Student organizes grassroots campaign to help his native congo

On August 10, 1998, I was given a safe haven in the United States.

At the age of 17, I was sad to leave the Congo but happy to be alive. My family and I left a few days before the second invasion of the Congo began. With only four outfits in my luggage, I thought to myself "What is going to happen to my country?" I lived in Kinshasa 1996 when the Rwanda invasion first happened and, I could only imagine how things would get worse.

I took peace from the fact my siblings and parents made the trip with me.

My feeling of sadness was from thoughts of family and friends we had left behind. Living here in America has been a challenge simply because I still have memories of the beautiful Congo and the people I miss. It's very hard to be here, knowing my people are not free and realizing that I have the opportunity to live in the most powerful country in the world. I want to be able to help the Congo regain its sovereignty.

10 years after my relocation to America, things are even worse. There have been nearly 6-million lives lost. Close to half of the deaths are children aged five years and younger. Every month, 45 thousand people die in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The equivalent of a Darfur happens in the Congo every five and a half months, yet mainstream media does not cover the Congo properly.

The purpose of the Break the Silence Congo Week is to raise awareness about the devastating situation in the Congo and mobilize support on behalf of the people of the Congo. It will take place from Sunday October 19 to Saturday October 25. The key organizers are students from North Carolina A&T, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro, University of Maryland, Howard University, Bowie University, and Cornell University.

We've done some grassroot efforts to get the word out and are trying to make the connection with the cell phones and the war in the Congo, we organized a cell phone boycott In March 2008, with help of my friends and a few organizations on my college campus. My efforts resulted in my expulsion from Facebook. Now we want to engage people in a new campaign called "Break the Silence" Congo Week. This week of awareness is a global initiative led by students to raise awareness about the situation in the Congo. The mission is to provide support to the people of the Congo. I traveled to Chicago for the journalism conference called UNITY 08'. This conference gave me access to over 10 thousand new, veteran and aspiring journalists. After mingling with them I realize that more efforts must be made to inform Mass Media of the importance of the situation in the Congo. Before returning home I met with Sharon Carpenter, André Showel, and Jeff Johnson at BET. I gave a package about The Congo containing information on how the media can spread the word and play a part to everyone mentioned. My visit included time spent with Biron Pitts and Russ Mitchell at CBS news. Roland Martin and Soledad O Brian at CNN, along with many more journalists received these packages.

I sought to encourage these journalists to not only cover the Congo more often but also to get to the root of the problem when they do cover the situation there. I let them know that the source of the conflict in the Congo is the scramble for its enormous wealth and not the commonly portrayed internecine or self-destructive, ethnic bloodletting. I also reminded them that Congo was invaded twice by Rwanda and Uganda with the backing and support of the United States. It was these invasions that unleashed the tremendous suffering in the Congo, my beautiful home.

Why should Americans care about the Congo? As Senator Brownback stated "Almost every American owns at least one device in which coltan has been used." American corporations have been making billions off the people of the Congo. De Beers, out of Arkansas, produces about 40% of the world's supply of rough diamonds and added Russel Simmons as their nice-face for PR the month before the release of the movie "Blood Diamonds."

Surprisingly, Simmons has become a PR point person for the Diamond Industry.

We know that "In the Democratic Republic of Congo, De Beers estimates $35 million of rough diamonds were produced by rebel controlled areas in 1999." Why is it that Simmons is overlooking the fact that blood diamond is a reality in the Congo?

The Answer is Samuel Bodman. Not quite a household name in the U.S, Bodman is the secretary of energy for George Bush. He was the CEO of Cabot Corporation from 1997 to 2001. Cabot has been listed by the United Nations as one of the 85 companies illegally exploiting the minerals in the Congo. Bodman was voted unanimously in the Senate as the Secretary of energy. Cabot extracts a mineral called coltan (columbo-tantalite)out of the Congo which is used virtually in every electronic device such as cell phones, laptops, TVs, VCRs, pacemakers, etc. As Cabot came under fire, nothing is being done to make sure that they are not continuing to exploit the Congo.

Knowing that in past history the Congo has helped the United States greatly only pushes me to think that there is a serious black out on the Congo for a reason. Who remembers the Hiroshima bomb from the Manhattan project? Not only did the Congo provided the uranium for the bomb but now the mine location in Shinkolobwe, Katanga, is a target for exploitation by other countries since the Congo is unstable. The blood spilled over Japan seems to follow the Congo even though we were under colonial rule when the uranium was extracted.

Why is there such a SILENCE around the deaths of nearly 6 million people? Maybe there is not... CNN covered deaths of four gorillas killed in the East of Congo in July of 2007. As a Congolese I thank them for that. Can you just imagine what could be going through my mind when I saw that? I have my grandparents living in the East and yet the lives of Gorillas are more important than the safety of human beings? 45,000 people die in the DR Congo and CNN appear to be talking more about mountain gorillas? This felt like a slap in the face. Women are being raped, children are being enslaved, men are being killed, and many more horrors but the gorillas are getting support and protection. Why is it that people are desensitized about what is happening to the Congolese people?

In my endeavors to bring the story of the Congolese to light, I have met extraordinary people. What I am finding out is that if people know what is going on, they will help. World activists historically have been at the side of the Congolese. William H. Shepherd, the first African-American to become a Presbyterian missionary to the Congo reported in 1909 so frankly on the atrocities he witnessed in the Congo during colonization. George Washington Williams, another notable African American, traveled to the Congo before Shepherd and advocated for the Congolese when he called the atrocities happening there "crimes against humanity" after he witnessed the brutality of King Leopold in which 10-million people lost their lives. Their advocacy is what helped create the "Congo Reform Association". This movement was supported by notable activists such as Mark Twain who wrote "King Leopold's Soliloquy" describing the arrogance of Leopold II as he defends himself in this political satire, the Polish novelist Joseph Conrad who wrote "Heart of Darkness," British Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, Edmund Dene Morel, and Roger David Casement who wrote the Casement report.

The Rumble in the Jungle of 1974 is also a pivotal connection where Ali and Foreman came to battle in the Congo, then called Zaire. With this historic bond, I am making an appeal to the American people, and the global community.

We are trying to engage the students and people of goodwill around the world through "BREAK THE SILENCE CONGO WEEK" to organize an event or activity in their community and/or campuses that will speak about the history, the tragedies, and the potential of a peaceful Congo.