CONGO: WHITE KING, RED RUBBER, BLACK DEATH

- Describes how King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into its private colony between 1885 and 1908. Under his control, Congo became a labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Afrikans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. The natives hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a "tendentious diatribe" for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo.

Length: 84 minutes

Quality: Excellent