A Baringa paddler – famous for his boat songs
A bowl of white water-lilies, Maringa
A chief on the Ikelemba, who entertained Mr. and Mrs. Harris in his compound
A Congo chief with a few of his reputed 1000 wives
A Congo forest fruit, considered by the natives to resemble the imported pineapple, to which they give the same name
A cool spring of clearest water at Ikau, upper Congo
A difficult tramp through the Ikelemba – Juapa watershed
A field of white water-lilies, Maringa River
A group of Congo women
A loop of a giant vine, Ikelemba forest
A maize field on the Kasai
A mango tree with fruit Leopoldville
A missionary's house at Yalemba, Stanley Falls District. Material imported from Europe
A Sunday school on the Kasai
A wayside station on the Congo railway
A wooding post on the Juapa
A Young Boy
A young boy (Impongi) with a severed hand and foot, mutilated by sentries after his village failed to meet its rubber quota. He was a witness before King Leopold II's Commission of Enquiry which was an unsuccessful attempt to refute Roger Casement's damning report to the British government on human rights abuses in the Congo Free State. This image formed part of the Harris Lantern Slide Collection. Under King Leopold II the Congo Free State used mass forced labour to extract rubber from the jungle for the European market. As consumer demand grew King Leopold II's private army - the Force Publique - used violent means to coerce the population into meeting quotas, including murder, mutilation, rape, village burning, starvation and hostage taking. Alice Seeley Harris and her husband Reverend John H. Harris were missionaries in the Congo Free State from the late 1890s. Alice produced a collection of images documenting the horrific abuses of the African rubber labourers. Her photographs are considered to be an important development in the history of humanitarian campaigning. The images were used in a number of publications. The Harrises also used the photographs to develop the Congo Atrocity Lantern Lecture which toured Britain and the the USA raising awareness of the issue of colonial abuses under King Leopold II's regime. Source: Antislavery International and Panos Pictures.
A young heifer of five months, reared on the Aruwimi
A Young Man and Child with Severed Limbs
A young man and child with severed arms. Mola (seated) had his hands destroyed by gangrene after being tied too tightly by soldiers. Yola (standing) was mutilated by soldiers who wanted to prove they had used the bullet to kill a rubber labourer. This photograph was taken by W. D. Armstrong. This image formed part of the Harris Lantern Slide Collection. Under King Leopold II the Congo Free State used mass forced labour to extract rubber from the jungle for the European market. As consumer demand grew King Leopold II's private army - the Force Publique - used violent means to coerce the population into meeting quotas, including murder, mutilation, rape, village burning, starvation and hostage taking. Alice Seeley Harris and her husband Reverend John H. Harris were missionaries in the Congo Free State from the late 1890s. Alice produced a collection of images documenting the horrific abuses of the African rubber labourers. Her photographs are considered to be an important development in the history of humanitarian campaigning. The images were used in a number of publications. The Harrises also used the photographs to develop the Congo Atrocity Lantern Lecture which toured Britain and the the USA raising awareness of the issue of colonial abuses under King Leopold II's regime.Source: Antislavery International and Panos Pictures. An account of Mola's experiences can be read in E. D. Morel, King Leopold's Rule in Africa (London: Heinneman, 1904), pp. 378-79.
