A mid the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, some images from Belgium stand out: a statue of a bearded king on horseback, spattered with red paint and daubed with the words ‘Assassin’, ‘F. Racism’ and ‘This man killed 15 mil[lion] people’. The bearded man was Leopold II, King of the Belgians. From 1885 to 1908, Leopold also ruled the Congo Free State (what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The brutality of Leopold’s rule is part of a deep history of violence and exploitation that continues to shape the troubles of the DRC today.
How did the king of a small European nation control a Central African colony the size of Western Europe? Why was his rule so violent? And to what extent is this history the story of one great and terrible man?
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