“How did the Belgians force the indigenous Africans to work in the Congo Free State?” With Terror.
Fear kept the people in line. Not as much for themselves as for their loved ones.
Here are some of their well known tactics:
They used the same tactics of control that all colonial powers use. Divide and rule. They find a small minority tribe. Give them the power and use them to do their bidding.
They used murder and cannibalism as control tools.
They enslaved the whole population and God save your family if you did not keep up with your job. His business model, hard working unpaid workers. Very motivated at that.
(5th slide) Do you know what you are looking at? A worker who did not do as he was told. So the foremen ate his four year old daughter. Giving him her foot and hand as a lesson to all. They also ate the mother. All because he did not keep up with his rubber quota.
If a community was not doing as they were told, a lesson was made. Either burn it to the ground. Or better still, cut off the hands of the women and children, and promise more if the men do not obey.
The Belgian Congo was full of Savages. It was not the Africans.
Leopold II hired a British explorer, Henry Morton Stanley. The famous explorer and journalist while mapping the future business premises, burned down 35 villages and cities.
Leopold II raised the money to start this business by setting up a charity to help the black man. This monster set up the International African Association.
The Congo was not a colony of Belgium. It was listed as Leopold’s private property.
BY: elders.and.ancestors