Chapter 20: Congo Calling — Blood on Our Hands

This chapter explores Inclusive Leadership in a nongovernmental organization (NGO): Congo Calling, and I hope it will be a voice for those suffering atrocities that are occurring daily to the people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I further hope that readers might be inspired to join — to be included — in the campaign. This chapter is therefore an invitation to inclusion.

Congo Calling is a United Kingdom (UK)-based campaign founded by Director Bandi Mbubi, a refugee to the UK after he spoke at TEDx Exeter in 2012. It fights for conflict-free technology minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (hereafter known as the DRC) and in particular lobbies for the adoption and implementation of political, legal and commercial frameworks to promote ethical mining practices there. Illegal mining in the eastern part of the DRC fuels a continuing war which denies local people the peace, stability and prosperity which could flow from the ethical management of the Congo’s natural resources. To date an estimated 5.4 million people have died from war-related causes and 2 million have been displaced.¹ Femicide is a distinctive feature of the conflict and due to the high prevalence of sexual violence and use of rape as a weapon of war, the DRC has been referred to as the ‘Rape Capital of the World’ as well as the ‘World’s Worst Place to be a Woman’.