diasporicroots:

kongowetu:

Don’t Be Blind This Time

This story was historically the same all over the continent for example “Ivory coast” originally got its name from the immense Elephant herds that once existed there reflecting the major trade that occurred on that particular stretch of the coast: the export of ivory (Now there are approximately only 800 Elephants left in the Ivory Coast). Similarly you had the Gold coast and slave coast all names awarded to these places by Europe. However the current instability and situation in some parts of in the DRC Conflict is fueled by the need for its resources.

It makes me think of a quote from Cheikh Anta Diop:

“Belgian-American interests preparing for the political instability that would prevail in the colonies following World War II, working at maximum rate and beyond, mined all the uranium of the then Belgian Congo in less than ten years and stockpiled it at Oolen in Belgium. The Shinkolobwe mines in Zaire today are emptied having supplied the major part of the uranium that went into the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs. Until 1952, Zaire was the world’s leading uranium producer; now it ranks sixteenth in reserves and has ceased to be counted among the producers. This one example shows how fast our continent can have its nonrenewable treasures sucked away while we sleep.”

— 

Cheikh Anta Diop. (The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State)