A Congolese man looking at the severed hand and foot of his five-year-old daughter who was killed, and allegedly cannibalized, by the members of Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company militia, 1904 1400×802
How do you even begin to process something like that?!?
And how the hell do you become so fucked up that you kill and EAT a 5 year old girl????
Merryprankstress
This is beyond any comprehension of evil for me. I literally cannot imagine what it would feel like to have *so* little regard for life and the spirit that lay behind it, that you think nothing of completely destroying someone both inside and out like this. This picture proves fantastical monsters aren’t just fiction. They’re real and they’re walking among us every step of our development.
bajsgreger
what makes the photo more horrific is imagening the man forcing him to “pose” like this for the photo
spelunk8
Need a nsfl tag on that. Fucking colonizers
DeejHinson
This picture is so sad. Making me well up abit.
Drew2248
But what about the railroads? What about the one hospital? What about the schools? What about giving them “democracy” kind of? What about . . . ”
The usual utter bullshit by colonial-defending Westerners who think the ends justify the means. Colonial empires were utterly brutal. Their entire purpose was to enrich Europeans at the expense of colonial subject. All that Europeans did in their colonies was to further that aim. The RR’s were to extract raw materials, not to provide transportation for the native population. The hospital(s) were for Europeans. The schools were to indoctrinate the natives to make them more tractable. Nothing Europeans did in their colonies was unrelated to making a profit of them at their expense. It was one of the worst crimes ever committed. That there are still people walking around out there who genuinely belief European colonialism was well-intentioned and benefitted the native people is in the same category as Holocaust deniers and defenders of Hitler because he did so-called good things for Germany. He built the autobahns, didn’t he?
nitfut
Next time you think you’re having a bad day…
ManIWantAName
RIP to the Capitalism thread that just got nuked.
redheadelement
My goodness…. people can truly be evil.
eravulgaris
Some people have gone through way too much suffering.
ohthisistoohard
This kind of dismemberment was punishment for all kinds of things, like not meeting your rubber quota. My understanding is if you were a valuable asset they would dismember your family as punishment.
Unkill_is_dill
I still see people on this site defending colonialism.
MiyamotoKnows
Never again. This evil shit is creeping up right now globally and we all know it. Be on the right side of history.
GrandQ
That is truly dark. Doesn’t happen very often that a picture really grips me but this is impactful as can be.
ragequito
It was a long time ago, but as a Belgian guy, i always have a bitter feeling about what was done at this time. I cannot feel guilty, but still, my country has done some terrible shit ! Hotel Rwanda had raise awareness for the younger me, i was devastated.
RavinDaveR
The last two times I have seen this on reddit, the posts said her appendages were cut off because she did not meet her rubber quota. Nothing about cannibalism. Jus’ sayin’.
93devil
I thank God every night that I was not born in a place like that.
I also feel sad where I live does not do more to prevent it.
Europe destroyed Africa hardcore and most of it still reeling, especially the Congo. That could be one of the richest areas in the world because of it’s natural resources. But the world keeps deliberately exploiting and destabilizing them instead.
> The photograph is by Alice Seeley Harris, the man’s name is Nsala. Here is part of her account (from the book “Don’t Call Me Lady: The Journey of Lady Alice Seeley Harris”):
> *He hadn’t made his rubber quota for the day so the Belgian-appointed overseers had cut off his daughter’s hand and foot. Her name was Boali. She was five years old. Then they killed her. But they weren’t finished. Then they killed his wife too. And because that didn’t seem quite cruel enough, quite strong enough to make their case, they cannibalized both Boali and her mother. And they presented Nsala with the tokens, the leftovers from the once living body of his darling child whom he so loved. His life was destroyed. They had partially destroyed it anyway by forcing his servitude but this act finished it for him. All of this filth had occurred because one man, one man who lived thousands of miles across the sea, one man who couldn’t get rich enough, had decreed that this land was his and that these people should serve his own greed. Leopold had not given any thought to the idea that these African children, these men and women, were our fully human brothers, created equally by the same Hand that had created his own lineage of European Royalty.*
1880sareback
I’ve seen that terrible image a few times in reddit and some other websites, but usually with a different backstory:
recommend *Kings Leopold’s Ghost* by Adam Hochschild to anyone interested in learning WTF is going on in this picture.
Kneekoli
Similar shit is happening to tribals in South America today. We call it “progress”
yesMinister80
I just listened to King Leopold’s Ghost, good book really opened my eyes to this atrocity and how much our view of Africa and in particular the view of the Congo and ivory where shaped by King Leopold and Stanley Morgan. This book was a real eye opener and I suggest anyone to either read the book or listen to the audio books it’s amazing. Especially considering Leopolds subversion of the media and how he attempted to fight against Morrell’s exposing of the truth in such a modernist way.
ComputerScienceBreh
I would go on a rampage and hunt these people down. Thats fucked, poor little girl 🙁
zach10
Yet Belgium still has statues of King Leopold standing…the only man in history to personally own a country and by some estimates is responsible for the death of 20 million Congolese.
Highly recommend everybody reads King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild
Pale_Fire21
If anyone is curious as to WHY the Belgians severed hands & feet it was for something as trivial as failing to meet rubber quotas which is what happened here. They also killed and allegedy cannibalized his wife as well.
The “Independent State of the Congo” was ruled personally by King Leopold II with an iron fist after the Belgian government stripped him of all real power in Belgium. in 1908 the Belgian government annexed the territory from him. It’s believed Leopolds actions & policies killed upwards of 50% of the population in what many consider to be a systematic genocide.
Belgium Congo is often forgotten on the lists of genocides. Slavery for rubber. The whole continent needs reparations.
Guus3000
* This is during the reign of Leoplold 2, This was in Congo free-state not belgian congo , Congo was not a belgian colony up to 1908 when King leoplold 2 was forced to give it to belgium. Congo free state was his own private property how evil is that. Belgians did take part of it these evil thins, but this is during a period where it wasn’t run by belgian official goverment. Most belgians going to congo in those days were not people who were well off in Belgium, think of vigiliantes , criminals etc.
Goran2019
People eat suckling pig.. kinda like the same thing. Either one is barbaric and horrific.
resurgenagain
They’re so lucky that they got brought civilization
IrishB_Cubed
This gets posted here every couple months and it is no less shocking from the multiple viewings.
daveashaw
King Leopold was a real gem. He actually scammed his own country by setting up the Congo as his own personal colony, rather that that of the Belgian nation. Belgium only got the Congo after he died. i don’t think he was even Belgian–he was from one of those German “Royal” families that supplied all the monarchs to the newly formed, post “empire” states. He also married a teenager when he was super-old.
Lsrkewzqm
Cannibalized? What?
schacks
How do you even begin to process something like that?!?
And how the hell do you become so fucked up that you kill and EAT a 5 year old girl????
Merryprankstress
This is beyond any comprehension of evil for me. I literally cannot imagine what it would feel like to have *so* little regard for life and the spirit that lay behind it, that you think nothing of completely destroying someone both inside and out like this. This picture proves fantastical monsters aren’t just fiction. They’re real and they’re walking among us every step of our development.
bajsgreger
what makes the photo more horrific is imagening the man forcing him to “pose” like this for the photo
spelunk8
Need a nsfl tag on that. Fucking colonizers
DeejHinson
This picture is so sad. Making me well up abit.
Drew2248
But what about the railroads? What about the one hospital? What about the schools? What about giving them “democracy” kind of? What about . . . ”
The usual utter bullshit by colonial-defending Westerners who think the ends justify the means. Colonial empires were utterly brutal. Their entire purpose was to enrich Europeans at the expense of colonial subject. All that Europeans did in their colonies was to further that aim. The RR’s were to extract raw materials, not to provide transportation for the native population. The hospital(s) were for Europeans. The schools were to indoctrinate the natives to make them more tractable. Nothing Europeans did in their colonies was unrelated to making a profit of them at their expense. It was one of the worst crimes ever committed. That there are still people walking around out there who genuinely belief European colonialism was well-intentioned and benefitted the native people is in the same category as Holocaust deniers and defenders of Hitler because he did so-called good things for Germany. He built the autobahns, didn’t he?
nitfut
Next time you think you’re having a bad day…
ManIWantAName
RIP to the Capitalism thread that just got nuked.
redheadelement
My goodness…. people can truly be evil.
eravulgaris
Some people have gone through way too much suffering.
ohthisistoohard
This kind of dismemberment was punishment for all kinds of things, like not meeting your rubber quota. My understanding is if you were a valuable asset they would dismember your family as punishment.
Unkill_is_dill
I still see people on this site defending colonialism.
MiyamotoKnows
Never again. This evil shit is creeping up right now globally and we all know it. Be on the right side of history.
GrandQ
That is truly dark. Doesn’t happen very often that a picture really grips me but this is impactful as can be.
ragequito
It was a long time ago, but as a Belgian guy, i always have a bitter feeling about what was done at this time. I cannot feel guilty, but still, my country has done some terrible shit ! Hotel Rwanda had raise awareness for the younger me, i was devastated.
RavinDaveR
The last two times I have seen this on reddit, the posts said her appendages were cut off because she did not meet her rubber quota. Nothing about cannibalism. Jus’ sayin’.
93devil
I thank God every night that I was not born in a place like that.
I also feel sad where I live does not do more to prevent it.
LadyEmry
For anyone else interested in learning more about the atrocities committed by King Leopold in the Belgium colony: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State
BoinkBoinkEtAliae
Europe destroyed Africa hardcore and most of it still reeling, especially the Congo. That could be one of the richest areas in the world because of it’s natural resources. But the world keeps deliberately exploiting and destabilizing them instead.
Here’s a good news article about it:
[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24396390](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24396390)
If you have access behind paywalls, there’s a lot of scholarly journals and other primary sources that go into it as well.
SaddestViolin
A backstory is [available here](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/father-hand-belgian-congo-1904/).
> The photograph is by Alice Seeley Harris, the man’s name is Nsala. Here is part of her account (from the book “Don’t Call Me Lady: The Journey of Lady Alice Seeley Harris”):
> *He hadn’t made his rubber quota for the day so the Belgian-appointed overseers had cut off his daughter’s hand and foot. Her name was Boali. She was five years old. Then they killed her. But they weren’t finished. Then they killed his wife too. And because that didn’t seem quite cruel enough, quite strong enough to make their case, they cannibalized both Boali and her mother. And they presented Nsala with the tokens, the leftovers from the once living body of his darling child whom he so loved. His life was destroyed. They had partially destroyed it anyway by forcing his servitude but this act finished it for him. All of this filth had occurred because one man, one man who lived thousands of miles across the sea, one man who couldn’t get rich enough, had decreed that this land was his and that these people should serve his own greed. Leopold had not given any thought to the idea that these African children, these men and women, were our fully human brothers, created equally by the same Hand that had created his own lineage of European Royalty.*
1880sareback
I’ve seen that terrible image a few times in reddit and some other websites, but usually with a different backstory:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/5n1cix/father_stares_at_the_hand_and_foot_of_his/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/5n1cix/father_stares_at_the_hand_and_foot_of_his/)
beneaththeradar
recommend *Kings Leopold’s Ghost* by Adam Hochschild to anyone interested in learning WTF is going on in this picture.
Kneekoli
Similar shit is happening to tribals in South America today. We call it “progress”
yesMinister80
I just listened to King Leopold’s Ghost, good book really opened my eyes to this atrocity and how much our view of Africa and in particular the view of the Congo and ivory where shaped by King Leopold and Stanley Morgan. This book was a real eye opener and I suggest anyone to either read the book or listen to the audio books it’s amazing. Especially considering Leopolds subversion of the media and how he attempted to fight against Morrell’s exposing of the truth in such a modernist way.
ComputerScienceBreh
I would go on a rampage and hunt these people down. Thats fucked, poor little girl 🙁
zach10
Yet Belgium still has statues of King Leopold standing…the only man in history to personally own a country and by some estimates is responsible for the death of 20 million Congolese.
Highly recommend everybody reads King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild
Pale_Fire21
If anyone is curious as to WHY the Belgians severed hands & feet it was for something as trivial as failing to meet rubber quotas which is what happened here. They also killed and allegedy cannibalized his wife as well.
The “Independent State of the Congo” was ruled personally by King Leopold II with an iron fist after the Belgian government stripped him of all real power in Belgium. in 1908 the Belgian government annexed the territory from him. It’s believed Leopolds actions & policies killed upwards of 50% of the population in what many consider to be a systematic genocide.
[Source photo by Alice Seeley Harris, the father is named Nsala](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/father-hand-belgian-congo-1904/)
pincheloca88
Belgium Congo is often forgotten on the lists of genocides. Slavery for rubber. The whole continent needs reparations.
Guus3000
* This is during the reign of Leoplold 2, This was in Congo free-state not belgian congo , Congo was not a belgian colony up to 1908 when King leoplold 2 was forced to give it to belgium. Congo free state was his own private property how evil is that. Belgians did take part of it these evil thins, but this is during a period where it wasn’t run by belgian official goverment. Most belgians going to congo in those days were not people who were well off in Belgium, think of vigiliantes , criminals etc.
Goran2019
People eat suckling pig.. kinda like the same thing. Either one is barbaric and horrific.
resurgenagain
They’re so lucky that they got brought civilization
IrishB_Cubed
This gets posted here every couple months and it is no less shocking from the multiple viewings.
daveashaw
King Leopold was a real gem. He actually scammed his own country by setting up the Congo as his own personal colony, rather that that of the Belgian nation. Belgium only got the Congo after he died. i don’t think he was even Belgian–he was from one of those German “Royal” families that supplied all the monarchs to the newly formed, post “empire” states. He also married a teenager when he was super-old.