Documantry on Congo - Essay Example

Throughout the Congo, families were held as hostages, and the families would be subjected to death-causing hunger, in the case that the working members did not cooperate in producing sufficient wild rubber. Further, the hands of the children held as captive were chopped off as punishment to the parents, in the case that they delivered the rubber late (Bate, Elie and Roger). The King is accused of killing more than 10 million people during his era of exploitation. This paper will explore the lessons taught by the documentary and also explore the classes of people that played a central role during the colonial era.

The documentary gives an account showing that the colonialists went to Africa among other colonial nations, not for the good of the citizens of the colonized countries, but for their selfish interests of making more wealth for themselves and their countries (Bate, Elie and Roger). This reality is very evident from the experiences of the Congolese, during the 1880s, noting that they were subjected to forced labor and slavery at their own country. The selfish interests of the colonialist Belgium are evident from the death of the millions of the people that did not work towards meeting the rubber hunger of the King.

Further, to conceal his plans and his strategies of exploiting the people of Congo, the king acted as a prototype of colonialists, by hiding under the veil of protecting Africans from slave trade (Bate, Elie and Roger). Unfortunately, it turned out that his system and model of slavery was much worse than that of the Arabs; it included the brutal treatment of the Congolese. For example, the documentary cites that the hands of the children, whose parents could not deliver rubber as expected, were chopped off.

Therefore, the colonial operations of King Leopold II, which were similar to those of many other colonial nations, show that the colonialists went to Africa and other