I know this is weird and theres so much going on, but after the reading on King Leopold's Ghost, I have to laugh and scratch my head all at the same time.
My sights fall back to the Epilogue and Introduction
I find it comical all the listings of the things that Europeans thought of when they thought of AFrica, all the wild ideas they had about one-eyed people, heads of lions, etc, etc. It brings me back to my childhood when I had a friend from the middle east who told me that when she died, she would go to a place where she would stay the same age and her face would be on the top of her head. It's a culture shock really, and that's the definition to a point.
I wonder where these ideas came from, if people had actually saw them or made their own ideas. Were they rumors a basis to justify why they should colonize these people? Or were they just because people were truly scared. I wonder if back then the powers from Africa seemed more than the almighty Europe. I wonder how the world would have been had Europe not had their guns, would the fight have turned around and would the strength of Africa be unbearable. It's sad to think that they had more people but lost an unfair fight.
And this may be my minimal background and education on Africa (hence, why I take this class) but my mind is boggled that slavery in fact, did exist in Africa and how easy it was. Not that it was a gracious attempt but slaves were able to earn back freedom and be able to marry outside.
I didn't know slaves existed in Africa, but I suppose in every culture, there was the lower class that carried the burden of hard-labour. (With the way our economy is today, you just might say those working for minimum wage might as well be slaves.)
There way of classification fascinated me. These people had a very interesting system, and there was a lot of imagery associated with Congo. And it was amazing that people were trying to colonize the country, and yet, still taken back so much that they just stood back for a while watching these people.
IT makes me think the Europeans weren't so organized. =]
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Question filled post Ash. I did not know that the African Slave trade was as large as it was, but it definitely increased once they received European goods for slaves.
I am pretty confidant that Europeans knew nothing about what lived in Africa aside from the Northern coasts so making up things was what they did, who is going to argue with them!
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