His last appearance in the Congo produced a profound sensation among them, when he led 500 Zanzibar soldiers with 300 camp followers on his way to relieve EMIN PASHA. It has been fabricated by a Congolese, and circulates on the Internet already for years. history of African Americans. G. W. Williams, "An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King A few hours later the Procurer-General searched his room and found many more stolen bottles of wine and other things, not the property of servants. In 1904, Chief Lontulu laid 110 twigs in front of a foreign commission. 2016 KineticsLive.com. But instead King Leopold II unleashed new horrors on the African continent. and more. ), and I was doomed to bitter disappointment. Open letter to King Leopold on Congo - Scribd When natives have persisted in trading with the trade-companies the State has punished their independence by burning the villages in the vicinity of the trading houses and driving the natives away. SECOND.Your Majestys Government has established nearly fifty posts, consisting of from two to eight mercenary slave-soldiers from the East Coast. Mr. H. M. STANLEY, the man who was your chief agent in setting up your authority in this country, has grossly misrepresented the character of the country. These black soldiers, many of whom are slaves, exercise the power of life and death. The laws printed and circulated in Europe for the Protection of the blacks in the Congo, are a dead letter and a fraud. I have no adequate terms with which to depict to your Majesty the brutal acts of your soldiers upon such raids as these. Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they wont revolt when the recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parents teachings. They were the very first royal family of Belgium, because the country was just 5 years old. They make no report as to the number of robberies they commit, or the number of lives they take; they are only required to subsist upon the natives and thus relieve your Majestys Government of the cost of feeding them. I now would I base this appeal upon the terms of Article 36 of Chapter VII of the General Act of the Conference of Berlin, in which that august assembly of Sovereign States reserved to themselves the right to introduce into it later and by common accord the modifications or ameliorations, the utility of which may be demonstrated experience. It may be safely asserted that no barbarous people have ever so readily adopted the fostering care of benevolent enterprise, as have the tribes of the Congo, and never was there a more honest and practical effort made to increase their knowledge and secure their welfare. comprehensive, reliable, and accurate information concerning the They thought it meant complete subjugation, and they fled in confusion. Follow us @kineticslive, Milestone: BMORENEWS.coms 10th Anniversary: 12/12/12 :: EARLY REGISTRATION, Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz) (16841706) Saint of Congo. Under Leopold IIs administration, the Congo Free State became one of the greatest international scandals of the early 20th century. This is the words a letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to colonial missionaries in 1883: "Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots: The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate and requires much tact. From Leopoldville to NGombe, a distance of more than 300 miles, there is not a single soldier or civilian. It afforded me great pleasure to avail myself of the opportunity afforded me last year, of visiting your State in Africa; and how thoroughly I have been disenchanted, disappointed and disheartened, it is now my painful duty to make known to your Majesty in plain but respectful language. An open letter is a critical letter that is addressed to a particular person but is intentionally leaked to the public. am teaching history. Make them pay tax each week at Sunday mass. I have personally witnessed and examined their clumsy operations. As I write, the news reaches me that these much- treasured and long-looked for materials of war are to be discharged at Basoko, and the Resident here is to be given the discretion as to the distribution of them. Blackpast is a collection of Documents and This letter was accessed through the Keen on establishing Belgium as an imperial power, he led the first European efforts to develop the Congo River basin, making possible the formation in 1885 of the . Se continui ad utilizzare questo sito noi assumiamo che tu ne sia felice. I cannot deal with the dimensions of these prisons in this letter, but will do so in my report to my Government. 1 had never been able to conceive of Europeans, establishing a government in a tropical country, without building a hospital; and yet from the mouth of the Congo River to its head-waters, here at the seventh cataract, a distance of 1,448 miles, there is not a solitary hospital for Europeans, and only three sheds for sick Africans in the service of the State, not fit to be occupied by a horse. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. within the next 4 years and I would like to use information like this when I do begin my After having been impressed by meeting King Leopold II of Belgium, he traveled in 1890 to the Congo Free State ( then owned by the king) to see its development. History's deadliest king - Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja | TED-Ed For this work the Arab Governor is to receive five hundred stands of arms, five thousand kegs of powder, and 20,000 sterling, to he paid in several instalments. . The website is In 1890 he wrote an Open Letter to King Leopold. The other method is by capturing native women and condemning them to seven years servitude for some imaginary crime against the State with which the villages of these women are charged. This letter is in a UK documentary about King Leopold. I was anxious to see to what extent the natives had adopted the fostering care of your Majestys benevolent enterprise (? There are from sixty to seventy officers of the Belgian army in the service of your Majestys Government in the Congo of whom only about thirty are at their post; the other half are in Belgium on furlough. Your white men sicken and die in their quarters or on the caravan road, and seldom have Christian burial. maintained by a Webmaster Stanbery 'Stanley' Foster III, who works for the State of career. The labour system is radically unpractical; the soldiers and labourers of your Majestys Government are very largely imported from Zanzibar at a cost of 10 per capita, and from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Accra and Lagos at from 1 to 1/10 per capita. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Under Leopold II's administration, the Congo Free State became one of the greatest international scandals of the early 20th century. Dont give him more than one cigarette. in order to generate constructive change in our society. It afforded me great pleasure to avail myself of the opportunity afforded me last year, of visiting your State in Africa; and how thoroughly I have been disenchanted, disappointed and disheartened, it is now my painful duty to make known to your Majesty in plain but respectful language. These poor creatures are frequently beaten with a dried piece of hippopotamus skin, called a chicote, and usually the blood flows at every stroke when well laid on. congo-1890 5 , page 13 As to the significance of this move Europe and America can judge without any comment from me, especially England. George Washington Williams | Ohio Statehouse about the fact that he disagreed with the practice and that he wanted the King to put a 6 Ibid, page 6 There is a feeling of deep discontent among the Arabs here, and they seem to feel that they are being trifled with. George Washington Williams(October 16, 1849 August 2, 1891) was a soldier in the American Civil War and in Mexico before becoming a Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, journalist, and writer on African-American history. The letter helped sway European and American public opinion against the Congo regime. Using eyewitness accounts, letters, and official records, Williams became the first to shatter the kings carefully cultivated image of his rule of the African territory. Every charge which I am about to bring against your Majestys personal Government in the Congo has been carefully investigated; a list of competent and veracious witnesses, documents, letters, official records and data has been faithfully prepared, which will be deposited with Her Britannic Majestys Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, until such time as an International Commission can be created with power to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, and attest the truth or falsity of these charges. The soldiers who open the combat are usually the bloodthirsty cannibalistic Bangalas, who give no quarter to the aged grandmother or nursing child at the breast of its mother. The State then hires these woman out to the highest bidder, the officers having the first choice and then the men. 8. An open letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold III, King of the Belgians Leopold's Open Letter (Document A) The following is an excerpt from an open (public) letter written by King Leopold to all Belgian agents working in the Congo. But of all the awful crimes they committed, Belgiums King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all. I was a little shocked reading some of the But the cruelties visited upon soldiers and workmen are not to be compared with the sufferings of the poor natives who, upon the slightest pretext, are thrust into the wretched prisons here in the Upper River. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make you murderous competition and dream one day to overthrow you. 1 had never been able to conceive of Europeans, establishing a government in a tropical country, without building a hospital; and yet from the mouth of the Congo River to its head-waters, here at the seventh cataract, a distance of 1,448 miles, there is not a solitary hospital for Europeans, and only three sheds for sick Africans in the service of the State, not fit to be occupied by a horse. From these general observations I wish now to pass to specific charges against your Majestys Government. Anyway, if you could find a proven original? buying and selling of people both men, women and even children. George Washington Williams, An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo By Colonel, The Honorable Geo.
Parikiaki Newspaper Deaths Today,
Cucumber Smell Outside At Night,
States That Have Banned Facial Recognition,
Richard Stone Columbia Law,
More Weapons Datapack,
Articles O
