138 years ago today, the Berlin Conference opened. It was a conference where European nations established the 'legal' claim that all of Africa could be occupied by whomever could take it. They set out murdering Africans and taking their wealth to make Europe wealthier.
After slavery, Berlin conference was the second declaration of war against Africa. At the Berlin Conference, Congo was handed to a charity run by King Leopold under the pretext of “stopping slavery” and he named it the “Congo Free State.”
"I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake." - Leopold II of Belgium
Before Hitler killed 6 million Jews.…. Leopold Il of Belgium killed over 10 million Africans in Congo and amputated the arms of countless others.
Before Hitler killed 6 million Jews.…. Leopold Il of Belgium killed over 10 million Africans in Congo and amputated the arms of countless others.
The different European nations set out to mount their flags all over Africa. King Leopold II set out for the Congo and declared it his territory proclaiming it his property, the people and the land, quickly turning the land into a money-making enterprise.
Congo was rich in many minerals, but at the time it was richer in ivory and rubber. He set up a system that was extremely harsh on the people a system that, if they did not reach regular rubber collection quotas, he murdered and mutilated the indigenous people.
King Leopold II’s government declared that rubber harvesting was a necessary tax that would be paid to the crown by those who lived on the land. This literally meant that Leopold took the lands and wealth of a people and obliged them to work on their own land as slaves.
The rubber industry in Europe was booming and he had to meet the demands of the market. As punishment for not fulfilling the quota they cut-off of your limb or get murdered. Leopold II had an army which consisted of about 19,000 european mercenaries, called Publique Force.
The military aggressively recruited Africans into its lower ranks as well. These Africans were press-ganged into service and they were executed if they resisted. The European officials were so ruthless and based on their rubber hatred and targeting that they created a rule for
soldiers to cut off and deliver the hands of any of the Congolese citizens killed for failing to fulfill their quota. The source began to decline thus becoming slightly scarce. It was then more difficult to obtain the rubber, as many individuals had to climb tall trees to
reach the vines. People may often drop from the trees and fall to their deaths. In addition to the shooting and maiming, disease was another factor that caused millions to die. The wellbeing of the workers was not taken into account by the Belgians,
who fed them with unhealthy meat and vegetables, and starved them most of the time. However, this did not make the Belgians stop. For the commercial benefit of their resources, they continued the slavery and enslavement of the people of the Congo.
The burning of their villages was one of the painful accounts of the genocide of the Congolese. The commissioners and their officers also gave a certain quota to a whole village to fulfill and if they failed their villages and inhabitants were burnt down.
The Nazis were not the only ones who operated concentration camps. Britain used them in South Africa and Kenya. In Kenya, the camps were sites for random executions and Interrogation involved stuffing detainees mouth with mud and stomping their throats till they passed out.
The world’s largest diamond, Cullinan Diamond, was stolen from Africa and pieces put on the British sovereign crown, royal scepter and the rest in the royal jewel collection. The British claimed it given to them as a symbol of friendship and peace yet it was during colonialism.
German colonizers in Namibia, due to their interest in evolutionary theory & missing links executed inmates and decapitated them. Herero women were required to remove all flesh from the heads to create clean skulls suitable for shipment for study in German Institutes.
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