David Maenda Kithoko

Co-founder and president of Génération Lumière, an environmental and international solidarity association operating in France and in the Great Lakes region of East Africa.

David Maenda Kithoko is co-founder and president of Génération Lumière, an environmental and international solidarity association operating in France and the Great Lakes region of East Africa. Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is a political refugee in France. He tells us about his story and his struggles to raise awareness of the links between digitalization, colonialism, blood minerals, and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Africa. He co-founded the association Génération Lumière.

 linkedin.com/in/david-maenda-kithoko-238a95197

A Congolese perspective on infrastructure and extractivism

Abstract : The technologies that make up our infrastructure are primarily based on extractivist practices that are deeply rooted in a colonial tradition inherited from the past, just as they are intimately linked to violence and wars. The case of the Congo, which is particularly painful and revealing, raises a question: is the war against the populations of mining regions an integral part of the infrastructures of rich countries?