Random Things About This Image of A Slave Father Looking At His Daughter's Severed Hand And Foot Has Haunted Generations (9 items)

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  (#1) According To The Photographer, The Child Was Killed And Eaten After Her Hands Were Cut Off

  The man in the photograph was named Nsala. His only crime was failing to fulfill a rubber collection quota installed by the Belgian rubber company militia. For that, he was punished through his daughter, who had her hand and foot cut off and presented to him. But it gets worse.

  According to the photographer, Alice Seeley Harris, Nsala's daughter was killed after being maimed, as was his wife, and they were then both cannibalized. Chopping off extremities was a typical punishment in the Congo Free State. The fact that this could occur at all is appalling and the fact that it continued into the early 20th century is likely part of why these actions are so disturbing. Leopold II's reign of terror over the Congo began in 1885 and ended in 1908.      
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  (#2) The Photographer, Alice Seeley Harris, Wrote a Book About What She Saw In The Congo

  Alice Seeley Harris, pictured here with her husband, was stationed as a missionary in the Congo in 1898. During her years in the Congo, Harris taught English to the locals and photographed what she saw as she became increasingly horrified and disgusted at what she saw happening there. In 1904, she took the now-famous photograph of Nsala staring at his daughter's severed extremities.

  In one of her many books, Don't Call Me Lady: The Journey of Lady Alice Seeley Harris, Harris's description of Nsala took a turn and became a scathing rebuke of Leopold II. She wrote: "All of this filth had occurred because one man, one man who lived thousands of miles across the sea, one man who couldn’t get rich enough, had decreed that this land was his and that these people should serve his own greed."
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  (#3) The Anglo-Belgian Rubber Company Earned Huge Profits By Exploiting, Torturing, And Maiming Its Slave Laborers

  The Anglo-Belgian Rubber Company, later known as the Compagnie du Congo Belge, was the company in charge of fulfilling Leopold II's demand for rubber, even though he never actually set foot in the Congo. The company boomed in the late 1890s at an exorbitant cost to human rights. With the extensive exploitation of the native Congolese came high profits for the Belgians, and the company, later known as the Abir Congo Company, flourished for decades until its downfall in 1905. A commission of inquiry was sent to the Congo Free State and discovered the inhumane treatment of the Congolese people. That, and falling profits, led to the end of the Abir Congo Company, but the damage had already been done. 
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  (#4) Leopold II Managed To Enslave An Entire People Without Even Stepping Foot In The Country By Creating A Charitable Foundation

  Leopold II managed to fool all of Europe while taking over the Congo. In 1876, he hosted a conference during which he managed to convince explorers and politicians to found what he described as a charitable foundation, The International African Society. This private holding company, disguised as a philanthropic endeavor, allowed Leopold II to swiftly send explorers to the Congo. Leopold II's machinations led directly to the foundation of the Congo Free State and his exploitation of the native people, all under the guise of exploration and colonialism. 
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  (#5) Hands Like The Severed One In The Photograph Were Used As A Morbid Currency In The Congo

  The brutality of the Belgian militia stationed in the Congo Free State was systematic, and it was premised on the threat of extreme bodily harm to all those who committed an infraction of any kind. The military force, known as the Force Publique, was a mercenary force comprised of Belgian commanding officers with African soldiers. These mercenaries were required to cut off the hands of those they murdered for not fulfilling the rubber quota. It was believed that if they did not show proof of how the ammunition was used, they must have wasted it on hunting.

  A stockpile of hands meant good things for a soldier, and hands became a sort of currency for the Force Publique. This led to mass mutilation of innocent victims who often died as a result. Some slaves managed to play dead by not moving after having their hands chopped off.
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  (#6) The Actual Process Of Gathering Rubber Was Brutal And Painful, Too

  The Congolese suffered immensely under Belgian rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Not only were their hands chopped off for failing to meet their rubber collection quota, but Congolese slaves also endured many other hardships as well. In order to fulfill entirely unrealistic rubber collection quotas, Congolese slaves were forced to venture deep into the forests and often end up covered in the extracted rubber, which would then harden on their skin and have to be painfully scraped off. 
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  (#7) Joseph Conrad's 'Heart Of Darkness' Drew Inspiration From The Real Events In The Congo

  One of the most well known literary depictions of the Congo Free State is Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. The story, set in the Congo Free State, is a gruesome tale of men traveling up the Congo river into Africa. The 2016 film The Legend of Tarzan is also set in the Congo Free State, and despite not being a historical film, it does touch on the historical events of Leopold II's reign of terror.
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  (#8) Despite His Attempts to Cover It Up, The Truth About Leopold II's Gruesome Rule Was Revealed

  Complaints from around the globe, many instigated by literary works such as Heart of Darkness, led to action. The United Kingdom appointing their consul, Roger Casement, to investigate; in his report, Casement detailed the atrocities inflicted upon the Congolese at the behest of Leopold II. By 1908, international pressure forced Leopold II to relinquish control over the Congo. According to author Adam Hochschild in his book King Leopold's Ghost, Leopold II attempted to cover up his inhumane practices by burning the archive of the Congo Free State, but it was too late. He reportedly told his aide after it all, "They have no right to know what I did there." 
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  (#9) An Italian Anarchist Nearly Assassinated Leopold II

  Leopold II's regime wasn't entirely popular within Europe, even before the Casement Report revealed the true nature of his doings in the Congo. Many in 20th century Europe were ready to do away with the tethers of old-world monarchy and regulations, and some were willing to go further than others to make a change. On the morning of November 15, 1902, Gennaro Rubino, and Italian anarchist, attempted assassination upon the Belgian king.

  Rubino fired three shots while Leopold was riding in his carriage, but each of them missed. Rubino was immediately arrested and sentenced to life in prison. During the inquiry, Rubino told the police that he would have fired "at the King of Italy as readily as at the King of Belgium, because monarchs are tyrants who cause the misery of their peoples." Separate from the horrors of Leopold's regime in the Congo, the world was waking up to the systemic inequality monarchies imposed upon their subjects.

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