The Real Heart of Darkness
This post is for February 22nd
Leopold II (1835-1909) Born and died in Brussels, Belgium was the king of Belgium and the founder of the Congo Free State; later the Belgium Congo.
As the first king of an independent Belgium from the Netherlands. His ascension to the throne in 1865 made him intent on finding ways to increase his wealth and power abroad. His first focus was seeking his fame in the far east, but the tales of a traveller, Henry Morton Stanley twarted his attention to the Congo end of Central Africa.
Leopold and his organized team set up to develop Central Africa. With the hired help of Mr. Stanley, in 1876, an expedition to the Congo River began. Stanley did his job well and by 1884, he had set up treaties with 450 local cheiftains on the king's behalf. Railroads and roads were a few of the developments the Congo basin gained for the exchange of rubber, cobalt, diamonds, ivory, and copper to Europe. Leopold II was seen as the sovereign of the Congo Free State by the Berlin West African Conference (1884-1885). He promised the other european powers, (as they ruled Africa) that "He wanted to being civilization and trade into the center of Africa".
The Congo Free State became his personal empire or hobby really, he granted contracts to various companies for mining,rubber tapping and business endeavours. To the locals, this marked a tragic time in their history. A hell on earth so to speak.
Their land was taken from them. They were forced to work for these endeavours and the brutality of Leopold's military resulted in a generation of missing limps. Those that failed to work hard enough in these gruesome conditions of mining and rubber tapping were forced with amputation of limps or their loved ones lost their arms and legs, usually the young and old and women were the targets of this unimaginable hell. These limps were generally burned in a massive bombfire to instill a fear into the workers. Disease, starvation, exhaustion took the lives of the many men forced to work in the ivory and and rubber plantations of Leopold's reign. With time, (by 1901) information of this brutality were too much to ignore.
As much as Europe was satisfied with the supply of rubber, ivory and other Congo exports, the conditions were too much to be ignored. after all, how can one be sure of the consistent flow if the people meant to work these lands were slowing being massacred? International protest in 1906, forced Leopold to bring modern reform to the state and the staggering debt and failing health forced Leopold II to hand over his empire to Belgian government in 1908. He died in 1909. The Congo basin was annexed and slowly the wealth and prosperity returned to the locals. The were still treated like children to be protected but the indigenous people with wages and economic welfare was so stable, they experienced the best living conditions for black africans in African during the post World War II.
[Marlow]: "Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency--the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea." (1.13). Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
I remember reading the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and feeling as if the story only went so far. The terror that this riverboat instructor wrote seemed a little censored and I couldn't understand why it gave me such a pull to know more. Of course the teachers only went so far with giving you the full background for this novella and advised to think of the novella significance in the symbolism of good and evil and analysis of character development. It wasn't until my own curiousity took the best of me that I discovered the real heart of darkness.
This post is to pay tribute to the generation of Congo's that were hugely significant to the prosperity of Europe's grandeur. It is also to provide another example, not at all justifying the current conditions of the Congo, but an insight to the many reasons why the country is how it is.
