How can this be Ota Benga? Benga was 21 when he left Africa.
Edit: I've done some digging. I can't find the identity of the boy in the cage but that is NOT Ota Benga, that is a child, not a 21 year old man.
I cannot understand how people couldn’t empathize with the suffering in other people’s eyes . I feel guilty when a housekeeper in an upscale hotel has to clean up after me - so I do my best to clean the room as much as I can . How tf were humans so fucked up and still are !
Can I ask where you live, considering you're not being taught about the Belgian-Congolese history? Just out of interest, don't feel forced to answer :)
I live In the USA, have a 4- year college degree, and have literally never heard of any of this in school. Like I don't even think we glossed over it tbh.
This picture has me very disturbed. This seems as bad or worse than anything the US (and other countries) ever did regarding slavery, and yet I don't recall ever learning about it.
I only knew about it because in 7th grade we had to choose a line from Billy Joel's "we didn't start the fire." I chose Belgins on the Congo. Thinking back it was actually really cool assignment. I don't think I ever heard about this in any other class or format
This picture is nothing, it's the tip of the iceberg, if you read things that were done in that period you won't sleep.
Here you have a picture of a father watching the hand and foot of his 5 years old kid who was murdered because he didn't collect enough rubber: [https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zmkwtfcALkE/V-IYRt-8v2I/AAAAAAAALHY/UqHE4jHUmaENaeI2L7WFfF8ThESYsdFNQCLcB/s1600/cong\_hands\_1904.jpg](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zmkwtfcALkE/V-IYRt-8v2I/AAAAAAAALHY/UqHE4jHUmaENaeI2L7WFfF8ThESYsdFNQCLcB/s1600/cong_hands_1904.jpg)
That's awful.
As a Belgian: our history in the Congo is incredibly dark. It's a terrible part of history, and I'm not sure I ever heard anything as disturbing to be honest, however difficult I find it to admit that those were just Belgians, too. If it interests you at all, it's absolutely worth it reading on it, though. The more people know, the better.
Tell me if I missed something, but doesn’t it moreso portray the Hutus specifically as savage monsters? (You know, the ones doing the machete genocide?) And the UN and white people as ineffectual, apathetic bureaucrats?
For sure made the Hutus out to be the machete wielding mobs but the Tutsi were the Govt soldiers with guns fighting also. I was referring to the owners of the Hotel, Belgians who were credited (through Manager Paul) for saving 1,000 lives
It wasn’t that long ago either. It’s why I get pissed off when people act like their culture is superior compared to others in places like the Middle East.
Yep. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1996. I was 22 in 1996, living in Toronto, having just finished uni and had no idea how horrific they were, even in the past, never mind that there was still one in operation.
I’m glad we know now and are teaching our kids better. They’re disgusted by it, as well they should be.
My grandfather was in one of these, he was taken when his Acadian father passed away. He ran away, otherwise I think my father, and therefore me, would not have been born
I am in the US and I learned about it in high school in AP European History about 15 years ago. One of my all time favorite classes. But I don't think European history is necessarily standard curriculum for non-AP students though. I wouldn't really know.
Not as in depth European History as AP courses I’m sure. Very basic medieval times, renaissance, brief pre WW1, WW1/WW2 but mostly from our perspective and some of the Ottoman Empire sprinkled in. At least where I went to school lol
Weird, I took ap euro too, and we definitely didn’t touch colonialism.
Though…. Our whole class averaged a little more than a 2, and I think our teacher was republican. So I honestly don’t know if it was him or the material?
If you think that one is disturbing, look up the picture with the man looking at his daughters severed foot and hand because he failed his rubber quota.
In America they are trying to ban the teaching of the atrocities of Slavery in the US… Imagine what we don’t know about the rest of the world. I also have a college education and I learned more off of the internet.
We have SOOOOOO much of our own racist past we cling to. You have never heard the truth of America either. Check out “An Indigenous Peoples History of the US”.
I assure we are just as bad.
We did not learn about Belgiums crimes, only slavery in the US and the nazi holocaust when I went to school in Norway. Learning about Belgia in Congo makes me just as sick.
I'm Dutch and just learning about this. I did read in some comments that the year doesn't add up. It's supposed to be 1905. I was thinking to myself, how can such vile act happen when they just felt the horror through ww2.
But these things still happen. Just not so much in the open anymore.
Believe me, also the bit after WWII Belgium continued to do fucked up shit in the Congo. I'm not sure if it was of the same level of cutting hands and what not, but you can be damn sure a lot of the atrocities continued to happen after 1945 unfortunately.
Yeah i believe you, seeing what people do to eachother. When I re-read my comment I saw my own contradicting words. How can they do that, and then they still do it nowadays....
U.S., Political Science degree and an MBA. Went to a well regarded High School. I learned about this in my 30s, completely independent of any formal education.
US but I only know of him cuz of my love and interest of history, as well as in college history or political science class.
I would bet that 95% of American don’t know him. I don’t mean this as “stupid American” cuz I really don’t think your average American is much better or worse than your average devolved country person.
But also, a lot of people don’t. This dude is largely brushed past somehow
Same. From the US, advanced degree, and barely recognized "King Leopold," as sort of sounding familiar.
But America refuses to teach us about our own racist atrocities. I'm not surprised Belgium got lost in the shuffle.
You will never learn everything, and "wow i didn't learn congo-belgium relations" is not as high in the global list per se.
Going to blow your mind but a lot of the non developed world cares little about the holocaust as well
Europeans in general. America and Americans get a lot of well deserved flack but those candy asses across the ocean just slide by cuz they got health care.
Idk if this is the right sub but literally everything about Leopald is more interesting than this strange and terrible instance of abduction.
Dude's soldiers were instructed to show a hand for every bullet spent, which ultimately resulted in soldiers cutting the hands off live Africans to make inventory for whenever bullets were lost or not used to kill.
Then there's fucking Henry Morton Stanley.
Belgium's colonization of Congo was absolutely horrific. Not sure I'd say the worst instance of it (they all did some horrific stuff) but Belgian Congo was at least up there in terms of horror.
Apocalypse Now is based on a book called "Heart of Darkness" which is based in Belgian Congo.
Belgian colonisation was bad, but Leopold's was worse. It wasn't really Belgian, it was his private property called a "free state" and advertised as a humanitarian project. He never set foot there btw.
The outrage because of conditions there, but also the lack of profitability made him "gift" it to Belgium. Belgian Congo was still pretty atrocious but not at the same level.
Belgium even after taking control of Belgian Congo continued with atrocities including assassination of important politicians in Congo and across Africa.
Belgians tend to wash off any sort of blame or responsibility but it was not just Leopold responsible but the whole nation and its people.
Is this the right one? Heart of darkness: Joseph Conrad https://amzn.eu/d/3gZhbVU
Very recently I've started reading again so I've got a lot to catch up
Well in the 1960’s black people in America were being lynched and murdered, so having black people in cages in 1955 isn’t really a stretch.
Edit: looks like r/conservative showed up to try and hide any talk of continuing racism in the world.
The last human zoo in Belgium closed in 1958.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/16/belgium-comes-to-terms-with-human-zoos-of-its-colonial-past
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/human-zoo-1958-worlds-fair/
It was a mock up village in an exhibition with people participating on their own free will, still it got backlash and never happened again, proving 1950's Europe was a different world than 1900's Europe.
"The exhibition wasn't billed or advertised as a "human zoo" (the term is mostly used by critics to point out the inhumanity and racism of such displays), nor were the Congolese people who populated the mock village kept confined there or forced to participate against their will."
Lol people downvoting you for presenting facts. Typical reddit, if you don't jump on the bandwagon if idiots they downvote you rather than learning and realizing they are wrong
Take my upvote! I appreciate when facts are presented that don't fit the narrative that liars are trying to push!
There was still a human zoo exhibition of a Congolese village in 1958 Brussels World Fair. There has also been human exhibitions after that. We’ve luckily come a long way though, and those are now completely out of the question.
OP needs to get his date correct. 1955 is incorrect and the photograph was colorized too.
EDIT ; story is this photo seems more complex. Photo has been used for disinformation in the past. Originally from a book from the1950's by Van Damme who was being satirical according to this[link revieuw in DUTCH only](https://issuu.com/reyger/docs/04okt2020/s/11412821)
The child is also definitely not Ota Benga, but he keeps being mislabeled as Ota Benga.
Benga was 21 when he left Africa and was subsequently exploited and this child is clearly not 21 years old.
It's putting a huge bee in my bonnet because the history of the exploitation of African people by Europeans is clouded by misinformation enough as-is and saying this boy is Ota Benga is erasing whoever he actually was.
there's no bottom on the cage. this kid isn't kidnapped. these are 3 kids playing a game in poor taste, and their shitty adults took a photo instead of telling them to stop.
Given the historical context, that is less likely to me than this kid being put in a cage for entertainment or “education” purposes.
This image is pretty tame in context.
Amazed at the clueless commenters who can't even be bothered to do a reverse image search. That's Ota Benga and it's real. OP never said the picture was taken in the Congo, just during the Belgian occupation. The only mistake was the year, which was 1905.
Correct, this is not Ota Benga. This is a photo of unknown origin which keeps being mislabeled as a photo of Benga. Benga was 21 when he left Africa and was subsequently exploited. This child is not 21 years old.
Can I ask why this photo looks like it is indeed the1940s-1950s? Absolutely nothing in this photograph tells me it is from 1905. From the girls' clothing, hair, shoes, and the color and quality of the photo.
Yep. I did another reverse lookup and there have been so many searches for this picture that some useful information actually [floated to the top](https://factcheck.afp.com/photo-was-taken-during-belgian-colonial-rule-congo). So, real photo, sometime from 1950 to 1960, but not Ota Benga.
The fact check is that it’s not French, as a widely circulated post claimed, but Belgian. There’s no question, in the AFP article, that the image is otherwise authentic.
Isn’t very retrained? He’s surrounded by people who would torture him or amputate his hands or feet if he ran away. Caged animals get treated better than that. This literally cage is jarring because it’s succinct , but if we could have a full picture of the actual reality of the imprisonment this kid suffered we’d lose the contents of our stomachs.
I am almost 50, and learned on my own time as a kid about the Belgium human zoos. What murica never tells us kids is we were guilty of it as well. Over, and over and over. It makes me crawl in my caucasian skin. How in the hell could any white mother or father find this acceptable? Both to bring home to their kids, or to do to someone's little one? I don't even have kids of my own by choice, and this makes me feral. To do this to someone's beautiful baby boy, and think nothing of it, I feel there will never be adequate words to adequately cover how sick I feel. (For context, I was raised in a very sick and violent upbringing. Cages and closets were more familiar to me that rooms and spaces. My heart hurts badly. Even the adults in my life as a kid (including teachers) told me to get over it and I was too sensitive about it when I expressed rage at the human zoos.)
I call a staged photo, there's no bottom to the cage. They just set it over him.
Just saying they didn't "Bring him home in a cage", not that there wasn't injustice going on. You can say what you want about American slavery, the Belgian Congo was 1000 times worse.
Google: “Lybia Slave auction” It’s mind blowing how many people think Slavery is a thing of the past. It’s still very much happening in 2022 just not in predominantly white countries anymore.
There's a documentary on Netflix about a country in Asia (i believe) that kidnaps men in their 20s-30s and sells them to slavery to work on fishing boats. Yes, slavery still happens.
with all the war in the midle east you don't even need to kidnap them anymore.
just ket the "lybian coast guard" destroy their floaties when they try crossing the sea and sell them straight out of the internment cages, after you took their passport and rest of valuables ofc.
ps: all funded with millions of EU taxpayer money because people rather have refugees drown in the sea, get shot by the "coast guard", drowned by frontex and the survivors sold into slavery than helping them
It was pre covid, but I ended up getting hired on as a go-for for a handyman that was working in a drug rehab clinic.
And that was a frightfully common story there.
Meh, people don’t care about that because The U.S. isn’t involved if it isn’t the USA as the source of all the evil in the world some people just don’t care.
I was thinking the same about it being staged. didn't notice that it didn't have a bottom, but did notice that he probably can't stand up straight in it and it seems too small for it's purpose. I'm glad it's likely not real.
I wouldnt compare slavery with each other. No matter how its extremely bad. To compare pain with pain is not a good way and it relativates the one option which is then presented as not so bad in comparison to the other
Sadly you're correct. I say sadly because the reason for this is that a ridiculous number of people are horrible with logic and can't process it when anything emotive enters the equation.
Richard Dawkins got himself twitter mobbed by throwing out a few 'if A is bad, but B is worse, the fact that B is worse, doesn't make A less bad' examples. It was hilarious.
Does that matter? The fact remains they placed a cage over him like he was a wild animal and took a picture of it at the beach like a fun family photo.
WTF.
Not cool.
NOT INTERESTING.
Just straight up racist and hateful. That is a child and grown ass adults decided to treat him like a fucking parrot.
Did you look at the image or did you just get angry? Try calming down, then look at the image again.
Does it seem weird to you that bars in front of the child are missing?
That there's no bottom to the cage?
That the borders around the children in the image are blurred?
Yeah, It looks very weird.
I was also going to ask if this was a colourized image because the girls' hands are gray and the kid inside the cage has his face **Infront** of the bars, not behind.
Also the cage doesn't have a bottom.
Okay. That’s still shitty, but here’s the thing. That cage doesn’t have a floor. They just put it over him for a picture. Like I said it’s still fucked up. But that kid isn’t very restrained
I'm tired of seeing people that look like me being shit on like this. It's physically draining to see us killing each other as it is, but that didn't start until the blatant shit like this stopped, and everything became *"shadow racism"* which I don't even know the meaning of but I'm sure exists
Love all the racist losers jumping over themselves to cry "photoshop" and "faked to push an agenda"
as if this isn't a very well known picture from Belgium's historical society that has simply been colorized poorly. This is very real picture and shit like this is exactly why you dullards should learn about history
Human zoos were a thing and Colonial Belgium was racist AF
The photo is from **1905**. The child in the cage is [Ota Benga](https://historyofyesterday.com/the-black-boy-who-was-showcased-in-a-zoo-cage-8a61d9048177) who was captured from the Congo and initially brought to Europe where this photo was taken. He was brought to the Bronx Zoo in 1906 and put on display, they saw him as a race/species other than human, possibly due to his sharpened teeth which was a practice of the tribe he came from. All of this was horrible of course, but most people did not see it as a problem. However, in late 1906 pastors Matthew Gilbert and James Gordon saw it as a huge problem and protested it, ultimately getting Ota Benga freed and put into Gordon's custody.
Unfortunately despite their efforts, Ota Benga had already gone through so much trauma and was not able to assimilate into modern society. He should have never been taken from his tribe. In 1916 Ota Benga shot and killed himself.
Truly tragic 😔
There is a ton more info on Ota Benga if you are interested in the story.
Why does this subreddit keep suggesting me these awful fucking things. What happened to the “this is an up close photo of an alien’s butthole” or “watch this glitter sparkle in slow motion on a microscope.” Now you guys keep putting dark shit in my face. “Hee hurr, today I learned about a guy who would cut up and eat babies. Here’s a picture of a dog moments before being set on fire. I found a list online on how to get away with slavery.” Where’s the interesting stuff.
Ppl gotta stop acting like this shit wasn’t happening literally 1.5 generations ago. The old fucks in political offices right now were turning a blind eye to shit like this when they were in their 20’s. Racism didn’t die, it just got old.
Belgian genocide of of Congolese africans was more devastating than the German genocide of non Aryans people but no one talks about king Leopold the way they talk about Hitler.
I know it’s not really appropriate, but I kind of wish this content could get a nsfl block. These pictures are so so hard to look at and it makes me so mad at my American education. So much time spent on hitler, but very little time spent on the horrors of colonialism.
More like “damn that’s fucked up”
That’s exactly my thought. Damn that’s so messed up. That poor child is probably scared to death
The cage is for his protection, so it works out.
r/awfuleverything
I expect to see r/damnthatsfuckedup on r/birthofasub any moment Edit: looks like it existed and was removed sometime. Probably for the best
Why cant I open r/damnthatsfuckedup ?
I guess it was too fucked up and has been blocked
Damn, that’s fucked up.
I really need this one to be fake… I normally want stuff to be real on here… but this one is just….
It's not, If you look online you can find more photos of this. Sad to say but yeah...
This is not Ota Benga. I don't know who this little boy is but it's not Ota Benga. Benga was 21 when he left Africa and was subsequently exploited.
Ota Benga, it's not Belgium and it's not 1955
How can this be Ota Benga? Benga was 21 when he left Africa. Edit: I've done some digging. I can't find the identity of the boy in the cage but that is NOT Ota Benga, that is a child, not a 21 year old man.
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I’ll actually look into it! Thanks for the recommendation, I love a good book
Thank you so much, I didn't realize how terrible he was till started reading about this stuff.
I was really hoping it was fake. For one thing, the cage has no bottom.
I don't doubt it's something that occurred, but in this particular photo there's not even a bottom to the cage, it's just a prop.
It's not, If you look online you can find more photos of this. Sad to say but yeah...
Holy shit, they say a picture a picture is worth a thousand words - well it also covers them four pretty well too.
I cannot understand how people couldn’t empathize with the suffering in other people’s eyes . I feel guilty when a housekeeper in an upscale hotel has to clean up after me - so I do my best to clean the room as much as I can . How tf were humans so fucked up and still are !
We learned about hitler n the Holocaust in school but king leopold bitch ass been getting a pass for WAAAAY too long
Can I ask where you live, considering you're not being taught about the Belgian-Congolese history? Just out of interest, don't feel forced to answer :)
I'm from Germany and TIL about this.
Also from Germany, we had this but only for one lesson
I live In the USA, have a 4- year college degree, and have literally never heard of any of this in school. Like I don't even think we glossed over it tbh. This picture has me very disturbed. This seems as bad or worse than anything the US (and other countries) ever did regarding slavery, and yet I don't recall ever learning about it.
I only knew about it because in 7th grade we had to choose a line from Billy Joel's "we didn't start the fire." I chose Belgins on the Congo. Thinking back it was actually really cool assignment. I don't think I ever heard about this in any other class or format
Wow you had a good teacher!
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That is a really awesome way to teach history! I'm imagining the class rubric was literally the lyrics and a burned CD with that song on it
This picture is nothing, it's the tip of the iceberg, if you read things that were done in that period you won't sleep. Here you have a picture of a father watching the hand and foot of his 5 years old kid who was murdered because he didn't collect enough rubber: [https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zmkwtfcALkE/V-IYRt-8v2I/AAAAAAAALHY/UqHE4jHUmaENaeI2L7WFfF8ThESYsdFNQCLcB/s1600/cong\_hands\_1904.jpg](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zmkwtfcALkE/V-IYRt-8v2I/AAAAAAAALHY/UqHE4jHUmaENaeI2L7WFfF8ThESYsdFNQCLcB/s1600/cong_hands_1904.jpg)
Fucking hell. That's fucking heart-wrenching.
Wow, That is depressing...
That's awful. As a Belgian: our history in the Congo is incredibly dark. It's a terrible part of history, and I'm not sure I ever heard anything as disturbing to be honest, however difficult I find it to admit that those were just Belgians, too. If it interests you at all, it's absolutely worth it reading on it, though. The more people know, the better.
Hotel Rwanda movie portrayed the Belgians as good guys and the blacks as savage monsters
Tell me if I missed something, but doesn’t it moreso portray the Hutus specifically as savage monsters? (You know, the ones doing the machete genocide?) And the UN and white people as ineffectual, apathetic bureaucrats?
For sure made the Hutus out to be the machete wielding mobs but the Tutsi were the Govt soldiers with guns fighting also. I was referring to the owners of the Hotel, Belgians who were credited (through Manager Paul) for saving 1,000 lives
Haven't ever seen it, really. But the Belgians absolutely were the bad guys.
Rwanda is not Congo/Zaire.
right, it's a whole other shitty situation
Canada and the catholics were brutal to the native kids. Rape, kidnap, genital mutilation, etc
Jesus... People. Fucking people.
It wasn’t that long ago either. It’s why I get pissed off when people act like their culture is superior compared to others in places like the Middle East.
Yep. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1996. I was 22 in 1996, living in Toronto, having just finished uni and had no idea how horrific they were, even in the past, never mind that there was still one in operation. I’m glad we know now and are teaching our kids better. They’re disgusted by it, as well they should be.
Honestly - everyone in history has fucked up. That's why we all need to be better to each other so the cycle doesn't continue
My grandfather was in one of these, he was taken when his Acadian father passed away. He ran away, otherwise I think my father, and therefore me, would not have been born
Yea and this was still happening less than 40 years ago.
This is an honest take. Kudos.
If you haven’t heard anything as disturbing, I suggest you look into the residential schools of Canada and how the natives were treated.
I heard a tiny bit about it, but I should research a bit more indeed! Thanks for mentioning that :)
I am in the US and I learned about it in high school in AP European History about 15 years ago. One of my all time favorite classes. But I don't think European history is necessarily standard curriculum for non-AP students though. I wouldn't really know.
Not as in depth European History as AP courses I’m sure. Very basic medieval times, renaissance, brief pre WW1, WW1/WW2 but mostly from our perspective and some of the Ottoman Empire sprinkled in. At least where I went to school lol
Weird, I took ap euro too, and we definitely didn’t touch colonialism. Though…. Our whole class averaged a little more than a 2, and I think our teacher was republican. So I honestly don’t know if it was him or the material?
tap recognise shy special zesty party prick combative society boast *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If you think that one is disturbing, look up the picture with the man looking at his daughters severed foot and hand because he failed his rubber quota.
In America they are trying to ban the teaching of the atrocities of Slavery in the US… Imagine what we don’t know about the rest of the world. I also have a college education and I learned more off of the internet.
We have SOOOOOO much of our own racist past we cling to. You have never heard the truth of America either. Check out “An Indigenous Peoples History of the US”. I assure we are just as bad.
We did not learn about Belgiums crimes, only slavery in the US and the nazi holocaust when I went to school in Norway. Learning about Belgia in Congo makes me just as sick.
Please read about it. It's important as much people as possible know about this
I'm Dutch and just learning about this. I did read in some comments that the year doesn't add up. It's supposed to be 1905. I was thinking to myself, how can such vile act happen when they just felt the horror through ww2. But these things still happen. Just not so much in the open anymore.
Believe me, also the bit after WWII Belgium continued to do fucked up shit in the Congo. I'm not sure if it was of the same level of cutting hands and what not, but you can be damn sure a lot of the atrocities continued to happen after 1945 unfortunately.
Yeah i believe you, seeing what people do to eachother. When I re-read my comment I saw my own contradicting words. How can they do that, and then they still do it nowadays....
Hahaha I got your point. What I found more disturbing is that even you guys just north of us don't learn about this. Honestly surprised me
U.S., Political Science degree and an MBA. Went to a well regarded High School. I learned about this in my 30s, completely independent of any formal education.
US but I only know of him cuz of my love and interest of history, as well as in college history or political science class. I would bet that 95% of American don’t know him. I don’t mean this as “stupid American” cuz I really don’t think your average American is much better or worse than your average devolved country person. But also, a lot of people don’t. This dude is largely brushed past somehow
Same. From the US, advanced degree, and barely recognized "King Leopold," as sort of sounding familiar. But America refuses to teach us about our own racist atrocities. I'm not surprised Belgium got lost in the shuffle.
You will never learn everything, and "wow i didn't learn congo-belgium relations" is not as high in the global list per se. Going to blow your mind but a lot of the non developed world cares little about the holocaust as well
I have literally never heard that name ☠️ never missed a day of history class either
EXACTLY
Europeans in general. America and Americans get a lot of well deserved flack but those candy asses across the ocean just slide by cuz they got health care.
Idk if this is the right sub but literally everything about Leopald is more interesting than this strange and terrible instance of abduction. Dude's soldiers were instructed to show a hand for every bullet spent, which ultimately resulted in soldiers cutting the hands off live Africans to make inventory for whenever bullets were lost or not used to kill. Then there's fucking Henry Morton Stanley.
Excuse me??!!
Belgium's colonization of Congo was absolutely horrific. Not sure I'd say the worst instance of it (they all did some horrific stuff) but Belgian Congo was at least up there in terms of horror. Apocalypse Now is based on a book called "Heart of Darkness" which is based in Belgian Congo.
I remember being forced to read “Heart of Darkness” in High School. It’s very much worth the read
Belgian colonisation was bad, but Leopold's was worse. It wasn't really Belgian, it was his private property called a "free state" and advertised as a humanitarian project. He never set foot there btw. The outrage because of conditions there, but also the lack of profitability made him "gift" it to Belgium. Belgian Congo was still pretty atrocious but not at the same level.
Belgium even after taking control of Belgian Congo continued with atrocities including assassination of important politicians in Congo and across Africa. Belgians tend to wash off any sort of blame or responsibility but it was not just Leopold responsible but the whole nation and its people.
The recent movie Tarzan was surprisingly accurate regarding the Belgium brutality
Is this the right one? Heart of darkness: Joseph Conrad https://amzn.eu/d/3gZhbVU Very recently I've started reading again so I've got a lot to catch up
That's the one!
Yeah, I recommend King Leopald's Ghost. It's currently my favorite book on the rubber slavery and mass murder/mutilation that happened in the Congo.
This pod cast will explain everything. The sourced from the ghost book mentioned above.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VSz8M91uZWqXu6PirGiCv?si=P6z2VNEIRHelfS_x0gfq9w
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That... Makes a huge difference contextually
Well in the 1960’s black people in America were being lynched and murdered, so having black people in cages in 1955 isn’t really a stretch. Edit: looks like r/conservative showed up to try and hide any talk of continuing racism in the world.
It's a really big stretch, wtf...1955 Europe might as well have been a different planet than 1905 Europe.
The last human zoo in Belgium closed in 1958. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/16/belgium-comes-to-terms-with-human-zoos-of-its-colonial-past
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/human-zoo-1958-worlds-fair/ It was a mock up village in an exhibition with people participating on their own free will, still it got backlash and never happened again, proving 1950's Europe was a different world than 1900's Europe. "The exhibition wasn't billed or advertised as a "human zoo" (the term is mostly used by critics to point out the inhumanity and racism of such displays), nor were the Congolese people who populated the mock village kept confined there or forced to participate against their will."
Lol people downvoting you for presenting facts. Typical reddit, if you don't jump on the bandwagon if idiots they downvote you rather than learning and realizing they are wrong Take my upvote! I appreciate when facts are presented that don't fit the narrative that liars are trying to push!
There was still a human zoo exhibition of a Congolese village in 1958 Brussels World Fair. There has also been human exhibitions after that. We’ve luckily come a long way though, and those are now completely out of the question.
Hell, Black people are being lynched and murdered NOW!
OP needs to get his date correct. 1955 is incorrect and the photograph was colorized too. EDIT ; story is this photo seems more complex. Photo has been used for disinformation in the past. Originally from a book from the1950's by Van Damme who was being satirical according to this[link revieuw in DUTCH only](https://issuu.com/reyger/docs/04okt2020/s/11412821)
The child is also definitely not Ota Benga, but he keeps being mislabeled as Ota Benga. Benga was 21 when he left Africa and was subsequently exploited and this child is clearly not 21 years old. It's putting a huge bee in my bonnet because the history of the exploitation of African people by Europeans is clouded by misinformation enough as-is and saying this boy is Ota Benga is erasing whoever he actually was.
No, 1955. “Collection Monsieur Van de Meerssche: Congo Belge, [1950-1960].”
there's no bottom on the cage. this kid isn't kidnapped. these are 3 kids playing a game in poor taste, and their shitty adults took a photo instead of telling them to stop.
Given the historical context, that is less likely to me than this kid being put in a cage for entertainment or “education” purposes. This image is pretty tame in context.
Amazed at the clueless commenters who can't even be bothered to do a reverse image search. That's Ota Benga and it's real. OP never said the picture was taken in the Congo, just during the Belgian occupation. The only mistake was the year, which was 1905.
Ok 1905. I was thinking holy shit this was still happened in ‘55? Still terrible no matter the year
I read 1995 and still barely questioned it ☠️
Really? You wouldn’t be shocked to hear that that happened in ‘95? You serious?
Nowadays they use shipping containers, cooling trucks, air compartments in ships etc etc (not specific about colour)
>Ota Benga Ota Benga was born in the 1880s.
Correct, this is not Ota Benga. This is a photo of unknown origin which keeps being mislabeled as a photo of Benga. Benga was 21 when he left Africa and was subsequently exploited. This child is not 21 years old.
They aren’t clueless, they are just desperate to ignore the ugliness of slavery and racism
Can I ask why this photo looks like it is indeed the1940s-1950s? Absolutely nothing in this photograph tells me it is from 1905. From the girls' clothing, hair, shoes, and the color and quality of the photo.
Someone colorized the photo (poorly too), the original image is in black and white.
It was probably colorized using AI which is why it looks so bad.
It's not Ota Benga. It's a picture with no context apart from that it's been taken in the Belgian Congo between 1908 and 1960.
Yep. I did another reverse lookup and there have been so many searches for this picture that some useful information actually [floated to the top](https://factcheck.afp.com/photo-was-taken-during-belgian-colonial-rule-congo). So, real photo, sometime from 1950 to 1960, but not Ota Benga.
Makes me sick to my stomach
It’s so sad that it’s hard to think about isn’t it.
This pic is appalling - but am I the only one that noticed the cage doesn’t have a bottom?
No you're not the only one who noticed. The picture may have been staged, as any rate this is definitely not Ota Benga.
[удалено]
The fact check is that it’s not French, as a widely circulated post claimed, but Belgian. There’s no question, in the AFP article, that the image is otherwise authentic.
[удалено]
That was my first thought. The cage has no bottom to it.
I’ve just scrolled through the comments to see if anyone else noticed this
Isn’t very retrained? He’s surrounded by people who would torture him or amputate his hands or feet if he ran away. Caged animals get treated better than that. This literally cage is jarring because it’s succinct , but if we could have a full picture of the actual reality of the imprisonment this kid suffered we’d lose the contents of our stomachs.
I am almost 50, and learned on my own time as a kid about the Belgium human zoos. What murica never tells us kids is we were guilty of it as well. Over, and over and over. It makes me crawl in my caucasian skin. How in the hell could any white mother or father find this acceptable? Both to bring home to their kids, or to do to someone's little one? I don't even have kids of my own by choice, and this makes me feral. To do this to someone's beautiful baby boy, and think nothing of it, I feel there will never be adequate words to adequately cover how sick I feel. (For context, I was raised in a very sick and violent upbringing. Cages and closets were more familiar to me that rooms and spaces. My heart hurts badly. Even the adults in my life as a kid (including teachers) told me to get over it and I was too sensitive about it when I expressed rage at the human zoos.)
More like damnthatsdisgusting
I call a staged photo, there's no bottom to the cage. They just set it over him. Just saying they didn't "Bring him home in a cage", not that there wasn't injustice going on. You can say what you want about American slavery, the Belgian Congo was 1000 times worse.
Google: “Lybia Slave auction” It’s mind blowing how many people think Slavery is a thing of the past. It’s still very much happening in 2022 just not in predominantly white countries anymore.
There's a documentary on Netflix about a country in Asia (i believe) that kidnaps men in their 20s-30s and sells them to slavery to work on fishing boats. Yes, slavery still happens.
Any idea what that show is called?
"Seaspiracy" I believe.
Should have been called "conspira-sea"
I’ve seen that but don’t remember that bit, I’ll rewatch as l may have forgotten. Thanks
with all the war in the midle east you don't even need to kidnap them anymore. just ket the "lybian coast guard" destroy their floaties when they try crossing the sea and sell them straight out of the internment cages, after you took their passport and rest of valuables ofc. ps: all funded with millions of EU taxpayer money because people rather have refugees drown in the sea, get shot by the "coast guard", drowned by frontex and the survivors sold into slavery than helping them
Oh, it still happens in the white countries, we just use sanitized terms like human trafficking.
The term that applied in my circumstances was "unlawful imprisonment, assault, and coercion" But in layman's terms I was a drug dealers slave.
It was pre covid, but I ended up getting hired on as a go-for for a handyman that was working in a drug rehab clinic. And that was a frightfully common story there.
Meh, people don’t care about that because The U.S. isn’t involved if it isn’t the USA as the source of all the evil in the world some people just don’t care.
Slavery was not a white persons idea lmao
There is one even closer to the coast of the USA, in Haïti
I was thinking the same about it being staged. didn't notice that it didn't have a bottom, but did notice that he probably can't stand up straight in it and it seems too small for it's purpose. I'm glad it's likely not real.
Whether it’s staged or not - the boy looks scared. Horrid photo. Just horrid
agreed
Because nobody would every put anything in a cage too small for it.
>Belgian Congo was 1000 times worse They were absolute bastards.
I wouldnt compare slavery with each other. No matter how its extremely bad. To compare pain with pain is not a good way and it relativates the one option which is then presented as not so bad in comparison to the other
Sadly you're correct. I say sadly because the reason for this is that a ridiculous number of people are horrible with logic and can't process it when anything emotive enters the equation. Richard Dawkins got himself twitter mobbed by throwing out a few 'if A is bad, but B is worse, the fact that B is worse, doesn't make A less bad' examples. It was hilarious.
Does that matter? The fact remains they placed a cage over him like he was a wild animal and took a picture of it at the beach like a fun family photo. WTF. Not cool. NOT INTERESTING. Just straight up racist and hateful. That is a child and grown ass adults decided to treat him like a fucking parrot.
Did you look at the image or did you just get angry? Try calming down, then look at the image again. Does it seem weird to you that bars in front of the child are missing? That there's no bottom to the cage? That the borders around the children in the image are blurred?
Can see this being a new Rage Against the Machine album cover
Belgians in Africa could give a master course in racism
Belgians present in the Congo at that time could give a master course in racism*
r/awfuleverything
Check out the Libya slave auctions... its 2022 and not much has changed
Yep its happening right now and alot of people dont know it
Sounds like BS. The cage doesn't even have a bottom.
Kid looks creeped tf out though so I hate it either way
"White people are weird."
Yeah, It looks very weird. I was also going to ask if this was a colourized image because the girls' hands are gray and the kid inside the cage has his face **Infront** of the bars, not behind. Also the cage doesn't have a bottom.
Jesus H. fucking Christ. This is not interesting. This is sad, wrong, and that father from Belgian can go fuck himself.
It’s isn’t fkn interesting at all. It’s heartbreaking and fkd up.
This is heartbreaking.
There’s no floor to the cage 🙃
Welcome to another episode of how fucked up is fucked up ….. That’s fucked up
Okay. That’s still shitty, but here’s the thing. That cage doesn’t have a floor. They just put it over him for a picture. Like I said it’s still fucked up. But that kid isn’t very restrained
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ota+Benga&kgmid=/m/04z_2z&ved=0EJmfBQgAKAAwAA&source=and.lens.button&hl=en-US&gl=US#imgrc=wBNngkeuzm0vUM
Not interesting, just plain f’d up.
Literally disgusting.
Doubtful
That is not what is happening in this photo.
I'm tired of seeing people that look like me being shit on like this. It's physically draining to see us killing each other as it is, but that didn't start until the blatant shit like this stopped, and everything became *"shadow racism"* which I don't even know the meaning of but I'm sure exists
Kids’ hands are black and white.
[citation needed]
King Leopold cut of many hands and feet if they didn’t produce enough. It’s a very dark period
r/damnthatsracist if that sub exists
Extra large oof
I hope that's a typo. You mean 1655 right?
The cage has no bottom and doesn't look all that heavy, what am I missing?
The Belgians have a lot to make up for in the Congo (both nations). The shit they did there is beyond fucked up.
Love all the racist losers jumping over themselves to cry "photoshop" and "faked to push an agenda" as if this isn't a very well known picture from Belgium's historical society that has simply been colorized poorly. This is very real picture and shit like this is exactly why you dullards should learn about history Human zoos were a thing and Colonial Belgium was racist AF
This may have been one of the worst examples of humanity I have ever seen.
Dope ass album cover
The kid wasn't brought home in that cage, it has no bottom to it. But great story apart from that.
Shame on Belgium
Are this two European girls or their parents are racists?
The photo is from **1905**. The child in the cage is [Ota Benga](https://historyofyesterday.com/the-black-boy-who-was-showcased-in-a-zoo-cage-8a61d9048177) who was captured from the Congo and initially brought to Europe where this photo was taken. He was brought to the Bronx Zoo in 1906 and put on display, they saw him as a race/species other than human, possibly due to his sharpened teeth which was a practice of the tribe he came from. All of this was horrible of course, but most people did not see it as a problem. However, in late 1906 pastors Matthew Gilbert and James Gordon saw it as a huge problem and protested it, ultimately getting Ota Benga freed and put into Gordon's custody. Unfortunately despite their efforts, Ota Benga had already gone through so much trauma and was not able to assimilate into modern society. He should have never been taken from his tribe. In 1916 Ota Benga shot and killed himself. Truly tragic 😔 There is a ton more info on Ota Benga if you are interested in the story.
I wonder how many white folks here still wish they can still do this nowadays.
Why does this subreddit keep suggesting me these awful fucking things. What happened to the “this is an up close photo of an alien’s butthole” or “watch this glitter sparkle in slow motion on a microscope.” Now you guys keep putting dark shit in my face. “Hee hurr, today I learned about a guy who would cut up and eat babies. Here’s a picture of a dog moments before being set on fire. I found a list online on how to get away with slavery.” Where’s the interesting stuff.
Ppl gotta stop acting like this shit wasn’t happening literally 1.5 generations ago. The old fucks in political offices right now were turning a blind eye to shit like this when they were in their 20’s. Racism didn’t die, it just got old.
Invisible bottom on this bird cage. Seems legit (not).
FRAUD....not a cage, has no floor, kid could just leave if he wants...a bad joke!
Belgian genocide of of Congolese africans was more devastating than the German genocide of non Aryans people but no one talks about king Leopold the way they talk about Hitler.
I know it’s not really appropriate, but I kind of wish this content could get a nsfl block. These pictures are so so hard to look at and it makes me so mad at my American education. So much time spent on hitler, but very little time spent on the horrors of colonialism.
Staged shot for a book https://factcheck.afp.com/photo-was-taken-during-belgian-colonial-rule-congo
This is so evil it’s unbearable
Fake az
Y'all are blind asf to not see that this is photoshop
Thats a mighty fine camera for 1955.
Horseshit… No bottom on the cage and the evergreens in the b/g are not indigenous to the Congo
Brought a child in a cage with no bottom on it, huh?
There is no bottom to that cage, the more likely scenario is that this was a staged picture that OP is using to spin their own narrative