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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 UK 21 years ago,
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 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
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,
PlayStations and laptops.

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It is used in aerospace
and medical equipment as an alloy.

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It is so powerful
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 human suffering.

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Since 1996,

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over five million people have died
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Countless women, men and children
have been raped, tortured or enslaved.

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Rape is used as a weapon of war,

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instilling fear
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,

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the UN Environmental Programme
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 has splintered.

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Coltan is easily controlled
by armed groups.

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One well-known illicit trade route
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

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is that the technology
that has placed such unsustainable,

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devastating demands on the Congo

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is the same technology that has brought
this situation to our attention.

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We only know so much about the situation
in the Congo and in the mines

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because of the kind of communication
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
of local polling stations

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to the headquarters
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
we communicate on the planet.

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It has allowed momentous
political change to take place.

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So, 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 celebrated
what technology can do for us,

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technology in its finished form.

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It is time 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 US has recently passed legislation

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to target bribery
and misconduct in the Congo.

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Recent UK legislation
could be used in the same way.

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In February, Nokia unveiled its new policy
on sourcing minerals in the Congo,

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and there is a petition to Apple
to make a conflict-free iPhone.

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There are campaigns 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 on phone companies

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to change their sourcing processes.

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When I first came to the UK, 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.

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Often, they never arrived.

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Even if I could have afforded
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
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.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)