GUNS, CHAINS, BLOOD AND SWEAT

GUNS, CHAINS, BLOOD AND SWEAT
 
Between 1880-1884 CE, a Belgian who owned whorehouses in major cities in Europe, meant to service the


 sexual escapades of European elite class who had grown rich from the plunder of Africa, India, the Americas and Tasmania, began to grumble over not having a 'piece of Africa.' The owner of the whorehouses was Leopold I of Belgium.
  By 1884/85 CE, some western European countries gathered in Berlin to address the grumblings of some European polities that felt they were not getting any pieces of the 'black gold'; the proceeds from the "rape of Africa." This gathering has gone down in history as the 'Berlin Conference,' when some western European countries assembled in Berlin, Germany and divided Africa among themselves like 'robbers sharing the spoils of robbery.' No African had a say in these arrangements. It was like 'mafia dons sharing territories.' 
 This conference had saved some European countries from going to war against each other in the 'scramble for Africa.' At this point, western Europe had descended on African polities like hungry wolves. African polities were already weakened by over two centuries of incessant onslaughts of European imperialism on Africa, that was driven by the lack and hunger in Europe. "No sane person, no matter how crime-inclined would cross the vast ocean to rob another, if the situation at his house felt homely..." In describing the struggle that had preceded this conference, a British Poet, Samuel Johnson once wrote that the situation in the west was like "two robbers, fighting each other over a passenger's bag..."; over the spoils of robbery. 
 In the end, Leopold of Belgium got the Congo as was cut out for himself and Belgium. France got most of West Africa, while struggling it out with Britain. Germany got the Cameroon initially until the WWI. Portugal and Netherlands got a piece too. Spain was busy in the Americas (in central and south America), bringing death, destruction and diseases to the Inca, the Aztec, and the Maya civilizations as Spain tried to 'own' the central and southern parts of the Americas. In this case, the 'church' was at the forefront, beginning with Rev. Bartholomeow de Las Casas in the 16th century CE. De Las Casas had initiated a slavery and 'religious-inclined' genocide on the native population of the Americas.  

Image: PATRICE LUMUMBA: Being led to his execution by Belgium's colonial police. Lumumba had resisted Belgium's plunder of the Congo.

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