 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. From the 18th to the 24th of October, Congolese as well as Africans both in the continent and across the world are marking Breaking the Silence Congo Week. Now this is a week, this is a week of celebration, this is a week of commemoration, a week of events which are dedicated to covering both the crisis in the Congo that has been going on currently over the past many decades as well as a spirit of resistance that is so important to the kind of movements that are happening there and this is like I said not just an event or a series of events or a movement in one country but for the entire continent and today to talk more about this we have with us Kambale Musawuli who's an analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo. Thank you so much Kambale for joining us. Thank you. Kambale, could you first start with maybe talking about what is the say defining spirit behind the Congo week because like you've mentioned itself it started in 2008 it's been 12 years it's marked across the world so usually what is the main message that activists like you scholars researchers students or together it's a kind of present during this week. The spirit behind Congo week is to make sure that the world know that in this time we have about over 60 million people of Congolese who have died but more importantly the how can I say the potential of the DRC is something that's hidden so we always talk call it like breaking the silence Africa best Africa's best kept secret the reason why we say that is one people do not know the tragedy of the Congo and people do not know the potential and those those are the two extremes for the Congo starting in 2008 by students saying we will share with our communities what to do and today after 12 years I'm still amazed at how many people around the world continue to observe this week and our goal is the liberation for the ERC you know the people of the Congo have been in the struggle to control their own affairs since 1885 and the struggle is ongoing up until today for the total liberation of the Congolese people to transform the entire African continent. So Kambali you talked about 1885 and there is obviously there's still the history of Belgian colonialism and even before direct Belgian colonialism there's a history of the brutal route direct single-person rule by Leopold himself and of course after that there's a history of exploitation especially for the mineral and natural wealth of the Congo which was where in which almost all major Western players have been involved as well and on the on the other hand there is also the recognition by the resistance from the very early when history itself how important the Congo is to not only to African liberation and global liberation for that matter so could you maybe take us through both these strands one of the kind of planned exploitation that has been happening and also maybe talk a bit about the kind of larger perception of resistance as well that has been very key to the Congo. The Africa we know today was shaped by the so-called Berlin conference that took place from 1884 to 1885 so Western nations sat down in Berlin to decide not just the covering up of the African continent but who will take control of the land the size of Western Europe they didn't give it to a country they gave it to one man King Leopold II and he ran it as his personal property from 1885 to 1908 and during his rule we had extraction of resources particularly ivory and also rubber rubber was essential for the technology of the time the tires of the cars the tires of the bicycles there was a boom in the automobile industry at the time and know the bicycles at the time but during that exploitation Congolese people died right they were subjected to inhumane conditions mutilated killed it is estimated that about 10 to 15 million Congolese died during that period and there hasn't been accountability even for that you know it's a crime that can be compared to what happened during World War I and even World War II with the Holocaust but most people do not even know that 10 to 15 million Congolese people died but whenever the brutal regime or Leopold ended mainly due to a global mobilization of people like George Washington Williams a civil war veteran who actually went to the Congo so was happening and advocated for the liberation of the Congo and the Congo was happening in the Congo crimes against humanity is actually the one who coined that term and that term was coined in the case of the Congo but there were others who mobilized during that time to bring an end to it so after the global mobilization to stop King Leopold's rule Congo was given to the Belgians not to the Congolese Belgians continue to rule the Congo from 1908 up to 1960 but during that period there were many resistance taking place you had Simon Kimbango called him a community organizer who was mobilizing spreading even pan-African message he had Marcus Govino's pepper during the time in the early 1910s distributing it and calling on Congolese to take control of the lander and resources during that period unfortunately the Belgians saw him as a threat to the regime and they put him in jail for 27 years he actually died in jail and many others continued but this period is very important for the African continent while Congolese are struggling against Belgian colonialism seeing how their resources is being exploited the uranium are being taken out of the Congo in the during World War II and was used to bomb Yoroshima Nagasaki seeing all of that exploitation during that time they themselves decided to be engaged in a continental campaign and that continental campaigns stem from all the young Africans some of whom participated in the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945 in Manchester came back on the African continent mobilizing one of them Kwame Kruman who became the head of state of Ghana in 1957 and of course you had the Nyerere and the others also mobilized during that time and they called in this period was independence now we cannot leave on the African continent and try to unite when we don't control our lander resources and that strategy was shared with Patrice Lumumba who attended a very important conference in 1958 in Ghana the All-African People's Conference when Patrice Lumumba Gaston Diomi and Joseph Ngalula visited Ghana during that period met Fanon, met Padmore, met many others who participated during this meeting they were clear now why they needed to go back on the ground to mobilize for independence as they returned to the Congo they didn't return alone all the Africans came with them you had Chadians you had Cameroonians you had Central Africans particularly André Blouin she was actually working very closely with Patrice Lumumba she's actually the one who wrote the Independence Day speech that Patrice Lumumba read on June 30 1960 and her engagement during the time helped lift up the voice of the Congolese women she is known to have mobilized over 45,000 Congolese women to join the alliance of the Mouvement National Congolais and the Partis solidaires african and they are the one who won the independence the independence election in May 1960 but I'm sharing all of this to say that if he wasn't for Pan-Africanism Congo wouldn't have become independent it took an active effort of young Africans even coming to the Congo working with Congolese through an ideology that was very clear take control of the land take control of the resources exploit these resources for the benefit of the people and transform their entire african continent and this is the plan that came from Cruma so we Patrice Lumumba mobilizing and organizing and becoming successful that is the team becoming successful getting independence in the Congo that didn't sit well with the US president and that president at the time was Dwight Eisenhower who in july in august of 1960 when you read the record I think he was either july or august of 1960 the national security council record shows that Dwight Eisenhower told his CIA staff who participated his advisors were participating in this meeting that Patrice Lumumba needed to be eliminated he had just taken power in less than a month and there was already a call to kill him and unfortunately on july 17 1961 Patrice Lumumba was brutally murdered by the CIA Belgium and Congolese sarcophant this period pretty much stole the future of Africa because there is a book by Justin Podol that looks into the situation in the Congo the intro of his book is fantastic he actually made me cry he he writes a speech that Patrice Lumumba is making on june 30 of 2020 what would Patrice Lumumba say today remembering the struggle of the Congo how Congo has not developed a transform itself that it made me realize even much more something that many Congolese know that if Lumumba stayed alive and was able to continue his mission Pan-Africanism would have had a stronger foothold on the African continent and have Congo as the heart of the engine for the whole transformation of Africa so the death of Lumumba was really stealing the future of the African continent and when we look at what's happening on the African continent today one can guess why Africa is where it is and I always argue you know think about Congo's size size of Western Europe think about its wealth in estimated 24 trillion dollars which is the US and Europe GDP combined think about its potential of all the resources that it has from Kabul to Colton I mean the green environmental movement today cannot exist without the Congo Congo holds 40% of Africa French water reserves Congo has a young population 30 to 40 million young Congolese we have an 81 million population where half of the population is under the age of 18 this youth can completely transform the African continent if they're able to go on the right forces they're organizing forces on the ground and also have allies on the outside to put pressure on the negative forces against the Congolese people absolutely right Kamala in this context you mentioned Colton which is of extreme extraordinary importance today because of its use in the entire tech industry in our day-to-day life so much so especially in the past 20 to 25 years could we talk about for instance how especially western countries western corporations have been sort of uh say conducting their activities in the country I mean from 1996 to present the struggle of the Congo has been who's going to control its resources and for whose benefit in 1996 Colton was discovered in DRC in 1996 the war started and there is a media narrative of what happened in the Congo toppling of a dictator uh displacement of population and sometimes they may snack in the centers of ethnic conflict that this is the reason why this conflict has started but on a very serious note over six million Congolese people have died due to this conflict and we can even argue that we will never know how many Congolese people have died you know millions have died the number I'm quoting is a study of the mortality a mortality study from the international rescue committee right that's from 1998 to 2007 5.4 million Congolese have died at a rate of 45 000 people dying every month 2007 is way far from today so we know millions have died in this conflict due to this greed of or control of resources that's needed for modern day technology and for us who understand what capitalism does that you look at Congo in the chain it's clear get the resources at a cheap price and even if it means human cost it won't matter and that brings me to Bolivia you know I'm thinking about the Tesla CEO Elon Musk who says we will call whoever we want to call when he was speaking around lithium in Bolivia they have been doing calls in the Congo to take control of Congo's cobalt, Congo's coltan, Congo's gold, Congo's tin and all the different resources that we have copper and so on right and what the Congolese people have been fighting to stop it is killing beyond what the media narrative will share because in these past two decades Congolese have been resolute in fighting the oppression that they face right they face a brutal regime of their local elites who control the state they're facing Congo's neighbors you know their neighbors Randon and Uganda who are US allies on the so-called war on terror these two countries have invaded the Congo twice in 96 and 98 and unleashed the death of the millions of Congolese today they're facing multinational cooperation the Glencore the Boundary I mean the United Nations have published numerous reports citing names of corporations that are illegally pilfering Congo's resources you have the World Bank and IMF especially in the period of COVID have given Congo over a billion dollars how are we going to pay for that and they're putting to policies that's literally affecting the Congo things such as they are responsible for writing the mining laws of the DRC they are responsible for writing the forestry laws of the DRC these have been are being reviewed have been reviewed but initially they're the one who set out policies that allow for mining corporations to come and get access to Congo's lands at wholesale and then you have the another unilateral institution that I always mentioned is the United Nations which is very complex where you look at a secular council where two members of the secular council the United States and the United Kingdom are supporting nations destabilizing the Congo and they do not do anything to stop it so when you look at that and you know as a young African and look at you as policy toward Latin American countries particularly Venezuela you wonder where is the moral right to even say anything about democracy anywhere when they have supported invasions of the DRC causing deaths of millions they have backed and installed the theaters such as Mobutu who stayed in power for 32 decades they have assassinated democratically elected leaders such as Patrice Lumumba who came from the aspiration of the Congolese and not only that in 1884 or 85 they even participated in the carving up of the African continent of the so-called Berlin conference and in 85 they signed the act of Berlin on stating that they will support King Leopold they were the bikers of King Leopold the second to get access to the land so they recurred on the African continent particularly the Congo is something that anyone who say that they have no moral rights to talk about democracy in the world because of the destabilization they have caused in the Congo absolutely and Kambali in recent time and you talked about also the long traditional persistence and especially again over the past 20 years especially during the term of Joseph Kabila despite the heavy repression there has been wave after wave of resistance especially by the youth as you pointed out so could you also talk a bit about the kind of resistance that continued applying pressure on Kabila even when internationally he was celebrated or he was say accepted by the international community. Indeed and even during the war we shall be very clear the reason why the death toll is so high is because they cannot destroy the spirits of the Congolese people who are continuing to fight for change in the country some have created in some of the regions local resistance against the rebel militias most of the time they are actually at number at gun but this is also happening and then you also have a very vibrant youth who in 2011, 2015, 2018 they are stood in front of the instrumental violence of the Congolese government it's this military and it's police young Congolese know how many bullets are in the AK-47 why whenever they're in the protests and the police start shooting they don't shoot with rubber they shoot live bullets so they hide and count how many bullets left in the gun and then come out again protesting many young Congolese have died protesting the brutal regime of Kabila who took power in 2001 after the death of Laurent Kabila and he did not want to leave power after two terms of his presidency and that precipitated many protests the one that I want people to remember is the Telemah uprising the Telemah uprising started in January of 2015 when on January 19th 2015 a major protest was called by opposition leaders the population went out when they got to the point of protest there was no politicians around some people stopped going home by the student or the University of Kinshasa to start rallying the population and the numbers grew and the numbers grew the numbers were so big that the state got scared and they did what they always do they shut off the internet they shut off text messaging and they even shut off phone calls direct calls to people but the city was shut down by the youth of Kinshasa for two weeks demanding that the Congolese government does not pass a law in their senate calling for a census before presidential election which they saw was an attempt to delay the presidential election that resistance of two weeks so many young Congolese people died and we may not know the numbers yet in March of that year a mass grave was found in the capital city of Kinshasa with the bodies of 400 young Congolese I argue these bodies are the bodies of young Congolese and the Congolese government has refused to investigate the death other the bodies that were found during that time and our resistance continued even in 2018 many unfortunately were killed Luke Kulula was killed in Goma you are Rosichi Manga who was a professor and a father who was actually shot in front of a church while he was protecting protesters within a church enclosure he was shot and killed she was also shot inside of a church and the reason I'm mentioning churches is during the protest churches became the safe heaven of many protesters they were using it as a space for mobilizing or organizing and most protests usually started from the space so the military and the police did not care why you were organizing they came in with guns shot up protesters and many died but they the energy of the youth the spirited they had that's why I say no as we speak today we say that Kabila is no longer president but he's still control many as the constitution people may see it as the Congolese people did not succeed I would say no there are things that we succeeded on there was a man who refused to leave power and it took blood sweats and feet of the Congolese in the streets to stop a brutal regime from from staying in power longer than they're supposed to but the struggle is not over as now we are looking into what's happening in Nigeria seeing also the same protest happening there this morning I was looking at the news I'm seeing this also happening in Guinea there are protests also happening there Côte d'Ivoire is happening that in this pandemic from the United States all the way to India going into even the Congo the people are saying that we have two pandemic one COVID-19 and two a people's revolution where people want to determine their own affairs when people want to have a say in the decision-making process so these protests happening from George Floyd to now and South in Nigeria and the Telemah uprising in the Congo is a clear determination to me a clear indication to me that the people of the world are slowly but surely uniting for change so that we can all control our affairs in our countries thank you so much Kambale for speaking to us thank you that's all we are time for today keep watching People's Dispatch