All the crimes perpetrated in the Congo have been done in your name, and you must answer at the bar of Public Sentiment for the misgovernment of a people, whose lives and fortunes were entrusted to you by the august Conference of Berlin, 18841 885. P.IVA: 02825660596. Rev. 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. 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. It buys and sells and steals slaves. That same year Joseph Conrad trained as a steamship captain on the Congo River. Faafafine The men brought up as women in Samoa, True Life: The Awkward Way I Met My Husband, Truth about video of Indians throwing their idols on the street over COVID-19 revealed, Did Davido steal JOWO from Victor AD? "An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II" In Archives of Empire: Volume 2. I was anxious to see to what extent the natives had adopted the fostering care of your Majestys benevolent enterprise (? SECOND.Your Majestys Government has established nearly fifty posts, consisting of from two to eight mercenary slave-soldiers from the East Coast. The white man explained his intimate relation to the sun, and declared that if he were to request him to burn up his black brothers village it would be done. The source that is being analyzed is the open letter written by George Washington William's to King Leopold on the Congo, 1890. There are instances in which they have brought the heads of their victims to their white officers on the expeditionary steamers, and afterwards eaten the bodies of slain children. In one war two Belgian Army officers saw, from the deck of their steamer, a native in a canoe some distance away. The laws printed and circulated in Europe for the Protection of the blacks in the Congo, are a dead letter and a fraud. I cannot deal with the dimensions of these prisons in this letter, but will do so in my report to my Government. He was not a combatant and was ignorant of the conflict in progress upon the shore, some distance away. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Her Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. Microform in English. At length he appealed to the Governor-General, and he gave him the woman and thus the trader obtained the child also. 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. These black soldiers, many of whom are slaves, exercise the power of life and death. This letter was accessed through the website blackpast. 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. stop to it. 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. Your white men sicken and die in their quarters or on the caravan road, and seldom have Christian burial. George Washington William's Open Letter to King Leopold on t Public domain image. soldiers and the treatment of the women. An open letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold III, King of the Belgians SECOND.Your Majestys Government has established nearly fifty posts, consisting of from two to eight mercenary slave-soldiers from the East Coast. Otis Moss, III: The Criminalization of Blackness, #NowWhatBmore: Baltimore hosts a townhall on what lessons it can learn from #Ferguson. 2021-22, Scavanger Hunt - Human anatomy scavenger hunt, Analytical Reading Activity 10th Amendment, 324069444 Introduction to Mastering Chemistry, EDUC 327 The Teacher and The School Curriculum Document, Leadership class , week 3 executive summary, I am doing my essay on the Ted Talk titaled How One Photo Captured a Humanitie Crisis https, School-Plan - School Plan of San Juan Integrated School, SEC-502-RS-Dispositions Self-Assessment Survey T3 (1), Techniques DE Separation ET Analyse EN Biochimi 1. Every twig represented a person in his village who died because of King Leopold's brutal regime in the Congo. Instead of it being fertile and productive it is sterile and unproductive. an open letter to King Leopold that is one of the important landmarks in human rights . 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. CONCLUSIONS There many of the members of the various boards are in the education field Throughout my struggle for the independence of my country, I have never doubted for Read More(1960) Patrice Lumumbas Last Letter to Pauline Lumumba, Founding Charter of the Organization of African Unity May 25, 1963 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia We, the Heads of African States and Governments assembled in the City of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny, Read More(1963) Founding Charter of the Organization of African Unity. Congo being maltreated but also the Belgium men that were being sent over were sick There are only 2,300 soldiers in the Congo. . fraud, robberies, arson, murder, slave-raiding, and general policy of cruelty of your I have personally witnessed and examined their clumsy operations. Leopold II, French in full Lopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor, Dutch in full Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor, (born April 9, 1835, Brussels, Belgiumdied December 17, 1909, Laeken), king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. (1960) Patrice Lumumbas Last Letter to Pauline Lumumba, African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Africa-Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. 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. issue he stands on. include, deficient in moral military and financial strength 5 , The courts of the Majestys 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. No white man commanded his rear column, and his troops were allowed to straggle, sicken and die; and their bones were scattered over more than two hundred miles of territory. in order to generate constructive change in our society. They are introduced by two methods, viz., black men are dispatched to the Portuguese coast where they engage these women as mistresses of white men, who pay to the procurer a monthly sum. This first salvo would not undo Leopold but it paved the way for others. Passerino Editore Your Majestys Government gives 3 per head for able bodied slaves for military service. 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. At length he appealed to the Governor-General, and he gave him the woman and thus the trader obtained the child also. T have heard an officer of the Belgian Army pleading the cause of a white man of low degree who had been guilty of beating and stabbing a black man, and urging race distinctions and prejudices as good and sufficient reasons why his client should be adjudged innocent. FIRST.Your Majestys Government is deficient in the moral military and financial strength, necessary to govern a territory o 1,508,000 square miles, 7,251 miles of navigation, and 31,694 square miles of lake surface. Your Majestys Government has sequestered their land, burned their towns, stolen their property, enslaved their women and children, and committed other crimes too numerous to mention in detail. These black soldiers, many of whom are slaves, exercise the power of life and death. Leopold II was born in 1835 to King Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orleans. King Leopold II had obtained the Congo to supposedly enrich the lives of the people who lived there. Your white men sicken and die in their quarters or on the caravan road, and seldom have Christian burial. His testimony joined hundreds of others to help bring an end to one of the greatest atrocities in human history. Ibid, page 9. George Washington Williams' Open Letter to King Leopold - docmadson 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. He witnessed the porters enslaved in chains, the brutal . 1890, s.n. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in that part of the world. He was not a combatant and was ignorant of the conflict in progress upon the shore, some distance away. Other officers have served the State faithfully, and deserve well of their Royal Master. The propensity for violence is . He makes it clear what side of the Never invite him for dinner even if he gives you a chicken every time you arrive at his house.. Sick sailors frequently die on board their vessels at Banana Point; and if it were not for the humanity of the Dutch Trading Company at that placewho have often opened their private hospital to the sick of other countriesmany more might die. An open letter is a critical letter that is addressed to a particular person but is intentionally leaked to the public. SEVENTH.Your Majestys Government is engaged in trade and commerce, competing with the organised trade companies of Belgium, England, France, Portugal and Holland. I have the honour to submit for your Majesty's consideration some reflections respecting the Independent . He was just 14 when he enrolled with the Union Army and fought in the Civil War. He then fought in two more wars, until injury forced him to retire. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a05f34588bb8ca64686b0d8f5df0e3d8" );document.getElementById("i421ca229f").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Their mission statement is: I now appeal to the Powers which committed this infant State to your Majestys charge, and to the great States which gave it international being; and whose majestic law you have scorned and trampled upon, to call and create an International Commission to investigate the charges herein preferred in the name of Humanity, Commerce, Constitutional Government and Christian Civilisation. 20072023 Blackpast.org. 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 . But of all the awful crimes they committed, Belgiums King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all. Cruelties of the most astounding character are practised by the natives, such as burying slaves alive in the grave of a dead chief, cutting off the heads of captured warriors in native combats, and no effort is put forth by your Majestys Government to prevent them. Sick sailors frequently die on board their vessels at Banana Point; and if it were not for the humanity of the Dutch Trading Company at that placewho have often opened their private hospital to the sick of other countriesmany more might die. that he brought fourth about the government and how they wronged the people of the African American history in one place that will provide me with a resource to use once I I appeal to the Belgian people and to their Constitutional Government, so proud of its traditions, replete with the song and story of its champions of human liberty, and so jealous of its present position in the sisterhood of European Statesto cleanse itself from the imputation of the crimes with which your Majestys personal State of Congo is polluted. nothing to help the people of the Congo to be educated. Indeed the most unpractical measures have been adopted against the natives in nearly every respect; and in the capital of your Majestys Government at Boma there is not a native employed. But Williams went anyways. 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. The officers made a wager of 5 that they could hit the native with their rifles. Their letters never reach home. Your email address will not be published. Against the deceit, fraud, robberies, arson, murder, slave-raiding, and general policy of cruelty of your Majestys Government to the natives, stands their record of unexampled patience, long-suffering and forgiving spirit, which put the boasted civilisation and professed religion of your Majestys Government to the blush. MEETING MR. KURTZ - A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa Cruelties of the most astounding character are practised by the natives, such as burying slaves alive in the grave of a dead chief, cutting off the heads of captured warriors in native combats, and no effort is put forth by your Majestys Government to prevent them. Government are abortive, unjust, partial and delinquent 6 , and Women are imported into Under Leopold II's administration, the Congo Free State became one of the greatest international scandals of the early 20th century. CONCLUSIONS website blackpast. Keep their women in nine months of submission to work freely for us. 1. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach the niggers to know God, this they know already. They are introduced by two methods, viz., black men are dispatched to the Portuguese coast where they engage these women as mistresses of white men, who pay to the procurer a monthly sum. You can also contact us through the Contact Form on our website. A cap was placed upon the nipple of the gun, and the black brother was implored to step off ten yards and shoot at his white brother to demonstrate his statement that he was a spirit, and, therefore, could not be killed. But instead King Leopold II unleashed new horrors on the African continent. The cruel and unjust treatment to which these people are subjected breaks the spirits of many of them, makes them distrust and despise your Majestys Government. history of African Americans in the United States and people of Open letter to King Leopold on Congo - Scribd 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. HIS233: World Civilization 2 "The task which the State agents have to accomplish in the Congo is noble and elevated (honorable).It is necessary for them to carry on the work of civilization in Equatorial Africa. . And make sure that niggers never become rich. Melanie Knight If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The above speech which shows the real intention of the Christian missionary journey in Africa was exposed to the world by Mr. Moukouani Muikwani Bukoko, born in the Congo in 1915. They have estranged the natives from your Majestys Government, have sown the seed of discord between tribes and villages, and some of them have stained the uniform of the Belgian officer with murder, arson and robbery. This was, however, an unusual case of generosity and clemency; and there is only one post that I know of where there is not to be found children of the civil and military officers of your Majestys Government abandoned to degradation; white men bringing their own flesh and blood under the lash of a most cruel master, the State of Congo. ), and I was doomed to bitter disappointment. Often these ox-chains eat into the necks of the prisoners and produce sores about which the flies circle, aggravating the running wound; so the prisoner is constantly worried. without having to search in multiple areas for the information. While the Great Powers competed for territory elsewhere, the king of one of Europes smallest countries carved his own private colony out of 100km of Central African rainforest. The labour force at the stations of your Majestys Government in the Upper River is composed of slaves of all ages and both sexes. They are ignorant and cruel, because they do not comprehend the natives; they are imposed upon them by the State. Read Open letter to King Leopold on Congo by George Washington Williams with a free trial. It taxes all trading companies and exempts its own goods from export-duty, and makes many of its officers ivory-traders, with the promise of a liberal commission upon all they can buy or get for the State. FIRST.Your Majestys Government is deficient in the moral military and financial strength, necessary to govern a territory o 1,508,000 square miles, 7,251 miles of navigation, and 31,694 square miles of lake surface. George Washington Williams wrote an open letter to the Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo by Colonel. The officers made a wager of 5 that they could hit the native with their rifles. Shocked by the widespread brutal abuses and slavery imposed on the Congolese, he wrote an open letter to Leopold in 1890 about the suffering of the regions native inhabitants at the hands of the kings agents. It is natural that they everywhere shrink from the fostering care your Majestys Government so eagerly proffers them. The website is Three hundred and sixteen slaves were sent down the river recently, and others are to follow. It is not my duty to criticise the unlawful and unconstitutional use of these officers coming into the service of this African State. A cap was placed upon the nipple of the gun, and the black brother was implored to step off ten yards and shoot at his white brother to demonstrate his statement that he was a spirit, and, therefore, could not be killed. your Majestys Government for immoral purposes. 7 This is only three of the problems people of the Congos lives. When these men run away a reward of 1,000 Ntaka is offered. Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost" is a lost historical account starting in the late 19th century continuing into the 20th century of the enslavement of an entire country. how he thought the Natives should be dealt with. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi, one Nzakomba, and what else I dont know. 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. DR Congo: King Leopold's legacy - DW - 06/29/2020 I appeal to Anti-Slavery Societies in all parts of Christendom, to Philanthropists, Christians, Statesmen, and to the great mass of people everywhere, to call upon the Governments of Europe, to hasten the close of the tragedy your Majestys unlimited Monarchy is enacting in the Congo. danielnkado@gmail.com TENTH.Your Majestys Government is engaged in the slave-trade, wholesale and retail. He allows his personal feelings on the subject the shine through in his A letter to King Leopold II of all the injustices the government has committed against the people of the Congo under his rule. Some of the charges to an end. of directors, advisory board, teacher advisory board, and volunteer staff. As to the significance of this move Europe and America can judge without any comment from me, especially England. There are instances in which they have brought the heads of their victims to their white officers on the expeditionary steamers, and afterwards eaten the bodies of slain children. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make you murderous competition and dream one day to overthrow you. I love children but they have no place in my life, None of my colleagues at work knows that Im a transgender Read Montoyas Story, Gay, but married to a woman Read Jims story. In the Lower Congo River there is but One post, in the cataract region one. like to look more into the subject to research how long this lasted and how they brought it Three shots were fired and the native fell dead, pierced through the head, and the trade canoe was transformed into a funeral barge and floated silently down the river. Washington Williams, George. Global African History: Primary Documents: Global African History (1900) The Uganda Agreement. SIXTH.Women are imported into your Majestys Government for immoral purposes. all that was wrong with what was going on in the Congo. 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. In early April 1891 Williams wrote a letter to Leopold entitled An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo about the suffering of the region at the hands of Leopold's agents. 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. DNB Stories Africa Next came the lens act. An open letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold III, There are no reviews yet. Melanie Knight Final George Washington William'S OPEN Letter TO KING Required fields are marked *. When Leopold was 65, he took the 16-year-old prostitute Caroline Lacroix as his mistress. am teaching history. These poor natives are sent hundreds of miles away from their villages, to serve among other natives whose language they do not know. I have no adequate terms with which to depict to your Majesty the brutal acts of your soldiers upon such raids as these. When the native inquired about the disparity of strength between himself and his white brother, he was told that the white man could pull up trees and perform the most prodigious feats of strength. Excerpts from The Crime of the Congo ''The Guilt of Delay'' (1909 . George Washington Williams's Open Letter to King Leopold on the Congo
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