#Belgian Congo

[womblegrinch]

André Hallet (1890-1959) - Princesse, Mangbetu

Oil on strong cardboard. 16.1 x 13 inches, 41 x 33 cm.

Estimate: €700-900.

Sold Hotel de Ventes Horta, Brussels, Belgium, 7 Oct 2024 for €700 + B.P.

After travelling widely in Europe, Hallet was sent by the Belgian Ministry of Colonies to the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1934, eventually settling in Kisenyi in what is now Rwanda, until his death.

The Mangbetu people of the northeastern Congo pursued a practice of what they called ‘lipombo’. New-born babies had their heads tightly wrapped with cloth and the soft, growing cranium would take on an elongated shape. The deformation didn’t affect the brain. Intracranial pressure remained the same as for a normal person, the brain simply growing into the new shape of the skull.

The Mangbetu believed the elongation denoted majesty, beauty, power and higher intelligence. The practice largely died out in the 1950s with increasing Westernisation and a ban imposed by the colonial authorities.

I've posted another painting by Hallet previously of a mother and child where you can see the binding on the infant's head.

[victusinveritas]

A 1900s colonial poster satirizing different kinds of European colonialism in Africa.

[postcard-from-the-past]

M'Pala Catholic mission in Belgian Congo, modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo

French vintage postcard

[southoffrance15]

Audrey Hepburn at a local market in Kisangani by Leo Fuchs (1958) while on location filming The Nun’s Story

Private footage of Audrey Hepburn in the Belgian Congo:

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1903 – Roger Casement completes report about abuses in Belgian Congo.

‘Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile, the Force Publique were required to provide the hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting. As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off…

[artstamps]

Native Woman. Printed in Belgian Congo in 1942.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Prince in Rio," Kingston Whig-Standard. June 26, 1942. Page 2. ---- Prince Ernst von Starhemberg, former Austrian vice-chancellor, arrives in Rio de Janerio from the Belgian Congo, where he was associated with Free French before break with General de Gaulle.

[AL: He broke with the Allies because they were allied to the Soviet Union. von Starhemberg was one of the founders of 'Austrofascism,' whatever his opposition to Hitler. Hilariously, he died from a heart attack while trying to hit a photographer for a left-wing newspaper with his cane.]

[keepthedelta]

i just saw someone say we need to talk about anti-australian attitudes in f1 and im so serious when i say i need f1 fans/drivers to dead this wrong passport conversation. british bias is one thing ( tho im still skeptical about it bc why won’t british sources be biased when the others are) but ppl are bordering on claiming the rest of these white europeans are experiencing racism. i’ve even seen max and fernando get credited for “ calling out colonizers” when the wrong passport conversation was going on like do not get me started on dutch colonial history ( cough cough south africa) and spains every thing. some fans legit think they need to advocate for these drivers which just ends up making drivers and their fans look out of touch ie ppl getting mad that piastri “ only” makes 6 mil. ✋🏾

i feel like someone just hit me across the face with a metal pipe what do you mean people are saying that there are anti-australian attitudes in sport and getting mad that oscar makes 6 million a year (even though with bonuses he actually makes way more)?

i. i honestly don't know what to say. white people are just desperate to be oppressed i guess. i'm not going to lie, i do find fernando's indignant "they punish me because i am spanish" to be funny, but only when we all understand that he is absolutely not oppressed or marginalised for that in any way and is in fact being delusional. the idea that fernando and max are calling out colonizers is actually ridiculous and i think people need to go back to school to learn what spain and the netherlands did to other parts of the world. like. why do they think so much of south america speaks spanish?

i will also say though, that i do think british bias exists and is worthy of complaint in f1 spaces. because yes other countries have their media, and that media is biased, but no other country has as much power and influence in f1 media as the british media do. it's not just about sky or other british networks, it's about the media personnel working for f1 directly, it's about the media personnel working for websites etc., it's about the default international coverage being british (and no acknowledgement being made of that within their broadcast), it's about the access that the british media have to the paddock and the teams and the drivers. i'd say that somewhere between 50% to 80% of the f1 media are british, which is a massive, massive amount of influence in comparison to any other nation, and they are not shy about using it to push certain narratives that were not necessarily true, and had a direct impact on real people's lives

[macden]

I bought a globe at an antique store from the mid 1940s and I love it because I am a nerd but I also feel like I need to print this out to display beside it

[oak1985]

Rewatching Holiday with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and may I recommend it if you like your romantic comedies with a soupçon of 1930s political tensions and more than a dash of hating on the uber-rich.

Bonus points for Edward Everett Horton in a sweet lavender marriage and for Katharine Hepburn’s character’s stuffed animal giraffe (his name is Leopold).

[violentdevotion]

there is not a single country on this planet free from the americans. i hope that empire crumbles and burns

[turian]

once again thinking about how eerily similar this all is to the holocaust. like... have been listening to podcasts as i play elden ring and some episodes (of behind the bastards) were citing they thought they were free: the germans, 1933-45, which is a series of interviews with working class germans who eventually joined the nazi party (conducted by a jewish scholar, iirc) and like... idk. i see the north american liberal here.

and here a direct comparison is made:

[aiiaiiiyo]

[postcard-from-the-past]

Hutu family from Belgian Congo, modern-day Rwada or Burundi

Belgian vintage postcard

[anissapierce]

This isnt aimed at anyone btw i saw a lot of ppl doing ao ...but kinda funny to see a post abt acknowledging all genocides n only tagging Palestine....

[elektroskopik]

The Dark History ‘Oppenheimer’ Didn't Show | WIRED

"The mining company typically built fenced-in compounds that resembled prison camps for the workers and their families; the company initially gave each family about 43 square feet—the size of a small garage—and weekly food rations. At work, miners sorted uranium ore by hand. One person described a piece of Shinkolobwe uranium as a block “as big as a pig.” It was “black and gold and looked as if it were covered with a green scum or moss.” He called them “flamboyant stones.”