The Miserable Story of The Congo
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
- The Congo has had one of the worst histories on Earth. From its precolonial to postcolonial times, the people of the Congo have been exploited by their rulers to make one of the worst societies on Earth. Let's take a quick look at the miserable history/economy/life of The Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mainly inspired by Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
#h0ser #history #congo
0:00 The Congo Intro
0:52 Precolonial Kongo
3:56 Colonial Congo
8:05 Postcolonial Congo/Zaire
The Miserable History of The Congo, The DRC
One of the first times the term "crimes against humanity" was ever used was when an American minister was describing the horrors of the Congo Free State.
The Heart of Darkness was written as a novel, but meant as a documentary.
@@Yora21 Joseph Conrad, the author of Heart of Darkness, described Leopold's oppression of the Congo as "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience".
American Minister said Crimes against humanity?🤨🤨🤨, did they forgot the massacres of native Americans? or the bounties and hunting of Natives? or even the slavery in america? wtf🤨🤨🤨
@@HistoryNerd718 especially if the FRENCH and Russians call you out on going too far
@@skeletonjanitor The sad thing is King Leopold died totally unrepentant for what happened in his name. He insisted to his dying day that he was a humanitarian.
Finally someone who also talks about the pre-colonial history of African countries. That usually gets left out for some reason.
It was done to promote European superiority . Can't let the Africans know that they were descendants of warriors , herders and had value outside of being a colonial subject.
@@manovrsb Pretty much this , there were so many things he got wrong about Kongo kingdom it felt like he just barely skimmed through a wikipedia article and went " AH ha ! *slaves* " take that africa ! "
@@manovrsb They were warriors and kangs and still got dominated for the rest of history. African superiority i guess.
@@zxylo786 And your (alleged) "master race" couldn't hold onto Africa, could they? Now your only option is to bribe African countries into providing you with the resources without which your "western civilization" wouldn't last a week. Quite pathetic.
@@manovrsb No offense but Europeans were superior, if they are able to make entire countries there personal property and the Africans cant do squat about it then I would call that superior. Europeans were also decedents of Warriors, herders, ect so I dont get the point of that part lol.
I lived in a dorm around 2013 and there was a guy named Ramadan from the Congo that only ever said a variation of "I love my family and my people but things are hard there. Not much freedom. Not much to do" when people asked about his life there.
He was an orthodox Muslim but didn't wear any of the garb. He spoke French, English, and Swahili.
This video gave me an appreciation for his resilience and work ethic I am not sure I could have attained from simply knowing him. I should reach out to that guy and see how he's doing. Thank you, h0ser.
"Orthodox muslim"? Was he born and raised by a muslim father and a christian mother?
@@MGharriy
I don't know. I can only assume he was. His sister wore a hijab as well. He was very strict with keeping the tenants and once threw out an entire plate of good food because he found out spam had pork in it.
theres no orthodox muslim bud. if u meant conservative, they are just muslims who hold on to true teachings of islam. like every muslim should.
How's he doing
@@HueyFreeman666died of starvation.
Guess he shouldn't have disrespected spam like that.
This is so sad🙏🏽 As a Congolese im terrified by the history of our country and I hope now our country becomes better and gdp/economy and infrastructure etc. improves also seeing how much our population will grow soon🙏🏽🙏🏽🇨🇩🇨🇩
Unfortunately most metrics predict such a rapid increase in population to bring even more suffering upon the good people of the DRC.
It all depends on if you will invest in the DRC
I hope all of africa changes for the better!
I hate Congo and I hate calling myself Congolese I'm so ashamed to
I honestly hope the best for your homeland, if you really have a lot of valuable resources, then a non-corrupt leader who let's people be rich and you guys becoming a fairly decent tradescountry could give a massive QOL increase
Thank you so much for making this video. The sad story of the DRC is pretty common for many African countries. As an African myself (Nigerian, specifically) it always annoys me when most people only attribute Africa's current problems to "colonialism or racism", effectively removing personal responsibility of us Africans, and ignore more important factors like geography, climate, socioeconomic systems, political unity, corruption, and leadership. Thanks for focusing on those areas.
Yea exactly. All this thing about foreign imperialism & colonialism in Africa, it's just one of the MANY factors responsible for making African nations the way they are today.
It also helps if people also stop speaking about Africa as if they're some monolith and every African wants the same thing lol and should unite.
Egypt has different interests and relations than South Africa, Congo has different issues than Morocco, Madagascar has different priorities than Nigeria, etc.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
yup. on the other side of the world, colonialism is what make the current indonesia, malaysia, and philipine. without it, the malay archipelago would be divided into tens of small kingdoms/countries.
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 How did colonization benefit the native Americans ?
@@JcoleMc well, the ones that survive now enjoy the infrastructure, facilities, freedoms etc of the america government, so..
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 Not sure if that's to be counted as a plus though.
never ask:
a women her age
a man his salery
a belgian what his grandparents were doing in congo
I think it'd be great grandparents now
Grand parents would be the post-WW2 part of their history. In other words, the best rulers they've ever had
It should be their great great grandparents I think
Replace grandparents with ancestors.
Doing based things.
From a malevolent king to tyrannical colonizers to a dictatorship then greed driven malicious rebels…yeah that’s pretty miserable.
*Here's something that can make you feel better:* After Leopold's Death, the Citizens of Belgium Boo'd the ever loving shit out of him during his funeral
this makes me feel so much better!
Wow, they boo'd. What a courageous bunch.
I mean if I'm a dead monarch and I know my former subjects are booing me at my funeral, I'd just laugh from my grave if I can lol. That shit's hilarious.
@@mrgalaxy396 What else could they have done to show their dissaproval when there’s no pushing him out of his position of power with an election and you and your family are being exploited in a cotton or steel mill?
@@mrgalaxy396what else do you expect them to do? There were attempts to pry away Congo from him that were supported by the population after all
Small correction: Kongo kingdom ≠ DRC. Only about 13% of congolese people were apart of that kingdom. There were actually several different kingdoms such as the Lunda, Kuba, Zande within our borders.
It did get mentioned, albeit unclearly at 2:03
I agree ethnically but I would argue the institutions of DRC are descended from the institutions of Kongo than any other pre colonial African state.
Based
Yeah, most of Kongo was in what is now northern Angola. Meaning, if you wanted to, you could say there are actually four Congos: DRC, ROC, Cabinda, and north Angola.
That should tell you the scope of just how fucked up these borders are.
How can i trust anyone of you guys.
A friend of mine grew up there.
He told me many are still afraid of dogs, because of what happened. The Belgians used dogs, too.
How much Is he old? Because the belgian are not there by a lot
@@jacopofolin6400 maybe legends of dog manhunters or belgian mercenaries using it.
Let's remember the Belgians never truly abandoned Congo until recently
damn man, that sounds absolutely terrible
is the your friend on a good situation rn?
@@HiimIny my friend is fine, he is from Europe (where I live), was born and raised there, to European parents.
It is sad, what Europe did. We all deserve better leadership and better treatment.
@@jacopofolin6400 he is about 40.
One of my students is from the DRC, but has grown up completely in the USA. He told me that his parents have told him absolutely nothing about their family background and the DRC. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Their story of emigration to the US is likely a very interesting one, but perhaps has tragedy or skeletons in the closet, somewhere.
As a Moroccan it’s sad to see how African countries live in poverty
I hope my African brothers feel better
Lol north African sitting in gold
While the neighbors is on poverty
@@RuanthGrain wouldn’t really say in gold.
@@RuanthGrain sat*, ghaddafi wanted Africa to rise again so he funded African countries to make African union but they snapped his ass and took every thing north Africa had at the time , he wanted to unionize Africa and use a strong gold currency so the western world would bow down to Africa and Middle East for their resources, but the neo colonists ( western world ) didn't let that happen and call him a dictator and a tyrant
We North Africans might be richer than other African countries but we are still poor.
@@magicianslucky602 you believe a dictator ? i live in indonesia and my dictator (Soekarno) told the world indonesia is rich country and doesn't need American aid money
While at the same time inflation in the country hit record high, we almost default on our debt to Netherland, unemployment skyrocketted
The Belgian king is visiting Conga right now in an attempt to improve relations. Problem is that he was planning to give an apology to the people of Congo which Brussels shot down immediately. Any admission of wrongdoing because that would open the door to reparations and Brussels does not want that.
bruh
Up to 10 million died under the Congo Free State. Those lives, those communities are forever gone because of the atrocities committed in that land. Even now, when they could use better relations, Brussels shoots them down? While I understand politics is a different game, that’s one of the most cowardly and vile reasons I have ever heard to not at least apologize as a European Nation that, by itself, has a GDP 10 times the size of the DRC with which it could possibly pay reparations.
That's kinda messed up that even a king can't even apologize by himself and is UNDER the government (who should allow this by virtue of freedom of speech IMO).
@@catandgrouper4760Governments will do anytging to not pay reparations. That's true for every colonial power. U.K commited many atrocities in the Indian sub-continent. . They gave nothing in return, only made everything worse by helping to split India on religious lines.Cauing millions to die, and radicalising everyone, which lead to causing the various country's stagnation. They also left so much infrastructure in both sides to become useless by splitting lines, railways, important ports, farmland, industries, etc in such a way, every country wouldn't be able to do function properly.
They also made many exclaves, and enclaves.
Example of Industries being untennable- Jute mills left in India, the vast majority of the jute producing area was given to Bangladesh.
That's messed up.
As a person who was born and raised in DRC, it's truly saddening to see the state of my country. The video is unfortunately very accurate and captures the essence of the despair everybody feels in that society, thank you for creating this...
Are you still living there now?
It’s not as accurate as you think. So many things are left out. The Portuguese which were there prior to the Belgium and how lumumba who was at the forefront of our independence but killed by western powers. You don’t want me to continue. Our leaders after lumumba have all been western power puppets.
where do you live now :D
Feel the same :( hopefully our country shines again
The DRC is very pretty, you could probably acquire a great amount of tourism money by just making the congo rainforest more accessible.
Well, That is quite some good research, BUT you can never tell what the future holds. As a Congolese myself, I have seen a lot change positively as more people are aware of the ingoing situations. SOON, you will make a video talking about how Congo's story will inspire other struggling nations.
when you exchange your own terrible ruler for some foreign terrible rulers and then back to your own terrible rulers
I had a French teacher from DRC, we asked him to describe it, he said it was a rich country with a bunch of mineral resources and it was a beautiful country, but then he said it’s only for the dictator and you have to stab to get what you need.
Not was …it is a very rich country
I love the history of the DRC even though it's very sad. If you know about Uganda and Rwanda, the DRC (or Zaire as it was known at the time) plays a role in what is known as the great African War. A huge shame as the DRC had massive amounts of rich reasorces.
You more what’s crazy Congo is the richest nation of earth comeing to resources
@@bootybanditforrest2396 European powers destabilization of the Congo, as its shown.
Zaire was the clear bad guy in that war too, they just couldn't help themselves from trying to fund Hutu death squads and provide them refuge
@@thekillers1stfan True, Mobuto was ass for funding Rwandan rebels. But even when he died, Rwanda and Uganda still messed around in the Congo, which led to conflict, which led to war.
The massive amounts of rich resources is why it happened
Tbh I wanna give Congo the prestigious “literally never once in human history ever being a hospitable place to live once ever” award.
Edit: Jesus Christ the point is that Congo is a scary ass dangerous miserable place to live not that Africans are stupid or whatever PLEASE stop arguing I’m tired of the notifications
Human history according to who?!
Congolese people have their own history, for them and by them.
What about antarctica?
@@nerdwisdomyo9563 I mean the amount of humans who have lived in Antarctica permanently is zero and it’s never had a proper civilization native to it so idk if it counts
@@charbonelle Human history according to Human kind. That which we understand has happened in the past.
@@cyanideinmycereal1077 Human history for Africans began 240, 000 ago. The 40,000 years of that period Eurasians began to exist so speak about your Eurasian continent of origin instead.
My grandfather served as a UN soldier in Congo during the Congo Crisis, 1962-63, including the Battle of Kaminaville.
He doesn't speak much of it, what with being so stoic he makes a mountain look emotional. But, the only time I've ever seen him upset was s few years ago, when there was a news report on how awful the situation in Congo still is. One of the things he brought home was an old Belgian rifle bayonet that a local working at the base gave him.
It's an absolute tragedy.
If he served then it means he also contributed to what has been happening, because the fact is, the UN's job is not to help the DRC, but instead to keep it on its knees..
You didn't even get to mentioning the awful geographic situation which could be a whole other video again.
Little to no natural borders, soil reliant on fertilizer to grow crops, the Congo river being unnavigable, tons of endemic diseased, Dutch disease, the TSE TSE fly, a lack of coastline... the list goes on
no so fun fact, equatorial guinea has a coastline of 296 kilometers; and the drc has 37
It's tough to say, but maybe Congo shouldn't be one country. Maybe it should split apart, or join other neighboring countries.
@@shorewall people praise Patrice Lumumba so much but the dude was an idoit for pushing for a centralized government instead of a federation like other people wanted
Poland, and most of the rest of Eastern Europe: My history as a country is miserable, and my geography is really bad :(
Kongo: You are like a little baby, watch this [tries to exist without being a radioactive dumpster fire, fails catastrophically and explodes]
@@dandarr5035 Stan nations:
I used to live in Congo when it was Zaïre. I have to say that your video was pretty accurate, albeit simplistic for such a complex topic. In that light, I can only add that the role of the UN to constantly try to back centralization has completely messed up the country, particularly with regards to the Katanga crisis, which was glossed over and had a huge impact on future development. Coming as “peacekeepers” but then shamefully getting directly involved in the civil war is the UN’s greatest historical failure. Fact is, Congo should never have been one country. Tribalism and greed will guarantee constant trouble for the country. That said, I miss Zaïre, and of all the number of countries I lived in as an oil-brat, I think my family was happiest there and I miss the people of that country the most.
as the Congolese president of zaire said the congo will always be one country and saying it shouldnt be one country is pretty offensive to the congolese people.
@@Ben-ev5se Mobutu or the Kabilas never cared about anything other than their own enrichment and that of their particular tribes.
Im not saying they are good guys especially not mobutu But fact is the country was a lot better when they were in power because they at least tried to not listen to western leaders and get money in the country and dont mix the 2 kabila together one is a hero and martyr, the other is a thief
I think it's clear that centralization isn't the answer. It's the definition of insanity. They've literally tried that for most of their history. They should focus on decentralized, small rural communities instead.
@@AngryGeekling exactly
Thank you so much for this video. I wish they would all your videos to the school curriculum. You make it so short and easy to understand.
As a zoologist I greatly appreciate the use of the okapi :)
Very informative video!
As a Russian citizen I personally feel so bad for Kongo people. Living in a big and rich with natural resources country and still getting nothing from all these money because all of them belong to oligarchs and government, who don’t give a shi nor about country, nor about their people living in poverty - it all feels so familiar and totally sucks.
It's always the same story for any country that is struggling economically. Corrupt leaders making bad decisions
Bolsheviks ruined russia
Žiza
Orc
how do they get nothing if their population is going to be 300 million. you sound rather bourgeoise
My grandpa helped build a hospital during the Zaire years. Three weeks after they had finished, an army came by and burned it down.
Was it that cold
Thank you so much for this. The very convoluted history of Congo is so bizzare! Awesome vid
You got too much of a happy voice to be educating me on the horrors of human actions.
i love how he represents countries as animals
Before it was countryballs but I still don't know why he changed it
@@WhoopDeDooz5250 because it looks better imo
@@sala7tt I guess
I do like the animals over the boring countryballs, but I think he could still be a little more creative than just using animals
How cool, I love countries with national animals
I used to have a coworker who was a Congolese refugee. He told me that their president was "a bad man who kills people". also, cutting someone's hands off because they're not producing enough sounds counterintuitive to me.
It's very counterintuitive and reading the accounts of people who went through this is harrowing. It got so bad at some points that the Belgians would demand a quota of hands and their local lackeys would attack random villages to chop off as many hands as they could get, among doing other horrifying stuff. Other times the rubber quota would be set too high to be humanly possible and they'd take more hands for failing it.
If you research it further, the buckets they used to collect liquid rubber from trees were designed to rest on one's shoulders without help from hands.
@@Pumbli source for this?
@@immortalituss King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild was my introduction into what happened, can't recommend that book enough for anyone interested.
@@Pumbli its a captivating read, but also incomplete and outdated on some aspects
The exploitation and savagery inflicted on that country and continent is horrific!
Meanwhile Europeans sit in cafes, not wanting to pay reparations for what they did.
I was born and raised on this majestic land, may God bless the Congolese people and give them a brighter future, they deserve it.
DRC is like a family member who was abused then later failed his classes. He then later became a criminal and got arrested so many times. He also takes drugs. Tell me what the DRC is compared in your opinions.
That one kid at school who had a traumatic early childhood and then made poor choices for themselves due to impulses based on it.
all human races evolved differently, by the time europeans had discovered africans, they hadn't even invented the wheel yet, while brutally enslaving and selling out their own people.
*adopted kid
A narc victim who still has to heal his wounds
I'd say the DRC is symbolic of the vast majority of Sub-saharan African countries.
- always in conflict. Sometimes with foreign nations, but mostly with itself
- rarely if ever able to get populations to work together towards common goals and a better country
- people caring more about their tribes/friends/families more than they care about their nation
- always impulsive and wanting everything right away even if it involves getting it with violence
- always wanting power and control even when they're not educated and capable enough to weld it and as a result they wreck everything and make things worse
- usually having leaders and governments in power who are incompetent/corrupt/self-serving and make things worse rather than guiding their nations to improvement and more prosperity
Can you make a video about Ghana, they show many signs of rapid industrialisation but has gone relatively unnoticed.
In the year 2000 they had a 48%* access to electricity rate - today it’s nearly 90%
Ghana has made great strides in corruption in that time and is less corrupt than Hungary, Bulgaria, India or Serbia
It’s a peaceful and stable democracy with high standards of freedom of speech
It was the fastest growing economy in the world for many years
The country is relatively ethnically and linguistically homogeneous
It’s geography is advantageous (friendly, dependant neighbours with a fraction of the economy or population to the north and east, and highlands and oceans to the south and west)
I believe Ghana will be one of Africa’s success stories.
An African South Korea to Nigerias China so to speak.
Edit
Also, this is one of the best videos I’ve seen on the economy of Congo. Thank you for showing the same respect to a poor African country as you do Brazil or America.
Ghana doesn't neighbor any strong countries so there are not a lot of relations of it to talk about. Well, any really exciting stuff at least. More so due to its stability.
Ghana is certainly doing well, but it's just because of oil and gold. of course if they use it well they'll really succeed like Norway or Oman.
and idk if I'd be proud about beating Hungary or Serbia in corruption, it's certainly something, but that's still an insane amount of corruption.
the location looks good and there doesn't seem to be a lack of water, plus the aforementioned electricity being present is very nice.
problem is, that oil money is going to dry up eventually and the completely inevitable unrest in Africa is going to destabilize Ghana too as it'll be flooded with refugees etc.
I think a country like Morocco will be in a much better position just because it has a massive desert separating it from the rest of Africa
@@eVill420 There are many oil and natural resource-rich countries that are not doing well.
Also, refugees are only really a problem in a democracy. In any other system, they would just be given fewer rights until they integrate, with varying levels of integration fervour. Ghana just has to not be a democracy until the problem is over.
@@eVill420 I use hungry as an example because they have a gdp per capita of $15,000 dollars which is above the global average.
Every nation I named is more corrupt than Ghana but their corruption did not stop economic growth, industrialisation or prevent high HDI scores. Why would the situation be any different for Ghana?
First, Ghana makes more than twice as much from gold and cocoa beans as oil. It’s why they haven’t had a recession in decades but other oil producers like Nigeria have one whenever the market crashes.
Second, you don’t understand the oil market. Oil is needed and irreplaceable for everything from plastics to farming to medicine. It’s not going anywhere. But the overall use will go down and so will the revenue.
Third all that electricity isn’t just used for TikTok the auto industry in the country is taking off with Chinese and Europeans investing billions and the aluminium industry has received billions in investment.
Finally, Morocco is more corrupt than Ghana. It’s a beautiful country, but they are a dictatorial theocracy with an anaemic economy long before corona and Ukraine. They have a water crisis, below replacement fertility, import much of their food from Eastern Europe, have a powerful & hostile neighbours with a larger population and are a dictatorship with an ageing dictator, and no real plan for succession. So good luck to them I guess.
Finally would you like to elaborate on or back up your claim about the “inventible unrest that is going to destabilise Africa” preferably with your sources?
I find it sad how Hungary is so corrupt that it's people remain so hungary
Very good essay. Your presentation made it interesting without relying on a bunch of corny memes and shit. I knew a lot about the Leopold years but had no idea about what the Congo was like pre-colonization.
Thank you for mentioning that colonialism isnt the ONLY thing that destroyed Congo but also not completely leaving out or watering down what the colonists did. People seem to always do one or the other.
Colonialism improved the place
@@sim9373loud incorrect buzzer
@@artthenecromancer404 before the Belgians arrived, they had no infrastructure of any kind. It was a loose amalgamation of Bantu kingdoms who traded mainly through slaving their fellow Africans.
@@sim9373 well yes because they weren’t one monolithic country, and never have been. Prior to the colonialists, 99% of the people there wouldn’t of called themselves Congolese. They were a bunch of different tribes and ethnic groups that shouldn’t of been forced into one super country for no reason other than slave labour. The ethnic tensions still fuck up the country to this day, and is probably it’s worst hinderance. go look up the amount of civil wars and convicts that stem from the stupid decision of forcing 250 different ethnic groups into one place.
@@artthenecromancer404 whether they weren’t ‘monolithic’ or whatever slick, retarded leftist talking points you have - it was a SHITHOLE. Then it was improved by Europeans and after they left, it once again reverted to a SHITHOLE. Fact.
The congo dictator was one of the worse dictators ever...
My uncle who use to work in the aviation sector when he was alive saw one of his planes
My uncle worked in one of the planes owned by the DRC dictator, he said everything was made of gold and it simply was too luxurious, gosh he couldn't believe how rich was the DRC dictator
That was ought to happen because the Congolese dictators all had wanted to feel how Leopold ll had felt
and it had already become bad after Belgium left, so the latter dictators couldn't help but not share
His name was Joseph Mobutu
One could say the same thing about America's gang of corrupt, fascist televangelists :). Although I understand this nasty species is cropping up in Africa now too, the witch hunters in Nigeria are scary!
Legitimately seems like every bad thing that could happen to a country happened in the Congo.
Well they haven't been nuked, yet
Can you make a regularly updated video series telling everyone what books you read to know all this stuff? I'll have to add it to my mountainous pile when possible.
Outstanding video in the tragic history of Congo. I'd recommend you also do one on the tiny African nation of Equatorial Guinea. This is another extremely resource rich nation, but has an arguably more tragic post-colonial history than colonial or pre-colonial history. The country has one of the highest GDP per capita in all of Africa, but the average citizen is quite poor due to massive inequality and one family ruling over the country as their own fiefdom. Obiang is one of the worst dictators in the world, having ruled the country since 1979. And as awful as Obiang has been, he's still a big improvement over his predecessor Nguema. Nguema ruled from 1968-1979, with the country being nicknamed the "Dachau of Africa" during that time, due to his massive persecution, mass murder, and driving nearly every intellectual he didn't kill into exile.
When I was a little kid we lived in Kinshasa for a couple of years, during the final days of Mobutu. The inequality was absolutely bizarre. Such poverty for most, such insane wealth for a few, mostly expats and Mobutu's clique. My dad at least made sure the wages of ice carriers were doubled, because they were literally dying by the road side.
Then inflation went through the roof, the AIDS epidemic hit (and bad,) college students started rioting, were subsequently mass murdered in their dorms by the military, then the military rioted... that's when we moved back to Europe and some weeks later I saw the other kids from school in the news, as refugees with nothing but the clothes on their backs. In the following years we watched the Congo slip deeper and deeper into chaos, until we heard rebels were hunting pygmee people for bushmeat.
Still I have fond memories of Zaire. Beautiful country, kind and cheerful people and the soukous music makes your butt shake whether you want to or not. I so hope to see light at the end of the tunnel for Congo..
I really hope your people will find their way. Hurts me to hear this.
My parents are Congolese and Angolan but I was born and raised in London. I'm always saddened by the history of Congo. It was nice to see your side of what Congo was like for you. I will be visiting there in a few weeks with my family for the first time too. :)
Kinshasa is a city of 10 million people. That is very impressive.
Hunting pygmy people for bushmeat? That's cannibalism! Someone needs to make a video report about that.
You're right I Googled Soukous music and my butt won't stop wiggling
My mum born and grow up in Congo in 1972 until she moved to Portugal in 1992. She didn't told me anything about her country but only about her family. My granddad was a doctor and made a lot of money out of it, he even send money to my mum (Portugal) to buy an American fridge (was the coolest thing I had at home ahahah). Now his clinic doesn't do much. My granddad's dad was from North of Angola and it was a owner of coffee plantation and that due to that my granddad could go to a Portuguese school in Angola.
Sad that I have to learn about my mum's country by myself, I can't even speak Lingala...
I still want to go DRC and visit family! The nature in there is beautiful but the story of country its very sad 😢
Nice to know your family had a chance in Portugal and Angola, my homeland.
If you do go back, do not stay there!! Come back and make a new beginning. A better future for yourselves. A new chapter. A new story.
I love your narration and how you don't pull any punches
You vids are really good,this one gave me depression. Nice vid tho👍
This is an excellent channel I cannot believe I haven't seen. Script was well written touching on points rarely mentioned like precolonial kingdoms and the Indian ocean trade. Animation was clean and the pacing was spot on.
Great job! I would love if we could see a bit more on precolonial africa/america.
Glad you enjoyed it!
i feel like Congo would benefit immensely from being federalized, with each tribe or ethnic population having seat at the decision making table, with each state/region/prefecture be able to use its own resources to trade independently from the central government, which would control the more basic nationwide services like the military, the emergency funds, the currency, the central bank etc.. but have no say in each state's internal affairs or trading partner. A raw material-based economy needs to trade with as many partners as it can to stay afloat and remain independent.
Sure, because it might turn out for at least 1 province that is generally better
I think you've never looked at the ethnic map of the DRC or how the DRC actualy look like it's a mess.
the issue with very few more developed provinces is that it's impossible to fit all 108 million people into them
Some places don't want to be countries. Afghanistan is a great example. There is no national identity. It is mostly small villages and those small villages only care about themselves. There is nothing but the possibility of bad outcomes for them if they unite.
Africans usually do such a good job setting up federal democracies. Im sure that would turn out fine…
Very sad and intruiging history. Most I know about Congo is through Virunga. It's a great documentary on the national park and also highlights many problem of the past, unfortunatly still going on in the country. I truely hope this beautiful country can get better.
Overwhelmed by the enormity of the extreme brutality suffered by the Congolais since forever ❤️💔Wish I knew what could truly help in eleviate their suffering of today Praying 🙏 the Spirit of knowledge to send towards me the light Merci best informative vdo, very painful 🕊
Being a big fan of the French documentary series "Worlds Most Dangerous Roads" and having watched about every episode of it I can find, I'd agree that the "Democratic Republic" (isn't it more like a dictatorship?) Of the Congo might be the most miserable place on earth. The episodes in Liberia and Sierra Leone are the only ones that come to mind where people seem to experience equally terrible living conditions.
It's a democratic(-ish) today. Most recent president was democratically elected I think.
@@trendymadness5159 Voter Fraud. Ever heard of it?
@@trendymadness5159 corrupted, don’t be fooled, they will pretend to be democratic for public eye dear
@@trendymadness5159 If you are electing people as representatives, that is a republic. Calling it a democracy is an elite mind control trick. The US is not a democracy, and not even a republic. The republic is contolled by billionarires.
What about North Korea?
As a young Belgian we're now educated at school to the dark past of the Congo and our country in History class, which is a good thing.
Also most people here have a few congolese friends (immigrants or descendants of immigrants) so at least they can inform us to what their country is about as well.
My grandfather had literally a job at Kinshasa's National Post Service in the 1960's and stayed a bit even after Independance so yeah.
You know that “dark past” has your country committing “crimes” that were physically impossible to commit, right?
There weren’t even 15 million people in that area much less 15 million to be killed by so small a force. Stop being so easily lead - they tell you his to extort you out of money using your superior morality and sense of empathy.
@@NoahBodze I'm aware that I'm not directly responsible for it since I wasn't born, and the modern population shouldn't be accounted for what some of their ancestors did, in the same way that nowadays Germans shouldn't be blamed for the horrors of WW2.
However I still think it's really important to talk, teach and be open about it. Make better people.
@@cdemr The point I’m making is that the land itself could not have supported even half of the people that were claimed to have been killed. Hunter gatherers require far more land just to sustain themselves. Don’t believe this hype because it’s physically impossible.
@@NoahBodze The exact number of people who have been killed, tortured, or enslaved doesn't matter, whether they were 250,000 or 10 millions, the point is the same. Mass horrors have been commited and it's crucial to cherish the memories of the victims, to remember what happened.
@@cdemr You know Kinshasa would not have been there if not for Leopold, right?
You’ve got to read that book. Black Bantus have been slowly heading south in africa, committing the longest genocide in history. So many of the Africans killed in the Congo were by other Africans, who would either sell each other to Arabs or eat what was left. The early white explorers notic3d that the tribes they first met going upstream would nit be there months later, their villages destroyed by another tribe,
Chances are the Dutch, and the colonizlaists in general, saved exponentially more lives than they didn’t. They partially stopped the genocide of the Hottentots, Khoi and San people’s, at least. The black Bantus killed each other through a migration and nearly wiped the bushmen off the map. Had Dutch and Portuguese not landed in South Africa, you’d never know those people ever existed.
Very refreshing to see a video that includes all factors in a nation’s current state.
Great choice of music. Perfectly suits the subject matter.
huh i guess belgium saw what the other countries did to their colonies over hundreds of years, and than they decided to cause the same amount of pain in only 52 years
“Why don’t you try treating the people better?” Sergei Witte
Thx for making this video
As a Burmese, this is very similar to our country. Myanmar, or Burma, is also very rich at natural resources, so much so that we are even endowed with almost every blessing things. But now our country is among one of the poorest in the world due to violence, corruption and, the current criminal military junta that has slaughtered thousands of people in our country. Today, our tragic Myanmar is even being compared as "Asian Congo". Wish you make a video about Myanmar though, and our harsh situation awaits us...
At my school, we don't learn much about African history despite there being plenty of it. Thank you for making this video!
Poor people. Hope they get it together and finally stand up to the bullies.
They do that constantly and become the bullies
@@gothicfan52 isn’t that just any post colonial nation?
@@Hollows1997 did you watch the video? They had that in the pre-colonial era too
@@kenos911 yes I did. It’s kind of hard to stand up to themselves though…
It's gonna tale a lot more than that. They also need to have a more collective society as a whole, with solid education systems, and actual leadership with a transparent goal.
Very informative video. thanks.
Excellent narration. I enjoyed the comedy + tragic history lesson
I feel like you sort of skipped over Lumumba being assassinated with Belgium's and to a lesser extent USA's help
Have been exploited for hundreds of years? Let's ask the Chinese for help. There's no way this will end in more exploitation.
Just brainlet moments 😏
They would learn from Europe's fuck up and just fill the country with Chinese and purge the unwanted. :)
Indian hates China because they are jelous.
Oh yea because it was the Chinese who exploited them gor the past hounderds of years and not the Europeans/Americans. Of course they will ask the Chinese and not the invading&colonizing Europeans/Americans who have been invading or bombing countries left and right unline China which didn't invade 1 single countty in 40 years.
@@revolter7094
China got invaded and razed for a century, yet they are now a massive superpower
Well, that's the history that schools and universities across world dont even know that happen. If werent for youtube, we wouldnt even think that most of this events happen. Thank you, man.
Alternate title:
"Why discoveries of valuable resources tends to be bad news for the locals."
You really should’ve mentioned Lumumba and how former colonial powers still control the economies of their former colonies, Congo especially.
congo is especially rapped by rwanda most of all
He wants to be an idiot and make it look like Europeans ( his people) have nothing to do with all of this mess.
Good history lesson but very cynical for their outlook. They've started to develop rapidly. With the recent acceptance to the East African Community, they're now able to control the sale and export of their minerals to neighboring countries. There is extensive construction already being completed in Kenya and Tanzania that will connect Congo. There are plans already implemented of turning this East African Community into a Federation, potentially creating Africa's biggest country which may very likely become a superpower. I would be hesitant to dismiss them, though they obviously have a long way to go.
Wow I didn't know any of this. Anything else??
I knew about the EAC and potential EAF and that the DRC was looking to join but I didn't know they actually did join.
I'm Kenyan and really doubtful the EAF will ever materialize and form a country. Had they maintained the original 5 countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi) and developed a state from there it would have worked since most of these core states save for Burundi are progressive by African standards with much in common. When they threw in failed states like South Sudan, DRC and now even Somalia has applied to join was basically like throwing a spanner in the works. These countries will basically suck the little resources meant to build a robust EAF.
The EAC in a nutshell is just a smokescreen and conduit to skim resources from failed states like the DRC, South Sudan to the west/china through patronage/business networks and concerns based in Kigali, Nairobi and Kampala and enrich the powers that be in those respective regional capitals through regional business ventures. Cutting red tape to smoothen regional exploitation.
I needed a feel good story like this thanks
I just got into your content and Its AWESOME, Love to learn about the state of shit feel like a Genius with a captial G
African history is severely underrated.
There isnt that much except for the north who had some form of advanced society the rest were either petty primitive kindoms and slave hubs or simple tribal societies.
I have a love hate relationship with african history because it makes me depressed to learn about all the suffering and slavery
Slavery isn't exclusive to just africa.
@@yobelmussie1730 when did I say that
@@ZatzoZimmerman i think he didn't answer to you
Very depressing but great video, love learning more about the history of other countries
Sad fact. EV vehicles aren't helping either.... Cobalt is mined heavy in the Congo to make batteries and is mainly all done by child slave labour.
DR Congo and Myanmar… how strangely similar they are. Being Irish-Indian, Myanmar is a neighbour of India and we found them suffered the same misery like DR Congo. Rich at natural resources, but extremely poor and impoverished.
'Dutch Disease' certainly gets around.
Such a rich nation in natural resources now suffering due to politics
due to corruption
And colonialism, imperialism, corruption
@@abcdefsas7107 mainly corruption and due to an none practical way of thinking
And also corruption
Imagine getting a Phd but people still call you the worst country
This video has the vibe of me giving a presentation to my class in grade 9.
As a Belgian, Jesus that's horrifying to know that a King exploited Congo and killed thousands of people all for making fortune.
I guess they didn't really teach you about it in school history lessons? I'm British and we didn't really learn about all the atrocities committed in the name of the British Empire. As the video and several commenters here say it's not just the fault of us Europeans, and there is truth in that, but IMO our countries should be doing more to help and support African nations in their development if such help is wanted
He’s rotting in hell. That’s one thing for sure.
I don't think the Belgians had much love for him.
@@user-jk8ur7sj3t for real
@@user-jk8ur7sj3t this is the thing. We don't associate with him. He owned Congo as private property, not Belgium or it's people. We never supported stuff like this and we never will.
A BRAZILIAN CAPYBARA!!!
BRAZIL MENTIONED 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
Lmao Brazil pride
@@tinienteabanil2922 What LGBT section is this?
@@AshGamer007 lesbian, gay, *Brazilian*, trans
The video is literally about the most screwed up country in history and you make this comment
this video hits very close to the heart because i’m am african but not even anywhere near DRC Congo Senegal is all the way at the west but even there we know about the years of suffering this country has been through and it sucks to know that if it were properly managed it would be without a doubt the richest country on earth
Resource curse. Congo would ironically be better off without so many resources
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan Ironically the reason my country, Kenya, thrives. Not abundant in the resources everyone wants... But abundant in the kinds of resources everyone needs, human resources. Probably our biggest export.
richest country on earth? no natural resources without human resources are a curse, they lead to exploration by foreigners and your own government. This is why the most successful African nations have done so by investing in their people not their resources. After your people are well educated then you can exploit your resources better, nations like Norway, The USA, Russia and others educated their population first and industrialized at the same time their resources began being used. Russia eventually collapsed as the USSR because of their competition with the US and their corruption. Japan is another example of a rich nation without natural resources, South Korea as well. Your people are your greatest gift, invest in them and you will prosper. There are many resource rich nations that are extremely poor. There are also resource rich nations that are rich, usually because of good infrastructure and an educated people.
Hey i want to learn more about the history of Congo and i was wondering what you source of information is. So i can study it aswel
Thank you so much for this video ! Why did you not evoke the situation of Rwanda post-genocide into the causes of trouble in RDC?
I have seen multiple videos on the histories of African countries and the DR Congo is probably one of the worst of them
Well you can only do so much when nobody bothers writting anything down
@@hrishabkumarsharma1355 it is written down
I don't think anyone can take the trophy away from The Central African Republic
Before Mobuto ther was a other horror story: the first prime minister of the kongo was Lumumba. After orienting to the soviets and specially after a speech in which he sad that the colonial rule was "horrible", he get kidnap in day light by the CIA and the belgien secret service. They even made some fotos of the "event". Brought him then to a unknown place and shoot him. Some of his murderes taked teeths of him as a souvenir, then they cuted his body in little parts and thrown everything into a barrel of acid.
This was also the day t h e y but Mobuto in charge.
Ah, so the West isn't so liberal after all.
But since Lumumba was a Communist, he would have killed many people, terrorised the population and run the economy to the ground. Ethiopia had a Soviet backed Communist regime and it ended up poor with millions dying from famines.
@@mudra5114 interesting piont. And yeah i dont know sadly not soon much about the mordern history in kongo. But to your theory: think about Mozambique. It was also sowjet backed and okay in my knowledge.
@@mudra5114 That was their democratically elected leader, unless you’re a psychic your comment is speculative bullshit.
When you say they are you referring to those who have excellent sense of smell?
As a Belgian this still hurts to see!
As much as it benefitted Belgium, there is nothing that can repay the damage done to the country.
Leopold II was the most outrageous private land-owner in the history of the world!
I couldn’t even keep up with this the history was so insanely convoluted.
"The the third world is not poor. You don't go to poor countries to make money. There are very few poor countries in this world. Most countries are rich!
"These countries are not "underdeveloped" they're over exploited!"
-Michael Parenti
cringe
@@thetaomega7816 wow! Omaygot Ambatukam.
These countries are exploited because they have weak and corrupt leaders so it's their own fault.
True.
I would disagree. If you’re talking about natural resources, this is somewhat true, but in terms of modern concepts of wealth, there are certainly poor countries.
Wealth is not having a large quantity of arable land, it’s having the ability to create industrialized agriculture on that land. This is the same for gold, oil, or lithium. You are not wealthy simply because you have it in the ground, you are wealthy because you have the ability to harvest it. Most third world countries are poor because they do not have the ability to harvest their resources or benefit from their large populations.
Often times, it is certainly true that local governments are very exploitative, but their exploitative nature actually diminishes the wealth of the country by not allowing education, free trade, and rule of law. These countries are poor because they are lacking the majority of what makes goods and labor actually valuable in the global market.
I've always wondered why places of abundance like The Congo, Eastern Europe, et cetera have this issue of extraction, wealth hoarding of the elite, and more. Do places of such abundance correlate with eventual selfishness of the area's rulers, or those of neighbouring countries who then invade? Why are we so driven to resource hoard to the point of having 10x what we actually need?
In general, a good take on Congo history, still some remarks :
- The "Independant State of Congo" of Leopold II was a monstruous capitalist enterprise as you said but after Belgium took the colony (somewhere around 1914, mostly because of the "cutted hands" scandal), it was just a creepy colony like the others.
- the congolese indigenous "elite" of colonial times was called "évolués" not "évolvés". It was an official system, and a very racist one, segregation was systematic until 1960 .
- Belgian gov, european mining businesses and the CIA fragmented Congo after 1960, mostly because they didn't like Patrice Lumumba, the first elected president, who was suspected of communism. The country became the eldorado of international mercenaries (Belgium, France, South Africa,...) during the independance war (1960-1965)
I’ve been to a few countries in Africa like Kenya, Senegal, The Gambie, Guine-Bissau, Angola and the DRC itself and I got to tell you something guys… China is quietly recolonizing the continent. It’s VERY SCARY what they’re doing here (I live in Angola now). They’re building some infrastructure in exchange of military space. And the worst thing is that China’s development banks are the ones landing money to the African governors to hire china’s construction companies. In other words, African leaders have their balls in China’s hands. And there’s more! China uses corruption that is inherent to the African continent and to China itself and makes countries prioritize sending their food production to them rather than feeding their hungry people.
…
Believe me.. what they’re doing here is freaking scary!
It doesn't surprise me at all. China has their hands in the economy of just about every country. The U.S. is so dependent on China and leadership that has vested interests in China that China has so much control. People don't realize that China is a major threat to the free world. They aren't doing it with brute force, they are taking over countries economically.
I'm pretty sure it's less scary than what europe did, but yeah, it's scary because they're the bad guys according to the west.
China is working with 15 African countries to build "transitional infrastructure" as far as the NEW generation of Africans in those countries are concerned.
China isn't colonising africa.
You have no idea what you're talking about. Also china doesn't use corrupt to inherit africa unlike some western countries.
H0ser is posting nothing but lies. Glorious Congo will be superpower by 2025! 😎😎😎
Sounds like a poem. It rhymes
Also be realistic. I would want congo to be superpower but it ain’t possible.
3 years is more than enough. by 2023 it will be done
mY iNdIa iJ sApUr PeWuR by 20251
!!!11111
@giga chaddi 🇺🇦 I don't speak whatever that language is, but ok.
You left out the part where the guy shoots a superintelligent gorilla with a diamond powered laser.
I can't believe that was a real movie.
Okay, tell me more. What is that movie?
Nice video. Why did you not mention Lumumba though?
Importing belgian fries at 7:30 made me laugh, very interesting video!
The stuff you don't learn in History class.... Thank you for this educational video!
The Congo exploitation and all of that was just skipped by my history teacher even though it would be a mandatory topic in my country... Like the teacher just mentioned it for 10 seconds that we gonna skip the topic tf?
Why didn’t you mention Patrice Lumumba and Dag hammasjköld??! you’re missing a lot of this
Hot damn! There really is no better word to describe DRC's history other than miserable 😢 sorry to say... very good video, though. As others have said, I also appreciate the pre-colonial history too.
Then more I learn about how harsh the jungles of Central Africa are, the more I get a sense of why there's so much brutality in this particular area of the world.
"The flags may be different but the methods are the same."
My mother is from Angola and I think it is safe to say that every Sub-Saharian Africa country has a miserable story, Congo is just an extreme version of that story.
It's really sad. I know a few Congolese People living here. They all have a story to tell. They all are very hard working people & despite what they came from, they still have a positive outlook on everything. Africans in general are awesome people.
Hi! Before Berlin conference Leopold 2 already owned Congo free state and he requested Bismarck to facilitate the conference. But your explanation sounds like Leopold earned Congo thanks to conflicts among strong nations. What do you think about it?