The Beginning of Hope or the End of It

I spent the last month in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), much of my time in Goma. There, I was privileged to be part of the first public testimonies where women survivors of rape and sexual torture came forward in front hundreds to bravely break the silence on the terrible atrocities done to their bodies and souls during the twelve-year conflict that has embroiled the DRC. The conflict, a virtual proxy war fought between the Congolese government, former Hutu Genocidaires from Rwanda, and ethnic Tutsis is the largest the world has seen since WWII. I heard stories that ranged from young women being raped by fifty men in one day to women being forced to eat dead babies. These women represented hundreds of thousands of survivors of similar crimes. These public testimonies, and other surrounding activities, are part of a fragile but burgeoning grassroots peace movement in the DRC--a movement that exists to stop the violence and restore individual and national autonomy.

The weeks I spent in Goma reflected the insane duality that is the Congo. I met activists, doctors, nurses, NGO workers, leaders, filled with determination and hope, working non-stop, to save lives, heal trauma and provide the most basic resources. At the same time, despair lingered around the borders as rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's troops pillaged, killed, and raped, 16 kilometers away.

Now that I have returned to the US, and there is full scale war with Nkunda's troops threatening to take Goma, I receive emails and calls by the minute from people on the ground who have been rendered speechless and thrown into despair. Where is the world? they ask me. Why is no one coming to defend us? I wonder: What stops the world from intervening on behalf of the people of the Congo?

12 years later, 5.4 million are dead, over 300,000 raped. What about this conflict doesn't move the world to action? Is it that the Congolese people no longer exist in our imagination, since they were decimated by the colonialism and brutality of King Leopold of Belgium? Is it that the vast resources of the Congo--coltan for our cell phones, for example--are all that the West is paying attention to? Is it simply racism--that unless white people are involved in the conflict the world does not intervene? Or, is it because so much of this war is being waged on the bodies, genitals and reproductive organs of women and that the world still does not give a damn about women?

Right now, in America, we are living in the center of a potential paradigm shift. A definite, burgeoning movement. A time of Hope. With the upcoming elections, we could redefine America's standing in the world by enacting foreign policy that is based on the universal understanding that we are all interconnected. That the rape of an eight-year-old-girl in Congo is akin to the rape of an eight-year-old girl in Chicago or Phoenix. We use the words and slogans "Never again" and "Not on our watch", but right now thousands are being displaced, raped, murdered in Eastern DRC.

"The Responsibility to Protect" requires that we, as the international community, particularly America, intervene where governments cannot protect their own people, demand that more UN peacekeeping troops are deployed and seriously focused on the mission of protection. Where the world sees to it that leaders are brought to the negotiating table to find solutions to the conflict so that the people of Congo are no longer pawns in this economic and ethnic battle. Where the world delivers plentiful resources to Congolese women and girls, who have survived the unthinkable.

The Congo is the heart of Africa and Africa is the heart of the world. Right now Eastern Congo is about to spin out of control and tumble into full-scale war. Let the DRC be the place where the paradigm actually shifts. Where we usher in a time of Hope. We have to do more than we have ever done before. The time to act is now.

Eve Ensler
Playwright of The Vagina Monologues and the founder of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls.

Eve and V-Day are engaged in a global campaign to bring much needed attention to the needs of Congolese women and girls called STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: POWER TO THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF DRC. If you are interested in learning more visit http://www.vday.org. Get he latest V-Day news, sign up for V-Mail at http://newsite.vday.org/subscribe.

Comments

[gritona]

Thanks Eve. Congo is the heart of Africa and Africa is the heart of the world and all Africans are our sisters and brothers, and all the children are our children.

Everyone in the western world owes everyone in Africa more than we can ever pay.
The DRC is torn apart because it was never a natural country, but one made by europeans when they carved up the continent. The U.S. owes especially Congo, because we did knowingly murder their democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, and installed mobutu in his place. The western world has made trrillions in stolen goods from Africa and it's long past time to start paying it back.

[drcongovday]

Eve Ensler and V-Day are engaged in a global campaign to bring much needed attention to the needs of Congolese women and girls called STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: POWER TO THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF DRC. If you are interested in learning more visit www.vday.org .

[Zuzette]

Here's a reason to vote for Obama: his very presence on the world stage will prevent the world from continuing, blithely & unconscionably, to ignore Africa!

[MsMoney83]

I just wanted to say that you, eve ensler, are a woman who I admire for your strength and inspiration. Thank you for your work to better the lives of women everywhere.

[Rampala]

We're here, we're listening-- now what do we do? What action can we take?

[Overd0g]

Sorry, Africa isn't the heart of the world. In fact, Africa is pretty irrelevant. Nice animals though.

[knowBuddhaU]

There isn't a bus big enough to throw under it an entire continent! How callous of you. Besides, do you not know: Africa is the WOMB of the human race, that's where we gestated before moving north.

Where do you think we all come from? Since we all are of the same Mother and Father, you know what that makes the whole human race?

KIN, baby, kin!

[LouisPutzel]

Since I first went to live in the Great Lakes region (Burundi), I have been aware of the coltan trade - conflict over access to mines, and the inhumane conditions of the mines - and at one point learned that the US Embassy in Rwanda may have facilitated connections between US companies and sellers of coltan brought across the border. Why isn't coltan more of an issue, like conflict diamonds, even after the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which represented a way to restrict trade in conflict diamonds? The war continues, and we continue to receive Congo's booty. The UN is in there, and the US does fund some peacekeeping and conflict resolution programs, but the magnitude of assistance and intervention that is needed has never been offered. I always thought, however, that before helping the Congo, the rich countries needed to recognize how they are actually hurting - and stop!

[earthandfire]

"the rich countries needed to recognize how they are actually hurting"
Never ending obsession for innovation of gadgets (cell phones, game players, computers, etc) drives raw material of coltan market extremely high. Who is "behind" of this driving force? Behind or in the mirror in front of you and me? The answer is both. Corporations drive us and we are deceived to believe that we need them. It is true that we can no longer live with abacus (instead of computer). But, have we to buy a new equipment every few years? That habits should be changed.
We have to think this: only to know what is happening in the world, atrocities like these, we need computers while the significant cause of those atrocities is our computers (coltan is critical material for computer chips)? Before it is African problem, it's our problem.

[LouisPutzel]

I forgot to thank and compliment Eve Ensler for her great article, and for reminding us of Congo at a time when many of us, myself included, are completely obsessed with US politics.

Earthandfire, Yes, I agree completely. For social and environmental reasons, our consumption of resources is extremely costly. At the same time, resources are something that people have to sell, and if markets are structured to support the interests of local people, they can be beneficial. The question is, who has a legitimate claim to ownership of raw materials, and how can they be protected from a predatory global market, from invading armies and corporations, and from their own home-grown thugs?

[CTariannaFan]

If only they had oil. Maybe we could plant some stories about WMDs?

Honestly, this situation is more heartbreaking than any I have heard of in my lifetime. It is made moreso by the total lack of concern that the western world seems to have over it. Is it racism? Probably. Misogyny? Probably that, too. But mostly, it is probably just a combination of our American "Exceptionalism" (we are special and all other lives are worth a fraction of ours, if anything... witness the total lack of focus on Iraqi body counts) and, as LillianB suggested, simply not caring about people (at least not compared to things such as cell phones and money).

Is there some action that has been set up to contact the mainstream media and register our disgust over their scant coverage of this situation? They spend more time talking about the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana than they do on this issue. Or some organized, concerted effort to rally Congress?

[earthandfire]

"If only they had oil. Maybe we could plant some stories about WMDs?"
They have many natural resources including coltan (much hiher price than oil). And those gangs are working for us to get coltan. Therefore, our governments don't need to send our "precious" soldiers to secure the material.
If you see moral discrepancy here, then you DON'T UNDERSTAAND (McCain's voice here) how our world works.
Of course, people opposing Bush and McCain think very differently. So many things have to be changed, but basic idea is very simple: Freedom for all, moral justice for all (to every corner of the world.)

[Fred34]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please everyone read a thorough account (from 2006 " and alas nothing has improved, au contraire):

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-tragedy-the-war-the-world-forgot-476929.html

But I fear the larger issue is that UN involvement will have little or no effect as long as a Nation is seen as made up of resources to be used/exploited by the highest bidder. The people of said Nation are not represented or mentioned in any equation " read business model. They are seen as a liability; hand a gun to someone to kill someone else and force them to work for you or you too will be dead.

Until Govts. find a way to implement a minimum level of ethics in their fundamental business practices (sweat shops, mines, etc) " or some International Body to oversee Multinationals BPs " I don't see what some blue helmets can hope to accomplish.

I too hope that we as a people and as a world will stop trying to put band-aids on the symptoms and opt instead for seeking cures for these cancers (ie. profits above all else and people have to fend for themselves).

[mergina]

Why is it that most people don't care, I mean really don't care, about all of the atrocities that happen on a daily basis in Africa?

[hypocritesonallsides]

Eve and mergian you both ask the question "What about this conflict doesn't move the world to action?" "Why is it most people don"t care?" The answer is easy. The "anti-war" of the world only mobiles when it is a USA or Israel war. This story has of now (been on Huff Post 6 hours now) 20 comments. If the war can be tied to the USA, Bush, CIA, Palin wardrobe then and only then will the "anti-war" of the world will come to the theaters stage. I have lived in Nigeria for over 17 years now things have gotten worse and worse, yet the left only gives a crap when the can blame Exxon or Halliburton who by the way pays their staff 10 more money then the national oil company.

[whatsthatsound]

Africa seems unexplained, and unexplainable, to most people. The atrocities there seem bigger, more grotesque, and more unfathomable than in other parts of the world. Rwanda blew our collective minds. What could/should "we" have done to prevent 500,000 people from being slaughtered by their neighbors? To convince tens of thousands NOT to go out and hack their neighbors to pieces with machetes?
To NOT slice up young girls' genitals as part of a "ritual"?
To NOT slice off the forearms of young innocents, as was done in Sierra Leone?
To NOT kill parents and then force the new orphans to become child soldiers, as is done in Uganda?
How does "the world" stop so many Africans from behaving so abysmally toward their fellows?
Really, I wish I knew.

[Horst]

This is the essential problem. No outside powers - certainly not former colonial powers - can hope to have any effect on this type of behavior. only by forcibly imposing a "Western" culture may reduce the level of horrific violence, but this is colonialism and you won't see this happening any time soon.

[LillianB]

It's about the economy. Rich countries only ever interfere (under the veil that they're doing it for "humanitarian reasons") when there are economic interests at stake. (Oil. Diamonds. The option to build a channel.) Or when they see some other kind of self-interest (capturing Osama bin Laden, winning an election) in it. Interfering for humanitarian reasons alone? Unheard of. People are somewhat seen as less important than money, by the world leaders.

So it's not about racism, or not caring for black people. Or about misogyni, not caring for women. Or the two combined, not caring for black women. It's about not caring for people in general. The further away from home, the more invisible the conflict (or the genocide) is in the media, the easier it is to ignore it.

The world is one. But many, many, many people do not see it as one.

[SJeffH]

The world is only one when viewed from further away than I've ever been. I see it as nations competing mightily for every advantage. Which countries are acting as one on the changing climate of the earth? Not the ones with the growing economies.

[Owlygirl]

Yes, thank you so much for keeping this story alive. How I wish the American media weren't so myopic about world crisis. I've barely heard anything about this on TV - thank God for newspapers and the internet. It's not something any of us want to read, but we must.

[insanityfollows]

Agreed, thank you for keeping this story alive. The fact that we are stuck in a useless war in Iraq and are up to our butts in Afghanistan (and now Pakistan) doesn't help, either. Bush's actions have put us all in a position of inaction. With Pakistan (and Russia for that matter) being nuclear armed, we are now in a hell hole of a position. If we all focus on Congo and Somalia like we should, we (as a world) would be on the brink of worldwide conflict. What a damned ness and a damned shame. I hope to God that Obama gets ellected and can precipitate change.

[Givethemhellharry]

Eva, having lived in Africa for nearly 3 years now I applaud your article. It seems we in the US can spend literally trillions on Iraq but provide pittances for the problems of Africa. China is moving forcefully into Africa and if the US and the Western Democracies continues to ignore the problems here, it will control the continent and all its resources in the next decade.

However, your article didn't go far enough. It is one thing to wring our hands over the situation and another to put our words into action. I was going to Rwanda and actually Goma in the next few weeks. There was no mention in your article of what organizations are working to help in alleviating the problems. The article didn't even have an email address to contact you to get more information.

I would like to help, please point me in the right direction by giving me the names of some EFFECTIVE organizations who are working to help alleviate the suffering. If nothing else, maybe your readers would donate money to them.

Being semi retired I can donate a few months to working on the problem. My email is [e-mail]. Thanks

[MaryRW]

Thank you, Eve, for your bravery and compassion. I have read about what's happening in Congo and have been praying for the women of Congo. I don't know what else I can do, so I pray for them. I pray that more voices like yours will be raised on their behalf and that the world will hear and respond with wisdom and compassion and that the people of Congo will find what healing there may be for such devastating wounds.

[TAIsabel]

Marvelously written blog and heartbreaking subject. I am sorry to say that our formulas for success in Africa are futile, well intentioned but, in the end badly crafted. The idea of Democracy is a Greco-Roman tradition that is the origin of Western thought not the basis of a tribal tradition.

Any attempt to impose democracy, "modern codes of conduct" and capitalism to a tribal society with thousands of years of traditions is simply inoperative. European colonialism exploited this fact and abandoned Africa after squeezing its life out. The blind obedience to your elders and ancestors served colonialism well and made exploitation possible by Europe. Once gone, these tribal leaders filled the vacuum having learned how to use this power to greater evil, thanks to the colonialists. Western powers continued to prop the wrong governments, just like we always have, because "they are our monsters".

As I read a fantastic book by Martin Meredith, "The Fate of Africa", I shudder at the infinite number of bloody , corrupt and monstrous rulers that Africa has been governed by for hundreds of years. Until we understand the philosophy that props them up, the solutions will be useless.