Congo-Loco (Crazy Congo)
- Hermione
- Nov 7, 2016
- 4 min read
Today´s topic is: "The Scramble for Africa", in specific: Congo.
Before we start describing economy, democracy and society in general, we should first underwent why and how the scramble for Africa first begun in the first place:
At the end of the 19th century, Europe began to abruptly grow, after all the drama that opposing forces caused (revolutions, struggling governments, etc.), Europe started to pay attention to the continent below them: Africa. Africa was a non-developed country, they looked down at them as if they were barbarians, and they took advantage and started to colonize it.
As European countries started to colonize Africa, they started to fight each other for territory, so that´s when Germany´s Bismarck took advantage of the situation and summoned a congress: "The Berlin Congress".
In this congress, lots of European powers assisted, interested in Africa, however, no African representatives were invited. The Berlin Congress is not considered the scramble, but the start for it since it set the rules of the game for every country before they took power.
Africa also was and continues to be full of natural resources, and since all European empires wanted these, this became a major reason for the empires to conquer.
As we mentioned before, Europeans had the idea that their race was superior over the African´s, and they actually believed in Darwinism, thinking in natural selection in the society, where the fittest survived.
In 1914 Africa was divided, this is were the“The Scramble of Africa” finally begun, because all the territories in Africa were divided between the European empires.
Congo went under Belgian power, and it affected it severely, since King Leopold II carelessly took Congo's natural resources and forced the congolese into slave labor. Colonialism is considered the roots of the crisis Congo is currently going through.
If you wish to know more about why "The Scramble for Africa" started in the first place, here's a brief explanation video I made and another one that I found if you want to know about "The Congress of Berlin" a bit more:
Now, let´s go more in depth into Congo, and what happened to it after the Berlin Congress:
In the 1884-1885 Berlin Congress, the African territory of Congo was given to King Leopold II of Belgium, but not as Belgium´s possession but as his own personal property which he later turned into a huge slave plantation, the king had absolute control and ownership of the Congo, instead of the Belgian government. This led to Leopold II ruling Congo in a brutal manner to his own benefit. Rubber was extractracted of the Congo through slave labor and later exported, this fuelled the industrial growth of Europe and America during the 19th and 20th century. King Leopold II only ruled the territory until 1908 when, due to poor management of the territory (obviously), the control was ceded to the Belgian government, which controlled it until its independence in 1960.
'In the Rubber Coils', a Punch cartoon of 1906, shows King Leopold's stranglehold on the Congo
Belgium did not directly oversee the education of the Congo’s indigenous population. As of 1908 the Congo had 587 missionaries, most of them were Catholic who educated 46,076 students, only a small part of the population.
There were just not enough missionaries to educate all the people.
Punishment for not collecting enough rubber plant in Belgium Congo.
Cut hands.
Congo produced most of its money from the trade of natural resources: rubber was extracted of the Congo, and later exported, this fuelled the industrial growth of Europe and America during the 19th and 20th century. The problem was that to extract the rubber they used slave labor, Congolese people were treated poorly and severely punished if they did not collected their daily rubber quotas, they would mutilate or kill them and their families to later be boiled.
Congolese men pose with the severed hands of others who failed to meet their rubber quotas, made into examples by the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber company in the Congo Free State, a former colony of Belgium.
Here are some quotes from people who saw the way people were treated:
“Rubber causes these torments; that’s why we no longer want to hear its name spoken. Soldiers made young men kill or rape their own mothers and sisters” and
“The European officer in command ‘ordered us to cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades … and to hang the women and the children on the palisade in the form of a cross.”
(Rare Historical Photos, 2016)
As we can see, Congolese people were living a real-life nightmare.
Nsala from Wala in the Nsongo District of Congo didn’t meet the rubber quota so as punishment, his wife, daughter and son were killed, cut up into pieces and boiled and only the remaining foot and hand of his five year old daughter was returned to him (according to accounts).
African countries are most of the time described as unstable and poor. This statement somehow is true because African countries have always been abused by either their own government or by other countries.
References
Achberger, J. (n.d.). Belgian Colonial Education Policy: A Poor Foundation for Stability. The
Ultimate History Project. Retrieved from
Belgian Congo. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from
By 1908, [...] in 1960. (n.d.). Belgian Congo. Retrieved November 06, 2016, Retrieved from
O'Ceallaigh, L.(22 of december of 2010). WHEN YOU KILL TEN MILLION AFRICANS YOU AREN’T CALLED ‘HITLER’ [Message from a blog]. Retrieved from
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