The introduction, prologue, and first chapter all set up what feels like a memorable book. In the beginning, I began to see slavery in a different light. In previous lessons, it seemed like the Europeans came to Africa and took men, women, and children from their homes. However, the book shows of how the leaders of the villages from which the future slaves were taken were aware of this human trade and actually encouraged it. Previous history teachings presented Africans in a very innocent light, however, through the depiction of the ManiKongo and how he treated his people, I now believe that it is not as simple as that. Among the Africans there were those who were corrupt as well. This particular topic interested me more than other parts of the readings, like the life of John Rowland. While his childhood was interesting because it was so unfortunate and sad, his adulthood was not as compelling to me for reasons I don't quite know. The final thing I wanted to talk about is the Congo itself. On page 3 of the book it says, "Statistics about mass murder are often hard to prove. But if this number turned out to be even half as high, I thought, the Congo would have been one of the major killing grounds of modern times". This quote really stuck out to me because before this year, I never heard of the Congo and the fact that such killings took place there is very surprising and makes me want to learn more about this huge historical event that I know so little about.
Omar Karadaghy
Discussion Questions:
How did the people of the Congo develop such a system without the help of Europeans?
Why have we not heard of the Congo before?
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