Although the Berlin Conference could not, nor did it intend to, prevent intra-competition between the European powers, it did achieve its purpose of providing a larger juridical framework for which the separate actions were to be pursued. This is most easily understood in reference to their mutual agreement to more or less jointly exploit the Congo with nominal control resting in the person of the Belgium monarch.
The true significance of the conference is that it reaffirmed, the imperialist attempts to create a supra- imperialism to maintain their collective and individual hold on Africa (as in the past the edicts "papal bulls" of the Catholic Church concerning European enslavement of mass sectors of the African population). These efforts are indeed the precursors to the various imperialist alignments we see today attempting to maintain the enslavement of Africa.
In response to a question concerning the war in the Congo, Omowale Malcolm X responded as follows:
"Certainly it is in the news. But I think it was just as much in the news when the people who were doing the oppressing were cutting off the breasts of black women when they didn't produce their rubber quota; cutting of their hands, cutting off their feet. This is historic fact. And when you start talking about what the Congolese are doing in retaliation today, they have pictures that are historic fact, that Leopold made it mandatory that when a black man didn't produce a certain quota of rubber, his hand was cut off, his foot was cut off, a black woman’s breast was cut off. This is what took place in the Congo. And it took place for a long time.
"It's easy to gloss all that over today and make it look like the Belgians went in there with some kind of benevolent intent. But the Congolese are just as humane, just as human, and just as intelligent as anybody else on this planet. And when they reflect this animosity and hostility I think anyone who goes over there and examines the facts will find out they're justified. In fact, I think that they showed remarkable restraint, given the fact that the paratroopers were able to rescue somebody."
What was the historic role of imperialism in the Congo? Dr. Nkrumah has done an exhaustive study of this very issue in the book Challenge of the Congo. This partial except from that book will help us answer that question:
"In the year 1482, three small Portuguese ships set out from Elmina in Ghana. Their mission was to find a route round Africa which would outflank the Arab States which controlled North Africa. The Portuguese hoped to reach the legendary kingdom of that supposed great African Christian monarch, Prester John. This fleet, commanded by Diogo Cam, never rounded the tip of Africa but it did discover the ancient kingdom of the Congo, and the long history of European intervention in Central Africa had begun. "
"The Portuguese were already established in a number of forts along the African West Coast, of which the Fort of St. George at Elmina (1481), from which the expedition started, was the largest and best equipped. The African States of this coast and hinterland were well organized politically, militarily and economically. They controlled the produce of the interior and sold it on their own terms. They did not need to enter any military or economic alliance with the Portuguese, who were tolerated solely as traders."
"In the Congo, however, it was different. The King of the Congo, the Mani Congo, was in reality only a feudal overlord and he was engaged, as had been the Portuguese monarchy eighty years before, in a life and death struggle with his nominal vassals. The Portuguese therefore were welcomed by the Mani Congo as potential allies. The Portuguese on their side saw the opportunity of establishing a Christian State as a bastion against Islamic intrusion and as a link with the Kingdom of Prester John. The first consignment of technical aid, consisting of priests and skilled craftsmen with the tools of their trade and a variety of religious objects, arrived in 1490. "
"From then onwards there was a small but steady flow of European technicians, who included, in 1492, two German printers. Considering that printing had been established in England only fifteen years before and had not yet been established in Spain, the provision of printers is a remarkable tribute to the level of civilization reached in the Congo. The Portuguese, with the support of the Mani Congo, set out on a systematic policy of westernization in the Congo. At this point emerged the contradiction that has haunted European and African relations ever since. "
"The Congolese wanted to secure, through trade with Europe, foreign exchange in the form of gold and silver, capital equipment like merchant ships and printing presses, and above all European specialist in medicine, teaching, shipbuilding and navigation. The Portuguese on the other hand were determined to exploit the naval knowledge, their large merchant fleet and their command of the sea. This command of the sea involved alliances with those who controlled the approaches to the Congo and beyond. Such an alliance was fatal to any real partnership between the Congo and Portugal. The center of Portuguese naval power in the Central and South Atlantic was the island of Sao Tome, originally colonized as a Portuguese penal settlement in the very year the first group of priests and technicians were sent to the Congo. It was ruled by a Lord Proprietor, whose goodwill the Portuguese had to maintain at all costs. "
"The Lord Proprietor of Sao Tome had one overriding interest--the slave trade. Once Portugal began to develop Brazil she became herself dependent on the slaves sold through the Sao Tome slaving organizations. "
"The development of all this was in the future. At the time, it appeared on paper that Portugal and the Congo treated each other as equal states. The Mani Congo, who ascended the Ivory Throne in 1506, became a Christian as part of a concerted policy of westernization. Much of the correspondence of this remarkable king, Dom Affonso, with the Kings of Portugal has survived and it is clear that he looked on the Portuguese alliance as the most effective method of modernizing his kingdom. Before we condemn his lack of realism in this regard, it is necessary to remember that there are African rulers today who are pursuing a similar policy. What subsequently happened in the Congo should be an object lesson to them. "
"In much the same way as modern colonialist powers provided their colonial territories with model constitutions, so King Manoel of Portugal provided a constitution for the Congo. This famous document known as the Regimento of 1512, can perhaps be described as the first essay in neocolonialism. It provided that the Portuguese should help the King of the Congo in organizing his kingdom. The Portuguese were to introduce a system of European law and to train the Congolese Army in their methods of warfare. They were to teach the royal court the correct etiquette to observe and they were to build churches and to provide missionaries. In return for this the Congo would fill the Portuguese ships with valuable cargo. In his letter of instruction to the Ambassador who was to present the Regimento, the king of Portugal wrote: "
This expedition has cost us much; it would be unreasonable to send it home with empty hands. Although our principal wish is to serve God and the pleasure of the King of the Congo, none the less you will make him understand, as though speaking in our name, what he should do to fill the ships, whether with slaves or copper or ivory.
"The mention of copper is interesting as showing that the products of the Zambia and Katanga copper belt were already well known. At this time, surviving records show that Katanga copper was also being marketed on the East Coast, though the main African trade in the metal was internal. Dom Affonso accepted the Regimento and provided the Portuguese with 320 slaves. Thus began an unequal trade between the Congo and the West. The evil effect of this trade was not immediately apparent and the Kingdom of the Congo was at first able to treat other European nations on equal terms. In 1513 a mission from the Man! Congo led by his son, who had been baptized Dom Henrique, visited the Pope, travelling overland from Portugal and carrying with them gifts of ivory, rare skins and the fine woven raffia textiles then manufactured in the Congo. Dom Henrique, who was at this time 18 years old, was able to address the Pope in Latin and five years later, on the formal proposal of four Cardinals, he was elevated to the rank of Bishop of the Congo."
"In the end Dom Affonso was prepared to sacrifice all Portuguese trade if he could suppress slaving. In 1526 he wrote to the King of Portugal:"
We cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the above mentioned merchants daily seize our subjects, sons of the land and sons of our noblemen and vassals and our relatives.... Thieves and men of evil conscience take them because they wish to possess the things and wares of this Kingdom.... They grab them and cause them to be sold: and so great, Sir, is their corruption and licentiousness that our country is being utterly depopulated. And to avoid (them), we need from (your) Kingdoms no other than priest and people to teach in schools, and no other goods but wine and flour for the holy sacrament: that is why we beg of Your Highness to help and assist us in this matter, commanding your factors that they should send here neither merchants nor wares, because it is our will that in these kingdoms (of Congo) there should not be any trade in slaves nor market for slaves.
"But by then his power had been undermined. The traders of Sao Tome went over his head to his nominal vassals from whom they procured the slaves, even fomenting civil wars in which Portuguese subjects served on both sides. Thus whichever way the war went, an ample supply of captives was assured for sale to Sao Tome and Brazil. With Dom Affonso’s death the Congo Kingdom broke up. Portuguese troops, acting under the terms of the alliance, drove out invaders in 1570 and the Mani Congo of the time acknowledged Portugal as the protecting power. The ancient Congo capital of Sao Salvador was raised to the rank of city as was made the seat of the Bishop of the diocese of the Congo and Angola. But by 1700 the Bishops had departed, its twelve churches were in ruins and Sao Salvador was a deserted city. The Portuguese turned their attention to the area farther south, the Portuguese colony now known as Angola. "
"The first attempt to construct an African State by an African leader in alliance with a European power had foundered in anarchy and confusion. "
"In the last official Handbook of the Congo published by the Belgian Government in 1959, the results of western slave trading are thus described: "
By the end of the 17th century the slave trade, which had started as a Portuguese monopoly, had become a gigantic international undertaking. The places where slaves were kept became more and more numerous and profitable. The French appeared in their turn, drove the Portuguese away from the port of Cabinda and installed their slave markets chiefly beyond the north bank of the river toward Loango and Malemba, while the English traded in the estuary.
In the course of a single year, in 1778, 104,000 slaves had been exported from Africa; one third of them came from the Congo and Angola.
In the following section, Nkrumah explains how our information and communication system was captured and used against us in the Congo. Keep in mind that this is only one example of European treachery. This was repeated again and again throughout the continent, in fact, throughout the world.
"During the nineteenth century there began what is often described as "the age of African exploration". The term is misleading. The travels of great nineteenth-century European "explorers' in Africa followed long-established lines of communication which had been in use by African peoples for hundreds of years. There was a network of well-defined trails from the Katanga copper mines along which the Africans mined and smelted copper was distributed throughout Africa. "
"In 1877 one of these explorers, the United States journalist Henry Morton Stanley, arrived at Boma at the mouth of the Congo, having started from Zanzibar and in his journeying traced the course of the river from source to mouth. Stanley was typical of a class of nineteenth-century freebooters, very similar in outlook to the mercenaries who are operating in the Congo today. He was born in very poor circumstances in England, and his real name was John Rowlands. He worked his way across the Atlantic and acquired a wealthy American benefactor whose name he adopted. In the United States Civil War he served with the Confederate Army of the South. He was taken prisoner and in return for his freedom agreed to fight for the North. Later he served with various United States expeditions against the Red Indian people and then adopted the profession of journalist explorer. He had newspaper assignments in Tibet, the Caucasus and Ethiopia. He was asked by the New York Herald to go out to Africa to find the missing missionary David Livingstone. This he did in 1871 and stayed on in Africa. It was on behalf of his newspaper that he crossed the continent. "
"Stanley at once appreciated the possibilities of European exploitation of the Congo. ‘I could prove to you’, he wrote to the London Daily Telegraph, ‘that the Power possessing the Congo ... would absorb to itself the trade of the whole enormous basin behind. The river is and will be the grand highway to commerce to West Africa.’
Stanley's discovery was just what King Leopold II of Belgium was looking for. Some time earlier he had written: "
Since history teaches that colonies are useful, that they play a great part in that which makes up the power and prosperity of States, let us strive to get one in our turn. Before pronouncing in favor of this or that system let us see where there are unoccupied lands ... where are found peoples to civilize, to lead to progress in every sense, meanwhile assuring ourselves new revenues, to our middle classes the employment which they seek, to our army a little activity, and to Belgium as a whole the opportunity to prove to the world that it also is an imperial people capable of dominating and enlightening others.
"He had already founded, as a cover for his colonialist ambitions, an international African Association and Stanley was employed by him to return to the Congo and make treaties with the local rulers as a preliminary to its take-over by the Belgian King. "
"Leopold's plan was to run the Congo as a private domain, uncontrolled by even the Belgian Government, and to exploit it on an international scale. He succeeded because the powers of Europe were unwilling to see any other among them control the Congo.
The British at one time hoped to establish a type of new-colonialist state working through Portugal and Leopold's organization. A treaty between Britain and Portugal handing over the Congo to Portugal had been signed in 1884. There was so much opposition from other powers excluded from this arrangement that finally the whole issue was referred to the Berlin Conference which sat from November 1884 to February 1885. At this conference a compromise was worked out awarding the Congo to Leopold in a personal capacity but providing that it should be open to the trade of all those participating in the Berlin Conference. Thus the monarch of a small European State was made the absolute ruler over a territory equal to the area of Europe, excluding Russia. Leopold had never visited the Congo and was never to do so. Nevertheless, he was its sole lawmaker and the owner of all its land. "
"The Belgians declared that their first objective on entering the Congo was to suppress the slave trade. Up to the time of the Belgian occupation, some fifteen million Congolese had been shipped out by the western route alone. Ten million of them had died en route as a result of bad treatment. "
"In fact, the objective of Leopold 11 of Belgium was not to suppress slavery, but to change its nature. His object was to make slavery more profitable by employing the slave in the Congo and thus avoid the difficulties caused by the international abolition of the trade in its old-fashioned form. That he was able to do this was due to the divisions between the Congolese people and the imperial rivalry between the European powers."
"In a pamphlet The Crime of the Congo, published in 1910 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle analyzed the effects of Leopold's policy and denounced the European nations who refused to intervene. "
"He quoted extensively from Stanley's account of the Congo as he had found it in 1877 and contrasted it with its condition in 1910. He wrote: "
One cannot let these extracts pass without noting that Bolobo, the first place named by Stanley, has sunk in population from 40,000 to 7,000; that Irebu, called by Stanley the populous Venice of the Congo, has in 1903 a population of fifty; that the natives who used to follow Stanley, beseeching him to trade, now, according to Consul Casement, fly into the bush at the approach of a steamer, and that the unselfish sentiment of King Leopold 11 has developed into dividends of 300 per cent per annum. Such is the difference between Stanley’s anticipation and the actual fulfillment.
"Describing Leopold's method of rule, Conan Doyle continued: "
Having claimed, as I have shown, the whole of the land, and therefore the whole of its products, the State -- that is, the King -- proceeded to construct a system by which these products could be gathered most rapidly and at least cost. The essence of this system was that the people who had been dispossessed (ironically called 'citizens') were to be forced to gather, for the profit of the State, those very products, which had been taken from them. This was to be effected by two means; the one, taxation, by which an arbitrary amount, ever growing larger until it consumed almost their whole lives in the gathering, should be claimed for another. The other, so called barter, by which the natives were paid for the stuff exactly what the State chose to give, and in the form the State chose to give it, there being no competition allowed from any other purchaser. This remuneration, ridiculous in value, took the most absurd shape, the natives being compelled to take it, whatever the amount, and however little they might desire it....
"By this system some two thousand white agents were scattered over the Free State to collect the produce. The whites were placed in ones and twos in the more central points, and each was given a tract of country containing a certain number of villages. By the help of the inmates he was to gather the rubber, which was the most valuable asset. These whites, many of whom were men of low morale before they left Europe, were wretchedly paid, the scale running from 150 to 300 francs a month. This pay they might supplement--.by a commission or bonus on the amount of rubber collected. If there returns were large it meant increased pay, official praise, a more speedy return to Europe and a better chance of promotion. If, on the other hand, the returns were small it meant poverty, harsh reproof and degradation. No system could be devised by which a body of men could be so driven to attain results at any cost. It is not to the absolute discredit of Belgians that such an existence should have demoralized them, and indeed, there were other nationalities besides Belgians in the ranks of the agents. I doubt if Englishmen, Americans or Germans could have escaped the same result had they been exposed in a tropical country to similar temptations. "
"And now, the two thousand agents being in place and eager to enforce the collection of rubber upon very unwilling natives, how did the system intend that they should set about it? The method was as efficient as it was absolutely diabolical. Each agent was given control over a certain number of savages drawn from the wild tribes but armed with firearms. One or more of these was placed in each village to ensure that the villagers should do their task. These are the men who are called 'Capitas', or head-men in the accounts, and who are the actual, though not moral, perpetrators of so many horrible deeds. Imagine the nightmare which lay upon each village while this barbarian squatted in the midst of it. Day or night they could never get away from him. He called for palm wine. He called for women. He beat them, mutilated them and shot them down at his pleasure. He enforced public incest in order to amuse himself by the sight. Sometimes they plucked up spirit and killed him. The Belgian commission records that 142 Capitas had been killed in seven months in a single district. Then came the punitive expedition, and the destruction of the whole community. The more terror the Capita inspired, the more useful he was, the more eagerly the villagers obeyed him, and the more rubber yielded it commission to the agent. When the amount fell off, then the Capita was himself made to feel some of the physical pains which he had inflicted upon others. Often the white agent far exceeded in cruelty the barbarian who carried out his commissions. Often, too the white man pushed the black aside, and acted himself as torturer and executioner."
"The Report of Roger Casement, British Consul in the Congo, published in 1904, provides further information about the nature of Leopold's rule in the Congo. "
... Perhaps the most striking change observed during my journey into the interior was the great reduction observable everywhere in native life. Communities I had formerly known as large and flourishing centers of population are today entirely gone, or now exist in such diminished numbers as to be no longer recognizable. The southern shores of Stanley Pool had formerly a population of fully 5,000 Batekas. These people some twelve years ago decided to abandon their homes, and in one night the great majority of them crossed over into French territory. Where formerly had stretched these populous native African villages, I saw today only a few scattered European houses.
"Questioning some Congolese about the rubber trade, they told him they had to produce twenty baskets of rubber four times a month: "
We got no pay. We got nothing.... It used to take ten days to get the twenty baskets of rubber. We were always in the forest, and then when we were late we were killed. We had to go further and further into the forest to find the rubber vines, to go without food, and our women had to give up cultivating the fields and gardens. Then we starved. Wild beasts--the leopards--killed some of us when we were working away in the forest, and others got lost or died from exposure and starvation, and we begged the white man to leave us alone, saying we would get no more rubber, but the white men and their soldiers say, "Go! You are only beasts yourselves; you are nyama (meat)." We tried, always going further into the forest, and when we failed and our rubber was short the soldiers came up our towns and shot us. Many were shot; some had their ears cut off ... We fled because we could not endure the things done to us.
THESE ARE INDEED LESSONS FOR TODAY! by Uhuru Staff
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