U2: Africa

King Leopold II

The King of Belgium who ruled the Congo Free State as his private, deeply exploitative commercial enterprise from 1885 to 1908.

Kingdom of Kongo

A powerful, organized African kingdom that existed from the 14th to the 19th century near the mouth of the Congo River before European colonization.

Congo Free State

The name of the territory under King Leopold II’s personal rule, characterized by brutal forced labor and mass atrocities.

Henry Morton Stanley

A famous explorer hired by King Leopold II to map the Congo River and secure territory treaties with local chiefs.

International Association of the Congo

A dummy corporation created by Leopold II to disguise his private colonial ambitions as a benevolent, scientific enterprise.

Force Publique

The brutal mercenary army established by Leopold II to enforce rubber quotas and suppress Congolese resistance.

Rubber

The highly valuable natural resource harvested through brutal forced labor that formed the economic backbone of Leopold's Congo.

Congolese Resistance

The various armed and passive ways local populations fought back against colonial exploitation and atrocities.

Nzansu

A Congolese leader who led a significant armed rebellion against the Force Publique in 1893 to protest colonial cruelty.

Congo Reform Association

An international human rights organization formed in the early 1900s to expose and end Leopold's atrocities in the Congo.

Edmund Dean Morel

A British shipping clerk who co-founded the Congo Reform Association after noticing that ships leaving Congo brought back riches, but only sent guns and ammunition back.

William Henry Sheppard

An African American Presbyterian missionary who was one of the first foreigners to photograph and publicize Leopold's human rights abuses.

Alice Seeley Harris

A British missionary whose powerful photographs of mutilated Congolese children helped turn international public opinion against Leopold's regime.

George Washington Williams

An African American journalist and historian who wrote an open letter to Leopold in 1890, coining the phrase "crimes against humanity" to describe the Congo.

Roger Casement

A British diplomat whose official 1904 report confirmed the widespread atrocities in the Congo, forcing Belgium to strip Leopold of his private colony.

Belgian Roundtable

A 1960 meeting in Brussels where Belgian officials and Congolese leaders agreed on a rapid, unprepared transition to independence.

Congo Crisis

A chaotic period of political upheaval, civil war, and international intervention from 1960 to 1965 immediately following independence.

Patrice Lumumba and speech

The first democratically elected Prime Minister of the DRC; his independence day speech famously condemned Belgian colonial racism to the face of the Belgian King.

King Baudouin and speech

The King of Belgium whose 1960 independence day speech praised Leopold II's "genius" and condescendingly advised the Congolese on how to govern.

Mobutu Sese Seko

The military dictator who seized power during the Congo Crisis and ruled ruthlessly for over 30 years with Western backing.

Zaire

The name Mobutu gave to the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1971 to 1997 as part of his "Africanization" cultural campaign.

Neo-Colonialism / Neo-Imperialism

The practice of using economic, political, or cultural pressures to control or influence a developing country, despite it being technically independent.

Conflict Mining

The illegal extraction and trade of valuable minerals like coltan (used in tech), uranium, and cobalt, which funds corrupt militias and drives violence in the DRC today.