Can’t Blame Colonialism for Current Rapes in Congo

A recent study published in the premier American Journal of Public Health estimates that over 1,000 women are raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) every day. In the DRC, 48 women are raped every hour. Rape, murder, kidnaps, and other forms of human torture have long been part of the DRC’s brutal history, dating back to Belgian colonialism. Belgian King Leopold II persuaded Europeans to recognize his sovereignty over the DRC—under the guise of philanthropy. His lasting postcolonial imprint reveals a far more nefarious interest and tragic outcome. Between 1880 and 1920, it is estimated that the Congolese population declined from 20 million to 10 million due to deaths by starvation, torture, and disease.

The horrific images of Belgian involvement in the DRC were proudly captured by Leopold’s local army who maimed and butchered women and children (and men too) by cleaving off the hands of those who failed to harvest their rubber quotas. Children, barely at the stage of walking, were not spared forced labor or punishment. A German journalist counted over 1300 hands severed in one day in 1896. Among these severed appendages were those of children.

The gruesome images are terrible reminders of a brutal colonial past, where the world watched Belgium become a wealthy, elite European nation and ignored the plights of kidnapped and raped women, and children forced into labor camps. For generations this involvement in the DRC was hailed as philanthropy and a modern form of civilizing the Congolese.

Decades later, and post-independence, a vicious cycle of brutality continues to manifest throughout the country. Those who look to exploit the natural resources of the country and keep its citizens poor and under threat, including some military leaders and governing parties, learned well from their colonial forefathers, but alas cannot blame Belgium for their current violence against women.

King Leopold’s exploitation of blacks in the DRC, including placing them in zoos and on exhibit was only a precursor to the world in which Congolese women inhabit now as camp dwellers where soldiers and bandits prowl and voyeurism leads to rape. The legacy of Belgian colonialism lives on, but cannot be blamed for the current atrocities perpetrated by a black, Congolese government and military. Nor can the blame be spread under the pretense that current rulers are puppets and puppeteers of Western interests.

Accountability in Africa is a sore subject for those who feel the pain of colonialism and recognize its barbaric legacy throughout the world. The images of children left with stumps in place of hands and arms makes a clear point about Western values in relation to Africa, during the colonial golden age. That history cannot be denied.

But alas, many African nations have been slow to embrace human rights and human dignity principles and values with regard to the treatment of its peoples, especially its women and children. Sure, some 53 African nations have signed declarations on human rights. And even some African nations have been at the forefront of such movements and their work can serve as models for Western countries on a number of fronts, including economic development for the poor and expanded democracies that thoroughly engage women at the senior levels of government.

But, atrocities in the Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Chad, Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and elsewhere are undeniable reminders about the urgent need for accountability on the continent. For many years, the Western philosophy toward Africa was built on guilt and dictators exploited that for their personal profit. Often, Western guilt meant turning a blind eye to predaceous rulers. That philosophy cannot be sustained. It is time for accountability on the continent. In fact it is long overdue.

In response to a UN report on the mass raping of women in the DRC, Colonel Sylvain Egenge, said, “we can’t act on simple allegations.” The truth is, if the DRC is ever to overcome a living-legacy of brutality, Egenge and the ruling elite cannot afford to ignore the allegations of women.