King Leopold II of Belgium Killed Millions in the Congo

In 1885, blacks in America had been officially free from slavery for around 22 years. Meanwhile, almost 8,000 miles away from the United States, the brutality of slavery was just beginning in Central Africa. King Leopold II was preparing to murder millions of blacks in what is now the DROC (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

In the middle of the African continent, the DROC is the second largest country on the continent (905,567 square miles) and the 11th largest in the world. Rich in natural resources, it contains the Congo River which is the second longest river in Africa behind the nile. That said, you would expect the Congo to do well economically. However, this is not true for obvious reasons. Like most other countries in Africa, human rights violations have decimated the native population again and again. Here, we are merely addressing one transgression among many.

King Leopold II and the Congo

King Leopold II, as you may have guessed, was the son of Leopold I. The elder Leopold became “King of the Belgians” in 1831 and swore allegiance to the constitution in the Royal Palace in Brussels on 21st July 1831. He was first to sit on the Belgian throne, his reign beginning shortly after Belgium declared independence from the Netherlands. He married Louise-Marie (2nd wife), daughter of Louis-Philippe, King of France. The second of four children was his son, Leopold, who later succeeded him on the throne as Leopold II.

Eventually, King Leopold II (Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor) succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865. His reign was the longest of any Belgian monarch at 44 years. It ended with his death. Ultimately, those 44 years were plenty of time for him to spread misery throughout an entire land. He died without any surviving legitimate male heirs. The current monarch is a descendant of Albert I, his nephew that claimed the throne upon his death.

The extent of the misery that he spread is laid out in a book by Adam Hochschild. Hochschild published the book “King Leopold’s Ghost” to tell the story of greed, abuse, and even heroism in Colonial Africa. It explored the exploitation of the Congo Free State in depth while it was King Leopold II’s own private colony. Specifically, it focused on the years between 1885 and 1908 and the massive amount of atrocities committed during that time.

As a side note, isn’t it interesting how it was named the Congo “Free” State? Especially, since the people living there were anything but free. Seems that, throughout history, everything harmful to black people is labeled the opposite and with a name that seems to do them good.

Colonial Power

Throughout Europe in the late 1800’s on to present day, the power of European monarchs has steadily declined. At one time, a European kings’ power was near absolute. Over time, that absolute power was challenged by both the church and big business. Colonies became places for monarchs to expand their rule and thus their power. In fact, colonial power became the engine for the majority of the wealth that European countries gained. European powers stole the natural resources from African nations to build themselves into what we see to this very day.

The colonists clearly saw those who they colonized as inferior to them. And, since that was the case, most thought it right to do what was necessary to get these primitives to do what was required of them for a higher purpose. Joseph Conrad gives us a clue in his novella “Heart of Darkness”.

What did he mean by “darkness”? He meant the same thing that many people think when they hear the term “Dark Continent“. It is a secondary and hidden meaning referring to the supposed primitiveness that every person possesses in his or her mind and heart. The atrocities that occurred in the Congo illustrate that darkness perfectly.

The Congo Difference

The difference between what happened in other “colonies” and what happened in the Congo is that instead of a government ruling the colony, King Leopold II held private rulership. With a government rule, one could argue that there would be at least some moral restrictions in place. In his private colony, there were no voters or a parliament to stand in Leopold’s way. It was all about the bottom line. Essentially, profit was the only thing that mattered.

With the help Henry Morton Stanley, he “laid claim” to the area. His claim was recognized at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. The other European colonial powers basically agreed that the “Free State of the Congo” would be left to him. This is a prime example of how colonists operate with the mindset that the lands that they colonize are rightfully theirs. It’s as if, in their minds, they have a more righteous claim to lands than the people already living there, for thousands of years in many cases.

He made a fortune from his privately owned colony—well over $1.1 billion in today’s dollars—chiefly by enslaving much of its male population as laborers to tap wild rubber vines. The king’s soldiers would march into village after village and hold the women hostage, in order to force the men to go deep into the rain forest for weeks at a time to gather wild rubber. Hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of crops were all disrupted, and the army seized much of what food was left. The birth rate plummeted and, weakened by hunger, people succumbed to diseases they might otherwise have survived. Demographers estimate that the Congo’s population may have been slashed by as much as half, or some 10 million people.

Opportunities

Africa supplied the colonists with a plethora of opportunities for financial gain. After all, the continent is rich in natural resources ranging from arable land, water, minerals, forests and wildlife. In fact, a huge proportion of the world’s natural resources, both renewables and non-renewables are found there. Valuable elements like diamonds, gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, platinum, copper, cobalt, iron, bauxite are present in abundance. In the 1800’s, it was as if someone was ringing a dinner bell and European colonizers like King Leopold II were salivating like Pavlov’s dogs.

In the Congo, a huge opportunity presented itself in the form of wild rubber vines. Europeans called it the White Rubber Vine or the Congo Rubber Plant. In any case, it was one of the raw materials that was highly valued outside of the continent. The rubber industry was in full swing with high demand for bicycles and automobiles alike.

With every opportunity comes a challenge. King Leopold II’s challenge was how to harvest and transport the rubber once it had been harvested. Basically, there was only one solution to that problem in that time. The solution to this challenge was manpower.

The Brutality

In order to solve his manpower needs, Leopold’s regime used a private army called the force publique compel the Congolese population to work for him. In 1885, he ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create gendarmarie for the state, the Force Publique was the result. The motivation came in the form of savage acts of violence at their hands that reduced the population to slave labor.

The Force Publique was comprised of two parts; the leadership and the soldiers.

Force Publique Leadership

In early 1886, Leopold sent Captain Léon Roger, of the Belgian Army’s brute force units, to the Congo. His orders were to establish the force and a few months later, after doing so, he was promoted to “Commandant of the Force Publique”. In addition to Roger, a number of other Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers were also dispatched. They became the core of the all European officer corps.

In addition to the Belgian officers, there was a mixture of Belgian regular soldiers and mercenaries from other countries. These men were attracted to the prospect of wealth and adventure. They rounded out the higher level ranks and positions of real authority.

Paid Soldiers

Serving under the White European officers was an ethnically-mixed African soldiery. Over time, these soldiers became comparable to the soldiers fielded by other colonial powers. But, where did these soldiers come from?

Many of these soldiers were either recruited or drafted from “warrior tribes” in the area. In other words, many of the same tribes that we revere for their fighting prowess were some of the same people whole subjugated their fellow black people to brutality under the colonizers. Instead of fighting to defend their homelands from outside invaders, these black mercenaries helped them to invade Africa and raid its resources.

Their primary roles were to defend Free State territory and to “pacify” the local population. In the course of fulfilling the first role, the Force Publique defeated the African and Arab slavers during the Congo–Arab War (1892–1894). As for the second, they pacified the local populace through extreme violence and fear. The atrocities abound.

Atrocities

As the enforcement arm Leopold II, the Force Publique was accurately described as an “exceptionally brutal army”. However, I think that is a really high level perspective and bears a bit more exploration. First of all, why so brutal? As I mentioned before, it was largely about the money. It was about meeting the rubber quotas set by Leopold’s regime. However, we mustn’t forget that much of it was due to the zealousness of black puppets anxious to please their white masters.

Forced Quotas

Force Publique soldiers went to great lengths to make sure that the slave laborers hit the rubber quotas. And, they had many tried and true methods of making that happen. They did everything from whipping to mutilation to outright murder in cold blood. Without constraints, it was common for Congolese women to suffer sexual assaults at the hands of the Force Publique.

The ‘Chicote’ or whip made of hippo hide was a common tool to mete out punishment in the Congo. Those who didn’t work hard enough or simply displayed the wrong attitude were beaten with this whip. It was similar to the kurbash of the Sudan. This particular form of whip, however, and its name – chicote – was invented by the 18th century Portuguese slave-traders.

Abuse

If they viewed the residents of a village as being resistant, they would not hesitate to burn those villages to the ground. A common tactic in wars, these soldiers treated civilians who resisted as combatants. The goal here was to destroy anything that could be useful to them. It served a dual purpose. On one hand, it cut resistance to their efforts. And, on the other hand, it sent a potent message to any other villages that considered resisting.

Perhaps the most cruel form of abuse came in the form of physical mutilation by cutting off hands.There is a mountain of evidence, including photographs, that Force Publique soldiers regularly cut off human hands. They are cited as having several different reasons for doing so;

• Sick individuals to body parts as trophies
• to show that bullets had not been wasted
• to punish parents for not working hard enough

Trophies

Believe it or not, many of these “warrior tribes” that these soldiers cam from practiced human trophy collecting. Simply put, it meant the acquisition of human body parts as trophy, usually as war trophy. Essentially, the intent may have been to demonstrate dominance, humiliate or intimidate the enemy, to prove one’s body count in battle, or boast their prowess and achievements to their peers. However, in reality, it was more of a display of the cowardice we often see in situations of lopsided power. As strong as them tried to appear, their actions reveled the opposite.

Wasted Ammo

The Belgians kept strict accountability of ammunition in the Congo. Each and every round had to be accounted for. In other words, if a soldier claimed to have shot someone for whatever reason, they had to present evidence of having killed someone. The evidence, in this case, was the hand of the person that they claimed to have shot to death. The problem is that soldiers often did not hit what they aimed at. As a consequence, it was common for them to remove the hand of an innocent victim to present as evidence.

Parental Punishment

If it isn’t bad enough to fear mutilation for yourself, imagine being a parent fearing it for your child. Imagine the level of pressure you would experience if your child were simply in danger. Now, imagine that danger being tied to your performance. This is what many of the Congolese parents had to suffer through. There are tons of photos showing children missing their hands as a result of the parents being unable to meet the demands placed upon them.

Government Intervention

Eventually, and due to external pressure, the Belgian government became involved.

Witness testimony established the facts of abuse along with on-site inspection by an international commission of inquiry. They included the findings in the 1904 Casement Report. Modern estimates put the possible total number of Congolese deaths of as high as 15 million people. However, the consensus puts that number at around 10 million. In 1908, under pressure from the Congo Reform Association and other international groups, the Belgian government to took over the administration of the Congo from King Leopold II making it a true Belgian colony, Belgian Congo. However, even under Belgian colonial rule, true change was slow in coming to the Congo.

King Leopold II’s Legacy

Over time, writers are shining more and more light on King Leopold II’s true legacy. In the past, history glossed over or covered up much of what he did in the Congo. However, bold writers outed him on several occasions. One writer to shine a light on his atrocities was American writer Mark Twain. His King Leopold’s Soliloquy is a pamphlet that he published in 1905. It featured King Leopold II’s rule over the Congo Free State as the subject.

King Philippe of Belgium

The current King of the Belgians, King Philippe, expressed his deepest regrets regarding the atrocities committed by his people in the Congo. Perhaps, it would have been more meaningful had it been accompanied with financial restitution for the resources, both in raw materials and in human capital, that his country stole.

What’s worse is that in expressing his regrets, King Philippe never mentioned the atrocities of his ancestor. It was a subtle way of addressing it without taking ownership. In my opinion, an apology without ownership is a moot point. It will take much more than that to atone for the wounds of the past.

Royal Museum for Central Africa

The Royal Museum for Central Africa is Belgium’s royal museum. Another name for the facility is the AfricaMuseum. In it, you can find remnants of and ode to Belgium’s colonial past. Many describe as an ethnography and natural history museum. Situated just outside of Brussels, the museum is located in Tervuren. Initially, King Leopold II built the museum to showcase the Congo Free State in the International Exposition of 1897.