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Chapter 8-11
Chapter#8
Leopold gave the declaration on the case of ivory gathering. The city of Congo was using to gather the ivory. After the parliamentary debate in 1891, Leopold wrote that the Congo state is not the business. They only gathered the ivory to reduce the deficit of the state and if African was helping in the gathering of ivory then it was also not for the profit purpose. The main purpose of the ivory collection was for rescuing the people of Congo from indolence. Europeans were using the land of Africa only for justifying the conquest of America. For the purpose of more clarification about the ivory collection, he declared the statement to the American reporter. He was trying to explain all the steps that he was taking were for the welfare of the local people not for the personal or European profit.
The demand of the porters was very high. Porters were poor African who used to work for the European people who lived in Congo state for the trade of ivory. They were not paid in term of money. The officials who had to move away from the river system and into the bushes for collecting ivory were required extensive columns of porters to transport everything from the machine gun. Porters got payment for their duties, most of them were conscripts, but sometimes they were paid in term of food to carry on their journey. The death rate among the posters was relatively higher as they were forced to transfer heavyweight things to the vast distances.
There were various reasons which made functionaries watch the chicotte in action so carelessly. It was because of race. According to the Europeans, African were uncivilized, lazy, and little better than animals. This mentally was the reason behind the excessive workload over the posters. Authorities developed the Congo state, and this terror was sanctioned into the people mindset. It was impossible to raise the voice or to question white people, as it meant that the challenge to the system which gave livelihood to the people of Congo state. The functionaries were too dangerous that they did not question the person; they just act over it harshly. Victorian ideas were the foundation of such a racist society.
Leopold had made use of African mercenaries ever since sending Stanley to stake out his claim from 1879 to 1884. Leopold’s rule was filled with racism and discrimination. The Force Publique had its hands full. Various ethnic groups announced rebel against the rule of Leopold. Four ethnic groups that were Yaka, Chokwe, Boa, and the Budja fought a long war for their rights. The Yaka people fought for almost ten years with white people. The war ended in 1906 before they were subdued.
Force Publique were the mercenaries. During 1879-84, Leopold used the number of African mercenaries to stake out his privilege. Later in 1888, he organized the mercenaries into the Force Publique. In other words, Leopold established the army for himself from African mercenaries. With the next few years about nineteen thousand men and officer become the part of this force. By the late 1890s Force Publique was consuming half of the state's budget. The main purpose of the establishment of Force Publique was to control the rebellions. Many ethnic groups announced rebel against Leopold's rule. Force Publique fought with these rebellions to maintain the power of Leopold in Africa. The Force Publique was divided into groups in which the numbers of black soldiers were used to work under the supervision of one white officer.
A shrewd Tippu Tip was a very resourceful man. He was a powerful businessman. He used to collect the ivory for profit. Through the trade of ivory, he expanded his business dramatically in the state of Congo. Stanley knew the power of Tippu Tip. Therefore when he found the route toward upper Congo River, the king offered Tippu to serve their empire as a governor. Tippu Tip accepted the offer of the king and became the governor of the colony's eastern province. He was the largest slave trader in the state. King bargained with him to set free the number of slaves. The king set the condition over the contract of freedom of slaves. He wanted the free slaves to work for him within the Force Publique for seven years from the freedom. Therefore, Tippu Tip became the helper of the king to make a powerful Force Publique.
Rebels did not kill priest Father Auguste because of his religious background. Rebel's king told him that he had spent his life for God, spreading his massage. He took care of people who were sick. He taught God's word. There was no rifle of a priest. Therefore instead of killing Father Auguste, they fed him by slaughtering a goat, and a cup of coffee.
Ilanga's story was about the brutal act of Force Publique who entered into a village name "Waniendo" and took their food and animals. Next day they again entered into the village and forced people to move with them. They wanted them to be slaves. The soldiers ordered them to march without giving them food. They killed lots of people who tried to reject their orders. Many people died because of hunger, and they had to parade the whole day without a good meal. After ten days they brought people of Waniendo that is into the White men’s town. This whole brutal act was done by the Force Palaque leader named Kalanga. He made innocent people slaves for white people.
The role of Protestant missionaries in Congo was in favor of Congo people. They were foreigners and therefore beyond the power of Leopold. They also kept posters for their daily needs to be done. One of the missionaries informed their churche’s members through a letter about the instability of Congo. He also highlighted the fact that rebels were not killing them; instead, they were protecting them and behaving in a good way. On the hand, Catholic missionaries were not a foreigner and were under the control of Leopold. They were the supporter of Leopold and his regime. Their main role was to build children's colonies, in which Force Publique after attacking the villages, brought survivor to make them slaves.
Leon Rom who became an officer without a good education achieved lots of medals and power in Congo because of his White origin. Many people like him were attracted to Congo in search of wealth and being rich. The lucrative commission structure for the collection of ivory was the main attraction for these people. They got a high post with good pay. They also had posters. Most of them were missionaries; they joined the French Foreign Legion who gathered in the Klondike and South Africa. Also, many white men like Leon Ram became the officers of the Force Publique group without acquiring good education or skills; they took advantage of white privilege.
Whenever new people had to arrive in the Congo, they were kept awake whole night. In the bar, some drunker sang songs a whole night for them. Through singing, they described the sorrow about slavery and brutal acts of Europeans. At the same time, Africans sang different songs in which they cursed the white men and prayer about their dawn and death. They sang that sun, elephants, and river would kill the Europeans who came to Congo. Many other songs were sung by the Africans which mostly depend on the harsh reality of Africans and curses for the white men.
Chapter 9
A European Joseph Conrad went to Africa and noticed the behavior of white men and the condition of the Africans. He wrote the novella telling the story in the novel “The Heart of Darkness”. He had a perception that Leopold was working for African people to make them civilized. Therefore he went to Africa and stayed there for six months. He noticed the power of white men and slavery of African. On his return to European with so much disappointment, he told the story of the whole journey to his friend Edward Garnett. He wrote his heart out and made the novel "The Heart of Darkness." Edward Garnett wrote this short novel after the eight years of his Congo experience.
Chapter 10
William Sheppard was black American. He recorded the situation that he witnessed in the Congo. A scene which could be the symbol of the brutality of the colonies. He showed up in the annals of exploration and was not a white explorer in Africa as such. The main aim of William to visit Africa was to work for the white privilege. He helped engineer united state about the reputation and power of Leopold and the situation of Congo in his regime. William hoped that black people from America would emigrate in Africa. He was the first black American in Congo among the American missionaries. Like many other visitors or explorer, the journey of William was free of humiliating or brutal experiences.
Sheppard and Kuba's people had a strong relationship. The homeland of people of Kuba was bordered with the land where Sheppard was working. The people of Kuba worked in textiles, sculptures, and expanding carved tools, and masks. They were among the greatest artists of Africa. Sheppard had lots of Kuba art collection which was ended up in Virginia, at Sheppard's alma mater. Sheppard was the first outsider who acquired the Kuba art. He also wrote about the culture, rituals, and myth about the people of Kuba and Kasai region. Shepperd found Kuba people civilized. Kuba people acquired civilization from the Egyptians, was the perception of Sheppard after watching them well settled with their own culture and rituals. Sheppard remained in the court of Kuba for six months and noticed the entire social and legal activities of them. Later he wrote a lot about the Kuba people who impressed him in many ways.
When Leopold discovered the wide rubber vine, he found the source for boosting his profit. He was in a hurry to export the rubber and get money from it because Latin America and Asia were also producing rubber. Their plantation had time to get mature for harvest. Therefore, Leopold wanted to increase the revenue by exporting a large quantity of rubber before Asia and Latin America entered into the market. He knew that once other countries would start exporting rubber to the world, the price will drop. Leopold wanted to get the profit of monopoly. He was also aware of the ivory demand and its exports, but now his main focus was to enhance the revenue of Congo with the help of rubber exports.
The main business of the Leopold was the collection of ivory. He showed the world that he was trying to civilize the people of Africa, but in reality, he was getting profit through the ivory collection. In the 1700s, a British scientist provided the substance to erase the pencil mark. With time rubber got more uses and more products were made. With the increase in demand for rubber, its price was also increased. Leopold took advantage of the market situation and start exporting rubber. Congo was rich with the rubber trees that were ready to harvest. Leopold increased the labor and their payment for the rubber collection. In 1903 one of productive agent got an annual salary about eight times more than the original salary where posters were used as the labor for rubber collection.
King of Congo had gone into the debt with his investments when the rubber boom came as a godsend. The rubber became the main source for revenue and profit from Congo. He started his brutal act as he did for ivory collection. Soldiers from his army were entered into the different villages and looted their grain, chickens, out of their houses. They attacked the people especially women and kept them as the hostage. They demanded the chief of the village to provide the amount of rubber to get their people free. In this way chiefs of Africa got nothing but the brutality and blood of their villagers. If any male villager refused to obey the order for gathering rubber then in response soldier had killed their wife.
For the rubber collection, labor was the issue. Posters were used for rubber collection initially, but with an increase in export speed Leopold needed more labor. He enforced people of different villages to provide him a particular amount of rubber at a time. The villagers who refused his order or failed to provide the fair amount of rubber, soldiers of Leopold cut their hands off and then smoked. They did not kill all the villagers and left some alive to show other Africans the result of rejection King's order. Sheppard investigated the rubber system and found many dead bodies and injured people, all of them had burned hands, and some hands were showed by the chief along with the bodies whom they belong to. The situation was evidence of the horrible aspect of Leopold's rubber system.
Leopold soldiers cut and smoked the hands of a large number of Africans. Africans were scared of their brutal act. Leopold was trying to horrify them to take their advantage. This fear and horror lead to some myths. One of the myths spread all over Africa about the white soldier. According to the myth white soldier had cans in his house which contains meat. The news was spread that the cans did not contain the meat of animals as labeled on it. It was the meat of villagers. Hands of villagers were chopped-up and put in the cans.
Chapter 11
After the successful gain of profit through ivory and rubber Leopold found that connection with other lands through the railway could be significant for trade. During 1897, Leopold had started to invest in Congo for the railway in China. Climate, disease, and gauge track issue made the construction a more daunting project. In 1892, China started working on the railway. The railway became the element for Congo's wealth and power. Many employees died while constructing the railway line due to the number of issues like weather and diseases. Labor task was performed by the natives of Africa while higher posts were given to the Americans and foreign missionaries. The railway line became the backbone of the progress of the state.
The terror of Leopold killing by cutting and smoking them made villagers disappeared in the jungles. Missionaries who came to Africa found it difficult to clothe the bodies and to save souls. Villagers who were hiding into the jungle asked for help from the missionaries from rubber trouble. The missionaries just played the role of the observer in the battlefield and Sheppard was the witness who wrote about the situation. In 1894 a Congolese song was recorded by the Swedish missionaries. They sang the song after being tired of the terror, pain, sadness, and helplessness. Through song they explained their mental condition, they wanted to die; they were praying for death through song.
In 1879 a fair was set in Brussels. People from all around the world came to Brussels to attend the fair. At Tervuren, outskirt of the city became the most exciting exhibit for the visitors. More than millions of the people reached to Congo for fair. Things like Maxim gun and civilization instruments that were praised by Stanley were displayed. Linen tapestries which highlighted the Congo aspect related to family life, Barbarism, Christianity, Freedom, Slavery, Polygamy, and civilization were portrayed. The Ota Benga was pygmy from Congo were kept in monkey zoo in one of the New York zoos. When people found that he belongs to the Congo he was rescued by a delegation of black ministers.
Three discoveries shocked Edmund Den Morel. Firstly, the rule according to which arms Congo were sent to the Congo whose confession was so upset that secretary of Congo was not an exception. Secondly, money was made for America from ivory and rubber in Africa. Thirdly, he found the ships loaded and unloaded. The ships were the evidence for the Elder Dempster's record. Also, ships indicated that 80% of the Congo material was for the trade where natives got almost nothing in return.
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