biggest, the most blank, that i had a hankering after. this then is the congo. the size of all western europe combined. it should be africa s wealthiest nation. but people forget, or never even knew, that the 20th century s first holocaust happened here when belgium s king leopold managed to bamboozle the world into giving him personal title to the congo. leopold s agents of whom the mythical kurtz was one, raided, slaughtered, mutilated and pressed into forced labor much of the population, in a bloodthirsty quest for first ivory and then rubber. when independence finally came, the belgians trashed what they could, and left behind a completely unprepared tribally divided and largely ungovernable land mass, filled with stuff that everybody in the world
the size of all western europe combined. it should be africa s wealthiest nation. but people forget, or never even knew, that the 20th century s first holocaust happened here when belgium s king leopold managed to bamboozle the world into giving him personal title to the congo. leopold s agents of whom the mythical kurtz was one, raided, slaughtered, mutilated and pressed into forced labor much of the population, in a bloodthirsty quest for first ivory and then rubber. when independence finally came, the belgians trashed what they could, and left behind a completely unprepared tribally divided and largely ungovernable land mass, filled with stuff that everybody in the world wanted.
blocked by officials? this could be months. okay. let the probing begin. [ speaking foreign language ] now, how do we do this? let s get under way before they figure a new tax to levy on us. our trip downriver will take us some 120 kilometers even deeper into the jungle. but instead of kurtz and his ivory horde, a crumbling belgian research center with a shadowy past awaits us at our destination. it s the turn of the century map, so kisangani was then called stanleyville.
this then is the congo. the size of all western europe combined. it should be africa s wealthiest nation. but people forget, or never even knew, that the 20th century s first holocaust happened here when belgium s king leopold managed to bamboozle the world into giving him personal title to the congo. leopold s agents of whom the mythical kurtz was one, raided, slaughtered, mutilated and pressed into forced labor much of the population, in a bloodthirsty quest for first ivory and then rubber. when independence finally came, the belgians trashed what they could, and left behind a completely unprepared tribally divided and largely ungovernable land mass, filled with stuff
blocked by officials? this could be months. okay. let the probing begin. [ speaking foreign language ] now, how do we do this? let s get under way before they figure a new tax to levy on us. our trip down river will take us some 120 kilometers even deeper into the jungle. but instead of kurtz and his ivory horde, a crumbling belgian research center with a shadowy past awaits us at our destination. it s the turn of the century map, so kisangani was then called stanleyville.