Status Updates From King Leopold's Ghost

When villagers, in a desperate attempt to meet the weight quota turned in rubber mixed with dirt or pebbles to the agent Alberic Detiege, he made them eat it.

For each cartridge issued to soldiers, European officers demanded proof the bullet had been used to kill someone, not “wasted” in hunting. The standard proof was the right hand from a corpse. Sometimes, soldiers shot a cartridge at an animal in hunting, they then cut off a hand from a living man.

“They attacked the natives until able to seize their women. These women were kept as hostages until the chief of the district brought in the required number of kilograms of rubber. The rubber having been brought, the women were sold back to their owners for a couple of goats apiece, and so he continued from village village until the requisite amount of rubber had been collected.”

“The first few times it is not without pain that the man pulls it off the hairy parts of his body. The native doesn’t like making rubber. He must be compelled to do it.” - Force Publique officer in his journal

fun rubber fact: “In the late 1700s, a British scientist gave the substance. It’s English name when he noticed it could rub out pencil marks.”