Africa and You
Resource-Rich Congo Develops ‘Friends’ in D.C.
By Robtel Neajai Pailey
WI Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006

If you’ve ever purchased the trappings of contemporary living—gold jewelry, computers, diamond rings, cell phones, DVD players, televisions or stereos —chances are you contributed to the loss of over four million lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo without even knowing it. Congo, a central African nation whose landmass borders nine other countries, boasts mineral wealth - ivory, rubber, coltan (used in cell phones), diamonds, gold, copper—that has served as a curse rather than a blessing in the modern age of technology.

Friends of the Congo (FOTC), a D.C.-based advocacy group established in 2004, will facilitate in conjunction with the TransAfrica Forum on March 6 a discussion about Adam Hoschild’s acclaimed book, “King Leopold’s Ghost,” and Pete Bate’s film “Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death.” The event will be held at activist hotspot Busboys and Poets in Northwest D.C. at 5:30 p.m.

FOTC hosted a reception at Busboys and Poets recently to raise awareness about the potential for Congolese reconstruction and development in the wake of upcoming April elections in the country. Minister Deputy Chief of Mission , Etienne Mukendi Tambo A. Kabila, thanked FOTC “for thinking of my people.” He said that there is a conflict of legitimacy that elections may repair. The Deputy Chief beamed as he acknowledged native and honorary Congolese in the room.

“The history of African Americans working in the Congo is long,” said FOTC Executive Director Maurice Carney at the reception. He historicized Diasporic connections to the country by explaining that African American historian George Washington Williams traveled to the Congo in the 1800’s to document Belgian King Leopold II’s exploitative rubber plantations in the country at the time of the European “scramble” to control Africa’s natural resources. Bate’s film is an expose on the “Red Rubber Scandal,” as it was aptly termed.

Leopold II pilfered Congolese rubber and ivory for decades, using the local population as forced labor. Between 1885 and 1920, an estimated 10 million people were either slaughtered or worked to death in the Congo . Williams exposed Leopold’s reign of terror even though the King attempted to mask his exploitation by destroying important documents related to the case.

Howard African Studies Ph.D. candidate Randy Short also explained the links between the Congo and African Americans. He said that the first language of Patrice Lumumba, Congo ’s most famous liberation leader who was assassinated by Western powers, was transformed into a written script by an African American woman from the South. “We have a link, we must do more!,” Short said fervently.

Congo has a tumultuous history. Since 1998, it has been mired in a resource war that completely devastated the country leaving dilapidated infrastructures and exploited natural resources. “It’s unfortunate that the international community did not help to stall that war,” said Mukendi Tambo A. Kabila. After Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, a brutal dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, ruled for 37 years, systematically instituting a kleptocratic government that left the entire country in shambles.

According to Carney, the Congo was designated a “treasure to the West” for further misuse because “it has enough resources to be the engine of the entire continent.” Carney illustrated how Malcolm X became increasingly interested in the Congo in the 1960s because he understood the country’s potential for greatness. “Malcolm X was the most outspoken African American about the Congo within a global context,” explained Carney.

He believes that his organization, Friends of the Congo , is carrying the torch for the Congo that countless other African Americans held previously. “We formed at the behest of Congolese organizations,” said Carney. The organization has a strong foundation for offering collaborative efforts between people of African ancestry and Congolese themselves.

Congolese presidential candidate Oscar Kshala said that the elections in April serve as the dawn of a new era. “ Congo is going through a tragedy that is untold,” he explained. Elections have not been held since the 1960s after the country’s socialist-leaning Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated for his radical attempts to wrestle Congolese mineral wealth from Western capitalists.

Reminiscent of Lumumba, Kshala said that he has been relying on African American institutions to “build a critical mass in support of Congolese liberation.” An ally of Kshala, Friends of the Congo also contends that a strong Congo means a strong Africa , and a strong Africa means a strong African Diaspora.

 

For more information about the Friends of the Congo and its efforts to raise awareness, please visit www.friendsofthecongo.org or call 202/584-6512.