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Quote by Eugène Napoléon Beyens

“Nothing that impressed Africa was foreign to him. Without needing to go and look there, he knew the dark continent, as if he had been its explorer, and he followed step by step the discoveries, which he noted in his prodigious memory and on the maps displayed on it.”

Quote by Eugène Napoléon Beyens

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Eugène Napoléon Beyens

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“The obsession with seeking in Africa's colonial past the causes of all its miseries today is the work of people intimately convinced that Africa is doomed, that it is unable to take care of itself today, and that, finally, the fate of the Black will only improve if the White comes back to repair what he has done wrong: these “hidden Afro- pessimists “ are hiding, under gratuitous accusations, anger, or demand for reparation, their own disarray. This explains why their words are sterile, never accompanied by proposals for solutions to the problems they evoke. They are doing a lot of harm to Africa because they divert issues that have worth.”

ColonialismAfricaCongoAnti ColonialismMarcel Yabili
Book:The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba
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“This heroism was also that of the first missionaries. They had a life expectancy of about 5 years in Congo, and some were given extremely anointing at the time of their journey to Africa. There were many young idealists. Their graves are still lined up in the Mpala locality, which overlooks Lake Tanganyika. The Catholic mission was a fort where people who fled slavers and brutality took refuge.”

AfricaCongoMissionariesCatholic MissionLake Tanganyika
Book:The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba
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“Because I was sent to free the Kongo Peoples and the World Black Race. The Black Man will become White and the White Man will become Black. For the spiritual and moral foundations, as we know them today, will be deeply shaken. Wars will persist across the world. Kongo will be free and Africa too. The Black Man will become White and the White Man will become Black.”

ProphecyCongoSimon Kimbangu
Book:La Passion de Simon Kimbangu 1921-1951
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“Ik stelde voor dat ik met de koning op staande voet Leopoldstad zou verlaten en dat de regering het daags voordien gesloten vriendschapsverdrag met Kongo opnieuw zou onderzoeken. Buitenstaanders hadden blijkbaar mijn woorden opgevangen, want niet lang daarna deed de ambassadeur van Ghana een demarche bij mij met de vraag of de zaak niet min of meer kon worden bijgelegd. Ik ging daarmee akkoord. Er volgde een bijeenkomst van enkele ministers. Het voorstel was dat Lumumba tijdens de lunch die na de middag was gepland een tafelrede zou houden waarin hij hulde zou brengen aan de koning en het Belgische koloniale werk. Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Pierre Wigny en de diplomatieke adviseur van gouverneur-generaal Cornelis Fredericq De Ridder schreven in mijn bijzijn de redevoering. Ik liet vervolgens de tekst aan Lumumba bezorgen met de vraag of hij die al dan niet aannam. Het antwoord was positief. De ambassadeur van Ghana trad hierbij als tussenpersoon op.”

CongoBelgisch CongoPatrice LumumbaLumumbaGaston EyskensLeopoldstadKoning Baudewijn
Book:Gaston Eyskens de Memoires
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“The custom of chopping hands of death enemies was a local custom and was introduced in the Congo by the Arabs from the Muslim sharia law to punish thieves. The first penal code introduced by Leopold II in 1888, strictly forbids this cruel practice. The report of "The Inquiry Commission" of 1905 is absolutely clear in this respect. Though this report was extremely severe in denouncing such crimes, King Leopold II did not hesitate to have it published - in extenso - in the "Journal Officiel de l'Etat Indépendant du Congo" and issued no less than 24 royal decrees to put an end to all those malpractices.”

SlaveryCongoLeopold IiCongo Free StateArab SlaveryArab Slave Trade
Author:André de Maere d'Aertrycke
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“At the time when the Arabs were ruling our country, they were taking us, our wives and children, as slaves. They burned our villages. The white man never burns villages and when we bring him hens or bananas, he pays us well. He also pays us fairly for the mupira (rubber) that we collect. The white man has put an end to slavery… But we, black people, nevertheless wish that the white men go home, since we are forced to maintain roads and may no longer fight neighbour tribes and eat our prisoners, because if we eat them, we are hanged!”

SlaveryCongoLeopold IiCongo Free StateArabsArab Slavery
Author:Manangame of Avakubi
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“We want to stay in Ruanda-Urundi because in the lives of peoples and people there are interests other than purely economic interests. We want to stay there just because there is still much to do, because we have begun a great human work in that country that we want to bring to a successful conclusion; because we have accepted a mission of guardianship that we want to fulfil to the end. And when the objectives laid down in the [UN] Charter are achieved, thanks to us, thanks to our help, that people will be able to decide its future in full awareness and in full freedom.”

United NationsCongoRwandaUnBurundiRuanda Urundi
Author:Pierre Ryckmans
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