Stefano Stranges
The victims of our wealth – DR Congo 2016
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Coltan, in other words, the mineral that everyone carries around in his or her pocket, is the object of a long commercial chain that implicates serious consequences in terms of human and environmental rights. This mineral which is used in the production of various high tech materials, is especially fundamental in making smartphones.
The compulsive consumption and the continual updating of these objects, fed by by the media’s barrage of ad campaigns, has caused the coltan industry to grow exponentially since the end of the 1990’s. From that point, there has been the exploitation on the part of large multinationals and the catastrophic consequences regarding the people from areas like DR Congo. My photographic project, therefore, starts in this area of the world, as the initial link in a process that begins with the extraction of the mineral followed by the production of the object (South East Asia) and then moves onto the excessive use in every corner of the planet, ending up in the immense African dump sites (in particular, Ghana).
The photographs that are presented here are part of the result of the first leg.
- The village of Rubaya. Here thousands of miners live along with the refugees of the war.
- Rubaya village, the road beside the Refugee Camp.
- Inside the meeting tent of one Refugee Camp in Rubaya town.
- A boy in front of his tent in Kibabi Camp, close to the mine sites.
- Feresita live inside the refugees Camp of Rubaya. She has been shot on the face and her husband has been killed during the war.
- Carrying a heavy bag full of coltan from the mine to the village.
- A young worker transporting a heavy bag full of coltan from the mine to the village.
- Bringing pieces of wood to the mine site. These pieces of wood are used as protection against the mountain collapses.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Filtering the Mineral. Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine. They are securing the point with logs of wood.
- Miners dig in the deep of the mountan. Diging 10 -15 meter in the rocks, they found the better purenes of the mineral.
- Miners dig in the deep of the mountan. Diging 10 -15 meter in the rocks, they found the better purenes of the mineral.
- Miners dig in the deep of the mountan. Diging 10 -15 meter in the rocks, they found the better purenes of the mineral.
- Young miner in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Miners in Luwowo Coltan mine.
- Odeta and Jakson inside their tent in the refugees camp in Rubaya. She has mutilated legs and she was raped one year ago. Now she is suckling the child of her rapist.
- Inside a tent of a old woman in the refugees Camp of Rubaya.
- Miner's widow in Rubaya. Widows don't have any right and don't receive any help from the companies.
- Miner's widow in Rubaya. Widows don't have any right and don't receive any help from the companies.
- An Hutu and a Tutsi Widows in Rubaya. Both are victims in the same land.
- Miner's widows in Rubaya. They don't have any right and don't receive any help from the companies.
- An advertising panel on the road of Goma, North Kivu.
- An advertising panel on the road of Bukavu, South Kivu.
Visiting the region of North Kivu, in particular the Masisi territory, where the country’s most important coltan mines are concentrated, I encountered the predominant problems of the people in the surrounding villages. At first glance this territory seems like a paradise. Within, however, the landscape is broken up by thousands of white plastic tents full of refugee camps of families that have escaped from neighboring towns in a context that is characterized by the presence of rebel groups motivated by the lust for power.
The substantial lack of alternatives for survival and the low level of schooling forces the residents of the entire area to be slaves on their own land and to work as miners with zero security levels. The towns close to the mines such as Rubaya are inhabited by hundreds of fragmented families in which a widow or a mother often cannot even mourn over the body of her loved one because he is buried and abandoned in the chasms of the mountains. The rights and support for these women on the part of the mineral companies are non existent. Help for survival only arrives through the NGOs that operate in the field.
Il Coltan, ovvero il minerale che ognuno di noi porta in tasca, è oggetto di una lunga catena commerciale che implica pesanti conseguenze sui diritti umani e ambientali.
Questo minerale, utilizzato nella produzione di svariati materiali di alta tecnologia, è soprattutto fondamentale per la realizzazione degli smartphone. Il consumo compulsivo e il rinnovo costante di questi oggetti ha fatto sì che dalla fine degli anni ’90 il commercio del Coltan sia cresciuto in modo esponenziale. Da qui gli sfruttamenti da parte delle grandi multinazionali e le conseguenze catastrofiche nei confronti delle popolazioni di territori come il Congo, essendo questa terra grande riserva di Coltan.
Il mio progetto fotografico parte quindi da questa zona del mondo, in quanto primo anello di un processo che comincia con l’estrazione del minerale e, passando dalla produzione dell’oggetto (sud est asiatico) e relativo utilizzo spropositato in ogni angolo del globo, finisce nelle immense discariche africane (Ghana in particolare).
Le foto qui presentate sono parte del risultato della prima tappa.
Visitando la regione del Nord Kivu, in particolare il territorio del Masisi, dove sono concentrate molte delle miniere di Coltan del paese, ho affrontato le principali problematiche della popolazione dei villaggi circostanti. Questo territorio è a prima vista una landa paradisiaca, dai verdi prati ricchi di pascoli e di terreni acquistati per lo più dai ricchi politici e imprenditori del Paese. Al suo interno però il paesaggio è interrotto da migliaia di tende di plastica bianche dei campi profughi affollati di famiglie che scappano dai vicini villaggi in un contesto caratterizzato dalla presenza di gruppi ribelli mossi dalla sete di potere.
La mancanza sostanziale di alternative per sopravvivere e lo scarsissimo livello di scolarizzazione costringe la popolazione di tutto il territorio ad essere schiavi all’interno delle loro terre e a lavorare come minatori, con dei livelli di sicurezza pari a zero. I villaggi a ridosso delle miniere, come ad esempio Rubaya, sono abitati da centinaia di famiglie spezzate, dove una vedova o una madre spesso non può nemmeno piangere il corpo del proprio caro, sepolto e abbandonato dentro le voragini della montagna. I diritti e i sostegni di queste donne da parte delle compagnie minerarie sono inesistenti; gli aiuti per sopravvivere arrivano soltanto dalle ONG che operano sul campo.