do you understand?
• 34:43
  We've been talking about billionaires.
• 34:45
  Do you understand what trillions are when they're paying the actual person digging
• 34:49
  for the cobalt one dollar two dollars?
• 34:51
  Okay?
• 34:52
  Yet he says the people who dig their cobalt out of the ground,
• 34:58
  eat out a base existence characterized by extreme poverty and immense suffering.
• 35:07
  They exist at the edge of human life in an environment that is treated
• 35:16
  like a toxic dumping ground by foreign mining companies.
• 35:23
  They literally talk dump toxic waste in the Congo Chinese companies,
• 35:29
  especially it says because most of the mines owned in Congo are owned by Chinese companies.
• 35:36
  Millions of trees have been clear cuts and now we're getting into the environmental harm.
• 35:42
  The other idea of indigenous wisdom is also the idea of a holistic relationship with the earth.
• 35:50
  We cannot be well if the earth is not well.
• 35:53
  The earth is the air that we breathe.
• 35:56
  The earth gives us life we should honor her.
• 36:00
  And so when we degrade the earth we know this, we degrade ourselves.
• 36:04
  And the greatest fucking irony is how this cobalt exploitation and mining is happening in the name of a greener economy.
• 36:19
  Reusable rechargeable.
• 36:23
  Let's clean up our supply chain.
• 36:25
  Let's shift to renewable forms of energy.
• 36:29
  Electric vehicles. You know what I mean? It's so fucking ghastly because you are destroying the Congolese environment
• 36:37
  and claiming to be saving the rest of the environment is fucking scam.
• 36:41
  Who's environment matters?
• 36:45
  Millions of trees have been clear cuts.
• 36:48
  Dozens of villages raised rivers and air polluted and arable land destroyed arable land arable land meaning land you can farm on.
• 36:59
  So you're also destroying people's livelihood, right?
• 37:04
  Because you're making their land impossible to live off of.
• 37:08
  Degrading the soil, therefore degrading what can be grown from the soil and the animal, you know everything, okay?
• 37:15
  It says that our daily lives, mine included of course, are powered by a human and environmental catastrophe in the Congo.
• 37:27
  The last thing I want to read to you when it comes to these exploitative tech giants that just care more about Colton and cobalt, then they care about actual human lives.
• 37:49
  Okay. So it says cobalt mindings in towns like Coluezi which has the greatest concentration of cobalt in the Congo and I think a fourth of the whole world's cobalt is in Coluezi.
• 38:03
  Takes place at the bottom of complex supply chains that unfurl into some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world.
• 38:17
  Apple Samsung Google Microsoft Dell LTC Huawei Tesla Ford General Motors BMW
• 38:32
  BMW and Daimler Chrysler are just some of the companies that buy some most or all of their cobalt from the D.R.C.
• 38:46
  by way of battery manufacturers and cobalt refiners based in China, Japan, South Korea, Finland and Belgium.
• 38:57
  So do you hear what I'm saying? Apple Samsung BMW they're not buying from the Congo that's what obfuscates as well.
• 39:05
  They're buying from the manufacturer in China, in Japan, in South Korea, and Finland and Belgium, who is buying from another obfuscated supply chain that includes the cobalt from exploited miners, enslaved miners.
• 39:20
  None of these companies he says claims to tolerate the hostile conditions under which cobalt is mined in the Congo but neither they nor anyone else are undertaking sufficient efforts to ameliorate to make better these conditions.
• 39:40
  In fact, no one in all of this midst not the Congolese government, not the foreign mining companies, not the end consumer facing companies, not the battery manufacturers, not the Chinese miners, no one seems to accept responsibility at all for the negative consequences of cobalt mining in the Congo.
• 40:06
  Not the Congolese government, he says, not foreign mining companies, not battery manufacturers and certainly not mega cap tech and car companies.
• 40:18
  Accountability vanishes like morning mist in the Katangan Hills as it travels through the opaque supply chains that connect stone to phone and car.
• 40:33
  Accountability vanishes, so Katangan Hills that is where a lot of Katanga is, the region where coluezi is in the south of Congo where all of the cobalt and the cobalt exists.
• 40:45
  As it travels through the opaque, meaning you cannot see through it, okay, there are smoke screens there is obfuscating this hiding, this concealing what's really going on, it's hard to follow the dots and this man wins and he said, I'm going to follow them.
• 41:00
  He said that the minds are literally protected by military groups because they don't want people to get in, they don't, they're literal, like they do not, like he said he almost died, they don't want people to reveal the truth of what's happening.
• 41:15
  And then he says that connects stone to phone, so it starts with a stone in the Congo, which is then separated and the cobalt comes by in the hands of the Congolese people, including children and then eventually that gets sold to the battery manufacturer in China and then Apple and them buy from that battery manufacturer in also Japan and South Korea and Finland and Belgium, okay.
• 41:44
  He continues to say, the flow of minerals and money is further obscured by a web of shady connections between foreign mining companies and Congolese political leaders, remember collectivist nations with individualist governments, some of whom have become scandalously rich,
• 42:06
  auctioning the country's mining concessions while tens of millions of Congolese people suffer extreme poverty, food insecurity and civil strife.
• 42:19
  So what we have to remember is these Congolese political leaders, when he says they have auctioned the country's mining concessions, what should really happen, it is the people of Congo who should benefit from their own resources.
• 42:34
  So it is so ridiculous and inhumane that you can live in such a wealthy nation and then your government sells that wealth, the mining rights, right, like in order for a company to mine in a foreign nation, they have to have the rights to that mine.
• 42:54
  And these people, the Congolese political leaders sell those rights, those concessions, it's also concessions as in tax breaks and all those types of things.
• 43:02
  They sell them to these foreign mining companies and the people suffer.
• 43:08
  Okay, okay.
• 43:11
  I want to now give you a break from my voice, even though I know you.
• 43:16
  You fancy me babes because we're in this sole relationship together and I want to have the author read you a story that he learned in the Congo and the book has many stories just like this.
• 43:31
  And I think this is a particularly powerful story.
• 43:35
  So let's listen to the story of Beset from Congo.
• 43:39
  I'd like to end by just reading you one final story and there's a reason I haven't been doing public remarks on this because it is it is very difficult for me, but
• 43:50
  casement showed the world the power of the voices from the ground.
• 43:58
  And so I'd like you to hear one voice from the ground, not as narrated by me or summarized by me, but just a page and a half from the book towards the end.
• 44:09
  The last person I introduce you to in the book, Cobalt Red. Her name is Beset.
• 44:15
  I spoke with her on September 22nd, 2019 just outside of Kulawesi.
• 44:21
  The day began with a cool breeze flowing down from the hills. The early morning sky was bleached by white light.
• 44:28
  I ate a quick breakfast at my guesthouse consisting of an omelette with onions, boiled potatoes and instant coffee.
• 44:36
  I headed east on the highway and arrived at a discreet guesthouse where I would be conducting interviews for the day.
• 44:43
  Beset was already there sitting in a small table with her hands folded neatly in her lap.
• 44:50
  Her skin was salo, her face heavy and downcast.
• 44:55
  A small, ovular discoloration in her skin beneath her right eye appeared like a permanent tear.
• 45:03
  There was barely any hair left on her head. She did not bother to hide the loss.
• 45:11
  The word service was sewn in tattered stitches on her olive shirt just above her heart.
• 45:17
  She had come to tell me about her eldest son, Rafael.
• 45:22
  Beset spoke about her son with pride. Rafael was a very kind boy.
• 45:29
  He was very smart and he loved going to school.
• 45:34
  When Rafael reached the sixth year, the family couldn't no longer afford his school fees.
• 45:39
  He started digging for Cobalt at Mashamba East, a Glencore-owned mine.
• 45:46
  The family had a plan.
• 45:48
  Once Rafael earned enough money to pay for the next year of fees, he would return to school to continue his studies.
• 45:55
  He was going to go to university and be a teacher, Beset said.
• 45:59
  He wanted that all children can learn so that they can improve their lives.
• 46:05
  As a surface digger at Mashamba East, Rafael only earned around a dollar a day,
• 46:11
  barely enough to help with basic expenses for the family, including his five younger siblings.
• 46:16
  A year passed, then another, and the plan to return to school was eventually abandoned.
• 46:22
  Once he was strong enough, the tunnels beckoned.
• 46:26
  Rafael joined a group of more than 30 artisanal miners who were digging a tunnel at Mashamba East.
• 46:31
  He left home every morning and did not return until it was dark.
• 46:35
  He was so tired every day. Sometimes he would go to sleep without eating.
• 46:40
  Rafael's earnings improved as a tunnel digger to around $2 or $3 a day.
• 46:45
  I did not want him to dig in the tunnel, but he said he wanted to help the family.
• 46:50
  On April 16, 2018, Rafael departed home early in the morning as usual.
• 46:55
  It was the end of the rainy season, so the big storms had passed.
• 46:58
  The air was crisp and the water was plentiful.
• 47:01
  I was washing our clothes with my nephew Numbi.
• 47:06
  When my nephew Numbi ran into our home screaming, he also worked at Mashamba East.
• 47:12
  He said a tunnel had collapsed. He said Rafael was inside.
• 47:17
  Beset and her husband rushed from the village to Mashamba East.
• 47:21
  As she ran, she prayed to God, please let my son be alive.
• 47:25
  When Beset arrived at the mine, her worst nightmare was realized.
• 47:30
  No one had survived.
• 47:33
  Diggers at the site managed to retrieve a few of the bodies, including Rafael's.
• 47:39
  Can you imagine holding your child's dead body in your arms?
• 47:45
  Beset and her husband took Rafael's body home.
• 47:51
  They washed his corpse and prepared him for burial rites.
• 47:56
  I kept waiting for his eyes to open.
• 48:00
  Rafael's death was too much for her to bear, just like shite's loss of lubo and jolly's loss of prosper.
• 48:08
  Beset said that ever since Rafael's demise, she hardly eats, she hardly sleeps, and her hair began falling out.
• 48:15
  When my son died, I died.
• 48:20
  She did not wish to answer any additional questions about Rafael's death or her family circumstances afterwards.
• 48:26
  She came only to recount what happened the day her son was killed.
• 48:30
  After her testimony, she stepped outside and sat quietly on the ground.
• 48:36
  I watched Beset sitting in the heavy silence, and my thoughts drifted towards her son's final moments.
• 48:43
  Was he in pain under the avalanche, a broken dirt?
• 48:48
  Did panic take hold in the enormous darkness?
• 48:52
  Did he cry out to his mother with his last gasp of air?
• 48:57
  Questions like these must torture Beset.
• 49:00
  They must torture every parent whose child is buried alive in a tunnel collapse.
• 49:06
  Beset returned to the interview room and said she was ready to leave.
• 49:10
  I had arranged for a colleague to return her to her village, but she said instead she needed to go to Kamilome.
• 49:19
  I knew why.
• 49:21
  A change came over her features that haunts me to this day.
• 49:25
  She cried out on behalf of every mother in that heart of darkness.
• 49:32
  Our children are dying like dogs.
• 49:38
  That is the new Congo horror.
• 49:42
  And the fact that this manner of disregard for the humanity of African people is taking place in broad daylight.
• 49:49
  In the 21st century is a shameful rejection of the purported moral advancement since colonial times.
• 49:59
  In fact, never in the history of slavery or colonial pillage has there been more degradation.
• 50:06
  At the bottom of a supply chain that generated more profit at the top and touched the lives of more people around the world.
• 50:17
  But darkness always gives birth to new champions.
• 50:23
  And as the world now learns of this new Congo horror, the morale and casement and Harris of our time will be summoned to the cause of bringing an end to this vile scramble for loot that is drenched in the blood of the Congolese people that powers our lives.
• 50:47
  I would love to take a moment of silence for be said.
• 50:52
  This brings us to the second lesson that I learned from the book Cobalt Red.
• 51:13
  As of 2022, there is no such thing as a clean supply chain of Cobalt from the Congo.
• 51:33
  All Cobalt sourced from the DRC is tainted by various degrees of abuse, including slavery, child labor, forced labor, debt bondage, human trafficking, hazardous and toxic working conditions, pathetic wages, injury and death and inculculable environmental harm.
• 52:01
  So that describes the human catastrophe and then the human environmental catastrophe.
• 52:08
  Although they are bad actors at every link in the chain, the chain would not exist where it not for the substantial demand for Cobalt created by the companies at the top.
• 52:21
  It is there and only there where solutions must begin.
• 52:27
  Those solutions will only have meaning if the fictions promulgated by corporate stakeholders about the conditions under which Cobalt is mined in the Congo are replaced by the realities experienced by the miners themselves.
• 52:50
  The only place where solutions can begin is in the companies at the top.
• 53:04
  And then he says the only way for that to happen is to replace the lies, the enormous and atrocious lies that are being told, the fictions promulgated by corporate stakeholders claiming to care about human rights must be replaced with the realities experienced by the miners themselves.
• 53:25
  And with that context I want to share some of the stories in this book experienced by the miners themselves and I would rather let the author tell you about those stories himself.
• 53:38
  So let's listen to these three stories from the Congo of people living this reality.
• 53:45
  And let's put this against the atrocious and massive and enormous lies and fictions that these companies continue to spew. Listen to this.
• 53:55
  So a father named Shite told me a story. He worked in a mine called Tulli Zembe also owned by Glen Gore no artisanal mining.
• 54:07
  And he worked hard because he wanted his son Luvo to go to school. He did not want him to have his kind of life.
• 54:15
  But one day Shite suffered an injury and he couldn't work. Luvo was his eldest son. He said, I'll go work. And Shite said, no, I don't want you going there.
• 54:25
  They had no way to survive. He said, I'll go until you're better. Once you're better, I'll go back to school. It was in school at the time.
• 54:33
  Well, Luvo didn't come home from Tulli Zembe one night and Shite was in a terror. He ran to the mine and I detailed the story in the book but in the end there were 40 children who were in the tunnel when it collapsed, including Luvo.
• 54:52
  They managed to retrieve a handful of the bodies including Luvo and Shite, a man his face just tortured with anguish because it was his injury that set his son to the mine.
• 55:05
  And he was almost better. But he didn't get better quickly enough and he said, I held my son's body and begged him to come back and these tunnels collapse all the time.
• 55:20
  Everyone who's inside, age boys and men are buried alive. This young girl is at another little lake. She's an orphan. There are thousands of orphan children digging and sorting and rinsing all around these artisanal mining areas orphaned by what?
• 55:41
  Her father died in a mining accident. Her mother died of a respiratory ailment. She doesn't know what it was but I'm quite sure I know what it was. Toxic exposure. There's so much acute respiratory disease and illness in this part of the Congo. So people die of exposure and as you can imagine orphans can be particularly preyed upon and exploited.
• 56:08
  Those stories, Luvo and Shite, be set. So hot breaking. So hot breaking. It's inexcusable. It's unconscionable.
• 56:33
  And it's not the first time for Congo. I want to move to the third lesson that I learned from the book and that is the deep colonial history that this cobalt reality is a continuation of.
• 56:47
  Here is a quote. The severity of harm being caused by cobalt mining is sadly not a new experience for the people of the Congo centuries of European slave trading beginning in the early 1500s.
• 57:05
  Cause irreparable injury irreparable cannot be repaired injury to the native population culminating in colonization by King Leopold II who set the table for the exploitation that continues to this day.
• 57:23
  The descriptions of Leopold regime remain disturbingly applicable to the modern Congo.
• 57:33
  And given the stories we just heard about the Congo, I want you to listen to this. How King Leopold forced, coerced, manipulated the people of the Congo into meeting their quotas for rubber production.
• 57:52
  During his reign, listen to this.
• 57:57
  The first principle to understand about the Congo, the fears of the Congo have not been determined by the people of the Congo.
• 58:08
  The national boundaries were formed at the Berlin conference. In 1885, when Congo was given to King Leopold II of Belgium as his own personal property.
• 58:18
  He owned it for 23 years and during that time made a huge fortune off the territory estimated at well over a billion dollars in today's American dollars.
• 58:29
  Primarily from turning people into forced laborers to gather ivory and then even more so wild rubber.
• 58:37
  As the Belgians were pursuing ivory and rubber, though they discovered lots of gold deposits, diamonds, copper, cobalt, and many other minerals.
• 58:50
  So, since 1885, Congo has been caught in the midst of a geostatic battle, primarily for her natural resources.
• 59:01
  All this 125 years must be taken into consideration to fully understand why Congo is in a weakened state today.
• 59:09
  King Leopold of the Belgians secured the entire Congolese interior as personal property at the Berlin conference.
• 59:20
  With promises of promoting humanitarian missions in the Congolese interior, in the African interior, and free trade on the Congo river for all the great powers of Europe.
• 59:30
  Little Belgian was not one of them, but he, through his guile and wild, secured the Congo as personal property.
• 59:37
  It was 77 times the size of Belgium.
• 59:40
  Take a moment to look at this man's face because he is one of the most malignant architects of human misery in history.
• 59:51
  Now, the same year that Leopold got his hands on the Congo, a fellow named Carl Benz invents this, the Motorwagen.
• 59:59
  It was an internal combustion engine vehicle with steel-clad wheels.
• 1:00:05
  It could only go so fast before the wheels fell apart.
• 1:00:09
  Three years later, a Scotsman named Dunlop invents a rubber tire.
• 1:00:16
  And guess where one of the largest rubber tree forests in the world was located?
• 1:00:23
  Congo.
• 1:00:26
  So Leopold is sitting on a treasure chest.
• 1:00:30
  And he deploys a mercenary army to terrorize and enslave the local population to gather rubber from the trees,
• 1:00:43
  get it downriver and up to Europe.
• 1:00:47
  And it's one of the most appalling episodes of pillage and genocide in human history.
• 1:00:53
  Estimates are that Leopold's terror squads depopulated the Congo by 50 percent to the tune of up to 15 million people.
• 1:01:02
  This is probably the first photograph in history that went viral.
• 1:01:09
  It was taken by a missionary named Alice Seely Harris.
• 1:01:14
  And it memorializes the punishment that was meted out on the Congolese people by Leopold's army if they didn't meet their quota.
• 1:01:26
  This man is named Insala, and he's looking down at the severed hands and feet of his five-year-old daughter, Boale.
• 1:01:33
  Punishment for not meeting his quota.
• 1:01:38
  And Alice, imagine her grit and fortitude as a single female missionary probing these atrocities, capturing this image.
• 1:01:47
  It got into a missionary magazine and the world was shocked that this was happening and happening for the tires on their bicycles and cars.
• 1:01:59
  Now we will return to this notion of parents mourning the torture and slaughter of their children by foreign powers pillaging the Congo for its resources.
• 1:02:11
  This one photograph transformed public sentiment around the world and revealed a horrible truth that it was in denial by King Leopold and his propaganda machine.
• 1:02:24
  Because great darkness always has a counterpart in history and great evil always gives birth to the champions that will defeat it.
• 1:02:35
  I keep thinking of the idea of history repeating itself and then I think for history to repeat itself it would have to have ended.
• 1:02:45
  I really think we are seeing the continuation, the idea that we are still in the colonial era with the people of the Congo and others like them literally living within a colonial structure within a perfected slave farm.
• 1:03:03
  And when we juxtapose this to what could have been it's horrendously painful.
• 1:03:12
  It's horrendously a death it's a death it's an imposed death genocide should also be the genocide of our dreams for how we want to exist as Africans and how we want our fellow beings to exist as humans.
• 1:03:29
  So with that I want to talk about the fourth lesson I learned from the book which is the stolen future in the form of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and everything he represented and he was to the Congolese people and to Africa in general.
• 1:03:44
  Listen to this.
• 1:03:46
  Although the people of the Congo have suffered through centuries of exploitation there was a moment a fleeting flash of light at the dawn of independence in 1960 when the direction of the nation could have drastically shifted.
• 1:04:07
  That's the stolen future could have drastically shifted.
• 1:04:12
  The country's first democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba remember after since the 1500s the European slave trade had its hands in the Congo culminating meaning that was when it was but it didn't start there.
• 1:04:28
  That was when it came to its most severe point its most powerful its most top its peak was with the colonization by King Leopold II.
• 1:04:39
  So Lumumba was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Congo he offered the nation a glimpse of a future in which the Congolese people could determine their own fate.
• 1:04:51
  We want self-determination that is what the Palestinian wants the Palestinians want the ability to determine ourselves our own futures our own fates to use the nation's resources for the benefit of the masses.
• 1:05:05
  Remember we spoke about how those mining concessions are sold to foreigners and to enrich the Congolese government.
• 1:05:13
  And the masses the people do not benefit and to reject the interference of foreign powers that sought to continue exploiting the country's resources he wanted them out of his own country so as he should.
• 1:05:28
  It was a bold anti-colonial vision I've been using these words because they've stuck in my mind that could have altered the course of history in the Congo and across Africa because I really want you to understand that.
• 1:05:40
  Think of the billions and billions and billions or actually now the trillions of value created off of Congolese minerals because it's not just Cobalt and Colton.
• 1:05:49
  It was also rubber it was also copper they also they have so much okay they could have had trillions of wealth in the hands of their own people which could have flowed within Africa for Africa okay and for Africans in short order okay so this man is hope
• 1:06:07
  this man is a possible future that is anti-colonial that puts the wealth into the hands of the masses of the Congolese people this is a communist in a good way because the propaganda is lying to you babes it's not about thing commune it's not about thing collectivism it's not about thing power in the hands of the people and every failed communist state who made it fail babe listen to this like listen to this okay literally the United States the UK Europe
• 1:06:33
  and Israel okay so it says in short order Belgium the United States the United Nations remember and the neo-colonial interests that they represented rejected Lumumba's vision conspired to assassinate him and propped up a violent dictator Joseph Mobutu in his place
• 1:06:56
  and before we actually continue there's something else I have to read to you from this book about this because these people are so sadistic listen to us okay oh my goodness so when they were conspiring to assassinate him so before that happened Patrice Lumumba was flown to Elizabethville this was the stronghold of Belgian colonialism a town on January 16 1961 driven to an isolated mansion
• 1:07:23
  and tortured by six Belgians and six Congolese people including Moise Chombe and his second command Godfried Munongo sorry I'm butchering these names I don't want to use that word sorry I'm mispronouncing these names in an ironic twist of history Munongo who was part of the six Katangans the six Congolese people Katangans the region with a lot of the cobalt six of them he helped the six Belgians torture
• 1:07:52
  Patrice Lumumba this flash of light in the history of Congo okay in an ironic twist of history Munongo was the grandson of King Syri okay who was King Syri in 1891 1891 okay we're going back this we're now in 1961 this was in 1891 okay so this was 70 years before in 1891 Belgian mercenaries dispatched by Leopold
• 1:08:21
  had assassinated in Syri to take control of Katanga and exactly 70 years later in Syri's grandson joined with the Belgians to assassinate Lumumba and hand Katanga back to the Belgians this deeply mineral rich region of the Congo
• 1:08:39
  so just understand that basically this man's grandfather had fought to try to protect the Congo from Belgian rule and then he was killed he was assassinated in order to take control
• 1:08:50
  so Syri was the king the chief of Katanga the Belgians assassinated him now 70 years later his grandson torturing the man who wants to return the power of Congo to the Congolese people so it's a great irony
• 1:09:04
  and it also shows what I was saying about individualist governments and leaders who are out for themselves you know what I mean who are playing into the hands of the West and of the money because they care about money more then they care about freedom and justice let me continue
• 1:09:21
  so after torturing Lumumba for hours hours 12 of these men against one man Chombe and the Belgians shot him dead so they not only assassinated him they tortured him for hours before what did they do next they chopped up the body of Patrice Lumumba and threw the parts into barrels of sulfuric acid
• 1:09:48
  Lumumba's skull bones and teeth were ground to dust and scattered on the drive back save just one tooth so they ground him to dust scattered the dust on the drive pew pew
• 1:10:09
  and they saved one of his teeth taken as a souvenir by the Belgian commissioner of the Katangan police
• 1:10:21
  absolutely horrendous so going back to the original quote
• 1:10:38
  we said in short order these nations Belgium United Nations United States and the neo-colonial interests they represented rejected Lumumba's vision conspired to assassinate him so that was the conspiring they tortured him and then they killed him they ground him to dust and then they saved his tooth as a souvenir
• 1:10:55
  then they propped up a violent dictator Joseph Mobutu in his place for 32 years Joseph Mobutu supported the West in agenda kept Katanga's minerals flowing in their direction of the West and enriched himself just as egregiously as the colonizers who came before him just as egregiously
• 1:11:25
  rest in power to Patrice Lumumba and to the stolen future of the Congolese people we know that our leaders are many and another leader who is pro the people of Congo will rise and they will have the support of those of us who would like to be on the right side of history
• 1:11:46
  the fifth and final lesson I learned from this incredible book is the public health crisis that this also represents because when we think about genocide there is the direct murdering of people but there is also the slow death they are subjected to
• 1:12:02
  the environmental toxicity they are subjected to the complete crisis of health the catastrophe of health that they are subjected to because they are being made to live in a toxic dumping site
• 1:12:19
  so he says contamination by heavy metals of the local population and the food supply was causing a range of negative health consequences across the copper belt for instance
• 1:12:33
  Jermaine who was a Congolese researcher had recently documented a high rate of birth defects in mining communities such as holoprocentrali, agnathia, ortecphali, still birth miscarriages and low birth weight
• 1:12:49
  Jermaine said that in most cases the child's father had been working as an artisanal miner at the time of conception and that samples of court blood taken at birth revealed high levels of cobalt, arsenic, and uranium
• 1:13:04
  remember cobalt is toxic respiratory ailments were also common inhalation of cobalt dust causes hard metal lung disease which can be fatal also prolonged contact with cobalt by these miners can cause them to suffer acute dermatitis
• 1:13:22
  they are literally mining a toxic substance and they're trying to get the purest form of it so they're literally handling it and it's blowing into their lungs
• 1:13:31
  there's this incredible quote about one of the rivers where mostly the women and girls are the ones who and young boys who are not yet strong enough to be child laborers in these literally slave farm mines
• 1:13:45
  basically those waters that these women and children are cleaning the cobalt in are toxic as well and the woman says the mosquitoes won't even bite us because we have been so intoxicated by this water that we are made to live all far from through
• 1:14:06
  so I want to end with how we can help okay and I want to highlight the work of both Congolese run to my knowledge and international organizations
• 1:14:16
  so there is the friends of the Congo there is the Ponzi Foundation there is Yukofem and there is Heel Africa and I encourage you to go and learn about each of these organizations
• 1:14:29
  okay they are linked in the show notes please follow them on social media and amplify their work so for example friends of the Congo they're doing a lot of work on the ground they also have the documentary that I mentioned that links in the show notes
• 1:14:46
  what they say is a historic opportunity exists for ordinary people throughout the globe to participate in a global movement for peace and justice no action is too small or insignificant and they ask for donations
• 1:14:59
  friends of the Congo works with women in rural Congo hundreds of thousands of women have been systematically raped as a weapon of war Congolese women face her cullion challenges navigating widespread conflict and insecurity growing food raising and providing education for their children and maintaining a household
• 1:15:17
  the main work that the friends of the Congo undertake with women in the Congo is centered on agriculture women farmers grow the atemissa medicinal plant which is used to fight against malaria the women grow harvest process and package the plant into tea that is sold inside and outside of the Congo
• 1:15:35
  so they help to support the women of Congo so that they can have a life that is independent on these minds they also help the children of the Congo where at least 40,000 children are estimated to be working in the minds of the Congo so they do work to help keep these children in school
• 1:15:53
  and protect them from these laboring and like from child labor there is also international organizations on the ground such as UNHCR international rescue committee and doctors without borders
• 1:16:05
  and I'll link because you can also donate to these organizations they are on the ground and they are supporting especially because it's a refugee crisis with millions displaced as we said there's so much funding that needs to go to support these efforts
• 1:16:18
  I highly recommend you learn more keep following people amplify voices and I'm just grateful that you were here to listen
• 1:16:26
  let's please uplift the voices of the Congo and not turn away that African lives matter Congolese lives matter free Congo free Sudan free Palestine free Haiti and free all people suffering under colonial and supremacist violence
• 1:16:43
  all forms of supremacy must end the supremacy of the west over the global south the supremacy of settlers over the indigenous the supremacy of men over women
• 1:16:53
  the supremacy of cis people over trans people the supremacy of straight people over queer people the supremacy of able body people over disabled people the supremacy of governments over the people they're supposed to serve the supremacy of the rich over the poor
• 1:17:06
  the supremacy of big companies over the people who literally are the make the value that that company profits from possible all supremacy has to end because if we don't end supremacy at its root we will continue to see manifestations of it all our struggles are connected
• 1:17:21
  please do what you can. I love you so much. Thank you for being here. I'll see you next week.