““The Snake Leopold”The Snake Leopold”

The Belgian Congo AbusesThe Belgian Congo Abuses

Erika GrandstaffErika Grandstaff

On December 10, 1865, the King of Belgium diedAnd “Long live the king,” the Belgians criedLeopold II stepped up to take the thronePromising happiness within their home

He seemed benevolent, he seemed goodHe said he wanted to help Belgium as much as he couldOh, King, perhaps you did, with all your mightBut what about the Congo’s plight?

King Leopold II

For Leopold was a snake, and lies he did speakHis forked tongue flicked behind his white teethThose in his colonies suffered a fate most severeA fate that cost many lives dear.

As early on as 1876,Leopold sponsored a geographic conferenceTo try to form a civilizing committeeBringing light to Congo’s darkened cities

And in 1878, the snake Leopold beganTo send out an exploring manHenry Stanley was his nameAnd obtaining land was his game

Stanley, who found Dr. LivingstoneWas now employed to find land to ownThe Congo’s kings signed away their nationsFor a few trinkets, they lost their liberation

Henry Stanley

Now King Leopold held in his palmA colony that was his personal kingdomHis and his alone, he ownedGiven to him, not stolen or loaned

But it truly began in the year 1884When the Berlin Conference was called forCarving up Central Africa was the goalAnd Belgium took the Congo in full

A map of the partition of Africa - the Belgian Congo is circled in red.

The snake Leopold promised civilization,He promised the slave trade’s abolitionHe promised safety to the CongoleseBut his forked tongue showed behind his teeth

He formed a native army, the Force PubliqueWhich drove out slave traders, but then brought a future bleakThe native Congolese were oppressed and controlledAnd then the Belgian imperial machine really began to roll

A system of brutality was set into motionWhere compliance was the only optionLeopold wanted the rubber and ivoryAnd he would exploit the Congo for years 23.

Men were told to harvest the rubberWhile colonizers held hostage their kids and their loversMen had rubber quotas to meetAnd if they did not, then they would be beat

A Congolese man is whipped.

But the brutality did not end there,For lives would be ended without a careLeopold’s desire for rubber and richesMade the snake squeeze life out of his colonists

Torture and starvation soon occurredOn every man, woman, boy, and girlEvery Congolese felt the teethOf the snake Leopold and the lies he did speak

It was not uncommon for soldiers in the Congo to cut off the hands of the Congolese.

And as the presence of rubber in jungles declinedMen had to travel farther and farther to findThey trekked for days upon days upon weeksUntil they could not go on, for they were so weak

With the invention of the inflatable tireThe price of rubber rose even higherAnd the Congolese strained even moreTo hit the quotas they were shooting for

A woman enjoys a bike ride.

Slavery and disease, whippings and tearsWere how the Congolese passed their yearsWhile the dragon’s hoard of wealth did growAnd the snake Leopold in his glee did crow

All his promises came to nonexistenceFor the Congolese barely subsistedRebellions were put down every timeAnd slavery lived and did not decline

This cartoon depicts the (literal) snake Leopold II squeezing the life out of an African; it shows how the greed of Leopold “strangled” the Congolese.

But the rest of the world was blissfully unawareOf the Congo and what happened thereThough a few people tried to let the world knowLeopold kept the truth locked up below

Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of DarknessWhich spoke of the Congo’s trade in all its harshnessBut the evils in the Congo continued to beAnd there seemed to be no hope for the Congolese

The cover of Heart of Darkness.

Eventually, though the world discovered Leopold’s liesAnd oh, what they found was a genocideBut Leopold still ordered all records to be burntSo the truth could never truly be learned

In 1909, the snake Leopold diedHis forked tongue nevermore liedSome might have thought that terror was overBut the Congo was still made to suffer

Slavery continued, and the Congolese were exploitedDespite the human rights movement started to destroy itIn 1960, the Congo was finally freeBut they still experienced tyranny

Dictators came and dictators wentPoverty and famine swept through as though Hell-sentEven today, the Congo is not fully recoveredFrom what the snake Leopold caused them to suffer

The brutal dictator Joseph Mobutu ruled his nation much like Leopold II did.

Though not genocide in the strictest senseAll resistance was put down without a glance

And between five and fifteen million Congolese diedAll because of that snake Leopold’s lies.

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