Responding to Iris' Q. #9 - Worksheet for Module 7

Hi Iris,


The image on page 803 of the “Colonial Violence in the Congo” also caught my attention and made me sad. It is still unreal to me to see the suffering of these Congolese and know that it is related to the white supremacist concepts that grew in the European colonialism. As Strayer commented, this was “a reign of terror and abuse that cost millions of lives” (p. 803) It was even more shocking to read the quote from one of the refugees describing the process: “We were always in 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.... We begged the white man to leave us alone, saying we could get no more rubber, but the white men and their soldiers said "Go. You are only beasts yourselves...." When we failed and our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us. Many were shot, some had their ears cut off; others were tied up with ropes around their necks and taken away15 ” (p. 803). How can a human being treat others like this? I can only imagine how difficult it was for the Congolese community seeing each other suffering and being mistreated. I am glad to have had the opportunity to learn about such an important topic. It inspires me to speak out against racism in every opportunity I have.  

Notes

15 Quoted in Scott B. Cook, Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 53.


Reference


https://iris2020summer.blogspot.com/2020/07/module-7-questions-1-9.html


Strayer, R. (2016). Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford/St. Martin



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