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August 2
Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza, founder of Brazzaville, French Congo, which is directly across the river from Kinshasa, formerly Leopoldville, Belgian Congo. It’s the only instance in the world I know of where two nation’s capitals are so close together. Photographed by the famed portraitist Felix Nadar, who was an avid balloonist, the inspiration for Jules Verne’s ‘Five Weeks In A Balloon’, and the president of ‘The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines’. He also invented crowd control barriers, which are still known as ‘Nadar barriers’ in Belgium.

Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza, founder of Brazzaville, French Congo, which is directly across the river from Kinshasa, formerly Leopoldville, Belgian Congo. It’s the only instance in the world I know of where two nation’s capitals are so close together.

Photographed by the famed portraitist Felix Nadar, who was an avid balloonist, the inspiration for Jules Verne’s ‘Five Weeks In A Balloon’, and the president of ‘The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines’.

He also invented crowd control barriers, which are still known as ‘Nadar barriers’ in Belgium.

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Leon Rom, head of the Force Publique army in the Belgian Congo Free State. It’s been speculated that he was the inspiration for Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.

Leon Rom, head of the Force Publique army in the Belgian Congo Free State. It’s been speculated that he was the inspiration for Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.

August 1
Unknown, Belgian Congo Free State, chicotte whipping (not to be confused with) “The chicotte was a vicious whip made out of raw, sun-dried hippopotamus hide, cut into a long sharp-edged cork-screw strip. It was applied to bare buttocks, and left permanent scars. Twenty strokes of it sent victims into unconsciousness; and a 100 or more strokes were often fatal. The chicotte was freely used by both Leopold’s men and the French.” -The Butcher of Congo

Unknown, Belgian Congo Free State, chicotte whipping (not to be confused with)

“The chicotte was a vicious whip made out of raw, sun-dried hippopotamus hide, cut into a long sharp-edged cork-screw strip. It was applied to bare buttocks, and left permanent scars. Twenty strokes of it sent victims into unconsciousness; and a 100 or more strokes were often fatal. The chicotte was freely used by both Leopold’s men and the French.” -The Butcher of Congo

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‘portrait of the future king Leopold II, king of the Belgians, the Belgian royal collection’ (via) “In 1876, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley to establish a colony in the Congo region. Much diplomatic maneuvering resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, at which representatives of fourteen European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area he and Stanley had laid claim to. On 5 February 1885, the result was the Congo Free State (later the Belgian Congo, then the Republic of the Congo, then Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC, not to be confused with Republic of the Congo), an area 76 times larger than Belgium, which Leopold was free to rule as a personal domain through his private army, the Force Publique. Forced labor was extorted from the natives. The abuses were particularly bad in the rubber industry, including enslavement and mutilation of the native population. Missionary John Harris of Baringa, for example, was so shocked by what he had come across that he felt moved to write a letter to Leopold’s chief agent in the Congo: “I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people’s stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit.” Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million.” The Belgians minted a gold coin in Leopold’s honor in 2007

‘portrait of the future king Leopold II, king of the Belgians, the Belgian royal collection’ (via)

“In 1876, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley to establish a colony in the Congo region. Much diplomatic maneuvering resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, at which representatives of fourteen European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area he and Stanley had laid claim to. On 5 February 1885, the result was the Congo Free State (later the Belgian Congo, then the Republic of the Congo, then Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC, not to be confused with Republic of the Congo), an area 76 times larger than Belgium, which Leopold was free to rule as a personal domain through his private army, the Force Publique.

Forced labor was extorted from the natives. The abuses were particularly bad in the rubber industry, including enslavement and mutilation of the native population. Missionary John Harris of Baringa, for example, was so shocked by what he had come across that he felt moved to write a letter to Leopold’s chief agent in the Congo: “I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people’s stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit.”

Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million.”

The Belgians minted a gold coin in Leopold’s honor in 2007

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Rubber plantation workers, punished for failing to meet quotas by having their hands cut off, Belgian Congo Free State, 1905, photo from Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy. Wiki: “The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State. … The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber; they even went out to harvest them instead of rubber… They became a sort of currency. They came to be used to make up for shortfalls in rubber quotas, to replace… the people who were demanded for the forced labour gangs; and the Force Publique soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many hands they collected.”

Rubber plantation workers, punished for failing to meet quotas by having their hands cut off, Belgian Congo Free State, 1905, photo from Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy.

Wiki: “The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State. … The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber; they even went out to harvest them instead of rubber… They became a sort of currency. They came to be used to make up for shortfalls in rubber quotas, to replace… the people who were demanded for the forced labour gangs; and the Force Publique soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many hands they collected.”
July 20
Herbert Lang, (Belgian Congo) Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915) “The old witch-doctor tries had to break an egg by firmly pressing upon the longer axis. Holding the egg firmly between his hands, advancing rapidly in the circle, and swinging his hands up and down while murmuring his incantations, he suddenly stops, bringing hs hands between the knees, as shown in the photo, trying hard to break it, pressing with the knees and hands at once. If the egg does not break, he recommences. If he is tired before the egg breaks or if the sun has risen to a certain point, the man is not found guilty, or the affairs to be engaged in are to be considered promising. The people are sitting around in a semicircle.”

Herbert Lang, (Belgian Congo) Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

“The old witch-doctor tries had to break an egg by firmly pressing upon the longer axis. Holding the egg firmly between his hands, advancing rapidly in the circle, and swinging his hands up and down while murmuring his incantations, he suddenly stops, bringing hs hands between the knees, as shown in the photo, trying hard to break it, pressing with the knees and hands at once. If the egg does not break, he recommences. If he is tired before the egg breaks or if the sun has risen to a certain point, the man is not found guilty, or the affairs to be engaged in are to be considered promising. The people are sitting around in a semicircle.”
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Herbert Lang, ‘ROOF, SHOWING HOW THE CENTRE IS FORMED, AND HOW EVERYTHING IS BOUND TOGETHER.’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915) Go look at the rest of the collection. 73 pages of sheer amazing.

Herbert Lang, ‘ROOF, SHOWING HOW THE CENTRE IS FORMED, AND HOW EVERYTHING IS BOUND TOGETHER.’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

Go look at the rest of the collection. 73 pages of sheer amazing.

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Herbert Lang, ‘LOGO OF MARUKA’S PEOPLE. PORTRAIT. THE IRON COLLAR AND IRON RING IN UPPER LIP ARE IN THE COLL. (GLISTENING LIKE SILVER).’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

Herbert Lang, ‘LOGO OF MARUKA’S PEOPLE. PORTRAIT. THE IRON COLLAR AND IRON RING IN UPPER LIP ARE IN THE COLL. (GLISTENING LIKE SILVER).’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

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Herbert Lang, ‘FAMILY. CHILD’S HEAD IN THE TYPICAL BANDAGE. THE WOMAN WITH GREEN BANANA LEAVES ABOUT HER HIP.’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

Herbert Lang, ‘FAMILY. CHILD’S HEAD IN THE TYPICAL BANDAGE. THE WOMAN WITH GREEN BANANA LEAVES ABOUT HER HIP.’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

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Herbert Lang, ‘BANGBA WOMAN, SHOWING THE BLACK MARKINGS ON HER FACE, MADE BY THE JUICE OF THE GARDENIA. ’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

Herbert Lang, ‘BANGBA WOMAN, SHOWING THE BLACK MARKINGS ON HER FACE, MADE BY THE JUICE OF THE GARDENIA. ’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

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Herbert Lang, ‘PORTRAIT FRONT VIEW OF GODSHA, AN AMADI. PLASTER CAST OF FACE TAKEN.’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

Herbert Lang, ‘PORTRAIT FRONT VIEW OF GODSHA, AN AMADI. PLASTER CAST OF FACE TAKEN.’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

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Herbert Lang, ‘SENSE, A MANGBETU CHIEF. PORTRAIT 3/4 VIEW. PLASTER CAST OF FACE TAKEN’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)

Herbert Lang, ‘SENSE, A MANGBETU CHIEF. PORTRAIT 3/4 VIEW. PLASTER CAST OF FACE TAKEN’ Belgian Congo 1909-1915 Photographs from Congo Expedition (1909-1915)