In The Rubber Coils Ankomah And Sambourne

The excerpt from King Leopold’s Ghost centers around a journalist, E.D. Morel an investigative journalist that who collected a multitude of stories from individuals that spent time in the Congo. At this time, the general public knew little about the actual practices occurring there because it was never discussed. Upon hearing the stories from missionaries, soldiers, and civilians of the mistreatment of native people in the area as well as the fraud committed by the administration running the area he made the decision to bring this news to the public. One of the most extensive accounts of life in the Congo came from Robert Casement who spent nearly 20 years in the area. The natives were required to collect materials for rubber and would be punished

He does not care about their welfare, only that he saves as many souls as he can. Adah, who can most identify with the Congolese, recognizes what it is like to be ignored and forgotten, much like the countries occupying the Congo do too. Imperialism. Instead of helping the country fend off invaders, the US becomes an invader; only caring when the invaded countries misfortune can benefit the intruders cause. Rachel says it best after reading a Belgian newspaper that claims the Belgians find the Congolese participating in cannibalism. “If they came to our village that day, they would have interrupted Mother in the middle of scrubbing the floor and about twelve little naked boys having a pee-pee contest across the road,” (161). The Belgians paint themselves as heroes to the Congolese instead of villains who enslave and cut their hands off, similar to Nathan who sees himself as the man of God saving the

In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, the reader is introduced to Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, through the voices of the fictional Price women. Unlike the Price family, Patrice Lumumba was a non-fictional character who was elected and served only 7 months as the Congo’s Prime Minister. His reign was brought short by his execution in 1961. Though his tenure may have been short and occurred more than 50 years ago, Patrice Lumumba remains to this very day, an important man in history.

In July of 1956, Lumumba was sentenced to two years imprisonment for embezzling $2,520 from the post office for the Association des Evolués. After the Association returned the money, Lumumba’s sentence was reduced to 12 months, which began his career as a prisoner, leaving and re-entering the prison system for the next five years. During his 1956-1957 imprisonment, Lumumba wrote Congo, My Congo, 200 pages to “make a contribution towards the search for a solution for the present and future problems of the Congo” (Lumumba 7). Because this book was not published until after Lumumba’s death, it did not have an impact on the independence movement, but the views Lumumba wrote about certainly did.

In the novel The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, the reader is introduced to the Price family, Baptist missionaries who are attempting to “Christianize” the country of Congo, more specifically the village of Kilanga. As the story progresses, the family realizes that they are not changing the Congo, instead they themselves are transforming. The development of the characters within the novel is due to the instrument of cruelty. Although distasteful to regard it as such, cruelty motivates the development and choices of each party, whether politically, culturally, or socially. Rendering itself as a main theme throughout the book, different aspect of cruelty are illustrated through the interactions of the Price family, internally

Under Belgian rule, the Congo became restless, similar to how Leah became rebellious under her father. In response to this unrest, the Belgians gave the Congolese independence, but this caused the Congo to throw off white influences and elect Patrice Lumumba, just as Nathan gave Leah her independence and Leah all but abandoned her father’s God and married an African. Under Lumumba, the Congo became Independent and valued itself, like the marriage between Anatole and Leah brought about a sense of love and dedication and independence, but an outsider imprisoned and killed Lumumba for his pro-African ideas and his refusal to give Congolese resources to outside forces, mirrored by Anatole’s imprisonment for his revolutionary, pro-Independence thoughts. Despite Lumumba’s death, the Congo stays loyal to him and resists the outsider, similarly to how Leah stays unwaveringly dedicated to Anatole despite his

Throughout The Poisonwood Bible, the concept of governmental control is illustrated throughout the Congolese peoples struggles for independence. While the idea of independence appears to be a solution that will bring a positive change to the Congo and Congolese people, it only leads to the oppression of the country’s people. The Congo is granted independence from Belgium, however Belgium still remained a sole influence on the Congolese society. Orleanna Price explains this as she says, “They [government] take turns leaning forward to point out their moves with shrewd congeniality , playing it like a chess match, the kind of game that allows civilized men to play make believe murder” (Kingsolver, 317). Orleanna Price presents the comparison between the fate of the Congo, to a mere chess game in the eyes of the foreign government. This further exemplifies the class oppression of the Congolese with the idea

In Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone, Beah’s natural imagery of thick, wild, and dangerous forest reflects his distressed emotional state and the devastation of Sierra Leone. Beah recalls his long and endless journey through the forest and expresses, “I walked as fast as I could, but the more I walked, the more it seemed I was getting deeper into the thickness of the forest. The harder I tried to get out, the bigger and taller the trees became” (53). Here, Beah represents the trees as the war in Sierra Leone because no matter how far Beah travels, he is still trapped in the war and the harder he tries to the escape the rebels, the faster the rebels catch up to him. Notably, this image mirror’s Beah’s mindset and the situation in Sierra

Unable to realistically view history and imperialism, Nathan believes the US to be the Congo’s savior, “He believes that civilization comes to Africa only from without, from its colonizers who import their superior cultures: ‘The Belgians and American business brought civilization to the Congo! American aid will be the Congo’s salvation’” (Strehle 417). He attempts to civilize Kilanga himself but fails to understand those that he is trying to change, much like imperialist America. Use to the effect that his preaching had in a country in which he understood and accepted the culture, Nathan’s ineffectiveness in Kilanga leads him to the conclusion that the Congolese are the problem and not him, “In the distorted evolutionary logic of nineteenth century imperialism, Nathan considers Africa as inadequately evolved, backward, primitive—a childish culture dwarfed by its grown up Western colonizers—and thus in need of help from the advanced West. As Leah puts it, ‘My father thinks the Congo is just lagging behind and he can bring it up to snuff’” (Strehle 418). He refuses their way of life, and believes that they all must assimilate to him and how he believed their society should

The second king of Belgians, King Leopold II, were admired throughout European. He was first known for his generous and noble act, sacrificing his time and fortune to benefits the Africans. Of course, Edmund Dene Morel learned the truth behind King Leopold II’s practices of slave labors and eventually brought it to the public eyes. King Leopold II was able to keep the horrific practices of slavery murder, and mutilation of millions in the Congo hidden from the rest of the world for roughly two decades through propagandas. As stated on page 1, “ … the troop, it is said, fought, and defeated local slave-traders who preyed on the population, and for more than a decade European newspaper has praised him for investing his personal fortune in public works to benefit the Africans.” Newspaper bragging about King Leopold II’s selfless service to the Africans was preventing the people from seeing the truth about his true practices.

Throughout King Leopold’s 44 year reign of the Congo, he managed to diminish his population in half, causing 8 to 10 million Africans to lose their lives. (USSLave) Some were worked to death, some lost their lives during transportation because of malnutrition, but many other’s died due to diseases that were brought over by the Europeans. The main theme that reappeared throughout Hochschild’s novel was Leopold’s goal of colonialism and how he was going to use his African people to accomplish it. This is seen when Leopold analyzes Livingstone, Stanley, and other explorers. Hochschild states, “As king of a small country with no public interest in colonies, he recognized

David Sedaris’s narrative, “Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa,” contrasts the author’s formative years with those of his partner, Hugh Hamrick. Sedaris describes his childhood in North Carolina as “unspeakably dull” (297). Conversely, Sedaris seems to regard Hamrick’s childhood, which included “a field trip to an Ethiopian slaughterhouse” (296) and “a military coup in which forces sympathetic to the colonel arrived late at night to assassinate [his] next door neighbor” (298-299) as foreign and exciting, if in an occasionally traumatizing sort of way.

Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ accentuates the relationship between those in power, the bourgeoisie (Westerners), and those subordinated to power, the proletariat (Congolese). Socio-economic forces including political and religious ideologies are used as a means to justify colonial control within the Congo. According to Marxist literary criticism, “these overarching ideologies make up the ‘superstructure’ which functions to legitimize the power of the ruling class in society.”- a concept Western countries, especially America, inflict upon the oblivious natives of the Congo in attempt to maintain power.

Around the 19th century people began to explore the Congo more. The images that Homer and Aristotle portrayed through their writing begin to slowly fade. The Mbuti were no longer visualized as mythical and sub-human creatures, but as people (Suroviak, para. 9, 1996 a).

Thus we see how J.M. Coetzee successfully shows the future of the novel in Africa and its problems with the two conflicting characters of Elizabeth Costello and Emmanuel Egudu and as according to a critic “typically produces irritation or discomfort” in a