On today’s episode of the evilness of colonisers:

When Leopold II colonised Congo the British explorer Henry M. Stanley played tricks on Congolese tribal chiefs. E.g. lighting a cigar using a magnifying glass to the sunlight and claimed that “white men had power over the sun”

They used battery powered contraptions in their hands that would make Congolese men almost collapse from one handshake. To make it seem that white people are incredibly strong

Henry Morton Stanley also performed tricks like taking all gun powder and bullets out of a gun first, and then ordering Congolese men to shoot him.

Of course nothing happened, he would then shake the bullets out of their shoe to make it seem like bullets could not kill whites.

Leopold’s men then also recruited his own army in the Congo called “Force Republique” - these were the tallest and strongest built Congolese men that were forcefully recruited as soldiers.

They were ordered to kill anyone who was going against the regime.

The Congolese men who were part of the Force Republique had to produce one severed hand for each person killed.

Failure to do so, would see them killed by their Belgian generals.

The Force Republique were instructed not to waste ammunition, and to kill a man with 1 bullet.

Congolese people were Leopold’s personal slaves. Men in particular had to work the rubber trees and were threatened with the killing of their wives and daughters if they did not meet the rubber quota.

Leopold gave his generals bonuses, for producing more rubber by any means.

The Force Republique were told that the other Congolese people were subhuman and not as worthy as them hence why they were being enslaved. Soon the native soldiers became desensitised to the killing of their own people.

All of this was allowed to happen because Leopold stumbled across the work of British explorer Henry Morton Stanley... who had mapped out Africa and spoke about how the Congo would be a good place to colonise.

When Leopold then suggested this in the Berlin Conference, he was unquestioned because other European countries were scared to delve into the Congo.

The Congo rainforest, gorillas, lions, poisonous insects, man-eating crocodiles. No one was up for the challenge. Except Leopold.

He was able to paint his mission in Congo as a heroic act of philanthropy. “Teaching God to the Godless”... “bringing the Congo savages civilisation”... he even had the cheek to name it ‘The Congo Free State’ under this pretence. But nothing about Congo was free.

That’s the end of the lesson guys! Stay woke #freecongo