Out of Blood and War

In the Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, we are told of the story of the Price Family, who has unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your view of things, been planted in the middle Africa, in the Congo, on a mission as a missionary family. The history of the part of Africa they were put to live in is one that is not so pretty, as of all of Africa's history when the Europeans came to colonize. In our present time, the part of the Congo the Price Family stayed is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire). The Kwilu River is about 4 degrees south latitude and 18 degrees east longitude and flows southeast ward. Of the little city, Kiwilanga, they stayed in in the book of Genisis, I am not sure where it lays. The city of Leopoldville, the city at which the Price Family first landed at in Africa, is now present day Kinshasa, 4 degrees 18' south latitude and 15 degrees 18' east longitude. Now that we have our frame of reference, place wise, lets continue on to the bloody history of this region.

In 1482, the first Portuguese came to the "Congo" as it was called back then. They were the first Europeans to visit the Congo. A few years later, King João II of Portugal sent the first missionaries into the Congo in the hopes of converting the Africans there to Catholicism. They, like the rest of the European Powers back then, also set up the slave trade in this region under the control of the Kingdom of Kongo, which controlled modern day north Angola and the western parts of the Congo. The Portuguese established ties with the Kingdom of Kongo which eventually was led to its own ruin through civil wars.

From 1870 to 1908, exploration, mainly by Sir Henry Morton Stanley who was employed by The King Leopold II of Belgium, and colonization of the Congo began. King Leopold wanted to create his own colony in the Congo and in 1885, the Congo was acquired formally at the Conference of Berlin. He got his land through the promises of free trade, humanitarian objectives, and philanthropic activities. He called his new land the Congo Free State. Within his new colony, he gave off the image of being the humanitarian, building new roads, railroads, schools, missions, etc..., but in reality, the Congo Free State was a nightmare. He forced the Congolese people into working rubber tree plantations and harvesting ivory. His exploitation of the Africans was mainly caused by his lust to squeeze as much capital his new colony could produce. It led to the enslavement and death of five to ten million native people. His atrocities went unheeded until 1905 when finally the world spoke up against the activities of the Congo Free State.

From 1908 to 1960, the Belgium Government took over the job of governing the Congo, which was then called the Belgium Congo. They continued with economic reforms of the area like the building of railways, ports, roads, mines, plantations, industrial areas, etc..., but there was only slight improvement for the welfare of the Congolese people though, and the government allowed many native people to still be enslaved. The Congolese people still didn't have any political power or have any say in the government they were under. Three big forces controlled the administration of the Congo, and they were the state, the missions, and the industrial and big companies there.

Finally, after the support of neighboring colonies that were gaining independence and the growing resistance of the lack of democracy, Belgium Congo gained its independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960 and was named the Republic of Congo. It was more commonly known as Congo-Léopoldville because its neighbor to the west was also called the Republic of Congo (which was commonly called Congo-Brazzaville because of the same name deal). In 1966, Congo-Léopoldville became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Information from:
http://caxton.stockton.edu/hod/history and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic_of_the_congo