When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’

[polly7]

June 1, 2015 by True Activist


By Liam O’Ceallaigh / walkingbutterfly.com via FilmsForAction

Take a look at this picture. Do you know who it is?

Most people haven’t heard of him.

But you should have. When you see his face or hear his name you should get as sick in your stomach as when you read about Mussolini or Hitler or see one of their pictures. You see, he killed over 10 million people in the Congo.

His name is King Leopold II of Belgium.

He “owned” the Congo during his reign as the constitutional monarch of Belgium. After several failed colonial attempts in Asia and Africa, he settled on the Congo. He “bought” it and enslaved its people, turning the entire country into his own personal slave plantation. He disguised his business transactions as “philanthropic” and “scientific” efforts under the banner of the International African Society. He used their enslaved labor to extract Congolese resources and services. His reign was enforced through work camps, body mutilations, executions, torture, and his private army.

Most of us – I don’t yet know an approximate percentage but I fear its extremely high – aren’t taught about him in school. We don’t hear about him in the media. He’s not part of the widely repeated narrative of oppression (which includes things like the Holocaust during World War II). He’s part of a long history of colonialism, imperialism, slavery and genocide in Africa that would clash with the social construction of the white supremacist narrative in our schools. It doesn’t fit neatly into a capitalist curriculum. Making overtly racist remarks is (sometimes) frowned upon in polite society, but it’s quite fine not to talk about genocides in Africa perpetrated by European capitalist monarchs

Mark Twain's satire about Leopold, called “King Leopold’s soliloquy; a defense of his Congo rule“,

Full article: http://www.trueactivist.com/when-you-kill-ten-million-africans-you-arent-called-hitler/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TrueActivist+%28True+Activist%29

[malthaussen]

1. Yeah, I know him.

Harsh truth, you know: when non-whites are exterminated by the millions, nobody talks about genocide. Consider, for example, the hardly-remembered Taiping Rebellion.

-- Mal

[polly7]

2. I had to refresh my memory on this .................... horrifying loss of life. nt.

[heaven05]

3. thank you

I read of him years ago, glad to read that people are still on to this racist's game. Black people dying in the millions mean nothing to euro-centric descriptions of history. Look how long it took to admit to the millions killed during the 'Middle Passage' in america's slave holding/trading history. Yeah the same, the world over.

[polly7]

8. It's heartbreaking.

I think our education systems are deleting or ignoring more and more of this history. As hard as it is to see, it's so important, and kids need to know, imo. You can't understand a nation - or continent - and its people unless you know what they've been through, even if it is years and years ago. It's the same reason I'd like to see images and reports of wars in the ME and Africa on the news - so much suffering, we're giving a false image of the world to our children by not showing it to them.

[heaven05]

20. +1000

[erpowers]

21. A Science Teacher

One of my high school science teachers would always mention the difference between how people treated the Holocaust and the Middle Passage. He would say people are always talking about how Hitler killed six million Jews, but no one talks about the tens of millions of Africans who died during the Middle Passage. He was the only teacher I recall ever talking about the Middle Passage while I was in high school. I also did not hear about the Middle Passage in college.

[polly7]

5. That was great!

and sad.

I had to find the lyrics.

Randy Newman – The Great Nations of Europe

The great nations of Europe
Had gathered on the shore
They'd conquered what was behind them
And now they wanted more
So they looked to the mighty ocean
And took to the western sea
The great nations of Europe in the sixteenth century

Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your groceries too
Great nations of Europe coming through

The Grand Canary Islands
First land to which they came
They slaughtered all the canaries
Which gave the land its name
There were natives there called Guanches
Guanches by the score
Bullets, disease, the Portuguese, and they weren't there anymore
Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone
You've never seen anyone so gone
They're a picture in a museum
Some lines written in a book
But you won't find a live one no matter where you look

Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your groceries too
Great nations of Europe coming through

Columbus sailed for India
Found Salvador instead
He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead
They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot
Diphtheria and the flu
Excuse me great nations coming through!

Balboa found the Pacific
And on the trail one day
He met some friendly Indians
Whom he was told were gay
So he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
The great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way
Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone
You've never seen anyone so gone
Some bones hidden in the canyon
Some paintings in a cave
There's no use trying to save them
There's nothing left to save

Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your sons as well
With the great nations of Europe you never can tell

From where you and I are standing
At the end of a century
Europes have sprung up everywhere as even I can see
But there on the horizon as a possibility
Some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me
Destroying everything in its path
From sea to shining sea
Like the great nations of Europe
In the sixteenth century

[bvf]

6. I self-deleted because the clip didn't include the reference

much to my disappointment.

Sorry, but thanks tons for digging up the lyrics!

I might be thinking of a different Newman song, but I could have sworn it was this one!

[polly7]

9. Oh no .... it's fine!

I think he included, generally, most of it. I'd never heard that song so I appreciate very much you bringing it here.

[bvf]

12. I had the wrong song.

http://m.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/randynewman/afewwordsindefenseofourcountry.html

"A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" is what I had in mind.

Newman speaks truth. I've always loved him for that.

[polly7]

13. Wow.

Thank you again, I'd never heard of this one either, it's very powerful. He's great.

[bvf]

14. Thank you for the OP.

An ugly reality that most people are completely unaware of.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Thanks for sharing these exceptional lyrics, and your original post is excellent. Thanks. n/t

[roguevalley]

7. there's a picture that haunts me taken way back then. An old man is sitting on a mat

in the doorway and the camera is back from it. He's sort of sideways to two objects laying next to him. He's looking away slightly, his back bowed in suffering. Its rather darkish from the lighting but you can see both things clearly. Lying on the mat with him, the two objects are the severed hands of his grand daughter. She was not picking the tea leaves fast enough that her masters demanded of her so they cut her hands off to show her and everyone else that not working fast enough had consequences.

She was five years old.

It was obvious also that she didn't survive her mutilation. This man and his country's actions should NEVER be forgotten. I won't.

[polly7]

10. OMG

[roguevalley]

11. I kow. I had no idea of this horror until I read a general history of Europe. Very horrible and sad.

that old man, his pain is still with me.

[Blue_Tires]

15. I posted a similar piece about him a few years back...

Always good to have a refresher once in awhile..

[dougolat]

16. "King Leopold's Ghost" as I recall, is the book...

..on this little horror show chapter of history.

So many more, some still happening.

[Paka]

18. Thank you for this reminder.

As an ex-Peace Corps in West Africa (twice, ten years apart) I am very attuned to a lot of what happened in colonial Africa. The list of atrocities is endless. Almost none can outdo the brutality of King Leopold II of Belgium.

[Nitram]

19. Leopold is notorious.

But I'm afraid our country's history classes shy away from anti-colonialism and the evils of imperialism. Just as they avoid all mention off the labor movement that is central to our own country's history. Speaking of such topics smacks of the dread communism, don't you know?

[raccoon]

22. K&R. nt