Congo: Red Rubber, White King, Black Death: The Reign of King Leopold

The film “Congo: Red Rubber, White King, Black Death” is about the reign of King Leopold of Belgium and his private property, which we now know as the country of Congo during the late 1800s and early 1900s. King Leopold came to acquire the Congo through many promises, political maneuvers and royal family connections. His aunt was the Queen of England, was the Empress of Mexico, his wife was the Archduchess of Austria, his daughter was married to French king Napoleon Bonaparte, his uncle was German king and he was well connected to his family members. Thus the European powers allowed him to establish his private property, which King Leopold later named as his Crown Domain. Leopold’s dream was to make Belgium a major European power and to catch up to the other European powers in terms of wealth, so he set up a mercantile system in Congo. To do this, he indirectly turned the Congo into a massive labor camp to increase the production of rubber, and later the production of diamonds, gold and other minerals. During that process, various inhumane atrocities occurred under the King’s rule of the colony; this resulted in the deaths of close to 10 million people - setting the standard for modern day genocide - before Hitler was even born.

I was genuinely surprised during the film when the people of Congo referred to the King as the great “grandfather” in a show of affection, claiming that he brought them civilization even though so many died under his rule through his production system. In some sense, the king is right to claim that he is innocent, since he did not directly seek the deaths of the people; however he created a system of exploitation that left much room for creativity regarding the increase of resource production, resulting in the deaths of many innocents. The film was very critical of Belgium and the King, and in a way, was almost attacking and blaming the government for its failure to acknowledge, take responsibility or even recognize the realities of what occurred in the Congo. What is even more surprising is that the film never mentioned the positives of what happened or even the attempts by the king to fix the system. However, the film accurately portrays the atrocities, evils and the inhumane practices that occurred in the Congo due to gross negligence of the Belgian government and the king. The film may be right in that old wounds will only heal with the recognition of the atrocities that occurred.