What did Belgium’s takeover of the Congo Free State in 1908 mean for the widespread violence inflicted on rainforest communities in the pursuit of wild rubber?
A new publication by SHOC members Lukas Van Oost and prof. Benoît Henriet explores this question through the archives of the first years of Belgian colonial rule. While the new Belgian authorities in Brussels were quick to present Belgian colonial rule as a break with the atrocities of King Leopold II’s “red rubber” regime, stories from the archives tell a more troubling story of continued abuses against the local population. Three case studies of different incidents in the forested Aruwimi District between 1908 and 1914 reveal how violent exactions on the ground provoked anxiety among the highest ranks of the new colonial establishment. These officials struggled both to contain the violence perpetrated by colonial agents in remote areas and to prevent such abuses from generating new public scandals.
Read the article here: https://www.journalbelgianhistory.be/en/journal/belgisch-tijdschrift-voor-nieuwste-geschiedenis-lvi-2026-2/after-red-rubber-violence-early
Image: Colonial official of the Congo Free State visits the village of Banalia, located in the northeast of the Aruwimi District, ca. 1898-1906. Source: AP.0.0.5699, collection RMCA Tervuren; photo E.V. Thévoz, [1898-1906].