Greetings
For a fourth year, Black History Studies will take part in the Break the Silence Congo Week for Black History Month 2013. The reason we host Congo Week in the month of October is because it was in October 1996 that mainly Rwanda and Uganda first invaded the Congo and triggered the catastrophic crisis that we have endured for the past 16 years.
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| I Am Breaking The Silence |
The purpose of the Breaking the Silence Congo Week is to raise awareness about the devastating situation in the Congo and mobilise support on behalf of the people of the Congo.
Breaking the Silence Congo Week (20-26 October 2013) is a week of activities that commemorates the millions of lives lost in the Congo conflict while celebrating the enormous human and natural potential that exists in the country.
The Congo is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today where over 6 million people have died since 1996, half of them children under 5 yrs old and hundreds of thousands of women have been raped all as a result of the scramble for Congo's wealth. The United Nations said it is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two.
However, hardly anything is said about it in the media. Can you imagine 45,000 people dying each month and hardly a peep from anyone in the age of the Internet?This is literally what has happened and continue to happen in the Congo. There is a media blackout about Congo and no worldwide resolution to end the conflict and carnage there.
Did you know that:
1. Congo's people represent its greatest potential with a population of 65 million, half under the age of 18.
2. Congo is a storehouse of strategic minerals (cobalt, copper, zinc, gold, diamond, silver, magnesium, germanium, uranium, coltan, petroleum and many other resources.
3. Congo possesses 64 percent of the world's reserve of coltan (a mineral found in cell phones and other electronic devices).
4. Congo has 34 percent of world's cobalt and 10 percent of its copper.
5. Congo is a part of the second largest rainforest in the world, which is vital in the fight against global warming and climate change.
6. Congo has the hydro capacity to provide electricity for the entire African continent, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East.
7. Congo has the agricultural capacity to feed the entire world through 2050.
For more information about the UK based organisation Save The Congo, please go to www.savethecongo.org.uk
For more information about US based organisation Friends of the Congo, please go to www.friendsofthecongo.org
For Breaking the Silence about the Congo Week, Black History Studies will be screening 'Lumumba: Death of a Prophet' and 'Apocalypse Africa: Made in America'.
We will be joined by Vava Tampa, Founder & CEO of Save the Congo at both screenings.
Follow Vava Tampa on Twitter @VavaTampa or @SavetheCongo
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet
Monday 21st October 2013
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Lumumba: Death of a Prophet Trailer
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