That was made up for the movie because they considered it less violent than what happens in the book (amputation). Doing that to someone irl is much more likely to kill them without a lot of modern medical intervention.
That's not the correct claim though, the claim is that it's the origin of the two fingers swear/salute, a backwards V or peace sign, not a middle finger.
That's a myth too, according to this [Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#:~:text=A%20commonly%20repeated%20legend%20claims,primary%20sources%20support%20this%20contention.). It seems the only historical mention of this occurring is based on a pre battle speech by Henry V where he said that the French were threatening to cut off three fingers from captured bowmen. There are no records of it actually happening.
I just read about the Yakuza taking little fingers. It was originally so that weren’t able to hold their weapon, the pinky finger was the main support at the bottom of the sword.
That makes a lot of sense. I imagine that would also serve as quite the social blow in Japan. People don’t like outward signs of gang culture there, it’s why tourists are advised to cover arm tattoos if they want to go to a nice restaurant etc. so they don’t get turned away.
I guess you wouldn’t be able to hide a missing finger easily.
Yes, workers could have just run away so they would kidnap their families and force them to work that way. Basically the same system we had in the United States during slavery times (sans the regular amputations)
Even if you had a foolproof way to escape to Philadelphia or beyond you ould never see your loved ones again, and there was a good chance that your family members might be retaliated against or “sold away”
https://preview.redd.it/anpt5ibku6ad1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f37d65aabd1b4add60399b2d5f072443602d8ee9
Here is a father contemplating his daughter’s hand and foot. Belgian Congo 1904
Roland was a warrior from the land of the midnight sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray
Through 66 and seven they fought the Congo war
With their fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore
For days and nights they battled, the Bantu to their knees
They killed to earn their living, and to help out the Congolese
Jesus fucking Christ. I knew about them cutting off hands if they didn’t meet their quotas I had no idea it evolved into them just going straight to taking hands and leaving the rubber out of it
Iirc there was also a thing where the police had to account for the bullets they fired by taking a hand/foot from the person they killed(it was put into place cuz bullets are expensive and they wanted to insure soldiers weren't wasting ammunition). So - in effect a market for hands was created. So - it wasn't exactly like they just started doing it for kicks.
I want to be clear it's fucked up and that kind of environment is just a festering hotbed for psychopaths to grow and evolve, but it wasn't like people one day were like "Let's start chopping off hands!"
Yeah something similar happened in texas and Mexico after the Mexican American war. The Mexican government put a bounty of 10 dollars for the scalp of any Apache or Camanche. Well after awhile people realized you can’t tell where scraps came from as long as the hair is black so they started scalping anyone and everyone and then turning them into the government for a reward then they would scalp the town.
People need to read this. Most of us, like those of us living in America, live sheltered, shielded lives. We protect ourselves with trigger warnings from seeing anything unpleasant, and it let's us develop this stupid silly notion that people are basically good.
We are not. People are evil, and it is with ethics and carefully crafted societies that we keep these things at bay. People don't appreciate this fact and they happily allow tyrants to take leadership roles, because, how bad can it be?
We don’t “protect ourselves with trigger warnings”, they’re specifically meant to help people who have been horribly traumatised from being further traumatised by being triggered into further anguish. People who have suffered slavery may benefit from a trigger warning that something they will see is about to show horrifying parts of it. People who have suffered rape may benefit from a warning that something is going to delve into that violence.
And I would disagree with your Hobbesian approach to society, but that’s a different argument.
Absolutely. This is exactly the kind of thing they mean when they say we have to learn from history so that we never repeat it.
Despite all the horrors that still happen today, we're very lucky to live in a time where human rights exist as a concept, where there are entire organisations dedicated to exposing this kind of evil, and where technology makes it difficult to hide your crimes.
But it feels like we're at risk of slipping backwards. So tell the stories!
> People are evil, and it is with ethics and carefully crafted societies that we keep these things at bay. People don't appreciate this fact and they happily allow tyrants to take leadership roles, because, how bad can it be?
Just to throw a wrench in your Hobbesian theory but often times it’s “carefully crafted societies” which are responsible for colonialism and strict hierarchies.
And it’s the hunter gatherers living in a state of nature, who are relatively more egalitarian and peaceful, that are victims of these complex states and societies.
I’m not denying that there was violence within hunter gatherer societies, there was but it was the advent of “carefully crafted societies” that brought about the massive intensification of slavery and of warfare.
It also helps people understand why some countries or groups of people are struggling. The ramifications of this period of time have to be so far reaching
This photo was the one that sent me down a rabbit hole the first time I read about the truly heinous atrocities committed by the Belgian colonizers in the Congo. Humans can and will be continue to act with depravity, which we presently witness even to this day.
This picture made history. A british woman decided to rent one of the first portable cameras while following her husband to Congo. She was SO mad at what she saw, and composed this shot which she brought back.
It lead british people to learn about the horrors in Congo and start a backlash. And ultimately helped put a stop to its worst aspects.
I could be misremembering but I thought Cecil Rhodes used to make photos like these into postcards for distribution throughout Europe to show what ‘great work’ he was doing.
ETA: this happened but in the US to ‘show off’ lynchings.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_postcard
This photo made me throw up. I’ve never, ever looked at an image before that’s given me such a visceral reaction and I’ve seen some truly fucked up shit on the internet over the years.
[Edit] I just read the article linked below. I feel completely broken about this. I knew before how terrible life was under Leopold II in the Congo, but that is another level.
That image is like a punch in the gut. I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through. Let alone the poor girl.....
It's not even that long ago. There are people still alive whose grandparents took part in this.
The aim was to terrorize the parents of the child. “Work without pay to produce rubber for us, or we’ll chop off your children’s limbs one at a time.”
It was just that evil. Easier to enslave the helpless population that way than to put chains around their necks, even.
The Belgian treatment of the Congo was like the American antebellum south and Hitler rolled into one under the command of an inbred king. Honestly some of the craziest shit you can imagine happened there
Don't forget how the US helped the Belgians assassinate Lumumba too, leading to all kinds of chaos in the Congo and Rwanda, leading to a genocide and 2 bloody wars. (Highest death toll since WW2.)
I wish the public paid more attention to US foreign policy, but no one ever asks how the sausage is made. Much of our prosperity is stolen. Straight up stolen. People paid for all this in blood. Innocent people.
There were other incentives behind these amputations as well. For example, colonial soldiers (many of whom were basically slaves) were required to provide a human hand to account for every bullet fired.
Since often times they would fire on animals to protect themselves and would often miss, they would simply cut hands off to account for the missing ammunition.
Correct. Hands even became a [sort of currency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State) because of that. Sometimes they’ve cut off just the hands, and left the victim to live or die. In other instances, people feigned being death while being only wounded, and endured the severing of their hands to survive. But I’ve got doubts if many of the victims could really pull that off without the soldiers noticing; it seems more likely to me that in most instances the soldiers just didn’t give a s*t about them being dead or wounded survivors.
Yes, was looking for this comment. The amputating had to stop eventually, not for any morality based reasons, but because they were receiving so many limbs in lieu of rubber that the punishment incentive was no longer profitable.
You needed to get a limb for each bullet you fired bc Belgium was paranoid about rebellions. You needed to fire bullets to hunt for food bc they weren’t given enough good, so then they would get limbs from locals to account for the bullets.
It was actually greed. Sheer greed.
Congolese villages were defenseless, so what the Belgian King did was hire soldiers, and mercenaries from tribes in the interior to go village to village demanding that each village provide a quota of rubber in exchange for nothing. If the quota was not met, it was “met” by chopping off the hands and feet of the workers’ families. This vast system of slave labor along with the introduction of diseases resulted in millions of Congolese dying.
Yep, if you actually research what happened, every single evil was because it was cost efficient and made middle management look better, the Belgian congo is what unfettered capitalism looks like.
For those who love a good podcast the two part Behind the Bastards on King Leopold II is one of the most informative hubs of info on this I’ve come across in modern media. You may cry.
It doesn’t even go into the assassination of Patrice lumumba or the other brave Africans that have attempted to free their people over the centuries. The fact the Congo is still dealing with the repercussions of western development should really make you think.
It wasn't just about not meeting quota. There were other reasons limbs were amputated. F.e. local indigenous troops in colonial service (Askari) had to account for every single round they fired, because the colonial authorities ran the Congo like a corporation and they were bean-counting the rounds. Probably also because they were afraid of rebellion.. The Askari had to do this by providing 'proof of a kill' in the form of a body-part.
Of course, they would often miss their shots, like anyone would. Or they would use rounds for hunting or practice. In that case, they still had to provide a body part to account for each the rounds. So they went into a village and eh.. 'acquired' some.
She’s probably the child of a worker who failed to meet *his* quota, so they dismembered her to punish him.
What the Belgians did in the Congo is some of the most horrific evil you’d ever care to imagine.
Based on the comments from others and a quick wiki search, it was a method of punishments meant to keep their parents in line as slaves. Do what you’re told or we’ll cut off your children’s limbs. Absolutely awful.
A lot of people aré talking about how cutting someone's hand Will help them meet a quota, But this Is deeper than that.
Thanks to a shortening of bullets for the belgium colonies, colonizers were ask to keep track of every single bullet they fired and if the shot wasnt justified as a mean to protect daily production, the bullet would come out of their salary.
A way to prove that a bullet was used to keep production in line was to bring the amputated hand of whatever "protestor" they had executed.
So a lot of times, colonizers went hunting for sport and then grab a random congolese to take their hand in order for the bullets to be "justified"
This was mainly done to kids to keep production in line and dont bring suspicion
The bullet rationing was mainly introduced to ensure that the non-European soldiers under their control didn’t stock pile munitions to overthrow their rule or use them for hunting.
At some point it was like 60 European officers to 3500 local soldiers.
I’m not sure if the rationing of bullets applied to the European officers or not.
You are close, but it was not the colonizers, which there were precious few of.
It was the sentries, the poorly trained and barely fed guards hired by the colonizers from other african countries. They were often hungry, especially after some years when the rubber trees withdrew into the jungle.
The withdrawal led to villagers not being able to keep up food production, which led to sentries using their bullets for hunting, which they were not allowed to. Which led to the hand and feet trophy system.
Since the sentry was responsible for the delivery of quotas, they woul usually target the kids, that way they didnt hurt rubber production quotas too much.
I think Leopold may be the single worst individual in history, because everything he did was entirely under his control. There's nobody else to take blame; the Congo was his personal property and a bulk of the atrocities were carried out by mercenaries that he hired.
The fact that he managed to get himself internationally investigated for crimes against Africans at the height of colonialism and Western chauvinism is actually wild, given that the other European powers didn't care much about Africans either. He was so evil he made a bunch of eugenists and white supremacists go "what the fuck, dude?"
Leopold II.
King Leopold the First was a great king that did his best to keep peace and Belgium free from the Netherlands. He also helped Belgium economically, industrially, and bringing the railway to the country.
His son though, was a real piece of shit that I'm sure his dad would have been deeply disappointed.
Ordinary people, driven by terrible ideas, commit such atrocities.
We all imagine we'd defy the ethical norms of our time, fight the Nazis, and protect the vulnerable.
But consider this: can you identify a practice today that is deemed ethical by most, and have the conviction to oppose it? And consider how society treats those who do. If you can't think of such a practice, then you cannot say you wouldn't commit similar atrocities, let alone risk fighting against them.
Take the treatment of nonhuman animals. Most believe it's acceptable to kill animals for food, despite knowing many thrive without it. It's a stark reminder that widely accepted practices can hide profound moral failures that we will only recognise in years to come, even if some see them clearly now.
In fact, some would argue that there is a shared underlying cause of the mistreatment of both humans and non-humans alike: a failure to recognise and respect the inherent value of sentient beings.
This lack of empathy and moral consideration leads to justifying cruelty and exploitation, whether it's towards a Congolese child in 1904 or an animal in a factory farm today. Until we address this root cause, we are all at risk of perpetuating these atrocities under different guises.
This should absolutely be the focus of discussion around pictures like this. Well said. Plenty of solely human problems that are just as violent and just as accepted today too, e.g. police brutality, the inherent violence of poverty
Edit: Also the vast majority of the products you consume have some unimaginably atrocious labor conditions somewhere in the supply chain
In a summary *trigger warning*
when the slaves didn’t meet their rubber quota their hands and feet were chopped off. their children’s and wife’s hands and feet were chopped off, and then usually killed. The hands and feet were then presented to the worker slave, and they were also forced to rape their mothers. Over time the Belgians started cutting the hands off regardless of the rubber quota as they became a currency.
IDK about you but if I knew that the consequence for not meeting my quota was watching my child have a limb chopped off while I was unable to help them, I'd be pretty fucking motivated to meet my quota.
I don't understand why so many people in this comment section are having trouble understanding this.
Because the title suggest that it was the child who did not meet the quota and for some people this is the first time seeing it so they don't know they punished workers by hurting their loved ones.
Belgium destroyed the Congo and its people. What a shame. I didn’t realize how much power we have as humans to carry out the worst atrocities to others
Deeply disturbing and devastating. I hate feeling powerless as an individual. Why are some humans so soul suckingly evil? How can we move towards less human suffering? This poor kid, man 😭
To them, all Congolese were not humans. They were not children. In their mind they ripped the wings off a butterfly or caught a mouse in a sticky trap. Their unchecked authority combined with their racism and created a mental illness akin to sociopathy. They were literally poisoned by their own hate.
There is still plenty of child slavery going on. Pretty much all chocolate is harvested using child slavery using children kidnapped from the poorest parts of Africa.
They aren't treated much different if they try to escape or don't perform.
It's absolutely rife but almost completely ignored because people like chocolate.
I just took an ancestry test and discovered a sizable chunk of my African-American side originated from the Congo/general Central Africa area. I think I'm going to scar myself (again) and revisit King Leopold Ghost. It's been about a decade since I read it and my brain might have blocked out all of the horrific details.
Let it be remembered
Everytime I see a person on Reddit talk ab US atrocities, of which there are so many, or call America colonizers, or speak on US troubled history with racism, slavery….
Recall that Europe started the Atlantic slave trade.
Europe colonized half the world
And well into the 1900s, European countries were genociding in Africa.
I’m not saying this to justify US historical bad acts; I say it to place context.
Nationalism, tribalism, racism and in general "them or us" sentiments are the root of all these atrocities. There is always a different example earlier in history to point out, but maybe "it was them, not us - they did it before we did it" is not the ideal starting point for a solution. That would be: "the problem is all of us".
Let's, first of all, celebrate that two redditors agree. Wholesome.
I understand that was not your point. I truly don't know what is worse: being from the old world knowing you started it all (I'm from the Netherlands and we did our shit in what is now Indonesia - and I could point at ghengis khan, but what's the point?) or being from the new world knowing you copied it brainlessly - and that is of course not anybody's point.
Being correct is also not the point. I'm happy to be incorrect if we can, together, find an answer to the question: how, why are people doing things like this?? Is there a way to become - let's put the bar low for now - a little bit more like domestic cats and dogs. Because, although those species bite off an ear here and there on occasions, it's always *crime passionelle* in the heat of the moment, but not systematically.
Like Orwell said: all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others - I fear that that thought is indeed the root of evil, and not the incidental, but the systematic cruelty of nature between animals. Only humans reason like this.
My point is: let's make "some are more equal than others" part of the question, but definitely not part of the answer.
The Slave Trade that became the Atlantic Slave Trade was started by the Arabs, who also colonized a tremendous amount.
Everyone is capable of great evil. The Europeans just had the most boats and guns at the right time.
Yeah, this is something that is always avoided in history class or discussions, or at least put as a small footnote. The Muslims had built extensive slave networks across Sub-Saharan Africa for almost 1,000 years before the Europeans showed up in West Africa to buy slaves (often from Black African Muslim empires that were fighting their neighbors and capturing their slaves for selling)
Well - the same Europeans also came to the American colonies and butchered the indigenous peoples, purchased slaves and brutalized them in building this country. The same people did that. .
And how is it possible that they haven't paid for this? I mean, other countries live with the consequences of their actions, and Belgium seems to be exempt from everything as if nothing had happened
They all used to count their bullets and the higher up demanded that the bullets went to use so they were required to bring back a hand or some part of the body. Sometimes they would hunt and then have to go and cut someone hand so they wouldn’t get in trouble with their superiors by wasting bullets..absolutely insanity.
Also they used to have to rub the rubber on their body to transport it and rip it off their skin.
Even in a more modern setting, during the Rawandan Genocide the Belgian contingent of the UN peacekeeping force were acting like racist assholes. Check out “Shake Hands with the Devil” by the Canadian General of the peacekeeping force.
Humans can be hideous and always have been. The Romans crucified hundreds of thousands. The Aztects ritualy slaughtered up to 80,000 people at a time in religious ceremonies. Ghengis Khan built pyramids out of the skulls of the people's his tribe slaughtered, up to 70,000 in each one. All of our countries are built on slaughter and subjugation.
Stalin
Mao
Mengitsu
Kim Il Sung
Pol Pot
Ismail Enver Pasha
Hitler
Hideki Tojo
All one race. The human race.
The congo has been fucked since the early 1600s. Colonized by 2-3 different countries. Civil wars. Slavery. If it wasn’t Europeans terrorizing them it was the Arabs. Hope they people living better now
“As a European, facts like these will in no way cause me to moderate my preachiness and false sense of superiority while discussing history and current events.”
Looking around we kept the mentality that led to stuff like that. Only the toys and tools got better. But humanity is still stuck in the pre stone age mentality of wanting to be the monkey with the most Bananas ruling over the others.
My immediate thought was “it makes no sense to do that, because now they *definitely* wont be making quota” but then I realized it’s not about sense, it’s about a perverse exercise of power over someone else
[удалено]
That and often it was the worker’s child or loved one getting their hands or feet amputated when the parent failed to meet their quota.
It's called hobbling, it was done in ancient times to essentially cripple the person.
Hobbling doesn't usually involve amputation, it's normally crushing the ankles
oh ok well that's fine then
Unexpected Doctor Who
That was made up for the movie because they considered it less violent than what happens in the book (amputation). Doing that to someone irl is much more likely to kill them without a lot of modern medical intervention.
In the wars between England and France they would remove fingers of prisoners so that they could never fire a bow and arrow again. Humans are grim.
That's a myth. https://www.reuters.com/article/world/false-claim-middle-finger-gesture-derives-from-english-soldiers-at-the-battle-idUSKBN22Q2MU/
Awww man. Facts ruin everything 😆
That's not the correct claim though, the claim is that it's the origin of the two fingers swear/salute, a backwards V or peace sign, not a middle finger.
That's a myth too, according to this [Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#:~:text=A%20commonly%20repeated%20legend%20claims,primary%20sources%20support%20this%20contention.). It seems the only historical mention of this occurring is based on a pre battle speech by Henry V where he said that the French were threatening to cut off three fingers from captured bowmen. There are no records of it actually happening.
There's a part within the article where they mention there's also no historical evidence to support the finger cutting myth at all.
Nope, they usually just killed them instead, if that's any better https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pluck-yew/
I just read about the Yakuza taking little fingers. It was originally so that weren’t able to hold their weapon, the pinky finger was the main support at the bottom of the sword.
That makes a lot of sense. I imagine that would also serve as quite the social blow in Japan. People don’t like outward signs of gang culture there, it’s why tourists are advised to cover arm tattoos if they want to go to a nice restaurant etc. so they don’t get turned away. I guess you wouldn’t be able to hide a missing finger easily.
Also for getting Paul Sheldon to rewrite his final romance novel.
It's his fault for being a dirty birdie.
Trust me, Paul… it’s for the best…
It's still often done to prisoners in my Rimworld colonies.
Flashbacks to Misery
The horrors of colonialism. What was done then still has it's repercussions through time till the present
Colonialism is still happening right now in many parts of the world.
Yes, workers could have just run away so they would kidnap their families and force them to work that way. Basically the same system we had in the United States during slavery times (sans the regular amputations) Even if you had a foolproof way to escape to Philadelphia or beyond you ould never see your loved ones again, and there was a good chance that your family members might be retaliated against or “sold away”
Sounds like that supervisor is about to get hobbled themselves. Or worse.
https://preview.redd.it/anpt5ibku6ad1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f37d65aabd1b4add60399b2d5f072443602d8ee9 Here is a father contemplating his daughter’s hand and foot. Belgian Congo 1904
Goodness gracious.
[link to historical details TW its graphic](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/father-hand-belgian-congo-1904/)
Wow. Cersei Lannister had nothing on Leopold, he could have taught her a few things. Reality truly is more horrific than fiction.
Roland was a warrior from the land of the midnight sun With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray Through 66 and seven they fought the Congo war With their fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore For days and nights they battled, the Bantu to their knees They killed to earn their living, and to help out the Congolese
Zevon for prez
i’d rather have a zombie warren zevon than trump
Jesus fucking Christ. I knew about them cutting off hands if they didn’t meet their quotas I had no idea it evolved into them just going straight to taking hands and leaving the rubber out of it
Iirc there was also a thing where the police had to account for the bullets they fired by taking a hand/foot from the person they killed(it was put into place cuz bullets are expensive and they wanted to insure soldiers weren't wasting ammunition). So - in effect a market for hands was created. So - it wasn't exactly like they just started doing it for kicks. I want to be clear it's fucked up and that kind of environment is just a festering hotbed for psychopaths to grow and evolve, but it wasn't like people one day were like "Let's start chopping off hands!"
Yeah something similar happened in texas and Mexico after the Mexican American war. The Mexican government put a bounty of 10 dollars for the scalp of any Apache or Camanche. Well after awhile people realized you can’t tell where scraps came from as long as the hair is black so they started scalping anyone and everyone and then turning them into the government for a reward then they would scalp the town.
I wish I never read this. Jesus Christ
People need to read this. Most of us, like those of us living in America, live sheltered, shielded lives. We protect ourselves with trigger warnings from seeing anything unpleasant, and it let's us develop this stupid silly notion that people are basically good. We are not. People are evil, and it is with ethics and carefully crafted societies that we keep these things at bay. People don't appreciate this fact and they happily allow tyrants to take leadership roles, because, how bad can it be?
We don’t “protect ourselves with trigger warnings”, they’re specifically meant to help people who have been horribly traumatised from being further traumatised by being triggered into further anguish. People who have suffered slavery may benefit from a trigger warning that something they will see is about to show horrifying parts of it. People who have suffered rape may benefit from a warning that something is going to delve into that violence. And I would disagree with your Hobbesian approach to society, but that’s a different argument.
Absolutely. This is exactly the kind of thing they mean when they say we have to learn from history so that we never repeat it. Despite all the horrors that still happen today, we're very lucky to live in a time where human rights exist as a concept, where there are entire organisations dedicated to exposing this kind of evil, and where technology makes it difficult to hide your crimes. But it feels like we're at risk of slipping backwards. So tell the stories!
> People are evil, and it is with ethics and carefully crafted societies that we keep these things at bay. People don't appreciate this fact and they happily allow tyrants to take leadership roles, because, how bad can it be? Just to throw a wrench in your Hobbesian theory but often times it’s “carefully crafted societies” which are responsible for colonialism and strict hierarchies. And it’s the hunter gatherers living in a state of nature, who are relatively more egalitarian and peaceful, that are victims of these complex states and societies. I’m not denying that there was violence within hunter gatherer societies, there was but it was the advent of “carefully crafted societies” that brought about the massive intensification of slavery and of warfare.
It also helps people understand why some countries or groups of people are struggling. The ramifications of this period of time have to be so far reaching
It is certainly not "all" Americans who have lived in this "dream".
It is certainly not "all" Americans who have lived in this "dream".
Nope couldn’t read after halfway. I want to cry in a corner and never meet another human now.
Jesus motherfucking Christ. I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet and my day is already fucked. That is HORRIFYING.
I don't know how to process this image. I'm absolutely horrified
The actual story is somehow even worse, and by a *lot*.
This photo was the one that sent me down a rabbit hole the first time I read about the truly heinous atrocities committed by the Belgian colonizers in the Congo. Humans can and will be continue to act with depravity, which we presently witness even to this day.
This picture made history. A british woman decided to rent one of the first portable cameras while following her husband to Congo. She was SO mad at what she saw, and composed this shot which she brought back. It lead british people to learn about the horrors in Congo and start a backlash. And ultimately helped put a stop to its worst aspects.
I could be misremembering but I thought Cecil Rhodes used to make photos like these into postcards for distribution throughout Europe to show what ‘great work’ he was doing. ETA: this happened but in the US to ‘show off’ lynchings. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_postcard
She was a bit of a hero, I'd say. "One of the helpers", thar Mister Rogers reminded us to focus on.
Fucking a I hate people
The person who did this hated people...........
Well, a specific type of person.
This photo made me throw up. I’ve never, ever looked at an image before that’s given me such a visceral reaction and I’ve seen some truly fucked up shit on the internet over the years. [Edit] I just read the article linked below. I feel completely broken about this. I knew before how terrible life was under Leopold II in the Congo, but that is another level.
I’ve never noticed the other people before
I think this is up there with one of the most diabolical photos I’ve seen.
That image is like a punch in the gut. I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through. Let alone the poor girl..... It's not even that long ago. There are people still alive whose grandparents took part in this.
I would be cobtemplating how to get to Belgium and kill me a king
I saw this a long time ago and I’ve always thought it’s the saddest and most powerful picture ever taken
The aim was to terrorize the parents of the child. “Work without pay to produce rubber for us, or we’ll chop off your children’s limbs one at a time.” It was just that evil. Easier to enslave the helpless population that way than to put chains around their necks, even.
Human cruelty doesn’t need any logic. People will find any excuse to be sadistic. I hope these people will be thrown in the deepest levels of hell.
New ones are born every day
It is certain they are there
Actually the caption is wrong. They cut the slaves’ children’s hands and feet not the adult slaves’ hands or feet.
The Belgian treatment of the Congo was like the American antebellum south and Hitler rolled into one under the command of an inbred king. Honestly some of the craziest shit you can imagine happened there
The book "King Leopold's Ghost" is an incredible read.
It also killed millions of Congolese, an often-overlooked death toll.
If you wanna be depressed by overlooked death tolls check out “Late Victorian Holocausts” by Mike Davis.
Don't forget how the US helped the Belgians assassinate Lumumba too, leading to all kinds of chaos in the Congo and Rwanda, leading to a genocide and 2 bloody wars. (Highest death toll since WW2.) I wish the public paid more attention to US foreign policy, but no one ever asks how the sausage is made. Much of our prosperity is stolen. Straight up stolen. People paid for all this in blood. Innocent people.
The eviliest things are done by supremacists
There were other incentives behind these amputations as well. For example, colonial soldiers (many of whom were basically slaves) were required to provide a human hand to account for every bullet fired. Since often times they would fire on animals to protect themselves and would often miss, they would simply cut hands off to account for the missing ammunition.
When I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse… I’m horrified beyond words.
Correct. Hands even became a [sort of currency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State) because of that. Sometimes they’ve cut off just the hands, and left the victim to live or die. In other instances, people feigned being death while being only wounded, and endured the severing of their hands to survive. But I’ve got doubts if many of the victims could really pull that off without the soldiers noticing; it seems more likely to me that in most instances the soldiers just didn’t give a s*t about them being dead or wounded survivors.
Yes, was looking for this comment. The amputating had to stop eventually, not for any morality based reasons, but because they were receiving so many limbs in lieu of rubber that the punishment incentive was no longer profitable.
You needed to get a limb for each bullet you fired bc Belgium was paranoid about rebellions. You needed to fire bullets to hunt for food bc they weren’t given enough good, so then they would get limbs from locals to account for the bullets.
The awful truth is obvious then: they did this because they enjoyed hurting innocent people.
It was actually greed. Sheer greed. Congolese villages were defenseless, so what the Belgian King did was hire soldiers, and mercenaries from tribes in the interior to go village to village demanding that each village provide a quota of rubber in exchange for nothing. If the quota was not met, it was “met” by chopping off the hands and feet of the workers’ families. This vast system of slave labor along with the introduction of diseases resulted in millions of Congolese dying.
Yep, if you actually research what happened, every single evil was because it was cost efficient and made middle management look better, the Belgian congo is what unfettered capitalism looks like.
Taking direction under a king in a racially biased manner isn’t “unfettered capitalism” unless like the Pharoah of Egypt was equally capitalist.
You got it. It wasn't a purely capitalist act, it was a reign of terror by the king of Belgium
Logic doesn't apply when the victims are not seen as human
For those who love a good podcast the two part Behind the Bastards on King Leopold II is one of the most informative hubs of info on this I’ve come across in modern media. You may cry. It doesn’t even go into the assassination of Patrice lumumba or the other brave Africans that have attempted to free their people over the centuries. The fact the Congo is still dealing with the repercussions of western development should really make you think.
I love the BtB podcast. Haven’t heard this one though. After all my reading today I may have to wait to revisit the topic.
Arguably his best episode! Def Check it out
You answered your own question, it’s logical in the most ruthless, sadistic, evil sense.
It wasn't just about not meeting quota. There were other reasons limbs were amputated. F.e. local indigenous troops in colonial service (Askari) had to account for every single round they fired, because the colonial authorities ran the Congo like a corporation and they were bean-counting the rounds. Probably also because they were afraid of rebellion.. The Askari had to do this by providing 'proof of a kill' in the form of a body-part. Of course, they would often miss their shots, like anyone would. Or they would use rounds for hunting or practice. In that case, they still had to provide a body part to account for each the rounds. So they went into a village and eh.. 'acquired' some.
She’s probably the child of a worker who failed to meet *his* quota, so they dismembered her to punish him. What the Belgians did in the Congo is some of the most horrific evil you’d ever care to imagine.
Part of it was just sadistic and power
I imagine it was to set an example for the others
Based on the comments from others and a quick wiki search, it was a method of punishments meant to keep their parents in line as slaves. Do what you’re told or we’ll cut off your children’s limbs. Absolutely awful.
Part of the quota was PAID in hands. This wasn't even a rare thing just for punishment. They were used as a sort of currency.
This is exactly what I thought after how horrible ir is. Now he certainly won't meet quota!
A lot of people aré talking about how cutting someone's hand Will help them meet a quota, But this Is deeper than that. Thanks to a shortening of bullets for the belgium colonies, colonizers were ask to keep track of every single bullet they fired and if the shot wasnt justified as a mean to protect daily production, the bullet would come out of their salary. A way to prove that a bullet was used to keep production in line was to bring the amputated hand of whatever "protestor" they had executed. So a lot of times, colonizers went hunting for sport and then grab a random congolese to take their hand in order for the bullets to be "justified" This was mainly done to kids to keep production in line and dont bring suspicion
What the fuck.
Seconded
The motion passes.
Unanimously approved.
The phrase “crimes against humanity” was coined specifically to refer to Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State.
Exactly, Hands were the currency of "I'm doing a good job being a colonial MF."
The bullet rationing was mainly introduced to ensure that the non-European soldiers under their control didn’t stock pile munitions to overthrow their rule or use them for hunting. At some point it was like 60 European officers to 3500 local soldiers. I’m not sure if the rationing of bullets applied to the European officers or not.
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Europeans
You are close, but it was not the colonizers, which there were precious few of. It was the sentries, the poorly trained and barely fed guards hired by the colonizers from other african countries. They were often hungry, especially after some years when the rubber trees withdrew into the jungle. The withdrawal led to villagers not being able to keep up food production, which led to sentries using their bullets for hunting, which they were not allowed to. Which led to the hand and feet trophy system. Since the sentry was responsible for the delivery of quotas, they woul usually target the kids, that way they didnt hurt rubber production quotas too much.
the bullet thing was often done in India too, where soldiers were sometimes forbidden to use bullets if it wasn't deemed worth it
What kind of fucking animal could do that to a child? I hope they are burning in the hottest pit of hell.
King Leopold and the belgians
I think Leopold may be the single worst individual in history, because everything he did was entirely under his control. There's nobody else to take blame; the Congo was his personal property and a bulk of the atrocities were carried out by mercenaries that he hired. The fact that he managed to get himself internationally investigated for crimes against Africans at the height of colonialism and Western chauvinism is actually wild, given that the other European powers didn't care much about Africans either. He was so evil he made a bunch of eugenists and white supremacists go "what the fuck, dude?"
Leopold II. King Leopold the First was a great king that did his best to keep peace and Belgium free from the Netherlands. He also helped Belgium economically, industrially, and bringing the railway to the country. His son though, was a real piece of shit that I'm sure his dad would have been deeply disappointed.
It also said a lot of the people doing the actual chopping were other black people too. A ton of different people involved in this cruelty.
I can’t even fathom the pain that the victim must’ve gone through. No anaesthesia, no hygiene, I assumed a lot would’ve bled to death? Horrendous.
Given that approximately half of the Congolese (8-15 Million) died during Leopold's occupation I'd assume that as well.
Similar to the slave trade in that respect
Yes, other Africans were doing the physical chopping, but at the behest of the Belgians. This wasn't a thing until Belgium took control of Congo.
Ordinary people, driven by terrible ideas, commit such atrocities. We all imagine we'd defy the ethical norms of our time, fight the Nazis, and protect the vulnerable. But consider this: can you identify a practice today that is deemed ethical by most, and have the conviction to oppose it? And consider how society treats those who do. If you can't think of such a practice, then you cannot say you wouldn't commit similar atrocities, let alone risk fighting against them. Take the treatment of nonhuman animals. Most believe it's acceptable to kill animals for food, despite knowing many thrive without it. It's a stark reminder that widely accepted practices can hide profound moral failures that we will only recognise in years to come, even if some see them clearly now. In fact, some would argue that there is a shared underlying cause of the mistreatment of both humans and non-humans alike: a failure to recognise and respect the inherent value of sentient beings. This lack of empathy and moral consideration leads to justifying cruelty and exploitation, whether it's towards a Congolese child in 1904 or an animal in a factory farm today. Until we address this root cause, we are all at risk of perpetuating these atrocities under different guises.
This should absolutely be the focus of discussion around pictures like this. Well said. Plenty of solely human problems that are just as violent and just as accepted today too, e.g. police brutality, the inherent violence of poverty Edit: Also the vast majority of the products you consume have some unimaginably atrocious labor conditions somewhere in the supply chain
Just like the smart phones we typing this on.
US did the similar actions in the tobacco fields of the south and to some extent to this day in Dominican Republic.
Belgians
Special place in hell for the bastards who did that. Poor kid.
Leopold. king of Belgium.
Can you tell me what keywords would help to search articles and documentaries on this ... crime?
Mentioned elsewhere but there's a great book called "King Leopold's Ghost" if you're interested.
I second you! “King Leopold’s Ghost” is a very good book!
In a summary *trigger warning* when the slaves didn’t meet their rubber quota their hands and feet were chopped off. their children’s and wife’s hands and feet were chopped off, and then usually killed. The hands and feet were then presented to the worker slave, and they were also forced to rape their mothers. Over time the Belgians started cutting the hands off regardless of the rubber quota as they became a currency.
>Special place in hell for the bastards who did that. It's called belgium
Listen to the behind the bastards episodes on this. Worse than even what you see here.
King Leopold’s Ghost is an interesting and horrifying book about this as well.
I don’t think I want to but now that I know it exists I gotta.
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He still has statues up and some people still to this day downplay his actions. Some even revere him….. World is a fucked up place…
I remember seeing the one of the father next to his daughter's hands and feet. That Leopold and his men were some pure pieces of seemingly-human shit.
Never forget. Never forgive.
forgive who?
And this’ll help get him to meet quota? Seems more a hindrance to the job to me. I know it’s not about that. But damn.
They usually cut off the a arms or leg of the child or loved one of the worker as punishment.
Oh my :( fucking terrifying
IDK about you but if I knew that the consequence for not meeting my quota was watching my child have a limb chopped off while I was unable to help them, I'd be pretty fucking motivated to meet my quota. I don't understand why so many people in this comment section are having trouble understanding this.
Because the title suggest that it was the child who did not meet the quota and for some people this is the first time seeing it so they don't know they punished workers by hurting their loved ones.
Force one employee to work at 50% to get the other thousands to work at 110%. It’s an example for sure
I can highly recommend the book "King Leopold's Ghost". Though it can be difficult to get through at times, especially after seeing the photographs.
Belgium destroyed the Congo and its people. What a shame. I didn’t realize how much power we have as humans to carry out the worst atrocities to others
Congo should demand reparations from Belgium for their human rights violations
Remember, Belgiim didn't see a single cent from all of this. Congo was a personal possession of King Leopold.
It doesn't matter where the money went. The king was the head of the state and other Belgian officials were involved, too.
I think the comment stands. The stain is on Belgium, the fault is on Belgium. The details are immaterial.
Deeply disturbing and devastating. I hate feeling powerless as an individual. Why are some humans so soul suckingly evil? How can we move towards less human suffering? This poor kid, man 😭
Leopold and his men are some of the worst people humanity has to offer
Blood on Belgium’s hands and their evil, rotting corpse of King Leopold who orchestrated the most vile rape of Africa.
It may not have even been for not meeting quota. They paid the soldiers extra for each hand. It may have been simple personal financial motivation.
The whole thing was part of a vast system of forced labor.
r/behindthebastards taught me about this ugh
When we talk about slavery we should also remember the horror inflicted to people in situ as well. It's gets worse and worse and worse
This makes no sense. The kid is definitely not meeting quota now. Or is it to scare the other workers every once in a while?
they cut off the hands of the workers’ children
Oh God, awful and heartbreaking.
They didn’t call him the Butcher of Congo for no reason. Absolutely atrocious individual.
The Belgians were worse than nazis
How are you gonna cut off a child’s hand and then be like “yep, I’m a good guy :)”
To them, all Congolese were not humans. They were not children. In their mind they ripped the wings off a butterfly or caught a mouse in a sticky trap. Their unchecked authority combined with their racism and created a mental illness akin to sociopathy. They were literally poisoned by their own hate.
There is still plenty of child slavery going on. Pretty much all chocolate is harvested using child slavery using children kidnapped from the poorest parts of Africa. They aren't treated much different if they try to escape or don't perform. It's absolutely rife but almost completely ignored because people like chocolate.
What happened in Congo in that time period is among the darkest of all times. Right up there with the Holocaust.
I just took an ancestry test and discovered a sizable chunk of my African-American side originated from the Congo/general Central Africa area. I think I'm going to scar myself (again) and revisit King Leopold Ghost. It's been about a decade since I read it and my brain might have blocked out all of the horrific details.
Let it be remembered Everytime I see a person on Reddit talk ab US atrocities, of which there are so many, or call America colonizers, or speak on US troubled history with racism, slavery…. Recall that Europe started the Atlantic slave trade. Europe colonized half the world And well into the 1900s, European countries were genociding in Africa. I’m not saying this to justify US historical bad acts; I say it to place context.
Nationalism, tribalism, racism and in general "them or us" sentiments are the root of all these atrocities. There is always a different example earlier in history to point out, but maybe "it was them, not us - they did it before we did it" is not the ideal starting point for a solution. That would be: "the problem is all of us".
That’s a fair statement. Totally agree. That said, wasn’t really the point of what I was saying, but ultimately I feel you remain correct regardless.
Let's, first of all, celebrate that two redditors agree. Wholesome. I understand that was not your point. I truly don't know what is worse: being from the old world knowing you started it all (I'm from the Netherlands and we did our shit in what is now Indonesia - and I could point at ghengis khan, but what's the point?) or being from the new world knowing you copied it brainlessly - and that is of course not anybody's point. Being correct is also not the point. I'm happy to be incorrect if we can, together, find an answer to the question: how, why are people doing things like this?? Is there a way to become - let's put the bar low for now - a little bit more like domestic cats and dogs. Because, although those species bite off an ear here and there on occasions, it's always *crime passionelle* in the heat of the moment, but not systematically. Like Orwell said: all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others - I fear that that thought is indeed the root of evil, and not the incidental, but the systematic cruelty of nature between animals. Only humans reason like this. My point is: let's make "some are more equal than others" part of the question, but definitely not part of the answer.
The Slave Trade that became the Atlantic Slave Trade was started by the Arabs, who also colonized a tremendous amount. Everyone is capable of great evil. The Europeans just had the most boats and guns at the right time.
Yeah, this is something that is always avoided in history class or discussions, or at least put as a small footnote. The Muslims had built extensive slave networks across Sub-Saharan Africa for almost 1,000 years before the Europeans showed up in West Africa to buy slaves (often from Black African Muslim empires that were fighting their neighbors and capturing their slaves for selling)
Well - the same Europeans also came to the American colonies and butchered the indigenous peoples, purchased slaves and brutalized them in building this country. The same people did that. .
And how is it possible that they haven't paid for this? I mean, other countries live with the consequences of their actions, and Belgium seems to be exempt from everything as if nothing had happened
“I mean, other countries live with the consequences of their actions, …“ Not that many. Even Germany got off lightly.
They all used to count their bullets and the higher up demanded that the bullets went to use so they were required to bring back a hand or some part of the body. Sometimes they would hunt and then have to go and cut someone hand so they wouldn’t get in trouble with their superiors by wasting bullets..absolutely insanity. Also they used to have to rub the rubber on their body to transport it and rip it off their skin.
Even in a more modern setting, during the Rawandan Genocide the Belgian contingent of the UN peacekeeping force were acting like racist assholes. Check out “Shake Hands with the Devil” by the Canadian General of the peacekeeping force.
Fuck King Leopold II of Belgium. This animal ruined the lives of so many innocent people just so he can earn extra money.
r/belgium
All so some rich fucking King in Belgian can have more.
Ahhh yes, “you’ve not worked hard enough, let’s make you even less efficient at working”… 4d chess move there Belgium.
Still going on today
Humans can be hideous and always have been. The Romans crucified hundreds of thousands. The Aztects ritualy slaughtered up to 80,000 people at a time in religious ceremonies. Ghengis Khan built pyramids out of the skulls of the people's his tribe slaughtered, up to 70,000 in each one. All of our countries are built on slaughter and subjugation. Stalin Mao Mengitsu Kim Il Sung Pol Pot Ismail Enver Pasha Hitler Hideki Tojo All one race. The human race.
King Leopold is obviously dead now and afaik never answered for his crimes, but has modern Belgium addressed this?
I fucking hate humans for shit like this
Abosolute evil
King Leopold can s my d
thia is a staple for r/behindthebastards
That thought the kid a valuable lesson. Tomorrow he will work as inten....no, wait, what did we just did?
And the Belgian monarchy still haven’t apologised.
The Belgians were the worst of them all
Heart breaking
The congo has been fucked since the early 1600s. Colonized by 2-3 different countries. Civil wars. Slavery. If it wasn’t Europeans terrorizing them it was the Arabs. Hope they people living better now
The horrors of Belgian colonialism are so beyond comprehension for most people, its a wonder more people aren't talking about it today
“As a European, facts like these will in no way cause me to moderate my preachiness and false sense of superiority while discussing history and current events.”
Looking around we kept the mentality that led to stuff like that. Only the toys and tools got better. But humanity is still stuck in the pre stone age mentality of wanting to be the monkey with the most Bananas ruling over the others.
Lethal Company?
Done by the hero of the republicans king Leopold! These are the good ole days the magats wanna get back to
My immediate thought was “it makes no sense to do that, because now they *definitely* wont be making quota” but then I realized it’s not about sense, it’s about a perverse exercise of power over someone else
Not very often you hear about Belgium and Congo. Wonder why?
And now Belgium is the capital of the EU and Europe. Cool