Interwencja na wystawie „Afrykańskie wyprawy, azjatyckie drogi”
Intervention at the exhibition „African Expeditions, Asian Ways” [ENG below]
The Kingdom of Kuba was formed in the mid-17th century as a result of the unification of several principalities that had for centuries occupied territories near the Kasai River, one of the tributaries of the Congo River. It was both far enough from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to avoid contact with slave traders and close enough to take advantage of the novelties that came from distant parts of the world. Growing tobacco, corn, beans, and other crops brought from America ensured prosperity, and the kings’ and subjects’ concern for political balance allowed the kingdom to flourish. The rulers governed according to an oral constitution. They were accountable to a council and left independent verdicts to judges.
In 1885, in Berlin, the European powers decided that the kingdom of Kuba, situated some ten thousand kilometers away, would become a part of the private territory of King Leopold II of Belgium, which was called the Congo Free State. King-controlled trading companies plundered rubber and ivory, and forced the subjects of the kingdom of Kuba, among others, into labor. Among the whites, there were some who considered the brutal methods of increasing profits to be unchristian. The photographs of severed hands and ears moved public opinion in America and Europe. The King appointed a commission which, contrary to his intentions, condemned the bestiality and ruled that King Leopold II’s territories should become a Belgian colony. In 1908, the kingdom of Kuba became part of the Belgian Congo.