It was my pleasure to help organize a webinar on the 75th anniversary of the Trinity test to commemorate all those who have been affected by the legacy of the US drive to acquire atomic weapons. From the Congolese mineworkers who dug the ore that made the Manhattan Project possible, to the downwinders in New Mexico who suffered the fallout effects of that first test, to the descendants of the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the survivors of the nuclear tests in the Pacific- all of these elements are tied together, and this webinar represents a small portion of those stories. You can view the entire program at this link (on facebook, no account required, unfortunately I’m unable to embed the video here). It’s a bit sprawling, so click around! There’s a summary of the history covered at about the 12:30 mark, and the Congolese representatives from the organization Congolese Civil Society of South Africa start at 20:30.

If you listen to this and find yourself wanting to donate to the CCSSA and their program of food distribution and mutual aid among expat Congolese mineworker communities in South Africa, you can find details here. Donations can be made via transferwise.com using the details at that link.

The BBC just posted an excellent article that illustrates some of the chilling and powerful details of the history covered by Isaiah Mombilo and Yves Salankang Sa Ngol of CCSSA in the webinar: including the fact that the US meddling in Congo’s postwar independence politics was directly related to the CIA’s desire to keep Shinkolobwe uranium out of the hands of the Soviet Union. Read that article here.