The limbs weren’t only the workers, but the wives and children of the workers, to make them work harder. King Leopold should be punished for the actions and hardship that he made the people of Congo go through, and how many lives were innocent lives were lost. Another piece of evidence that King Leopold was abusing the Congo people is “When quotas were not met, beatings by the chicotte (whip) were common, as was the practice of taking women and children hostage to force their husbands to meet the tax.” (Background Essay.) This is just another example that King Leopold went to far to get what he wanted, and that he didn’t
The quotes is an interpretation of the late 1800’s King Leopold enforced ivory raids through military force of trade, capture, and/or killing to expand his colony. King Leopold exploitative traits of African men, women, and children as porters calling them “volunteers” were harsh and cruel amongst the land. Volunteers were treated as slaves, who were once natives of the capital of Leopold’s Congo in Boma. Many of the mercenaries in Leopold’s army that were black were known as “liberated men” set to serve under the Force Publique.
The Congolese were threatened by the Force Publique—the military control the Belgians introduced into the Congo—and taken from their homes. They were dragged down the road, tied at the neck so they could not escape, and taken away to become slaves. The soldiers beat the Congolese, offered them no food to eat, and killed those who refused to walk (Canisius, 250-256). The Belgian control over the Congo put the lives of all the natives in imminent danger. They were threatened and treated as commodities, not people.
The family, whether they realized it or not, were contributing to the ignorant ideals of the white man 's burden. They had originally came to the Congo to Christianize the African villagers, which overall was a political and social tactic to control the continent through imperialism. In this book, the author includes many different perspectives of this concept, including points of view from the common villagers, Nathan, the daughters, and even figures such as the Kilanga chief, Tata Ndu. Although Kingsolver doesn 't write chapters from these people 's points of view, their opinions and attitudes towards the Price family and the notion of the “white man’s burden” are presented clear enough for the reader to understand the effects of imperialism. All of family members have different opinions on what they see in the Congo, therefore they are all contributing to the White Man’s Burden in differing
The effects were devastating. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death. Thousands of Congolese fled their villages to avoid being impressed as forced laborer’s, and they sought refuge deep in the forest, where there were little food and shelter. Tens of thousands of others were shot down in failed rebellions against the regime. With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops.
Inspiration and Rewriting: ““Recitatif”” and “The Thing in the Forest” In both stories, two little girls are the main character of the story, they both have a strong bond that enforces their strength throughout the story. ““Recitatif”” written by Toni Morrison is a short story that revolves about the lives of two young, Twyla and Roberta girls that meet each other in an orphanage after they were taken away from their mothers due to the lack of parenting care they needed. As the story goes, they grow up an find their selves together again, but the worriment from their past starts to haunt them. Two other girls older than them had pushed a mute woman down the stairs.
Things got so bad with the natives that revolts began, only to lead to the deaths of up to 10 million natives(Hochschild 5), due to being worked to death or killed for resisting. No matter how many times the natives tried to put an end to this slavery, it always made things worse for them. Leopold's soldiers needed to prove that they were not wasting ammo by showing their commander the severed hand of whoever they fired a round at(Dummett 2). If they did not show their commander a hand, they would be severely beaten or sometimes killed, this only led to the soldiers killing innocent victims to avoid punishment(Dummett
Additionally, since they were unable to resist European colonization, Africans were forced to collect sap from rubber plants and were mutilated were they not to harvest rubber. Because of this abuse, millions of Congolese died. Therefore, the Congo managed poorly in reaction to European colonization since they were unable to fight back at all, which also lead to the mutilation and death of millions. However, the Congo was not the only place that inadequately fared in
When Belgium colonized Congo, the Congolese people’s world quickly changed from the past, influencing their lives heavily. Ten to twenty-three million people died during Leopold’s rule from 1885 to 1908 (Kenneth). The Congolese people weren’t treated fairly and faced many hardships. Most Congolese people died because of King Leopold’s treatment, including war, starvation, forced labor and disease(Bland). This goes to show how poorly King Leopold treated the people and how he didn’t care about the Congolese people, only the reward.
In this document, the author condemned the conditions of African people in the Belgian Congo, reconnecting them to the presence of European powers in the territory. This excerpt is extremely important because it makes us better understand the status of African people, subdued by European nations, and how the concept of slavery was perceived and addressed by European activists and thinkers. While he was working for a Liverpool shipping firm in Brussels, Morel noticed that the Belgian ships directed to Congo carried guns, chains, and ammunition, and they came back from the colony with rubber, ivory, and other valuable goods. From this observation, Morel assumed that King Leopold II’s colony was relying on slavery . To protest against this practice, Morel wrote “The Black’s Man Burden” as a response to Rudyard Kipling’s poem
Through this label of inequality, Europeans could calm their conscience and treat Africans brutally, almost as if they were lower than animals. The purpose of the course is to elaborate on the African myth and to bring to light the true Africa. This film reveals the history of Africa and in turn, defiles the Dark Continent
As noted in the film, the extraction of natural resources and the overwhelming reliance on human labor to substitute the work of machinery ultimately gives rise to the development of power within these cultural communities. Although these people never consciously recognized the power within their societies, their joint efforts and opposition to the dominance of the French served as the foundation for the development of their societal power. With this new understanding, they sought reasoning for the exploitation, misery, and mass murder of their peoples by uniting all villages and demanding justification and ownership of their rightful property. The overwhelming dehumanization of African villagers served to foster the rise of power within their cultural communities, leading to justifiable resistance of foreign
The amount of destruction that occurred in the Congo was outrageous. Eight to ten million lives were taken during the worldwide movement against slave labor that took place in the Congo. (Hochschild, 3) Between 1880 and 1920 the Congo population was slashed in half. There was around ten million victims that were affected by murder, starvation, exhaustion, exposure, disease, and the plummeting birth rate. During this time the United States and Europe were unaware of this extreme carnage.
Throughout the novella, Marlow chases Kurtz, who is seen as a great man and a genius, deeper into the jungle. However, similar to how a robot can become self-aware, Kurtz slowly understands the reality of his actions and the corruption of the white imperialist system that he is part of. Kurtz is described as more of a voice and less of a man. His final words, “The horror! The horror!”
Kurtz, allowing readers to see the overall madness recurring. Conrad uses specific diction to force readers to imagine the madness that must be going through Mr.Kurtz mind because of his geographical surroundings. Furthermore, Marlow disturbingly states “the air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine... deserted, into the gloom.”
