1. Background Information for The Poisonwood Bible
The Congo
Background Information for The Poisonwood Bible

2. Quick Overview What you should know:
Geography- Including location, natural resources and natural features of the area
Pre-Colonial History- Life before Europe’s takeover
The Congo Free State- What King Leopold and his agents did to make his personal colony profitable

3. Geography
Congo River + tributaries = 7,000 mile highway to the African interior

4. Ne Vunda, Kongolese ambassador to the Vatican, 1608
2. Pre-Colonial Congo
Ne Vunda, Kongolese ambassador to the Vatican, 1608
The Kingdom of Kongo
According to Portuguese explorers the kingdom was a sophisticated and well run state, an imperial federation
Known for advanced working in copper and iron
Rich in ivory and rubber
Introduction of Christianity in 15th c by Portuguese explorers. Kongolese king converts almost immediately, and Kingdom of Kongo develops mythology in which Congo is central to Christianity and many events in Bible are believed to have actually taken place in Kongolese locations.

5. Pre-Colonial Congo Slavery
Slavery was part of the culture of the Congo
Originally slaves were captured during warfare, were criminals, or were debtors who could earn back their freedom
Eventually, Muslim slave traders began to sell their slaves to European traders for export to the Americas

6. 3. The Congo Free State
Odd little man who feared women, hated his wife, and had to ask Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of England what to do on his wedding night. Later wrote a letter to Albert thanking him for his “…wise and practical advice, … [which] has now borne fruit.” (His wife was pregnant.)
Hated his small country. Referred to his country as a country of “…small size and small people.
Leopold II ( ), king of Belgium from 1865 to 1909, infamous founder of the Congo Free State

7. The Berlin Conference, 1884-1885
The Congo Free State
Use of river to gain access to ivory- and rubber-rich interior made the Congo a coveted area for colonization.
European nations negotiated and agreed to respect each others’ claims to African territory, Leopold made claim for Congo.
The Berlin Conference,

8. The Congo Free State
Leopold sent the famous explorer of Africa, Henry Morton Stanley, to negotiate treaties with the natives.
Native chiefs were offered trinkets or cloth if they would place an X on a document in foreign tongue.
In 1877, Henry Morton Stanley called attention to the Congo region and was sent there by the association, the expense being defrayed by Leopold.[1] Through corrupt treaties with native chiefs, rights were acquired to a great area along the Congo, and military posts were established. The treaties were extremely one-sided in favor of Leopold. In some cases chiefs not only handed over their lands, but also promised to help provide workers for forced labor.

9. The Congo Free State
European countries recognized Leopold’s claim to the territory in 1885 because of:
Stanley’s treaties for Leopold
Leopold’s assurances that he would end slavery
Leopold’s promise that the Congo would remain a free trade area.
The colony “belonged” to Leopold personally.
The International Association of the Congo sought to combine the numerous small territories acquired into one sovereign state and asked for recognition from the European Powers. On April 22, 1884, the United States government, having decided that the cessions by the native chiefs were lawful, recognized the International Association of the Congo as a sovereign independent state, under the title of the Congo Free State, and this example was followed by Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Sweden. The international conference on African affairs, which met at Berlin, 1884–85, determined the status of the Congo Free State. The Free State of the Congo was confirmed as private property of the Congo Society. Thus the territory of today's Democratic Republic of the Congo, some two million square kilometers, was made essentially the property of Léopold II (because of the terror regime established, it would eventually become a Belgian colony). It was primarily because of this point that Joseph Conrad sarcastically referred to the conference as "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs” in Heart of Darkness.

10. The Congo Free State : “The Profit Imperative”
Colony not profitable in first few years.
Soon the idea of free trade was abandoned; natives could only trade with Leopold’s representatives, with 50% of profits going to Leopold himself.
Profit required cheap labor (gathering rubber is very labor intensive).

11. The Congo Free State : “The Profit Imperative”
Leopold drove slave traders out and portrayed it as humanitarian act.
Reality: he did it to gain control of region.
Leopold paid his ‘agents’ in the Congo a percentage of profits, encouraging them to make the trade more and more profitable.
Also authorized the use of as much force as was deemed necessary.

12. The Congo Free State
Agents ‘encouraged’ young men to work by holding their wives and children captive until each man’s quota was met.
Many who resisted were killed on the spot.
Others were beaten with whips made from dried hippo hide with sharp edges.
20 lashes resulted in unconsciousness
100 lashes resulted in death.

13. The Congo Free State
Revolt broke out. Leopold sent troops into villages to exterminate the young men.
To make sure bullets weren’t wasted, soldiers were expected to return with the severed right hands of those they killed.
Soldiers who couldn’t meet quotas or spent bullets hunting would cut hands off of living women and children.
Between an estimated 8-10 million people died due to murder, mistreatment and starvation.

14. The Human Rights Movement
Public pressure eventually forced Leopold to sell the Congo Free State to the Belgian government. It became The Belgian Congo in 1908
The Belgian Government ended the worst of the atrocities, but still controlled the fate of the African natives “For their own good.”
The African natives were never consulted about their future

15. Definitions
Colonize: To settle in a new land while remaining subject to the parent nation.
Colonial Literature: Literature written during the time of colonization. Can be either in support of colonization or in protest.
Post-Colonial Literature: Literature written after colonization has “officially” ended.