Movie
Review: Congo - White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
By
Kam Williams
King
Leopold II of Belgium conquered the Congo in 1885, and for
more than 25 years he then ruled the colonized African nation
with an iron fist. During his reign, he authorized the implementation
of such savage measures in order to bring the indigenous people
to their knees by any means necessary that over ten million
Congolese had died before it was over.
Using
the guise of bringing civilization and Christianity to the
region, he rationalized exploiting the land and all of its
citizens for profit, forcing them to work for slave wages
in the rubber in the burgeoning rubber industry. The slightest
resistance would result in having a hand chopped off, or worse.
Congo:
White King, Red Rubber, Black Death, directed by Peter
Bate, revisits this disturbing chapter of African history
in order to put the ruthless Leopold in proper perspective.
For
prior to this damning docu-drama, this beastly King
had been the beneficiary of a totally contrived legacy
which had misrepresented him as a benevolent despot.
Although
often painful to watch, due to the gruesome nature of
the graphically-depicted torture, Congo is another one
of those long overdue myth-busters which serves to set
a deceitful record straight.
It
is also the type of picture which ought to shake plenty
of activists out of their complacency, since this low-budget
gem shows that in this age of the video camera, the
playing field has been considerably leveled, and you
don’t have to have a lot of money to make a profound,
cinematic impact on a mass audience
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