An alliance of student organizations and departments across campus will host events, teach-ins, film screenings, art exhibits and discussions in honor of Congo Week from Oct. 14-20 to spread awareness about the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), address human rights and environmental challenges and celebrate Congolese culture.
Stanford’s inaugural observance of “Breaking the Silence” Congo Week, a global movement initiated in 2008 and sponsored by Friends of the Congo (FOTC), aims to elevate the profile of the Congo among community members. The week of programming emphasizes various themes including mining and the Congo Basin, Congo’s history and present day political violence, women, health awareness and contemporary youth movements.
Fatoumata Barrie ’24 M.A. ’25, lead organizer of Congo Week at Stanford, asserted that the aim is to “amplify the voices of the Congolese, inspire Stanford students to take action and to bring their talents and interests into this issue and leverage our resources to help the [Congolese].” As an advocate of environmental justice, particularly with an African focus, Barrie was inspired to bring Congo Week to campus after an internship with FOTC last summer, and hopes to spark open conversations on the DRC that transcend politics.
Congo Week is intended to “raise global consciousness about the situation in the Congo and advocate for peace, justice and human dignity in partnership with the Congolese people,” according to its website. The movement has spread to over 55 countries and 500 university campuses and communities.
The DRC, one of the most resource-rich countries in the world with raw mineral deposits valued at an estimated $23 trillion, has been ravaged by conflict for over three decades. The Second Congo War, fought between 1998 and 2003, is considered the deadliest conflict on the planet since the end of World War II. Since 1996, nearly 6 million people have been killed and over 6 million people are internally displaced in eastern DRC.
Asukulu Songolo ’25, a Congolese student, emphasized that Stanford, like all leading universities, is a “key stakeholder” in the DRC as a “university credited with some of the largest technological advancements.” Despite the country ranking among the poorest nations worldwide, it is endowed with vast supplies of critical minerals including the globe’s largest cobalt reserves. Cobalt is used to create lithium-ion batteries, which power devices such as phones and electric vehicles.
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“We literally carry the Congo around with us in all our electronic devices, but we don’t really understand Congo’s long history, and particularly US foreign policy towards Congo,” said Dena Montague, an environmental justice lecturer who has conducted research on the DRC for over 30 years.
Many mining operations in the DRC rely on forced and child labor, and expose miners to unsafe working conditions and women to sexual violence. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that over 25,000 children are employed in the DRC’s cobalt mines.
“If we care about innovation more than people, our future is dim,” Songolo said. “The Stanford community should care about Congolese people because we are people, humans who should understand that the suffering of the Congolese people should not continue. Congo has blessed us with its mineral wealth. It is now our turn to return the favor.”
Cayla Withers ’25, president of the Society of Black Scientists and Engineers and an organizer of Congo Week, urged moral approaches to technological advancement. “Tech should not be about hurting people. It should be about helping people,” she said. “I hope that there can be new tech companies that promote environmental justice for all people.”
The country’s mining presence has also exacted a heavy toll on the environment. “I hope the [events] will be an opportunity for people to reflect on what the energy transition means within a justice framework,” Montague said.
As a global leader in technological innovation and AI development, Stanford “should center indigenous perspectives” to promote human rights and environmental sustainability throughout mining operations and supply chains of critical minerals that are essential to the green transition, said David Zhen Yin, co-founder of Mineral-X, an affiliate program of the Doerr School of Sustainability.
Yin hopes that Mineral-X, which harnesses technological innovations to achieve clean, renewable energy through research, education and partnerships with Congolese and other African institutions, can serve as a neutral platform to encourage transparency and mutual dialogue on mining. “Industry tends to shy away from hard questions,” Yin said. “They are afraid sometimes of talking about the hard issues because they are a financial cost… but we think this actually doesn’t make sense, because eventually… it has huge consequences for society and the company itself.”
Silicon Valley industry leaders, students and faculty will meet with members of the Basandja Coalition, described by organizers of Congo Week as an indigenous union composed of approximately 10,000 artisanal miners from frontline communities in the Congo Basin region, to discuss equitable solutions regarding planetary and human health on Oct. 21. Despite ongoing deforestation, the Congo Basin forest “sequesters more carbon than all other forests on Earth,” making it integral to the fight against global warming, according to Barrie.
The Basandja Coalition is built on the collective philosophy of Basandja, described by Petna Ndaliko Katondolo as a “traditional code of conduct for caring for the environment and ensuring balance among living beings.”
“The [coalition] is talking about a light that is coming from deep within the Congo Basin forest,” Barrie said, noting that the approach challenges the imperial-era “heart of darkness” narrative associated with the Congo. “There’s a light that they want to share with us and spread and help us protect their forest and protect their communities.”
Congo Week will also feature a global health equity event at the School of Medicine focused on the country’s mpox epidemic, gender-based violence and mental health. The event will include a guest speaker panel with Dr. Mary Claire Frey, a Congolese physician and member of the Basandja Coalition, and a student-led teach-in. With 30,000 suspected mpox cases and nearly 900 deaths, the DRC is the epicenter of an epidemic that eclipses the size of other outbreaks of the viral disease in Africa.
Jonathan Lu M.D. ’24, a Stanford-O’Connor Family Medicine resident who co-organized the medical event with Zoe Hughes, medical student and co-director of the Organization for Global Health, and Dr. Stephen Richmond, faculty lead for the Stanford REACH initiative, emphasized the need to center Congolese voices in discussions on the intersection of health and climate. “We all need to be in the same room when we think about building sustainable solutions that work for everyone,” Lu said. “I am excited about building more long-term sustainable partnerships with the Congo.”
To illuminate Congolese artistic expression, a gallery of photographs captured by Congolese women will be displayed at Roble Arts Gym. “Congolese people have dreams, they have passions, things that they look forward to, and they’re culturally beautiful,” Barrie said.
Jackline Wanza Wambua ’25, leader of the Stanford African Students Association and organizer of Congo Week, encouraged students to learn about the DRC through “inspired individual action.”
“We live in a world of ‘we.’ And ‘we’ resorts to nothing,” she said. “But I think ‘I’ helps a lot. What can I do to make this better?”
Tables will also be set up in White Plaza to celebrate contemporary Congolese youth movements. People “who are the same age as Stanford students are literally risking their lives to raise awareness about the crisis in the Congo,” said Montague, who hopes that attendees can empathize with Congolese youth.
“It’s important to understand these really dynamic movements,” she said. “We share this entire globe, so we need to look beyond our nation states, and really understand how we are all integrally connected.”
This article has been updated to clarify Songolo’s quotes. This article has also been corrected to reflect that Lu is M.D. ’24. The Daily regrets this error.