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The problem with colonialism in Africa
The problem with colonialism in Africa
The problem with colonialism in Africa
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Between 1885 and 1908, Belgium’s Leopold II ruled Congo, a region in central Africa, as his personal colony, exploiting the resources and inhabitants for his own gain. Leopold allowed and encouraged Europeans and other Westerners to enter Congo and set up companies whose primary purpose was to gather rubber, which was abundant but difficult to get to in the Congo, using the Congolese as the laborers for the Europeans. Rubber gathering in Congo brutally exploited the inhabitants of the Congo, while at the same time robbed Congo of wealth, as the rubber was “sold” to the Europeans at prices far below what the rubber was actually worth. Only when others, specifically the British and the Americans, revealed the horrible conditions of the Congo, did the Belgian government reluctantly take over control of Congo, but the damage was done. Scholars, such as Martin Meredith, state that Leopold II was “An ambitious, greedy, and devious monarch” whose “Principle aim … was to amass as large a fortune for himself as possible.” Meredith also quotes Joseph Conrad, who described the Congo Free State “As ‘the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.’” Yet, there are some scholars and officials who support Leopold II and the Congo Free State. Upon independence, The Belgian king, Baudouin I, stated that “‘The independence of the Congo constitutes the culmination of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II.’” Also, museums in Belgium have presented exhibitions, in the words of Jan-Bart Gewald, “Which unfortunately attempted to qualify, indeed play down, the colonial past in the Congo.” The Congo colonial experience, was harmful to Congo both in the colonial era and in the post-colonial era, becau...
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...s, Edgar. Rubber Collecting in the Congo. 1885. Documents from the African Past. Edited by Robert O. Collins. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001.
Ewans, Martin. "Belgium and the colonial experience." Journal of Contemporary European Studies 11, no. 2 (November 2003): 167-180.
Gewald, Jan-Bart. "More than red rubber and figures alone: A Critical Appraisal of the Memory of the Congo Exhibition at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium." International Journal of African Historical Studies 39, no. 3 (October 2006): 471-486.
Hamilton, Richard F. "A Neglected Holocaust." Human Rights Review 1, no. 3 (April 2000): 119-123.
Louis, William Roger. "Roger Casement and the Congo." The Journal of African History. 5. no. 1 (1964): 99-120.
Meredith, Martin. The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence. New York: PublicAffairs, 2005.
The book mainly chronicles the efforts of King Leopold II of Belgium which is to make the Congo into a colonial empire. During the period that the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River.
Mazrui, Ali A. "The Re-Invention of Africa: Edward Said, V. Y. Mudimbe, and Beyond." Research in African Literatures 36, no. 3 (Autumn 2005): 68-82.
George Washington Williams was a black American. He had come to the Congo over a route that seemed almost as if it took him through several different lives. He was in the U.S. Army, fought battles, attended University`s, and graduated from Newton in 1874. Williams married and became a pastor. He also created a milestone in the literature of human rights and of investigative journalism. This work is titled An Open Letter to His Serne Majesty Leopold 2nd , King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo, by Colonel the Honorable Geo.W. Williams, of the Untied States of America(102). As well as submitting a statement to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations urging recognition of the International Association of the Congo. Williams had a plan to go to the Congo to collect material for his book. As Williams traveled up the the great river he had time to take in Africa. When he reached Stanley Falls he could no longer contain what he had felt and saw. He then writes h...
The land Leopold had obtained was about eighty times larger than that of Belgium itself. Plus, Leopold was proclaimed the “sovereign” ruler of all the Congo Free Sta...
During the 17th century, slavery was a widely used commodity with the Europeans, little do people know however that African kings also had and accepted slavery in their own nations. King Nzinga Mbemba of Congo and the King of Ouidah had similarities on the issue of slavery; they tolerated the use of slaves. Congo’s king had no contingency with slavery; in fact, he had slaves in his country. When the Portuguese were purchasing goods in Congo, the king had men “investigate if the mentioned goods are captives or free men” (NZ, 622). The fact that the king differentiates the men between ‘free’ and ‘captives’ illustrates that not all people in Congo are free. Whether these captives are from the country of Congo or not, they are still caught and held all across the nation against their will. King Mbemba kept slaves because the population of Congo was vastly declining due to the slave trade. In his letter, he pleads with the king of Portug...
One can easily note the physical and sexual violence brought upon the people (black and white) of Congo after independence, but we must locate the other forms of violence in order to bring the entire story of Patrice Lumumba to light. The director’s attempt at bringing the story of Patrice Lumumba to the “silver screen” had political intentions.
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
Hugon, Anne. The Exploration of Africa: from Cairo to the Cape. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1991.
James, Andre C. "The Butcher of Congo: King Leopold II of Belgium." - Andre C James. Digital
Zins, Henryk S. "Joseph Conrad and the Early British Critics of Colonialism in the Congo." Lubelskie Materiały Neofilologiczne 22.(1998): 155-169. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Sun. 08 May 2011.
In a period leading up to the eventual Independence from Belgium in 1960, several political parties were formed. The populous argued for independence from Belgium due to many decades of brutality and corruption under Belgian colonization. There were many protests and riots fighti...
Thompson, and J. Vansina. African History: From Earliest Times to Independence (1995). 2nd. ed.London; New York: Longman
Tintin in Congo is actually the story of the encounter between the white European reporter and the black natives of Belgian, Congo- an encounter which can be described as the intercultural collision. Most of the narrative of Tintin in Congo rests on the caricature of the African people and their culture which is portrayed as backward, and most importantly, inferior to the European society and their culture. Though the story, its originality and style of presentation stands apart, yet this particular voyage of Tintin is infamous for its depiction of the intersection of modernity on the part of the European reporter and barbarity of the African natives. We now move onto an alternate site/location in the Hergean ordinance, as to specify of the attributes of ‘Other’. The division between Tintin and ‘Other’ is prepared by the (post)colonial theorist Said as he
Davidson, Basil. Modern Africa A Social and Political History. Ney York: Longman Group UK Limited, 1983.
(19) ã Heart of Darkness with the Congo Diary Introduction and Notes ãRobert Hampson, 1995