' Inspired by Black Lives Matter, we have decided to campaign on the issue of conflict minerals.' Photo: by Kurious on needpix.com.
‘The people are poor while the land is rich in minerals. We have to ask why.’
Lay of the land: Elizabeth Coleman on Quaker Congo Partnership
The history of Congo is one of suffering, from the horrors of colonialism to the rule of Joseph Kabila. Now there is a new president, Félix Tshisekedi, but those who defend the status quo are still very powerful and progress is agonisingly slow.
Manchester Friends are trying to pour a little good into all this, as many have done before us. It started with helping asylum seekers, but soon branched out in other directions.
In 2007 I received an email from the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network saying that a Quaker pastor from East Congo needed somewhere to stay for a week or so, while he waited for a visa to visit the USA. I offered for him to stay with me. The week became a fortnight, he never got a visa, but the visit bore fruit in a different way.
His name was Mkoko Boseka, and at the time he was representing East Congo Quakers. Though his English was limited, he was full of energy and eager to meet everyone. He attended just about every meeting and event, including Area Meeting, Peace Group, City Centre Ministers’ Fellowship, and a gathering of Quaker teenagers in Bolton. He spoke of the work of Quakers in East Congo – running a small hospital, providing trauma counselling for those who had suffered violence, looking after orphans, running a microcredit scheme for widows, and working for peace and reconciliation, and of the support that they were receiving from Cambridgeshire Friends. Our Area Meeting clerk suggested having a meeting to think about how we might support this work, and this led eventually to Cambridgeshire and Manchester Friends forming the Quaker Congo Partnership. This has since raised money to provide clean water for the hospital and the village.
For over ten years Fideline Kanda, an occasional attender at Eccles Meeting, has been supporting orphans in Kinshasa by sending large cardboard boxes filled with second hand clothes and food. Kinshasa is in the west of Congo, about 1,500 miles from the projects that Quaker Congo Partnership supports. It has been a struggle to meet the orphans’ needs; they have not always had enough to eat and none of them is currently in school. She has had some limited help from Friends, and now we are making a determined effort to raise funds. We have applied for registration as a charity: Green Leaf – Aid for Kinshasa.
The work described so far can change the life of individuals, which is extremely important, but does not go to the roots of the problems of Congo. The people are poor while the land is rich in minerals. We have to ask why. Inspired by Black Lives Matter, we have decided to campaign on the issue of conflict minerals, adding our voice to others, such as Global Witness. We have formed a group that consists mainly of Quakers, mainly living in Manchester, some UK born, others born in Congo and settled in the UK, others living in Congo. Now that we have got used to Zoom meetings, this does not seem so extraordinary, but it still feels special to have such a diverse group of people working together. Watch this space.
