- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Everyone agrees that the Congolese did not die in tribal wars.

In Reply to: NJ's 10,000,000 Congolese. posted by Frenchy on February 04, 19100 at 10:40:37:

: But here's what I'm searching for now, the ten-million Congolese that Nickel Jack has mentioned a couple of hundred times.
: I suspect that when I do find some information about this that there will be more to it than what NJ has let on. Probably a lot more. My suspicions? That the Congolese themselves killed each other, ie; normal African tribal warfare.
: I suspect, also, if that is the truth of the matter, that NJ will then rebut w/ 'Well, the Belgians enticed/bribed/tricked/induced them to do it'. What this will show, if I'm right in my suspicions, is that NJ believes that Europeans somehow have the power to force those of other ethnicities to do their bidding because they (the Congolese) don't have the intellectual/moral wherewithal to say 'no'.
: Defending the indefensible is a hard row to hoe, yet here are a dozen or so entirely willing to do so.

Yeah, right frenchy. The only doubt about the Congo atrocities is how many people died. Because these people were killed in the middle of the hjungle (literally) and about 90-100 years ago, there are not that great numbers as to how many people were killed, unlike say the Nazi holocaust. Some poeple think less thana million were killed, others say 20 million. The midpoint of estimates is I believe about 10 million, which would be 50% of the estimated population.

Everyone agrees that the Congolese did not die in tribal wars. Most of them died through overwork, the harsh conditions in labor camps (e.g. no one could grow food because Leopold's men were making them collect ivory), or deliberate execution. People were often executed for failing to fulfil their rubber or ivory quota. Sometimes the wives or kids of 'malingerergs' were killed instead. For more, look at Adam Hoschschild's book, 'King Leopold's Ghost'. By the way, one thing that was relatively unique about the Congo genocide was the widespread use of mutilation as opposed to straight killing. Often Belgian officials were required to list how many people they'd killed, so that the superioirs could be sure they were using their bullets in a useful manner, and not wasting them at shooting at antelope or something. So the officials had to send human hands to their superioris, the more hands the better, on the theory that one hand meant one killing. But often the Belgians got lazy, and just chopped the hands off a living person, to beef up their quota....

Follow Ups:

None.