On February 29th, the Black Student Union (BSU) hosted the annual Black History Month assembly, using the “Family Feud” game show theme to delve into Black history and culture. Eight “families” of six students/teachers competed in a head-to-head format before the entire Upper School.
The chosen representatives played rock-paper-scissors to determine who would answer the question first. Each question had six to eight top answers, and the family with the higher-ranked choice had the chance to provide all top answers for that round.
To win, a family had to provide all of the correct remaining answers and guess less than three wrong. If unsuccessful, the opposing family could steal with just one correct higher answer. The competition narrowed down until only two teams remained – team Humanities and team Pepper and a Little Bit of Salt. In the finale, these final two teams faced six questions at once, requiring all six correct answers to win. Despite both teams’ valiant efforts, Team Humanities secured the victory. The unique and interactive setup made this assembly incredibly engaging.
Immediately following the assembly, BSU held a bake sale to raise relief funds for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After a couple of months of planning, the bake sale finally came to life. Occurring first on the quad, then switching to the commons (due to frigid temperatures), the bakesale had a variety of snacks, ranging from cookies to mini muffins! In just a single day, over nine hundred dollars were raised for this cause. But what is this cause exactly?
The Congo is currently facing a humanitarian crisis. Rich in natural resources, Congo has been (and still is) in a violent state of fighting against the destabilizing interests of rival African nations, foreign multinationals and deeply divided ethnic factions and warlords within Congo. The New York Times once described the chaos of Congo as a “Third World War.”
Much of this, it has been argued, is the product of eighty years of ruthless Belgian exploitation and Cold War battles between the West and the East. Formerly known as the Congo Free State, King Leopold II ruled this region. He frequently used the area to his advantage, instilling forced labor upon the Congolese people. Leopold would often resort to cruel tactics such as kidnapping, murder and torture, just to get what he wanted. Philosopher Hannah Arendt, in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism, and the journalist Adam Hochschild, in his book King Leopold’s Ghost, argued that the exploitation of misrule and murder amounted to a genocide, with the enslavement and deaths of millions. Although eventually freed from his rule, along with Belgian rule entirely, the fight for true independence is far from over. Independence has been nightmarish with Congo torn between civil war and dictatorial rule. Children are digging in coal mines instead of going to school, huge sections of the country are pitted with illegal gold, cobalt, uranium and precious metal mining operations, women are being raped hourly and millions upon millions of civilians have died because of this internal bleeding.
The purpose of the bake sale was to collect money for the people who have to endure these horrific conditions.
If you’re anything like me, you might still be looking for more ways to help the Congolese people. Here are some simple ways to help:
- Be educated about this topic! Simply doing extensive research on your own time can help much more than you think. Knowledge is power, and by becoming educated we as everyday civilians can become agents of change.
- If you have TikTok, search up “Congo” in the filters section. There should be a multitude of filters with the Congo flag in it. Use however many you can into a video and post it publicly/privately. These filters generate revenue for the creator, where they can then donate to reliable Congo relief organizations.
- If you don’t need it, don’t buy new technology. Cobalt is the mineral that is required to power our phones, and by reducing our technology consumption, we decrease the need for forced labor of the Congolese people.
The next time you go to buy a new phone, ask yourself, “Does the privilege of being able to buy a new phone outweigh the forced labor of innocent Congolese people?” The internet is a very powerful tool, and we all should be using it for the greater good. Whether through Google or TikTok, we can help the Congolese people, even from almost 7000 miles away.
