Tag: Leopold II

George Washington Williams: The Man Who Exposed King Leopold II for his Crimes Against Humanity in Congo

On By Dr. Y.In Great People4 Comments
George Washington Williams

The world came to know the truth about King Leopold II, the Belgian King who killed millions of Congolese, thanks to George Washington Williams, an African American missionary, lawyer, and writer, who visited the Congo. It is said that King Leopold II must have executed and maimed over 15 million Congolese people!

Painting of George Washington Williams addressing the Ohio State Legislature. Williams was the first African-American elected to the Ohio State Legislature, serving one term 1880 to 1881 (Source: Ohio Statehouse, Wikipedia)

George Washington Williams is an unsung hero who in today’s terms would be called a whistle blower. He was born free in 1849 in the state of Pennsylvania in America to free African American parents. He ran away at an early age and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was an American soldier, historian, Baptist clergyman, politician, lawyer, and lecturer. He served in the Ohio General Assembly from 1880 to 1881, becoming the first African American to be elected to the Ohio State Legislature. He was the first person to write an objective, researched history of Blacks in America. His first book, History of the Negro Race in America (1882), is one of the most important contributions any American has made to the field, as he showed African American participation and contributions from the earliest days of the colonies. He wrote other books on the history of the United States Colored Troops and African-American participation in the American Civil War, A History of Negro Troops in the War of Rebellion (1887).

In The Rubber Coils. Scene - The Congo 'Free' State" Linley Sambourne depicts King Leopold II of Belgium as a snake entangling a congolese rubber collector
In The Rubber Coils. Scene – The Congo ‘Free’ State” Linley Sambourne depicts King Leopold II of Belgium as a snake entangling a congolese rubber collector

In the late 1880s, after meeting King Leopold II of Belgium in Europe and being impressed by his ‘benevolent enterprise’ in the Congo, Williams traveled to the Congo Free State, then a property of the King, in 1890. He was shocked by the widespread brutal abuses, atrocities, forced labor, torture, murder, kidnapping, physical mutilation, and slavery imposed on the Congolese for the rubber quota. The king employed a private militia to enforce rubber production, back then rubber was like gold. What Williams witnessed was so outrageous that he wrote “An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo” on July 18, 1890 about the suffering of the Congolese people. In his letter, he used the term “crimes against humanity,” term used for the first time, and it became a catalyst for an international outcry against the brutality of King Leopold II. He followed the open letter by “A Report Upon the Congo-State and Country to the President of the Republic of the United States.” In the letter, he mentioned the role played by explorer Henry Morton Stanley in deceiving and maltreating the local Congolese; to think that some places were even named after Stanley such as Stanleyville – now Kisangani and Stanley Falls – now Boyoma Falls! Williams reminded the King that the crimes committed were all committed in his name, making him as guilty as the perpetrators. He appealed to the international community of the day to “call and create an International Commission to investigate the charges herein preferred in the name of Humanity …“.

George Washington Williams (Source: Wikipedia)

Like with all whistle blowers in history, King Leopold II and his supporters tried to discredit Williams, but Williams continued to speak out about the abuses in the Congo Free State, helping to generate actions in Belgium and the international community.  Unfortunately, George Washington Williams died just a year after, in 1891, while traveling from Africa to England. However, the seeds he planted with his open letter led the Belgian government to take over supervising the Congo Free State and to try to improve treatment of the Congolese. The Congo Free State was then reconstituted as a new territory, the Belgian Congo, which as history goes did not fare much better.

100 years later, the successor to Leopold II, Belgian King Expressed ‘Deepest Regrets’ for Colonial Past in Congo, and two years later, King Philippe of Belgium’s Visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Today, not much has changed in Congo: armed thugs still run the place, people are still brutalized and enslaved, fortunes are still being made by international corporations. Back then it was rubber, today it is coltan, gold, cobalt,  diamonds, and much more. The Geological Scandal that is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Congo is still at the heart of the New Scramble for Africa.

Check out these websites: Leopold II, When you kill 10 million Africans you aren’t called Hitler, and this article from The Guardian. To learn more about George Washington Williams, read out from the Ohio Statehouse, PostNews, and We’re History.  Immense thanks to John Hope Franklin, who wrote the biography of George Washington Williams restoring his place in history, Franklin, John Hope, George Washington Williams: A Biography, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985; Reprint, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998.

Belgian King Expresses ‘Deepest Regrets’ for Colonial Past in Congo

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People4 Comments
Belgian Congo_Genocide_Leopold II
King Leopold II

It took over 100 years for a Belgian King to finally ‘express his deepest regrets‘ for Belgium’s colonial past in Congo. As we recall, King Leopold II of Belgium perpetrated a genocide in Congo.  Leopold II took Congo, a country at least 10 times the size of Belgium, as his private property and killed millions of Congolese. It is said that he must have executed and maimed over 15 million people!

 

So now, Belgian King Philippe wrote a letter to the president of Congo Felix Tshisekedi, on 30 June 2020, the anniversary of the Independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo, stating: “During the time of the Congo Free State [1885-1908], acts of violence and brutality were committed that weigh still on our collective memory. The colonial period that followed also caused suffering and humiliations. I would like to express my deepest regrets for the wounds of the past, the pain of today, which is rekindled by the discrimination all too present in our society.” His remarks fell short of an apology! Should we applaud for this?

 

Belgian Congo_Genocide2
Picture of men holding cut-off hands (image by Alice S. Harris in Baringa 1904)

I say NO! To the Belgian King, I say you can eat your “deepest regrets”! Many are calling this progress, but I call this arrogance to wake up one day, and finally say, “I regret the past. Yes…, my grandfather committed acts of violence and brutality, killed your fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, … maimed your forefathers, decapitated so many of you … instilled fear into your psyche… destroyed your livelihood, your culture, and the entire foundation of your society.”

 

And so what? That’s it? Should we clap for you? where is the apology? Didn’t you think we knew that already? Where is the reparation? Don’t you know that Belgium is nothing without Congo? Coincidentally, King Philippe forgot to include the period following that time, from 1908 to the independence of Congo, and then to nowadays with the treacherous role played by Belgium in the assassination of the Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and countless others, and the unrest in the region to this day.

Patrice_Lumumba_official_portrait
Official portrait of Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo

And to stand up there, and say I “express my deepest regrets for the wounds of the past”… it’s like Hitler waking up today, and telling Holocaust survivors and their descendants, “I killed you, jailed your parents, forced you into exile, brought fear into your souls, and decimated every part of you… I regret it. What can you about it? ” It is simply arrogant! … It is just too easy. Until there is a clear “I am sorry”, until there is a clear “here is what we will do to right the wrongs,” until there is a clear “correction and inclusion in the history textbooks, opening of all classified documents”…. until there is a clear “respect for those killed, and for those living today” until then, there will be no respect for arrogant kings who claim to have been awaken by George Floyd’s killing in the USA and not the atrocities they themselves committed in Congo!

We, the people of Congo, cannot forget… we cannot forget that the unrest in Congo today is a direct result of the atrocities committed by Belgium in the region. We cannot forget the souls of our ancestors who still cry to us for justice today.

 

King Leopold II and The Congolese Genocide

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments3 Comments

Today, we will talk about Leopold II, the Belgian King, who killed millions of Congolese. Most people know about Hitler. Before Hitler, there was Leopold II. Very few know about this, but Leopold II should be known as a Hitler, or even worse than Hitler, but then again, that is if people consider Congolese (Black people) as people. He forced Congolese into hard labor, so hard that some died from exhaustion, and if they rebelled they were maimed, killed, or enslaved. It is said that he must have executed and maimed over 15 million people! Check out these websites: Leopold II, When you kill 10 million Africans you aren’t called Hitler, and this article from The Guardian.