In this documentary, filmmaker Bram Van Paesschen takes us to Katanga province, in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Back in the days of Belgian colonial rule, Katanga was a prosperous mining area. It is now a devastated ruin; its vast industrial ghost sites and rusting machinery are now nothing more than a lasting reminder of its glory days... glorious for the whites. Its cobalt and copper ores are literally still there for the taking. Every day thousands of Congolese 'creuseurs' (artisan miners) labor in its abandoned mines, extracting the precious minerals using nothing more than a shovel and crowbar. Via a whole network of local and national intermediaries - each of whom naturally demands his piece of the pie - the fruits of their hard labor are eventually sold on to unscrupulous multinationals. The ores are then exported to the emerging economic superpowers, because these are ravenously hungry for raw materials
Kiswahili
English
