The Institute of African Studies is proud to present the 2021/2022 Brownbag seminar series! Starting off the series this winter term is Dr. Evelyn Namakula. Dr. Namakula will be speaking on the topic: “The precarity of women and children mining for renewable energy and Tech industries: The case of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Please join us this Thursday February 17th, 2022 from 1pm – 2:30pm EST to listen to this discussion!
Abstract
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is endowed with the world’s minerals demanded by tech industries to producer products that have become necessities in the developed world and for renewable energy innovations. As it is with many African countries, mining has failed to engender development, peace and security for local communities. The extraction and smelting of the minerals mostly by mining companies, has not only devastated the environment, land, and water; it dislocates communities; exposes them to armed conflicts and increases poverty. The failure of mining activities to improve communities’ livelihoods forces women, children and young people to work under difficult and inhumane conditions in and around the mines. Moreover, no formal effort has been made to interrogate the voices of the very people most impacted by the extraction of the minerals. My research work focuses on grassroots agency and local cultures to engender homegrown governance mechanisms, policies and practices that reinforce people’s livelihoods, security, and environmental protection. My research advances the idea of community-based natural resource governance and ‘green peacekeeping’. In an environment where the DRC’s resources have been plundered for centuries and in the process their environment degraded, the people in the DRC.
