This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Mallence Bart-Williams introduced her second home Sierra Leone and its talented people, who are part of her project FOLORUNSHO. Find out more via http://www.tedxberlin.de.
It is an essential part of most mobile gadgets sold around the world and demand for cobalt is soaring. But the process of extracting the mineral from the earth comes at a huge human cost. A Sky News investigation has found children as young as four working in dangerous and squalid conditions in Cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for as little as 8p a day. Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford reports.
Unreported World investigates the dirty business of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mineral is fuelling the planet’s green revolution, but at what cost? Around seventy percent of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Central African country, mostly from the southern Katanga area, thought to be one of the ten most polluted places on earth. Reporter Jamal Osman travels to Kolwezi, a city dependent on supplying Cobalt, a critical component for electric cars and rechargeable batteries. Residents are employed by large multinational companies, or in smaller, and more dangerous artisanal mines. We meet the men who clamber down dark weaving airless tunnels to extract cobalt for as little as $150 per month. But is the paycheck worth the health risks that doctors have uncovered?
France is still pulling the strings and stealing from Africa. Colonisation of Africa has never ended. Is this the speech that got Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao sacked as African Union’s Ambassador to the United States of America? Watch the fiery speech and decide for yourself!