Talk:Belgian Congo
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Territories and administrators
[edit]The section on Belgian rule indicates that from 1932 there were six provinces, each province divided into 24 districts, and each district divided into 120 territories, with a (presumably Belgian) administrator in charge of each territory. This works out to 17 280 territories in need of an administrator. Since the total Belgian population of the Congo in the period is given as around 17 600, that would imply that nearly every single Belgian in the colony worked as a territorial administrator. I suspect an error somewhere, particularly as it's claimed that a territory could be as large as several Belgian provinces put together, which doesn't work out either – Congo could only be divided into about 800 territories similar in size to a Belgian province. Perhaps it was the provinces, not the districts, that were divided into 120 territories each (i.e. 5 territories per district), for a total of 720 territories?
The statement that "there were 728 administrators controlling the Congo from Belgium" is also confusing. It seems to be saying that these administrators did not leave Belgium. So is this in addition to the on-site territorial administrators? Or supposed on-site administrators who never actually visited their territory? (If so, how could they perform their duties of inspection?) Was this seen as a problem or failure, or was it by design? If I'm correct about the mistake in the count of territories, does that mean that all administrators operated out of Belgium? Did they then have representatives in the territories? Detailed as the description is, it provides more questions than answers.
I don't have access to the sources cited for these sections, so I can't look it up. – Snarkibartfast (talk) 16:45, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
- The 17,000 number would not surprise me, though it does seem a bit high. Very few people were allowed to settle in the colony if they were not actually employed by the colonial administration; at least before 1945. I assume the 728 figure refers to civil servants in the Ministry of the Colonies.—Brigade Piron (talk) 16:59, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
- I found some figures in this French-language document on the colonial administration inside the Congo and Ruanda-Urundi.
- http://www.urome.be/pdf/admin.pdf
- "Each province is divided in districts, which in turn are divided in territories. The number of territories will not vary much. In 1960 they numbered 132." (page 194)
- "On 31 December 1958, the administration of (Belgian) Africa totaled 10,325 civil servants (fonctionnaires) and service agents (agents de service), including approximately 1750 in the territorial administration." (page 192).--Lubiesque (talk) 00:55, 2 July 2016 (UTC)
needs detail regarding quotas and abuse
[edit]There's the picture at the top of people who had their hands cut off because someone in their family(?) failed to meet a quota. Looking through the text, I can't find any further detail about this practice. Anthony Bordain is probably not a good reference for the article, but here's what he said about the Belgian Congo: "Handed outright to Belgium's King Leopold II for his personal exploitation, nearly half its population were worked to death, whipped, dismembered, executed outright or sent running into the bush to die of starvation and disease in a pitiless quest for first ivory and then rubber." He also indicated that the Belgians stripped the country on departure. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I could fill in the blanks? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.94.38.34 (talk) 21:55, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
A good book on the topic is King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. Red Rubber is another good one, but a heavier read, written by E.D. Morel. Adam Hochschild wrote about it as a historian, and E.D. Morel was an anti-slavery campaigner who wrote about it while it was still happening. If you know French, Jules Marchal also wrote about it. Red Rubber is available for free online from archive.org. Here are some relevant pages. https://archive.org/stream/redrubberstoryof00more#page/42/mode/2up/search/hand https://archive.org/stream/redrubberstoryof00more#page/46/mode/2up/search/hand https://archive.org/stream/redrubberstoryof00more#page/48/mode/2up/search/hand — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ashy Waves (talk • contribs) 03:11, 24 February 2018 (UTC)
Untitled
[edit]- has replicated text from Congo Crisis
- more opinion than history
Rename
[edit]I'd suggest renaming Congo Free State and Belgian Congo, as they suggest articles about a former states, when in fact they are just history of a current state article. Consider also an example of History of Poland (1945–1989) vs. People's Republic of Poland, or History of Poland (1569-1795) vs. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 21:28, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
WWII photo
[edit]I don't have much detail about this photo but it might be useful. It's of soldiers in Belgian Congo in 1943.
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Soldiers_in_the_Belgium_Congo_-_NARA_-_197079.jpg/200px-Soldiers_in_the_Belgium_Congo_-_NARA_-_197079.jpg)
- I believe those are British King's African Rifles troops. As far as I know the Force Publique generally wore a khaki cover over the red fez with the adoption of the 1917 pattern uniform which was more or less the standard uniform until independence in 1960.69.115.242.114 (talk) 20:51, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
- I'm afraid that you are mistaken - the badge on the Kepi is very much Force Publique (pre-1944) as are the uniforms. Brigade Piron (talk) 09:13, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
- I believe those are British King's African Rifles troops. As far as I know the Force Publique generally wore a khaki cover over the red fez with the adoption of the 1917 pattern uniform which was more or less the standard uniform until independence in 1960.69.115.242.114 (talk) 20:51, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
Suggestion
[edit]Suggestion for advanced Wiki user(s) to fix apparent linking problems in right column regarding general statistics.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ctrl freak (talk • contribs) 13:49, 16 May 2006.
- I have replaced the infobox tamplate with a table. {{Infobox Country}} is really not appropriate for defunct states. --Ezeu 15:34, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
New International Encyclopedia
[edit]Is the entire text of this article from the NIE?? Because I can't find a copy of the NIE in order to verify, and this article has no other references!
I added two, but they're woefully inadequate. It's problems like these that cause Wikipedia to not be taken seriously as a source of academic knowledge! 207.175.48.45 21:09, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Gross National Product
[edit]It's inconceivable to me that the Congo's GNP in the 1950s was greater than that of South Africa. Maybe the greatest among the African colonies--but more than that of Algeria, with its petroleum production? I'll check for data. Dynzmoar 16:51, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
Life Expectancy
[edit]The claim that the Belgian Congo life expectancy was 55 in the 1950s, is almost laughable, that would make it a land with lamost no roads, and still some forced labour, and few doctors have a life expectancy above some of the richest lands in the World of the time. This source shows this strange claim is untrue, life expectancy was 38-39.5 in the early 1950s, http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:Y8l_-3MZSvcJ:www.lifetable.de/data/RileyBib.pdf+Congo+%22life+expectancy%22+1940&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk.
This article is unclear, especially towards the end
[edit]The article is unclear in its later paragraphs. Who were the 'évolués' and what was their viewpoint? How, when and why did Belgium decide to leave the Congo? How did the elections that are mentioned come about? What were the riots at Léopoldville? Somebody who knows the answers ought to put this right. --APW 07:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
And the entire section on ABAKO has disappeared/not appearing on my screen. I'll insert a link to the article on ABAKO, but i'm not sure how reliable that article is either...76.205.56.93 (talk) 17:24, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
Clarification Needed
[edit]==
In the 1908-1945 section the word arachid indicates a need for clarification. That is the French word for peanut. Hope that helps. (talk) 8 Dec 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris Latour (talk • contribs) 18:34, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
Slaughter of millions
[edit]Seemingly missing from the article is the fact that an estimated 8-10 million Congolese were killed during the reign of Leopold II. This must be further emphasized.
- This is adressed in the article Congo Free State.--91.181.192.228 (talk) 19:15, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
Belgians in Congo table
[edit]I changed the class on the table so that the page does not have as much white space on it. If you have another option like this please suggest it. Sadads (talk) 00:57, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
Genozide in Belgian Kongo
[edit]It is quite surprising to see that the cruel Belgium regime is hardly mentioned. With one decade 10mio people died as a result of the colonial regime! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.198.184.90 (talk) 12:58, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
- This is adressed in the article Congo Free State.--91.181.192.228 (talk) 19:19, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
not anymore, right now there's just a small segment about a humanitarian crisis —Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.5.184.66 (talk) 09:10, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
Atrocities by King Leopold II in Belgian Congo
[edit]Several paragraphs will briefly explain the machinations of King Leopold II to enslave the people of Congo for the benefit of Belgium. Discovery of the Rubber, invention of Goodyear to make cycle tyres and subsequent demand for rubber etc made the atrocities even worse for the people. I will gather this information from other textbooks and include it here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Psseshadri (talk • contribs) 11:25, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
- I'm afraid that your comment about enslavement "for the benefit of Belgium" is untrue. The Congo Free State was run for the Benefit of Leopold and the company that he ran. Comparatively, Belgium had little impact in the Congo until the period immediately before annexation in 1908. Plenty of sources indictate this: Ascherson's "The King Incorporated"/ Slade's "King Leopold's Congo" and Packenham "The Scramble for Africa" and even in "Red Rubber" by Morel to name just a few. As for the rest of your comments, I believe this is addressed in the Congo Free State article. Brigade Piron (talk) 09:20, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
Difference between Congo Free State and Belgian Congo
[edit]Can we keep this in mind please? "*Joseph Conrad (1903) Heart of Darkness" in the Books about the Belgian Congo section is, I'm sure, well meant but it does not deal with the Belgian Congo for the simple reason that it did not exist at the time. It has now been removed. --(Brigade Piron (talk) 08:24, 12 October 2012 (UTC))
Semi-protection requested
[edit]![]() | This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
There have been a number of minor, but very destructive, incidences of vandalism to this article within the last couple of weeks and, since this article is of considerable importance to the DRC taskforce of WP:Africa, it would be good to have it protected. The vandalism is at low levels by unregistered users by has often taken quite a bit of time to correct. --Brigade Piron (talk) 19:14, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
- I made a request for you at WP:RFPP so it is up to the admins there now. --Jnorton7558 (talk) 01:04, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
- I have declined that for now; while I acknowledge the importance to WP:Africa (and living in Brussels myself at the moment, so I know a bit about the subject), the frequency of the vandalism is way under the threshold for semiprotection or even pending charges protection level 1. Lectonar (talk) 09:01, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
External links modified
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Links to DAB pages
[edit]This article links to Flag of Congo and to Coat of arms of the Congo, both DAB pages. I can see the links below the images in the infobox, but have no idea how they're being generated or how to fix them. Can anyone help? Narky Blert (talk) 12:29, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
Slavery
[edit]An editor has posted substantially similar content to a number of discussion pages, including this one, asking for help in increasing the amount of coverage about slavery in various articles. The content posted to each page amount to thousands words. It was contrary to WP:CANVAS and WP:FORUMSHOP, and also probably futile, as it would fall under WP:TLDR. The editor has now been blocked indefinitely for disruptive editing. I was intending to remove the content from all but one of the pages it was posted to, both to avoid the risk of having duplication of discussions on the same topic, and also to reduce the amount of unhelpful cluttering of talk pages with absurd walls of text, but I see there have been replies on this page, so rather than removing replies from other editors for now I am collapsing the disruptive content for now. If nobody posts to it again I shall consider removing the section after a while. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 15:14, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
- An indefinite block seems overly harsh, but I haven't been a party to the matter except in the last day or so, in responding to the most recent edits here. This is a new user, who appears to be having a hard time wrapping their head around the wide range of strictures, rules, guidelines, and nuances of editing here. That, of course, isn't an excuse, but instead, points to a need for guidance. I noticed that the editor mentioned the Tea House, which is a good start, and which is where the user should spend considerable time under tutelage for lack of a better word. And no, I'm not volunteering. Anastrophe (talk) 18:21, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
Extended content
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For some reason, large amounts of information about the use of forced labour in the Belgian Congo have been removed, and inaccuracies have been re-added to the article. The information was referenced. Here are the two references I consider to be of the greatest quality and relevance. Marchal, Jules (1999). Forced labor in the gold and copper mines: a history of Congo under Belgian rule, 1910-1945. Translated by Ayi Kwei Armah (reprint ed.). Per Ankh Publishers. Marchal, Jules (2008). Lord Leverhulme's Ghosts: Colonial Exploitation in the Congo. Translated by Martin Thom. Introduced by Adam Hochschild. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-239-4. First published as Travail forcé pour l'huile de palme de Lord Leverhulme: L'histoire du Congo 1910-1945, tome 3 by Editions Paula Bellings in 2001. Here are some additional references. While they are not as comprehensive with respect to the use of forced labour in the Belgian Congo, they do support there are other published authors besides Jules Marchal who have concluded that forced labour did in fact occur in the Belgian Congo. Rich, Jeremy (Spring 2009). "Lord Leverhulme's Ghost: Colonial Exploitation in the Congo (review)". Project Muse. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History. Retrieved 17 March 2018. Hochschild, Adam (1999). "18. Victory?". King Leopold's Ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa. Boston: Mariner Books. Buell, Raymond Leslie (1928). The native problem in Africa, Volume II. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 540–544. Zoellner, Tom (2009). "1 Scalding Fruit". Uranium: war, energy, and the rock that shaped the world. New York: Penguin Group. pp. 4–5. Lewis, Brian (2008). "Sunlight for Savages". So Clean: Lord Leverhulme, Soap and Civilisation. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 188–190. Edmondson, Brad (2014). "10: The Sale Agreements". Ice Cream Social: The Struggle for the Soul of Ben & Jerry's. San Francisco, California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Makelele, Albert. This is a Good Country: Welcome to the Congo. pp. 43–44. De Witte, Ludo (January 9, 2016). "Congolese oorlogstranen: Deportatie en dwangarbeid voor de geallieerde oorlogsindustrie (1940-1945)". DeWereldMorgen.be. Retrieved 17 March 2018. "Lord Leverhulme". History. Retrieved 17 March 2018. Mitchell, Donald (2014). The Politics of Dissent: A Biography of E D Morel. SilverWood Books. "Un autre regard sur l'Histoire Congolaise: Guide alternatif de l'exposition de Tervuren" (PDF). p. 14. Retrieved 17 March 2018. (Placeholder: I reserve the right to add more references here at a later time.) Ashy Waves (talk) 15:42, 17 March 2018 (UTC) Overall, the article has an extreme pro-European bias. While information about the extensive forced labour regime (post-1908) has been shortened to a single sentence, blatant innaccuracies like "During the economic boom of the 1920's, many young Congolese men preferred working for international companies, because of the attraction of the cities and the higher wages compared to the rural villages" have been re-added. It's well-documented that Congolese workers were forcibly recruited and in many cases forced to work without adequate food or shelter. The 1920s was not a time when higher wages were attracting people to work for international corporations. The 1920s was a time when the death toll from all this forced labour finally started to go down, although the forced labour still did not end. I tried make the healthcare section more balanced, but the previous, completely pro-Belgian one has been restored. Ashy Waves (talk) 00:35, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
Like, copy-pasted below is some of the stuff I tried to add. (Not everything.) It was shortened to a single sentence. Ashy Waves (talk) 01:47, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
However, this was not enforced.[1][2] The Belgian government continued to impose forced labor on the natives, although it did gradually become less murderous.[3] Natives who failed to do the work demanded of them were punished with prison, and in prison, the chicotte, a type of whip, was still in use in 1959.[4] For a time, the Congolese were still forced to gather rubber, but just before the World War I, the price of rubber fell as rubber plantations elsewhere in the world began producing. By then, the wild rubber vines in the Congo were largely tapped out.[5] As Dr. Raingeard described the situation, "Entering into the agreement, and then honouring the contract are enforced by means of prison and the chicotte, which are generously administered by government officials, who have been reduced to acting as labour recruiters and as guards supervising convicts on behalf of the companies. I have frequently had to intervene on behalf of sufferers from sleeping sickness, who are summoned because they do not work regularly. I have seen a territorial agent install himself at a trading post, assemble the fruit cutters, among them a good many old and infirm, and have them dealt as many lashes of the chicotte as there are crates short. When a native, remarkably enough, managed to resist the threats and blows of the merchants, I have seen government officers offering him the choice between signing a contract and prison." [6] [...] While conditions were improved somewhat relative to rule under King Leopold, reports by various doctors and officials such as Dr. Lejeune, Victor Daco (head of the sanitation service for the Congo-Kasai), Dr. Mouchet, and Dr. Raingeard show the low importance the Belgian government as a whole, in spite of protests from some of their officials, placed on healthcare and basic education of the natives.[7][8][9][10][11] According to Dr. Raingeard, in a report published in 1932 in the Revue de Médecine et d’Hygiène Tropicale, a reputable journal published in Paris, "It is of course the case that when an entire population is put to work, in a manner harmful to its very existence, it cannot be a question of voluntary labour." By threats of prison and the chiocotte, workers were forced to work from morning until night. While the work was painful enough for an adult, in the opinion of Dr. Raingeard, it was an intolerable strain for old men and the infirm, who made up the majority of palm cutters. Unable to supply the required quantities of palm fruit by themselves, the men had to call upon their wives to help them. Children were forced to work too. At one post mentioned by Dr. Raingeard, children aged 5 to 14 made up the entire workforce. This intense forced labour regime resulted in a decline of food cultivation. According to Dr. Raingeard, "Formerly, the men would clear the forest so that the women might cultivate it, and by hunting every day they would provide a regular supply of meat. It would be an error to imagine that in equatorial regions everything simply grows without being tended. The women are now simply workers; the children, dirty and covered in vermin, wander listlessly among the ruined huts. There are no cultivated fields, no large livestock, because the tsete fly reigns supreme; no smaller domestic animals, the natives reckoning that there is no point in tempting the whites any further,; and there is no meat to be had from hunting, for there are no hunters. In short, famine has reigned for years in the whole of the Kwango industrial zone." [11] According to Hector Maertens, laborers were taken from their homes and marched to the mines with ropes around their necks, under the guard of undisciplined soldiers. Upon arrival, they found unhealthy working conditions, a heavy, stamina-draining workload, insufficient food for the output of energy required, and were housed in sheds that, in Maertens' opinion, were worse than pigsties back home in Europe, all of this in contrast to the conditions the natives had enjoyed before being snatched. Maertens wrote that, "A white boss, a perverted, brutal drunkard, will heap insults and threats on them from morning till night. They get slapped here, cuffed there, and kicked to the ground. If their spirits, pushed to revolt, or their bodies, numbed by pain, refuse to work, they will be whipped, because most of our whites cannot tell the difference between a sick man and a malingerer.” Additionally, "If the laborer is accompanied by his wife, and if the wife is passably good-looking, she quickly becomes the target of the white man’s bestial covetousness. If he refuses to hand her over without fuss, he will be subjected to constant harassment." Some men were jailed for complaining to management about their wives being raped, and whipped if they persisted in complaining.[12] The Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB), a subsidiary of Lever Brothers, was one of the companies that recruited Africans by force, their numerous agents accompanied by armed auxiliaries. The agents encountered increasing resistance during their tours, or else found villages emptied before they arrived. The first clashes between HCB's labour recruiters and villagers took place in July 1914. For example, a recruiter named Buelens was met by a volley of arrows in the village of Kasamba, and was slightly wounded in the chest. A recruiter named Vanherenthals was attacked in the village of Kisimuna, and suffered serious arrow wounds in the arm and chest. A recruiter named Sosson was met by a volley of arrows, and one of the men accompanying him was wounded in the leg. A recruiter named Monard was also greeted by arrows.[13] Dr. Emile Lejeune, medical officer of the Congo-Kasi province, drafted a report on 8 December 1923, after a six-day tour inspecting the Lusanga circle, run by HCB. He found rations, accommodation, and clothing to be inadequate, and, in his opinion, single, imported workers could not do the work that was asked of them and still remain healthy under the existing conditions. He wrote that, "I can well understand workers shunning work with the HCB, where they find nothing to attract them, and where nothing is done to render their leisure more pleasant." A number of workers were dying, and while Lejeune found documentation of rates of mortality to be inadequate, he found the most frequent causes of death recorded in 1923 to be bronchial infections and pneumonias, with some cases of septicaemias and at least one of tuberculosis. Dr. Lejeune saw one cemetery with about 150 graves, and other with almost 500 graves, but total casualties would have been higher, since many workers, upon falling ill, returned home to die. The HCB provided blacks with just one meal a day, which in his opinion, provided far too few proteins, carbohydrates, fats and calories. Due to lack of pans and utensils, the preparation was often unhygienic and unpleasing. Some workers, such as the Yanzi, were arranging for caravans of provisions to be brought from home, to compensate for the lack of provisions provided by the HCB. Dr. Lejeune wrote that, "Anyone familiar with the abundant portions the blacks ordinarily consume, and the hygienic conditions under which food is prepared in the villages, will not be surprised at their dissatisfaction with the diet offered at the company posts." No clothing or blankets were provided for the blacks. Since the majority of deaths were due to respiratory ailments, Dr. Lejeune regarded blankets as an absolute necessity. Accommodations were crowded. The camp at Leverville lacked latrines, kitchens, and a rubbish pit, and, in Dr. Lejeune's opinion, was large enough only for a very small fraction of the workers who were at the post when he inspected it. The camp of the Yanzi, housing 400 workers, had straw houses in which 10 to 20 men slept in cramped conditions, on pallets which, in Dr. Lejeune's opinion, only 7 or 8 men at the most ought to have been accommodated. He called the camp "little better than a simple night shelter of poor quality." Overall, Dr. Lejeune found unclean, uncared for houses, too small for the number of men living there, to be the norm, and many camps lacked latrines and other basic services. Dr. Lejeune also found medical facilities, medical staff, and services to be inadequate. He saw patients sleeping on the ground, without blankets. At a hospital, the three latrines were only badly build Arab trenches, and rations were inadequate. He noted a worker with a fractured thigh, still not mended after three months, who since his accident had been fed a diet without vitamins. Post 8 lacked even the means to dress a wound.[7] Interim Governor-General Leon Bureau wrote to the Colonial Minister, in a letter dated 4 January 1924, forwarding Dr. Lejeune's report, along with a commentary, in which he mentioned that, "Bosses in Africa persist in blaming their failure to recruit workers on the indolence of the blacks, when the real cause is sought in the fashion in which they treat those in their employ."[14] Sidney Edkins, the managing director of HCB, submitted a memorandum defending against the Lejeune report, but did not dispute Dr. Lejeune's description of the conditions, instead making excuses. For example, the memorandum blamed the government for failing to send more nurses, and complained that providing blankets would be tantamount to doubling the wages of the workers.[15] As Alphonse Rhodain, a chief medical officer, explained in a note dated 24 January 1924, "In asking the Government for more nurses, here too the HCB is avoiding the issue," and "Up until this point the HCB has in no wise shown that Dr. Lejeune's report is not rigorously accurate. On the contrary, the report is highly accurate, and the HCB cannot contest it. In his report, Dr. Lejeune was supposed to state the facts, and this is what he did. The HCB's proposals were really no concern of his, for they had not even begun to be implemented. In the next 13 pages, the HCB once again does not refute any of Dr. Lejeune's statements of fact, as regards the age of workers (statements iterated by me), children on night shift, accommodation, clothing, or food."[16] Reply[edit]@Ashy Waves, your edits were blatantly incorrect and disruptive. Like this one "The views expressed in the committee notes are not the views of Wikipedia." and this one "Patients were often hospitalized under duress, and patients were most often subjected to quarantine than to any sort of nursing. Patients were often used as guinea pigs for a variety of new medicines, such as atoxyl, a derivative of arsenic which produced blindness more often than recovery.". The Lazarets were mainly built in the Congo Free State era, there was no cure for sleeping sickness in 1908, apart from Arsanilic acid (atoxyl). If untreated, African trypanosomiasis almost always results in death. To claim that this situation lasted from 1908 -1960 is blatantly incorrect and to claim patients were almost never treated is equally incorrect. Most of this user's contributions were blatanly incorrect and/or disruptive for other reasons (like WP:WEIGHT and WP:SOAPBOX, and Righting great wrongs). Ashy Waves' contributions were deleted because of his/her disruptive editing on many other articles and his/her continued dismissal of wikipedia's values and code of conduct. Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum (talk) 02:26, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
References
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"Belgians in the Congo" listed at Redirects for discussion
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Date of Capital Change
[edit]I have changed the dates on this article for the capital change from 1926 to 1923. There is no evidence anywhere for the claim to 1926. This was the edit that introduced it. Their contributions to site consist almost entirely of this topic, making me believe it may be a case of misremembered personal knowledge. Their knowledge seems detailed enough, but no citations were attached, and other sources directly contradict their statement. Interestingly enough, this claim was also independently produced in Boma article in 2005. Perhaps this is where their information came from? — Preceding unsigned comment added by IceWinds (talk • contribs) 08:32, 22 April 2021 (UTC)
Independence
[edit]"Belgium had ratified article 73 of the United Nations Charter, which advocated self-determination, and both superpowers put pressure on Belgium to reform its Congo policy; the Belgian government tried to resist what it described as 'interference' with its colonial policy."
"both superpowers" -> Who? 2A02:1812:1126:5D00:F4FA:DB70:27DD:3381 (talk) 17:15, 15 March 2022 (UTC)
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