Thank you, that ones a deep cut
Comment on Belgian rule in the Congo was fucked up
PugJesus@piefed.social 5 days ago
Explanation: The Congo Free State run by the Belgian monarchy was… horrific in its pursuit of atrocities, even by the extremely low standards of 19th century European imperialists. Imagine how bad you would have to be to shock a bunch of “White Man’s Burden” types who thought nothing of burning and looting their way across the African continent, and you will still probably arrive short of the kind of lunacy the Congo Free State hosted.
Most relevantly to the meme, native workers were given rubber quotas to meet, so that the Belgian monarch, Leopold II, could make a profit off of his colony. If they failed to meet these quotas, their hands - or the hands of their family members - would be amputated and given to colonial officials, as proof the punishment had been carried out.
TachyonTele@piefed.social 5 days ago
Gust@piefed.social 5 days ago
The photos documenting that era and the brutality of Belgium make me sick in the same way photos of holocaust mass graves do. There’s a famous one of a man who didn’t meet the rubber quota contemplating a pile of severed hands taken from his children that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget. (I chose not to post that photo deliberately. You are welcome to look it up based on my description if you want to see, but don’t say I didn’t warn you afterwards)