African History Film Response In the film Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death, the filmmakers endeavor to show how the nation known as Congo came to be. Like many modern African countries, Congo was originally divided into regions based upon the indigenous tribes who made the land their home. During this period, it cannot be honestly proclaimed that all was peace and cooperation between factions, far from it. However, things were far better during pre-colonialism for the native people of Congo than they would become following the expansion of European powers into the African continent. This film endeavors to remove the veneer that has been placed on events and show Congo's history for what it truly was.

Many people suffered under the control of European imperial powers. In Congo, the oppression of the native population was decimated by King Leopold II who ruled Congo as a colony of his kingdom Belgium. Beginning in 1885, Leopold sent Belgian forces into Congo and extracted the land's...

He claimed that the reason Belgium was invading Congo was to spread western ideologies, Christian faith, and modern technologies to a region of the world that the Europeans saw as uncivilized and backwards. His actual intentions were all to do with acquisition of land and abuse of the natural resources which could be found in that country in order to make money and make the relatively small nation of Belgium into a more powerful country in the process. Amazingly and horrifically, some ten million native people were killed during the approximately fifty years in which Belgium controlled Congo.
Leopold was obviously not the only European ruler who set his sights on African territory, but he was far more severe and ruthless in his actions than many of the others. Much of the country was turned into labor camps where natives were enslaved and forced to mine and harvest for their empirical oppressors. Torture and murder were everyday occurrences and the death…