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I want to talk to you today

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about a difficult topic that is close to me,

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and closer than you might realize to you.

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I came to the U.K. 21 years ago

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as an asylum-seeker.

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I was 21.

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I was forced to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

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my home, where I was a student activist.

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I would love my children to be able to meet my family

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in the Congo.

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But I want to tell you what the Congo has got to do with you.

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But first of all, I want you to do me a favor.

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Can you all please reach into your pockets

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and take out your mobile phone?

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Feel that familiar weight,

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how naturally your finger slides towards the buttons.

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(Laughter)

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Can you imagine your world without it?

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It connects us to our loved ones,

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our family, friends and colleagues,

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at home and overseas.

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It is a symbol of an interconnected world.

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But what you hold in your hand leaves a bloody trail,

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and it all boils down to a mineral:

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tantalum, mined in the Congo as coltan.

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It is an anticorrosive heat conductor.

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It stores energy in our mobile phones,

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Playstations and laptops.

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It is used in aerospace and medical equipment

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as alloys.

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It is so powerful

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that we only need tiny amounts.

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It would be great if the story ended there.

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Unfortunately, what you hold in your hand

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has not only enabled incredible technological development

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and industrial expansion,

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but it has also contributed to unimaginable

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human suffering.

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Since 1996, over five million people have died

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in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Countless women, men and children

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have been raped, tortured or enslaved.

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Rape is used as a weapon of war,

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instilling fear

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and depopulating whole areas.

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The quest for extracting this mineral

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has not only aided, but it has fueled,

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the ongoing war in the Congo.

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But don't throw away your phones yet.

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Thirty thousand children are enlisted

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and are made to fight in armed groups.

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The Congo consistently scores dreadfully

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in global health and poverty rankings.

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But remarkably, the U.N. Environmental Programme

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has estimated the wealth of the country

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to be over 24 trillion dollars.

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The state-regulated mining industry has collapsed,

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and control over mines

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has splintered.

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Coltan is easily controlled by armed groups.

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One well-known illicit trade route

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is that across the border to Rwanda,

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where Congolese tantalum is disguised as Rwandan.

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But don't throw away your phones yet,

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because the incredible irony is that

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the technology that has placed such unsustainable,

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devastating demands on the Congo

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is the same technology

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that has brought this situation to our attention.

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We only know so much about the situation in the Congo

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and in the mines

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because of the kind of communication

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the mobile phone allows.

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As with the Arab Spring,

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during the recent elections in the Congo,

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voters were able to send text messages

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of local polling stations to the headquarters

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in the capital, Kinshasa,

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and in the wake of the result,

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the diaspora has joined with the Carter Center,

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the Catholic Church and other observers

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to draw attention to the undemocratic result.

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The mobile phone has given people around the world

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an important tool towards gaining their political freedom.

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It has truly revolutionized the way

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we communicate on the planet.

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It has allowed momentous political change

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to take place.

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So

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we are faced with a paradox.

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The mobile phone is an instrument of freedom

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and an instrument of oppression.

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TED has always

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celebrated what technology can do for us,

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technology in its finished form.

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It is time

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to be asking questions about technology.

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Where does it come from?

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Who makes it?

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And for what?

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Here I am speaking directly to you,

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the TED community,

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and to all those who might be watching on a screen,

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on your phone, across the world,

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in the Congo.

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All the technology is in place for us to communicate,

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and all the technology is in place to communicate this.

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At the moment,

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there is no clear fair trade solution,

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but there has been a huge amount of progress.

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The U.S. has recently passed legislation

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to target bribery and misconduct in the Congo.

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Recent U.K. legislation could be used in the same way.

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In February, Nokia unveiled its new policy

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on sourcing minerals in the Congo,

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and there is a petition to Apple

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to make a conflict-free iPhone.

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There are campaigns

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spreading across university campuses

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to make their colleges conflict-free.

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But we're not there yet.

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We need to continue mounting pressure

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on phone companies

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to change their sourcing processes.

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When I first came to the U.K. 21 years ago,

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I was homesick.

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I missed my family and the friends I left behind.

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Communication was extremely difficult.

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Sending and receiving letters took months,

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if you were lucky. Often they never arrived.

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Even if I could have afforded

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the phone bills home,

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like most people in the Congo,

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my parents did not own a phone line.

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Today, my two sons

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David and Daniel

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can talk to my parents and get to know them.

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Why should we allow

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such a wonderful, brilliant and necessary product

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to be the cause of unnecessary suffering

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for human beings?

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We demand fair trade food

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and fair trade clothes.

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It is time to demand fair trade phones.

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This is an idea worth spreading. Thank you.

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(Applause)