Colonial Violence in the Congo (p.803)
https://images.app.goo.gl/VFSbiRWeYQG3mWbP6
These young boys with severed hands were among the victims of a brutal regime of forced labor undertaken during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Congo. Such mutilations have been punishment because of the inability of their village to provide the required amount of wild rubber (Strayer, p, 803).
The image illustrates the concept of the chapter demonstrating reality. Cruelties of forced labor occurred during the early twentieth century in the Congo Free state, then governed personally by Kind Leopold II of Belgium. This photo was a reality that people lived, in this case children. Unable to get rubber for they were killed, their ears or hands were cut off. With image we see the other side of industrialization. On this side we do not see improvements, we only see people suffering, being tortured and subjected to work that made industrialization possible.
Sadness! It is what I can see. Vulnerable people who could have worked without experiencing so much damage. The worst thing was that being in their own territory they were treated so badly. The reason? A mind so full of ambition and need for power. Those ideas are summarized in progress. But progress for whom? These poor human beings were worse off than they were before being invaded. Why is it always the same? The vulnerable people are those who end up working and suffering the most.
Hello Teresa,
I could not help but cringe at this image. It is indeed devastating how a country can treat its own people as animals to feed their greed and ambitions. This shows how greed can blind you and turn your heart into a “rock.” I can not seem to get all of my words into sentences because that is how powerful and heartbreaking this image is. We have come a long way from times like this, yet, we still have a long way to go.
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