Into Africa: How are we connected to Africa? Mobile Phones

1. The men in the photo live in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 1. The men in the photo live in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is one of the poorest countries in the world: 37 percent of the Congolese population is without medical services, 47 percent is without safe drinking water, and 50 million people eat less than two-thirds of the calories they need every day.

These men live just outside the Kahuzi Biega National Park in the East of the DRC. This park is covered in rainforest and is home to one of the World’s endangered species, the mountain gorilla. Many gorillas are being killed in this area and the rainforest is being cut down and destroyed.

There has been fighting going on in the area where the men live since 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda invaded the DRC. The Rwandan Army is fighting The DRC Army for control of this land and the minerals within it. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by fighting, starvation and disease and 2 million people have been forced from their homes. There was a peace treaty in 2002 but there is still fighting in the area.

These men work as coltan miners in the area which is at war These men work as coltan miners in the area which is at war. Their families used to be farmers but during the war were forcibly removed from their land. The only way they can make money is by being a coltan miner. They don’t need any equipment for this: they dig in the soil and then use large washtubs to slosh the water and mud. This allows the coltan to settle to the bottom because of its heavy weight. One man works with his son, who is ten years old. His son used to go to school but school fees are too expensive for the family so instead the boy works to earn money.

As the men work as coltan miners they are supervised by Rwandan soldiers. When one finds some coltan, he hands it to the soldiers who then pay the man a small amount of money. The soldiers take the coltan to ‘trading posts’ controlled by the Rwandan Army. It is estimated that the Rwandan Army has made US$20 million a month from coltan mining.

At the ‘trading posts’, foreign traders buy the coltan and ship it abroad. All of it winds up being bought by just three companies – the United States of America’s Cabot Inc., Germany’s HC Starc and China’s Nigncxia – the only firms with processing plants to turn coltan into tantalum powder. This ‘magic powder’ is then sold to Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Alcatel, Ericsson and Sony.

The woman in the photo from the UK owns a mobile phone The woman in the photo from the UK owns a mobile phone. This mobile phone contains ‘magic powder’ from coltan, which is used in the production of mobile phones. It is used to make the batteries in mobile phones last longer. So, when this woman bought a mobile phone, she connected herself to the coltan miners from the Democratic Republic of Congo shown in the photo.

Complete the questions on the sheet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1FQmUQ1-mM 15 mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUtElvg0F4

Empathy- Questions? Did these men choose to become coltan miners? How do you think living in a war zone will affect these men’s families? What are the good things about being a coltan miner? Are there any bad things about being a coltan miner? What difficulties do you think these families face?