The past and present exploitation of the Congo’s people and valuable natural resources is a reflection of the profit-driven destruction of the fictional planet of Pandora, screened in the recent film ‘Avatar’, writes Kambale Musavuli. Musavuli calls for a greater awareness of the on-going and far-reaching devastation endured by this war-torn ‘storehouse of strategic and precious minerals’, which tragically mirrors the ruthless pillage of Pandora.

As global awareness grows around conflict in Congo, a myriad of Western-based prescriptions are being proffered, Kambale Musavuli writes in this week’s Pambuzuka News, including the ‘conflict minerals’ approach. But this approach, devoid of social, political, economic and historical context, argues Musavuli, will simply perpetuate the root causes of the region’s challenges rather than resolve them.