FOURTH.The Courts of your Majestys Government are abortive, unjust, partial and delinquent. A number of electric batteries had been purchased in London, and when attached to the arm under the coat, communicated with a band of ribbon which passed over the palm of the white brothers hand, and when he gave the black brother a cordial grasp of the hand the black brother was greatly surprised to find his white brother so strong, that he nearly knocked him off his feet in giving him the hand of fellowship. Upon the arrival of the survivors in the Congo they are set to work as labourers at one shilling a day; as soldiers they are promised sixteen shillings per month, in English money, but are usually paid off in cheap handkerchiefs and poisonous gin. George Washington Williams | Ohio Statehouse All the crimes perpetrated in the Congo have been done in your name, and you must answer at the bar of Public Sentiment for the misgovernment of a people, whose lives and fortunes were entrusted to you by the august Conference of Berlin, 18841 885. I base this appeal upon the terms of Article 36 of Chapter VII of the General Act of the Conference of Berlin, in which that august assembly of Sovereign States reserved to themselves the right to introduce into it later and by common accord the modifications or ameliorations, the utility of which may be demonstrated experience. an open letter to King Leopold that is one of the important landmarks in human rights . But to the surprise of every honest man, the thief was sheltered by the Governor General of your Majestys Government. There is not a single chaplain in the employ of your Majestys Government to console the sick or bury the dead. TWELFTHThe agents of your Majestys Government have misrepresented the Congo country and the Congo railway. They are ignorant and cruel, because they do not comprehend the natives; they are imposed upon them by the State. The labour system is radically unpractical; the soldiers and labourers of your Majestys Government are very largely imported from Zanzibar at a cost of 10 per capita, and from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Accra and Lagos at from 1 to 1/10 per capita. Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your followers to love poverty, like Happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven and, Its very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.. buying and selling of people both men, women and even children. After having been impressed by meetingKing Leopold II of Belgium, he traveled in 1890 to theCongo Free State(then owned by the king) to see its development. They were a newly independent country . Follow us @kineticslive, Milestone: BMORENEWS.coms 10th Anniversary: 12/12/12 :: EARLY REGISTRATION, Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz) (16841706) Saint of Congo. He claimed he was doing it to protect the natives from Arab slavers, and to open the heart of Africa to Christian missionaries, and Western capitalists. Required fields are marked *. Faafafine The men brought up as women in Samoa, True Life: The Awkward Way I Met My Husband, Truth about video of Indians throwing their idols on the street over COVID-19 revealed, Did Davido steal JOWO from Victor AD? This is a fake. Washington Williams, George. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Her Read More (1890) George Washington Williams's Open Letter to King Leopold on the Congo. It is not my duty to criticise the unlawful and unconstitutional use of these officers coming into the service of this African State. The original source came from blackpast. all that was wrong with what was going on in the Congo. website blackpast. George Washington Williams(October 16, 1849 August 2, 1891) was a soldier in the American Civil War and in Mexico before becoming a Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, journalist, and writer on African-American history. Read Open letter to King Leopold on Congo by George Washington Williams with a free trial. Three hundred and sixteen slaves were sent down the river recently, and others are to follow. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. A cap was placed upon the nipple of the gun, and the black brother was implored to step off ten yards and shoot at his white brother to demonstrate his statement that he was a spirit, and, therefore, could not be killed. I cannot deal with the dimensions of these prisons in this letter, but will do so in my report to my Government. Your email address will not be published. T have heard an officer of the Belgian Army pleading the cause of a white man of low degree who had been guilty of beating and stabbing a black man, and urging race distinctions and prejudices as good and sufficient reasons why his client should be adjudged innocent. 60 years after independence, traces of the system of exploitation and violence that Leopold II and colonial-era Belgium created still remain in DR Congo. nothing to help the people of the Congo to be educated. The soldiers who open the combat are usually the bloodthirsty cannibalistic Bangalas, who give no quarter to the aged grandmother or nursing child at the breast of its mother. Needless to say, Caroline profited greatly from the King's attention, earning her the nickname "Queen of the Congo.". By such means as these, too silly and disgusting to mention, and a few boxes of gin, whole villages have been signed away to your Majesty. 4 blackpast/george-washington-williams-open-letter-king-leopold- And make sure that niggers never become rich. comprehensive, reliable, and accurate information concerning the Not long ago such a recaptured slave was given one hundred chikote each day until he died. T saw the white servant of the Governor-General, CAMILLE JANSSEN, detected in stealing a bottle of wine from a hotel table. Otis Moss, III: The Criminalization of Blackness, #NowWhatBmore: Baltimore hosts a townhall on what lessons it can learn from #Ferguson.