Talk:Congo Free State

Current map? Why?

Why is the picture of the map of the Congo Free State a map of the now current Democratic Republic of the Congo? For example, German Togoland (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togoland) shows a map that’s of the world during that time. Can we get a new map put in that’s of the Congo Free State? TheGoldenPickaxe (talk) 18:07, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

I could make a map based on this raster image, I’d probably finish it by next week.

Sprucecopse (talk) 23:08, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

That would be amazing! Thanks so much! TheGoldenPickaxe (talk) 15:17, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

That would be great but I don't think that Belgium should be highlighted in the new map as it is in the raster image since the Congo Free State wasn't a colony of Belgium. Zoocat56 (talk) 23:04, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

That’s true, though it is in essence Belgium’s slice of the African cake. I can understand why they highlighted it, they share the same head of state. Maybe a lighter shade of green could be used for Belgium as to denote its indirect relation to the state? Sprucecopse (talk) 23:44, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

I'm fine with using a different shade to indicate the personal union between the two states. That's a good idea. Zoocat56 (talk) 06:19, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

Here is the draft of the map, it's taken from a 1923 projection so if anything is off please let me know. I have to say that I wish Belgium was more visible. Perhaps a thick green circle could encircle Belgium for added emphasis and clear view?@TheGoldenPickaxe, @Zoocat56

Sprucecopse (talk) 18:46, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orthographic_Globe_Map_of_the_Congo_Free_State.svg Sprucecopse (talk) 18:46, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

In term of the borders it would be better to base the map on the GEA map showing the German possesions. @Sprucecopse Zoocat56 (talk) 19:34, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

I could try but the GEA map is giving me issues in Illustrator for some reason. Sprucecopse (talk) 19:42, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

Sorry for not responding sooner. I like how the map looks and agree that Belgium could maybe be highlighted by a lighter green. TheGoldenPickaxe (talk) 16:45, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

i just noticed this Yowazzup8282 (talk) 15:46, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

WP:UNDUE emphasis on cannibalism

Cannibalism is a very minor part of the Free State's history and receives very little coverage in any of the major published scholarly works on the subject. A few sentences would be reasonable but this is in no senses one of the major scholarly issues around the history of the Congo Free State. The inclusion of an entire and lengthy section is a clear case of WP:UNDUE. The sourcing is poor and relies excessively on colonial-era primary sources and 50 year old popular history books by non-specialists (neither of which are WP:RS) and contains very little other than anecdotal quotes. The claim that white colonials practiced cannibalism has been described as "profoundly misleading" in Firchow, Envisioning Africa : racism and imperialism in Conrad's Heart of darkness, p. 115.

I am afraid that this is a case of an odd kind of pushing of a specific rather fringe issue by a single user who has added lengthy sections on cannibalism to this article and Atrocities in the Congo Free State (discussed here).—Brigade Piron (talk) 08:40, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

It's not about cannibalism by white colonialists (except for the one sentence referring to Forbath, which I'd sure consider a RS) but about them tolerating or ignoring cannibal customs, including among (local) Free State soldiers and auxiliaries. The debate about this was among the reasons for Belgium finally deciding to annex the Free State, so it's clearly relevant for its history. Abd Wikipedia is not space-constraint, so "this section is longer than I'd wish it to be" is not a good argument.

Regarding the photo, the girl's cannibalization is sure mentioned in Nsala of Wala in the Nsongo District: "In addition to Boali, Nsala's wife Bonginganoa and a boy named Esanga were also victims of the attack, having been shot and subsequently dismembered and cooked.... Other sources, including the chief Mpombo, indicate that the killings and subsequent feedings occurred at a later point in time." That may be a bit hidden in the lengthy text (I wonder why?), but it's clearly there. Gawaon (talk) 10:38, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

I am not sure on what basis you think the Free State did not try to stamp out cannibalism. This was a state which was so weak that it could not prevent its own officials from murdering and kidnapping people as part of its own labour regime. I'm not sure exactly what standard you are expecting it to have met in enforcing its own laws against cannibalism.

The reality is that the source evidence for widespread cannibalism in the Congo is itself pretty flimsy. Professor Jean-Luc Vellut writes in a leading article:

"La question du cannibalisme est représentative de ces problèmes de critique historique. Trop volontiers, des auteurs, se présentent comme «témoins», pour évoquer des scènes d'horreur qui, à l'examen, prêtent à caution. Il faut se rappeler que, de tout temps, de bons conteurs africains ont répandu les pires accusations contre leurs voisins, afin de décourager des voyageurs, des commerçants, des curieux. Dès les débuts des relations entre Européens et Africains, sur la côte de l'Angola, d'horribles récits ont circulé sur les « cannibales» de l'intérieur. De tout temps aussi, des voyageurs européens ont montré une complaisance morbide pour ces récits d'horreur." (Vellut, "La violence armée dans l'état indépendant du Congo", pp. 681-2)

Rough translation: "The question of cannibalism is representative of these problems of historical criticism. Too willingly, authors present themselves as "witnesses" to evoke scenes of horror which, upon examination, are questionable. It must be remembered that, throughout history, good African storytellers have spread the worst accusations against their neighbors, in order to discourage travelers, traders, and the curious. From the beginning of relations between Europeans and Africans, on the coast of Angola, horrible stories have circulated about the "cannibals" of the interior. Throughout history, too, European travelers have shown a morbid complacency for these tales of horror."

The furthest Vellut goes is saying that cannibalism was a psychological warfare tool used by certain militias as part of the ongoing wars in North-Eastern Congo (p.683)

On your next point, we have a reliable academic source that says there is no evidence of cannibalism among white officers. This seems pretty compelling to me. I am really not sure why you think Forbath is such a good source. Please do correct me if I am wrong, but his seems to be a non-specialist, non-peer reviewed, pop history work from the 1970s. There are plenty of better sources for this period/subject which is one of the most studied in African history.

On the reference to cannibalism in Nsala of Wala in the Nsongo District, I note that this also refers back to Morel (1904) which is the same source you relied upon. This is absolutely not a reliable source and clearly fails WP:PRIMARY which is particularly important on subjects like this. Without denying the historicity of genuine cannibalism in the Congo basin, the lurid fantasies about the subject of "Congo cannibals" in 19th century works need to be taken with big handfuls of salt. Can you find something to support this contention in a WP:RS? I notice that scholarly sources attempt to critically distance themselves from such claims (Viane, "Internationalism, Religion and the Congo Question: An introduction, 1875-1905", p58). Vellut also specifically notes that photographic captions purporting to evidence cannibalism can often be deceptive and were manipulates as part of a discourse of treating Africans as savages (p682).

As Professor Nancy Rose Hunt writes, "Cannibal imagery was integral to the nineteenth-century rewriting of Africa as the dark continent. And "Congoland" was Africa’s cannibal land par excellence in European imaging" (A Colonial Lexicon: Of Birth, Medicalisation, and Mobility in the Congo (1999), p157).—Brigade Piron (talk) 21:43, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

You make some fair points. I'll go through the section soon (once I find the time) to remove parts where one could argue that they didn't fall into the State's responsibility. Afterwards I'll reply here in more detail. Gawaon (talk) 08:02, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

I have now considerably shortened the section, keeping only acts committed by soldiers or auxiliaries of the State and thus directly falling into its responsibility. They are confirmed by a number of primary and secondary sources and as far as I can tell there is no doubt that they really happened. They also totally fail the "vague rumours attributed to enemies" trope of unreliable (and very possibly wrong) claims of cannibalism, being often based on eyewitness evidence and not rarely committed by allies or subordinates of those who wrote about them in the primary sources. Gawaon (talk) 11:03, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

As for Morel (1904), it is the original source of the photo so clearly it's relevant for its origin. It's also covered by WP:PRIMARY: "Primary sources that have been reputably published may be used in Wikipedia, but only with care, because it is easy to misuse them" – that applies here. I'm sure the sad tale behind the picture also appears in some of the later literature that mentions it, so it's worth checking whether they confirm or doubt it — I'll check for that once I find the time. But in the absence of any confirming or contradictory explanations from later times, Morel himself it still the best source to follow (plus, as described in the book, they already very carefully checked and cross-checked the story). Gawaon (talk) 11:12, 8 August 2025 (UTC)