The Butcher of Congo: King Leopold II's implementation of the "Rubber Terror" and its shaping of the Democratic Republic of Congo

By Chidalu Memeh - Nigeria & United Kingdom

Several assert that European imperialism has availed the countries that have been colonized. An example is that India acquired more means of transportation after numerous decades under the British Raj. However, those infrastructures, railway trains as an example, were constructed to extract substantial quantities of raw material, thus setting the country backwards in economic growth for the benefit of the British. In the 16th century, the Congo had equal civilization to most countries within Europe. However, the reign of King Leopold II posed an irreversible change towards the progress that his country had made.

King Leopold’s Ghost, authored by Adam Hochschild, states:

Ranulf Higden, a Benedictine monk who mapped the world about 1350, claimed that Africa contained one-eyed people who used their feet to cover their heads… an Italian monk, Fra Mauro, declared Africa the home of the roc, a bird so large that it could carry an elephant through the air. (Hochschild, 6)

The bizarre beliefs European people held only served to dehumanize African individuals and disintegrate any thinking of its people as engaging in a civil society.

King Leopold II of Belgium had yearned for colonial acquisitions in order to enhance the prestige and authority of Belgium in a time of European expansionism into Africa, notoriously known as the Scramble for Africa. Leopold was largely inspired by other European countries acquiring their own colonies (Hampson). Following his failure in acquiring significant colonies like the Philippines, Leopold looked for territory that he would not have to battle with a major European power to attain, ultimately finding the Congo. Lying in the centre of Africa and roughly eighty times the size of Belgium, King Leopold II knew that he had to tread carefully and gain recognition from the other European powers before colonization could occur. Consequently, Leopold utilized a philanthropic campaign stating that he wanted to ‘civilize’ the Congo.

Leopold used Henry Morton Stanley in order to acquire the Congo. The expeditionary force Stanley captained felt it was necessary to map out the terrain, intending to discover rivers for navigation to make colonization easier. Didier Gondola, in The History of Congo, writes of one of Stanley’s expeditions to the Congo in November of 1874. Gondola describes how their journeys “included 7,000 miles of perilous walking and rowing. Stanley sometimes forced his Zanzibari porters to transport the steamboats overland.” (Gondola, 14-15) Stanley recalled part of this expedition and said, “When mud and wet sapped the physical energy of the lazily inclined … a dog-whip became their backs, restoring them to a sound— sometimes extravagant—activity.” (Gondola, 14-15)

King Leopold’s Geographical Conference commenced in September of 1876, held in Brussels. This was propaganda presented by Leopold; he wanted the world to acquire a degree of certitude that Brussels would become the country for establishing expeditions in the Congo for solely altruistic reasonings. Leopold’s welcoming speech included this: “To open to civilization the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which hangs over entire peoples, is I dare say, a crusade worthy of this century of progress.” (Gondola, 54) This embodied Leopold’s aim to have everyone at the Conference believe in his alleged yearning to ‘civilize’ the Congo. Additionally, ‘crusade’ has deeply religious connotations, hinting at Leopold’s intentions to depict his colonization as a holy mission.

With ascendancy over the Congo, Leopold coined an ‘appealing’ name for Congo that other countries holding authority, like the United States and Germany, might applaud or praise. The ‘Congo Free State’ suggests a liberated state, as the insistence of free trade was highly significant to those countries. To gain rightful dominion over the Congo Free State, Leopold appealed to Belgium. “King of the Belgians, I shall be at the same time sovereign of another State. This State will be independent, like Belgium; and, like her, it will enjoy the benefits of neutrality.” (Reeves, 115) Leopold became the leader of two nations. Congo’s colonization subsequently meant that the Congo had to suffer through Belgium’s struggles in Europe. World War I resulted in an increase in the Congo’s production of war resources. The Congo did not only have to provide Belgium with minerals and rubber for profit, but also had to feed their soldiers, as well as officers. Cultivators were denied world market prices and accustomed to small fixed wages for their labour (Gann and Duignan, 43). The Congo also had to provide soldiers to fight in the war.

Leopold sought to extract resources as inexpensively as possible. Some of the most prominent resources were ivory and rubber, both having high demand around the world during this time period. To extract these resources, a military organization was created, permitting concession companies to spread all along the Congo Free State, setting up camps for extraction. Leopold, along with these concession companies would utilize forced labour to obtain these resources, and thus, gain substantial profits. By 1870, the Congo was providing 85% of the world’s ivory (Gann and Duignan, 117). Those with wealth within Europe attempted to obtain ivory for ornamental purposes such as billiard balls and ivory bangles. Ivory was growing in tremendous popularity, to the extent that Leopold took immediate preventative measures in order to safeguard his newly found treasure. Leopold ensured that there were no other organizations that could generate a similar amount of profit off of ivory as him- after all, he sold ivory as a ‘product of his own land’, although he ironically never stepped foot in that land. This resulted in the decimation of African villages, which would get ransacked for ivory, creating extreme profits for the King. Gann and Duigan, in ‘Rulers of Belgian Africa’, 1884-1914, state, “Between 1889 and 1895 ivory accounted for more than half of the Congo’s exports.” (Gann and Duignan, 118) It also mentions that in 1897, Leopold generated about 5 million francs a year from ivory sales.

In 1890, the Dunlop Company began creating tires for cars and bicycles, and using rubber for items like hoses and electrical wiring. Demand for rubber soared. The Congo was one of the only places within the world to have such a large supply of rubber, and subsequently, the government and affiliated trading companies swiftly shifted their focus onto extracting this lucrative commodity (Thompsell). Adding to this, it was highly beneficial to produce rubber for Leopold. Didier Gondola explains, “Rubber, unlike minerals, required no capital investment, no fertilizer, no heavy machinery—just a few steamers to transport the wild rubber and, most importantly, labour.”(Gondola, 66) The growing of rubber had many logistical difficulties, one being that it only grows in dense rainforests. What created the rubber was the coagulated sap that leaked from cut vines. Hundreds of vines were being cut near local villages forcing villagers to travel further away for multiple days, facing harsh environmental conditions. If there were harsh rains, villagers could slip off the trees and break limbs or lose their lives, which occurred frequently. This period of time is named ‘red rubber’, for all the blood that was spilt. Rubber collection also had an adverse effect for economic reasons, as the Congolese failed to be repaid with food for their services, triggering heightened starvation in various villages. In 1905, Leopold generated forty-three million Belgian francs. 23 years of Leopoldian rule resulted in 50% of the Congo population dead. Following the King’s reign, the Congo was rooted with debt that, even today, is augmenting past repayment.

The Force Publique was established by King Leopold in 1888 as a permanent military force in the Congo for the purpose of overseeing the extraction of resources, particularly rubber. The majority of the Force Publique were initially Africans from Zanzibar and West Africa, though to save costs it began to recruit directly from the Congo (Ewans, 88). The recruits included individuals who had been formerly enslaved or those who were conscripted, all under the guidance of White European officials. Recruits were sometimes bought from leaders of tribes, or simply kidnapped. Ewans writes, “by 1895 the Force amounted to some 6,000 men, 4,000 of them from the Congo itself, and by 1905 it numbered 16,000 men under 360 white officers, many of them Scandinavian.” (Ewans, 11) The expansion of the Force Publique correlates with the expansion of the rubber industry and its subsequent profits.

Their primary objectives were to compel the Congolese populace to furnish substantial rubber quotas on a weekly basis. Their abhorrent actions consistently adhered to a standardized pattern within each village. Gondola writes of how “soldiers began looting it in retaliation for the villagers’ refusal to carry out orders. The soldiers then attacked the villagers and seized their women, whom they declared as hostages until the chief could bring in the required quotas of rubber.” (Gondola, 68) Thus, Leopold, by means of the Force Publique, was dismantling the traditional way of life in the Congo by employing the tactic of abduction to ensure that men from every village collected rubber. However, not only did the Force Publique resort to kidnapping, but they also perpetrated acts of sexual violence against the women of each village they visited. Furthermore, upon the men's return with the rubber, they were forced to purchase the release of their own wives using meagre food supplies that the villagers barely possessed, as they were forbidden from cultivating their own crops.

Another method used to attain the rubber quotas was with the chopping off of hands if a villager did not meet their quotas. The weight in rubber that was not fulfilled would be replaced with the weight of chopped off hands until the weights were equal (Mesquita, 213). This denotes the lawlessness that was present in the Congo. Bruce B. Mesquita, in “Leopold II and the Selectorate: An Account in Contrast to a Racial Explanation,” writes, “One prominent officer in the Force Publique, Captain Leon Rom, was reported to have decorated the outer-perimeter of the flower-bed in front of his house with more than twenty human heads.” (Mesquita, 213) Leopold created the Congo Free State to pave the way for a violent future in which people would have no access to education or self-government.

A Swedish missionary in 1894 took note of a Congolese song that went, “We are tired of living under this tyranny. We cannot endure that our women and children are taken away and dealt with by the white savages. We shall make war.... We know that we shall die, but we want to die. We want to die.” (Hochschild, 174) The song highlights the dire situation and the limited actions the Congolese could take to gain their own freedom. It is one of despair. Families that were deprived of food and energy became weak and frail, unable to sustain themselves. As a result, millions of people died from illness and malnourishment. The villagers had to travel great distances due to the lengthy walks taken by the men of the village and their forced enlistment in the Force Publique or onto steamships. The Congolese were becoming more and more prone to various diseases due to physical exhaustion, as the Belgians had only brought medication for themselves. Smallpox and sleeping sickness caused the highest death toll, and it is estimated that half a million died from sleeping sickness in just 1901 (Hochschild, 174). 

During the Congo Free State's existence, which lasted from 1885 to 1908, an estimated 10 million Congolese people perished. The Congo's economy was destroyed, and because of the country's extreme depopulation, there was little chance that it would ever raise a military to defend itself. Now, they were short-staffed with labourers capable of restoring burned villages or tending to farms that had been devastated by soil erosion brought on by the constant demands of crops for the Force Publique. The notorious abuses of the European concessionaire system and the use of forced labour led to the spoliation of the country and unimaginable human suffering, further resulting in political and economic devastation that would continue to impact the Congo for over a century (Dumett). 

Future leaders were able to exert more control over the Congo and take more advantage of its resources due in large part to King Leopold II's policies. The political turbulence and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo that lasts to the present day can be seen as a manifestation of a long-term social and political debate that has never been resolved (Schatzberg). Mobutu Sese Seko, also known as Joseph Mobutu, came to power after Belgium left the Congo. In 1965, he would rename the Congo as Zaire and rule it as a dictator for the next thirty-two years until 1997. Mobutu forced every city and individual to adopt a traditional African name, seemingly in an attempt to stir up nationalistic sentiments, but in the process he plunged the Congo into corruption and poverty. He violently put an end to any protests and expropriated businesses and land from his friends and family under a program known as Zairianisation. He was able to settle into his throne without having to worry about industrialization or building public infrastructure because of Belgium's support. As a result of Mobutu's violent suppression of ethnic tribes like the Tutsis, a protracted civil war broke out, leading to Mobutu's overthrow and Laurent Kabila's rule from 1997 to 2001. Laurent Kabila's refusal to hold elections and his symbolism of corruption ultimately made him no different from Mobutu. Civil wars continued to rage, primarily over the unprotected resources in the Congo but also over ethnic divisions. The assassination of Laurent Kabila would result in his son Joseph Kabila taking over as leader of the newly renamed Democratic Republic of Congo, the sixth name change for the country in less than a century. Joseph Kabila continued to withhold elections and exploit Congo’s resources without providing for the Congolese society. The University of Iowa Centre for Human Rights discusses the need for 18,000 United Nations peacekeepers to try to prevent conflict in the Congo. The article states that 370,000 people have been displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2006, the year Joseph Kabila took office, due to armed conflict with Kabila and rebels (UICHR).

This brings to mind all of the refugees who were visible in Leopold's Congo Free State as a result of exploitation and the Force Publique. King Leopold II's colonization and exploitation of the Congo set the stage for Mobutu and the Kabila family, who are dictators in their own right who used violent and exploitative methods to suppress their own people.

Ethnic, political, and economic unrest in the Congo were largely caused by King Leopold II, who used philanthropic smokescreens to acquire the country under false pretences and imposed extensive forced labour that resembled slavery. His deeds contributed to the fall of the Kongo, Lunda, and Luba, three of the most potent kingdoms in the Congo. These kingdoms kept an effective administrative system in place, connected to even the smallest villages by councils for chiefdoms, districts, and provinces, and they brought stability to a sizable area. As previously mentioned, the annexation of the Congo by Belgium—made possible only by Leopold's prior ownership—led to the dissolution of additional tribes and, as previously mentioned, massive ethnic conflicts between the various ethnic groups vying for dominance during the Congo's 1960 independence struggle.

From a political standpoint, Leopold made sure the Congolese would be denied the opportunity to govern themselves for more than a century. Nearly sixty years of Belgian rule carried on Leopold's policies. Concession companies received land grants from them, and between them they took billions of dollars' worth of resources that were never reimbursed. The Congolese were denied any positions in the administration and, as a result of their low educational attainment, would be nearly incapable of exercising self-government. The Congo has suffered more economically than most other states. Because of Leopold's policy of forced labour, the workers received very little compensation for their laborious efforts. The economy of the Congo was transformed into an enclave focused only on resource extraction. Additionally, Belgium turned the Congo into a plantation economy that relied heavily on crops, particularly during the Great Depression and World War I.

Looking back at the history of the Congo reveals how the extent to which King Leopold II influenced its society, which is relevant to understanding the current unrest there. One will find a man whose relentless pursuit of colonial conquest ushered in a period of forced labour and exploitation that would be emulated by later rulers. Leopold committed atrocities with the violent Force Publique that severely damaged village life and opportunities for self-government. The pre-colonial kingdoms were destroyed, and the successive regimes that ruled the Congo put an end to any uprisings or protests.

Hochschild recalls one poem that read:

No zeal, no Faith, inspired this Leopold, Nor any madness of half-splendid birth. Cool-eyed, he loosed the hounds that rend and slay, Just that his coffers might be gorged with gold. Embalm him, Time! Forget him not, O Earth, Trumpet his name, and flood his deeds with day. (Hoschchild, 215)

The fact that historical figures like Leopold are intricately connected to elements of the present is why studying them is so crucial. People must take it upon themselves to learn about such a reprehensible and deplorable period of history. The character of life in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today does not reflect one’s vision of what independence would bring, and in certain ways, the violence now present in the DRC today can be perceived as the result of the unfulfilled aspirations of decolonization (Newbury). 

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