Take a look at this picture. Do you know who it is?
Most people haven’t heard of him.
But you should have. When you see his face or hear his name you should get as sick in your stomach as when you read about Mussolini or Hitler or see one of their pictures. You see, he killed over 10 million people in the Congo.
His name is King Leopold II of Belgium.
He “owned” the Congo during his reign as the constitutional monarch of Belgium. After several failed colonial attempts in Asia and Africa, he settled on the Congo. He “bought” it and enslaved its people, turning the entire country into his own personal slave plantation. He disguised his business transactions as “philanthropic” and “scientific” efforts under the banner of the International African Society. He used their enslaved labor to extract Congolese resources and services. His reign was enforced through work camps, body mutilations, executions, torture, and his private army.
Most of us – I don’t yet know an approximate percentage but I fear its extremely high – aren’t taught about him in school. We don’t hear about him in the media. He’s not part of the widely repeated narrative of oppression (which includes things like the Holocaust during World War II). He’s part of a long history of colonialism, imperialism, slavery and genocide in Africa that would clash with the social construction of the white supremacist narrative in our schools. It doesn’t fit neatly into a capitalist curriculum. Making overtly racist remarks is (sometimes) frowned upon in polite society, but it’s quite fine not to talk about genocides in Africa perpetrated by European capitalist monarchs.
Mark Twain wrote a satire about Leopold called “King Leopold’s soliloquy; a defense of his Congo rule“, where he mocked the King’s defense of his reign of terror, largely through Leopold’s own words. It’s 49 pages long. Mark Twain is a popular author for American public schools. But like most political authors, we will often read some of their least political writings or read them without learning why the author wrote them (Orwell’s Animal Farm for example serves to re-inforce American anti-Socialist propaganda, but Orwell was an anti-capitalist revolutionary of a different kind – this is never pointed out). We can read about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but King Leopold’s Soliloquy isn’t on the reading list. This isn’t by accident. Reading lists are created by boards of education in order to prepare students to follow orders and endure boredom well. From the point of view of the Education Department, Africans have no history.
When we learn about Africa, we learn about a caricaturized Egypt, about the HIV epidemic (but never its causes), about the surface level effects of the slave trade, and maybe about South African Apartheid (which of course now is long, long over). We also see lots of pictures of starving children on Christian Ministry commercials, we see safaris on animal shows, and we see pictures of deserts in films and movies. But we don’t learn about the Great African War or Leopold’s Reign of Terror during the Congolese Genocide. Nor do we learn about what the United States has done in Iraq and Afghanistan, potentially killing in upwards of 5-7 million people from bombs, sanctions, disease and starvation. Body counts are important. And we don’t count Afghans, Iraqis, or Congolese.
There’s a Wikipedia page called “Genocides in History”. The Congolese Genocide isn’t included. The Congo is mentioned though. What’s now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo is listed in reference to the Second Congo War (also called Africa’s World War and the Great War of Africa), where both sides of the multinational conflict hunted down Bambenga and ate them. Cannibalism and slavery are horrendous evils which must be entered into history and talked about for sure, but I couldn’t help thinking whose interests were served when the only mention of the Congo on the page was in reference to multi-national incidents where a tiny minority of people were eating each other (completely devoid of the conditions which created the conflict no less). Stories which support the white supremacist narrative about the subhumanness of people in Africa are allowed to be entered into the records of history. The white guy who turned the Congo into his own personal part-plantation, part-concentration camp, part-Christian ministry and killed 10 to 15 million Congolese people in the process doesn’t make the cut.
You see, when you kill ten million Africans, you aren’t called ‘Hitler’. That is, your name doesn’t come to symbolize the living incarnation of evil. Your name and your picture don’t produce fear, hatred, and sorrow. Your victims aren’t talked about and your name isn’t remembered.
Leopold was just one part of thousands of things that helped construct white supremacy as both an ideological narrative and material reality. Of course I don’t want to pretend that in the Congo he was the source of all evil. He had generals, and foot soldiers, and managers who did his bidding and enforced his laws. It was a system. But that doesn’t negate the need to talk about the individuals who are symbolic of the system. But we don’t even get that. And since it isn’t talked about, what capitalism did to Africa, all the privileges that rich white people gained from the Congolese genocide are hidden. The victims of imperialism are made, like they usually are, invisible.
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In 1885 Leopold II became King of Belgium and set into motion his plans for the Congo Free State, at the time an African colony controlled by Belgium. Unlike other colonies, Congo was not actually owned and controlled by the Belgian Government, but was the personal property of King Leopold himself. Congo is rich in natural resources, most especially rubber, and King Leopold knew that if he developed the country he stood to make an incredible amount of money as the rubber industry was booming. Over the next two decades, Leopold’s rule over Congo would result in a reign of terror that would result in the deaths of millions.
Leopold divided the country among a number of rubber companies which he had ownership over. He enlisted the various native tribes living in the country, often tricking or coercing them to sign contracts that practically bound them into a state of slavery. In essence, the entire country was quickly transformed into a giant rubber plantation, tyrannically ruled by Leopold’s agents as well as his personal armies and paramilitary groups. King Leopold ruled with an iron fist; doling out harsh punishments while devoting little toward the welfare of his workers. Native Congolese workers were given little food, shelter, or clothing. Those who refused to work, did little work, or did not meet production quotas were often beaten and whipped. Those who tried to escape the rubber plantations had an arm or a leg chopped off. Tribes or villages that rebelled against Leopold’s rule were exterminated.
King Leopold’s bloody rule over Congo ended in 1906 when word of his tyranny spread across Europe after a number of journalists and travelers published accounts of what they had experienced. Around 1900, the Belgian government decided to take action to end the brutality. However, there was little they could do as Congo was the personal property of King Leopold, and as such he could do whatever he wanted with it. In 1904, the Belgian government decided to buy the country. King Leopold made out very well, earning a profit of 220 million francs. In addition, Belgium purchased all of Leopold’s debts in the Congo venture, which amounted to around 110 million francs. The people of Congo were not so fortunate. During Leopold’s rule over the country, it is estimated that 10 million Congolese people were either murdered, or died of exhaustion, disease, and starvation.
Every black child in grade school is taught Adolph Hitler killed six million Jews and is the worst human being that ever lived. On the other hand our children are taught “The Right Honorable” Cecil Rhodes the founder of the De Beer diamond company in South Africa who killed ten times that number of Africans is a hero and a statesman and if they study hard and do well in school they may be eligible to win Rhodes Scholarships the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship awards in the world. They don’t mention the scholarships are paid for with the blood of their ancestors.
As a gay person alot of the GAY COMMUNITY say and express the most reductive, digressive, conflicting and contradictory shit EVER!!!!!
Lemme get this list out.
1. Shaming down lows.
In a world where gay people face so much adversity and hatred including those who are faced wit execution why does the term “WHOS GAY *insert present year*” is USED PEROIDT. Its the dumbest shit I ever heard. When you say that your literally ignoring all the shit gay people go through just to be themselves including the victims who are abandoned, beaten and killed. All the reasons why someone would be afraid to come out.
2. Adopting straight gender roles
Being gay itself already breaks from those gender norms society has taught us so why wouldn’t we want that fully. WHY are y’all so hooked on what roles tops and bottoms should play in a relationship or how they should act. Yes you can have a preference but none of that shit should be in concrete, something that should only matter when it comes to the bedroom.
3. Shaming bottoms
See yeah I don’t get this shit SO… all imma say is if there were no bottoms who the fuck suppose to take your dick.
4. Shaming other gays to make themselves feel vital to the world.
Are you literally trynna make yourself feel above other gay people. “I’m not wit that fag shit”
5. Gays who are disgusted by drag, transgender and fems.
Not saying you should be watching drag race BUT girl do you not realize your apart of the same community Bitch. WANNA HEAR SOME TEA. Masc for masc gays aren’t the ones fighting for your rights and aren’t the ones who made shit happen.
STOP BEING THE UNCLE TOM OF THE GAY COMMUNITY AND…
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