Oysters growing on trees at Lobito Bay, Angola
Palm tree in grip of parasite, Kasai River
Palm trees on banks of Kasai River
Parasite which grips the palm tree – in its early stage
Red blossom on trunk of tree, Kasai forest
Steamers Livingstone and Endeavour in Bolengi beach, near Coquilhatville. Upper Congo
Steamship and River
Unknown. 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.
Tapping rubber trees at Yala, Juapa River
The site of an old village marked by the growth of palm trees from discarded kernels
Tree oysters at Lobito Bay
Trees uprooted and planted upside down as memorials to the dead. Custom of Bakete, Kasai District
Young Cocoa trees proptected by shade of Paw-paw trees, Kinyati, Mayumbe
