THE CONGO
FIRST IMPRESSION: As of now, April 6th, I know absolutely nothing about the Congo. I am not sure if it is a dance, culture, or place. I know it is probably about Africa, so it's probably a place or event.
FIRST IMPRESSION: Based off context clues I assume it's a place that has been effected by European colonist effecting the place's resources and has a negative impact on the lives and culture of the people who resided there
Upon first research, The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a place, more specifically, it's a country In central Africa
SO QUESTIONS: Well, what's the history of the place? What's the culture? The traditional roles surrounding men and women, if there are any, and how did they view gender? What is the food like?
I don't know much, if anything at all about Africa, the culture the language the people, it's all avoid of knowledge for me, sadly
Analyzing some of the Congonese proverbs, there's a great emphasis on family and peace, acknlowding peace may be needed through fighting/war, and that family is the most important values to an indivual,
There's also exist possible misogyny in the culture, since one of the proverbs includes the fact unmarried, single women belond to their fathers, and married women belong to her husbands, and the existince of "belonging" to another person, and the emphasis of the men owning these women heavily suggests a higher value on men, and the idea of ownership over women, meaning objectifcation before colonization interference on culture
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I was correct in my assumption, but not in detail of how devasting colonization took place, and how it took place. King Leopold forcibily took over the Congo, naming it a state in his ownership, killed, raped, assulated, these people, made zoos of their culture, objectifying and dehumanizing them and subjecting to what can only be desercibed as a savage brutality and a devasting combination of crimes against humanity undergoing for years, leaving a horrible wound on Africa and the rest of the world we have still not healed from
An exmaple of this which stands out to me, is the fact King Lepold had told the world, and to these enslaved people he was teaching them how to work, and they were "lazy", but he was actually working them until their deaths, pitiing them in horrible conditions and extreme to impossible tasks that were painful in of in itself, which if the idea of lazy black people was not already existing, he popularized and helped introgereate this negative steroype that exists to this day, one example of the harm his actions have done, and what makes it worse, is there was an understanding these people who were forced to work, had to work hard or die, so there was also a common phrase of "working like a slave", so these phrases coexisting meant there was an understanding how purposefuly misconstrued the idea of "lazy" Africans, and was just used to justifiy the crimes done against them for Leopold's own benefit
The Congo is a place in Africa, yes, it's a large mass of area in Africa, next to rivers with plenty of resources that allowed various and many groups to survive and thrive, building empires as time went on, seeing as many empires in Africa did the same thing, it's safe to assume Congo was also a place of trade thanks to its plentiful resources and land, most likely benefiting form gold and iron,
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For who forcibly had taken the Congo, that was King Leopold of Belgium, who fun fact, was a pedophile, who while benefitting from the riches of ivory and rubber made off of the killed, suffering forcibly enslaved people, was known to fancy young girls (10-15 year old virgins) and when finally exposed for his crimes against humanity, burned the estate saying quote "they have no right to know what I did there", which speaks volumes of his character if everything he already did was not enough
An interesting fact, or tell of the culture existing then (and to some degree, even now) in European countries, his own dislike of his wife and daughter cost him more popularity than his actual crimes against humanity, which, again, speaks volumes of the kind of culture that existed that helped Leopold did what he had done, making the effect of the culture/society and interesting debate to consider in the context of Leopold
Villagers in the Congo rebelled, as any oprresed group does, resisting opression in various ways, including refusing orders, to which they would be killed in front of everyone, as one account of Illang of Wandiendo village, 1900 descrived how after being forced to walk for literal days, refused to walk more, was stabbed by the guns of the men, killed in front of the group, and left in the plains to rot
They also rebelled by an attempt to take over the colony taking up arms and taking over a section of the colony, even being merciful to on of their opressors by letting them live, what came of this isn't clear, but by the fact it took 3 journalist and numerous attempts to show the horrors of the Congo, and public backlash is what made Leopold stop, probably is not much, not their own fault
Notably, is that much like other cases of sever, unjust savage brutality towards fellow man, they was false justifcation conjured, but this time, it was emphasis as not as an act of god, but from the goodness of Leopold's heart who spoke of building churches and schools, of course lies, but it is to be noted how Leopold first ensured a solid public relation, what can be concluded from this depends
You can conclude that that meant Leopold was fully aware of the horrors, along with the many, amny men carrying out his dirtywork, and to make sure public wasn't made aware, he made sure to keep up the illusion of "goodwill", you can conclude he wanted to benefit from the Congo until his grave, and would not give it up easily if he's putting that much work into ensuring no one stops him, one can conclude many things about this in of itself, and all above is what I deem true
What About Modern Day Congo? How are other countries in Africa grappling with the impacts forced colonization has upon them?
Present day and first Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba gave a speech at the Assembly of African Peoples, a pan African Conference, and at the time (December 11, 1958) about his hopes and dreams for the future, detailing how he wanted for all of Africa recgonization as independent, separate from European influence, obliterating racism and tribalism, continued alliance with other African leaders and unity as a continent to work together, as well as ensuring no other countries or peoples falls prey to colonization or unwanted influence from other countries
What happened post-Leopold?
1911-1960 Belgians, having paid for the colony after Leopold "gave it up", (though still become a shareholder ensuring he still profited money of off Congo until his death, despite the thousands of dollars he had already made and hidden in various organizations and locations), run a "model colony", inputting systems to prefer white European culture, and a tiny European elite controlled "the economic and political power of the Belgian labor while Africans continued to provide most of the labor with minimal rift for themselves"
Attempts to reconstruct Congolese society (while still inputting indirect Belgium control) had mixed results, one important one was trying to restore power to traditional chefs, failed, a great example of the effect of Leopold's colonization, or rather any colonization onto other peoples and countries, because of the tall death count, and decades of abuse, traditional values and family relationships and economic relationships were destroyed-- the basis of chiefly power
However, one result was bringing modern medicine, 80% receiving modern treatment and stopping spread of disease, missionaries creating primary educations for English literacy (though, purposely ignored African values, stories, and culture, and instead valued European)
Also notable, while the people had farmland to villages control, white owned corporations continued to control majority of land, and taking and benefitting from natural resources, the "model colony", was nothing but tossing a few crumbs to the people while still implanting racist systems and government to benefit Belgium FIRST and foremost
Patrice Lumumba
On December 11, 1958, 34 year old Patrice Lumumba, president of the Congolese National Movement, spoke at the Assembly of African Peoples, an international Pan African Conference sponsored by Kwame Nkrumah, the Prime Minister of newly independent Ghana. Two years later Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the Congo.
Modern Congo and Africa
Resistence
Patrice Lumumba was assassinated out of intimidation around his goals and determination, to see not only his Congo, but all of Africa prosper, and while he is not around anymore, his image sparks hope in what people can accomplishing, his death fimrly making him a symbol of what Africa can be and what they are striving for,