Controversies over ICT benefits to Africa

By Aloyce Menda, JUSTA-AFRICA

[Published by the Business Times of Friday June 18, 2004 (www.bcstimes.com)]
Found in the website of the Community Information Network of Southern Africa (CINSA):
[http://www.cinsa.info/portal/index]
Second winner of the UNECA / AISI Media Award 2004 - Print Category (http://www.uneca.org/aisi/winners).

Like medicaments every technology has pros and cons. So are the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The obvious benefits of ICTs to Africa can be scaled to balance with indirect hazards caused on the African environment and people by companies, which manufacture ICT gadgets.

Most of companies that manufacture cellular phones, laptops and other sophisticated information and communication equipment are in industrialized countries and are linked to the deadly wars in Africa, which causes environmental plunder.

The civil conflicts in the Great Lakes region particularly in the D. R. Congo are a typical example. The abundant natural wealth in the region especially the mineral resources in DRC are highly demanded by electronic factories in the industrialized countries. This is the genesis of all conflicts in the region. Other parts of Africa are also facing similar conflicts due to abundant natural resources amid extensive poverty.

Common senses reject some information by western media that civil wars in Africa are power struggles due to political and ideological differences. Where does tiny and impoverished Rwandan Republic get so much military power to send troops in DRC and support rebels fighting strong armies of Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the government of President Joseph Kabila.

The fact is that the Rwandan forces that invaded DRC in 1998-99 to support rebel allies of Rally for Congolese Democracy (RDC), took control of 1,000 to 1,500 tons of coltan mineral stocks from eastern DRC. The mud gritty black coltan is a metallic ore, which after refinery produces tantalum, a highly heat resistant material for electronic factories that make tiny circuits components such as capacitors, resistors and diodes. The components are joined to make gadgets, which rectifies current flow on circuit boards and are used in cellular phones, laptops and sophisticated ICT equipment.

DRC have huge deposits of coltan, which is a short for columbitentalite. According to Professor Sospeter Muhongo, the head of geology department of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), plenty of coltan is present in a long Kabaran mineral belt. The belt stretches from southern DRC (Shaba Province) to Karagwe district in northwest Tanzania. Kabaran belt has terrains and rocks ranging from about 1,100 to 850 million years and is the place where metallic ores of tin, tungsten niobium, tantalum, beryllium and lithium are found, says Professor Muhongo.

The coltan ore in the Kabaran mineral belt, which crosses eastern DRC were dug by artisan miners under the powerful control of Rwandan troops and their rebel allies of RCD. The poor smallholder farmers in the area were simply driven out by force. The Rwandan prisoners of 1994 genocide were brought in the area to dig coltan ore in exchange for reduced sentences. DRC refuges whose land was confiscated in coltan mines revealed these atrocities to environmentalists and journalists in Tanzania.

The State of the World 2002 Report also revealed these atrocities following a detailed investigation in DRC and Rwanda.

DRC has the world’s fourth-largest coltan reserve according to the World Watch Report but the mineral is being looted at the detriment of the environment and lives of poor DRC people. Coltan is also needed by automotive and aerospace industries, pharmaceutical, medical and chemical plants.

After digging coltan ore in DRC, looters do not care to restore the land environment and leave behind empty quarries.

The market demands for coltan is high and this is the reason for continue looting and hence persistent civil conflicts. From Kigali, the Rwandan capital looted coltan is air shipped to South Africa for refinery. Tantalum, the final product from coltan is sold to ICT companies in Europe, US and Japan.

Statistics shows that world tantalum supply is approximately 3,000 to 3,500 tonnes per year. An estimated one-quarter (1,500 tonnes) is mined from developed countries ie. Canada, Australia and Brazil. The rest is from sources like Kabara mineral belt. The demand of coltan by high tech industries increased in 2000 causing a price increase due to supply shortage.

In 1998, it was less than US$ 40 per kilogramme but it increased to more that US$ 400 per kilogramme in 2000. The price increase due to high demand make coltan business very lucrative for looters in DRC and other parts of Africa.They have to instigate trouble somewhere somehow to justify interference and cause for a civil conflict so that they can loot more coltan. In May 2004, the Rwandan government warned that it will not hesitate to send troops back to DRC to fight rebels it claims are training to invade Rwanda. The claim was repeated by the head of state President Paul Kagame who is part of signatories to DRC Peace Accord.

World Watch Report says much of the conflicts in Africa today are struggles to control or loot resources like those in DRC. Contrary to cold-war era, today’s conflicts are less about ideologies and more for economic gain.

The controversies of ICT benefits to Africa are more evident in DRC but exist in other parts of Africa affected by civil conflicts.


Currently, Africa is the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market. The International Telecommunication Union says more Africans have begun using phones since 2000 than in the whole of the previous century. There are now more people using mobile phones across the continent than traditional, fixed lines.

Mobile phone companies are making a fortune in Africa despite controversies over destruction of environment, property and lives of poor citizens. Use of mobile phones has been increasing at an annual rate of 65%, more than twice the global average.

However, like fixed lines concentrations, most of cellular phones are used in urban areas by minority elite. The poor African majority suffering from environmental degradation caused by factors such as coltan looting are cannot afford cellular phones.

ENDS

The writer is the coordinator for Journalists’ Union for Science & Technology Advancement in Africa (JUSTA-AFRICA),
P. O. Box 8263, DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, and East Africa [http://www.comminit.com/experiences/pds122004/experiences-2850.html]
E-mail: mendaloycetz@yahoo.com or justafrica2000@yahoo.com