Belgian Congo by Congo (14 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 44 pages. Illustrated. E C Eggins "The Belgian Congo: a Contented Colony" / Bernard Lewis "The Ottoman Empire and Islam" / Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber "The Problems of M.Pinay" / Christopher Serpell "Has Italy Struck Oil?" / Barbara Ward "The Age of Confusion" / W G Hoskins "The Market Town" / Hugh Dalton "Labour's Criticisms of the Government" (Papers).

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 95 pages. Estelle Cohen "Medical Debates on Woman's 'Nature' in England around 1700" / Waltraud Ernst "Psychiatry and Colonialism: Lunatic Asylums in British India 1800-1858" / David Arnold "Smallpox and Colonial Medicine in India" / Martinez Lyons "Sleeping Sickness and Public Health in the Belgian Congo, 1903-1930" (BT#38).

Condition: Fair. Acceptable condition. No Dust Jacket Volume 1. (Congo, Land Surveys) A reading only copy. Boards/spine/hinges may be broken, detached, or missing. All pages of text are present, but they may include extensive notes/highlighting, be heavily stained, or detached. May be missing non-text pages (e.g. end pages, half title, title, frontispiece.).

Soft cover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Issued for the Missionary exhibition of prinitive art held in Rome, 1950. (Vatican exhibition). Description: 89 pages : 49 plates.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Internally clean, unmarked copy with lightly age-toned prelims and edges. Block remains tight with very lightly shaken spine with a tiny slight to spine crease. Still handsome copy.

Hardback edition. Near fine copy in the original gilt-blocked boards. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the spine and panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 2 volumes : color maps (part folded), diagrams (part color) tables ; 22 cm. Subjects; Congo (Democratic Republic). Congo (Democratic Republic); history. Congo (Democratic Republic); description and travel. 3 Kg.

Hardback edition. Near fine copy in the original gilt-blocked boards. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the spine and panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 2 volumes : color maps (part folded), diagrams (part color) tables ; 22 cm. Subjects; Congo (Democratic Republic). Congo (Democratic Republic); history. Congo (Democratic Republic); description and travel. 1 Kg.

Condition: Sehr gut. 16 pages of MLS, Manuscript Letters (signed) on 10 leaves of Leopold's official stationery "Château de Laeken" and "Palais de Bruxelles". The leaves with different sizes (13,5 cm x 9 cm) and (18 cm x 11,5 cm). Excellent condition. Unsigned. Tremendously rare to find original letters by Leopold II on the open market in which the Colonial Free State and the protection against inquisitive visitors is discussed in such clear and instructive fashion. Leopold's correspondence with Adolphe de Cuvelier shows how he is very much trying to still protect and influence the narrative of his Colonial Slavery Outpost even in the final years of his life. Adolphe de Cuvelier (1860-1931), Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Congo Free State, President of the Syndicate for Studies and Enterprises in Congo. He was given the title of knight in 1893 and baron in 1908, each transferable at first birth. (Wikipedia) _______________________________ Leopold II (French: Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor; 9 April 1835 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 and, through his own efforts, the owner and absolute ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest surviving son of Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for exactly 44 years until his deaththe longest reign of any Belgian monarch. He died without surviving legitimate sons. The current Belgian king descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 18841885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim and committed the Congo Free State to him. Leopold ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of natural rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State was characterised by atrocities and systematic brutality, including torture, murder, and the amputation of the hands of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. In 1890, George Washington Williams used the term "crimes against humanity" to describe the practices of Leopold II of Belgium's administration of the Congo Free State. Colonial accounts typically emphasized Leopold's modernizing changes in the Congo and not the mass death he facilitated. These and other facts were established at the time by eyewitness testimony, on-site inspection by an international commission of inquiry, and the 1904 Casement Report. Modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million Congolese deaths, with a consensus growing around 10 million. Some historians argue against these figures, citing the lack of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality caused by smallpox and African trypanosomiasis, and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation. In 1908, the reports of deaths and abuse and pressure from the Congo Reform Association and other international groups induced the Belgian government to take over the administration of the Congo from Leopold as a new territory, Belgian Congo. (Wikipedia).

First Edition. First printing. Octavo (23.5cm). Tan cloth stamped in brown, titled in gilt on black leather spine label, top edge gilt; [xvi],634pp; photogravure frontispiece portrait, black and white map, 100 black and white halftone plates, large color folding map at rear. Errata slip at p.x. Sound but rubbed, slight fraying at spine ends, spine label much abraded, minor abrasions to boards, internally largely clean: around Very Good. Wack (1875-1954) was a paid apologist for Leopold II and his atrocity-ridden regime in the Congo Free State. [61952].

Colour printed map, 880 x 710 mm. edges re-inforced to verso with brown tape. At a scale of 1 inch to 63.12 miles, this was produced by the War Office during the Second World War.

None. Condition: None. Seventeen unmounted gelatin silver prints, including six larger ones ca. 12x17 cm (ca. 4 ¾ x 6 ¾ in), and seven smaller ones ca. 6,5x10,5 cm (2 ½ x 4 ¼ in), with three images in between those sizes. The majority with manuscript pencil captions in French on verso. The photographs are sharp and in very good condition. This collection includes early views of Boma - the capital of Belgian Congo - its streets and the house of the "Chef Batailon", and three views of Fort de Shinkakasa built near Boma in 1891, also a panorama of the Congo river with the fort on the right and Boma in the distance. Several views of Lusambo show its streets, river and a church under construction. There are also photos of a small village on the Kwamouth river and images of local people shown next to their houses, with ox driven carts during the cotton harvest, etc. "Boma is a port town, on the Congo River some 100 km upstream from the Atlantic Ocean, in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Boma was the capital city of the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1 May 1886 to 1926, when the capital was moved to Léopoldville (since renamed Kinshasa)" (Wikipedia). "Lusambo is a town and territory in the Sankuru district of the Kasai-Oriental province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The town lies north of the confluence of the Sankuru River and the Lubi River. In 1890 Lusambo was chosen by Paul Le Marinel as the main Belgian base in the Kasai region to defend against the threat of Arab or Swahili traders in slaves and ivory who were encroaching from the east. The station would soon become one of the most important military posts of the Congo Free State with a permanent staff of seventeen whites, six hundred native soldiers and four artillery pieces" (Wikipedia).

Belgian colonial Congo photo archive depicting European officials, Indigenous Congolese adults and children, public ceremony, domestic labor, and railway grounds between the early twentieth century and 1950. Belgium formally ruled the Congo from 1908 until June 30, 1960, after King Leopold II's Congo Free State became notorious for forced labor and violence against Congolese people. A few scenes highlight colonial hierarchy as one photo shows white men in suits, helmets, and uniforms pose formally in chairs while Congolese men, women, and children appear as attendants or anthropological subjects surrounding the trio. A 1947 inscription identifying "le régent Charles" places part of the group during the Belgian prince regent's postwar tour of the Congo, eight years before King Baudouin visited in 1955 and thirteen years before Congolese independence on June 30, 1960. Photo archive of 12 silver gelatin photographs, ranging from 3" x 4" to 3.5" x 4.75", Belgian Congo, 1900-1950. French inscriptions include "Congo Belge, août 1950"; "le régent Charles 1947"; "lundi le 18 janvier 1943, avec notre meilleur bonjour de tous les trois"; and "travailleur portant à l'eau," meaning "worker carrying water." Other scenes show a uniformed colonial procession outside a brick building, helmeted men posed in the bush, an elephant captioned with French notes, Congolese children at a water spout, men carrying water, a compound walkway, a railway yard, and Congolese drummers and dancers assembled before mixed local and colonial audiences. The dichotomy of colonists occupying the pose of command, travel, inspection, and ownership, while Indigenous Congolese people appear in the surrounding labor, ceremony, and service spaces make for a compelling collection. Belgian rule in the Congo depended on racial separation, administrative paternalism, extraction, mission education, and controlled public ceremony, while Congolese political demands intensified after the Second World War and culminated in independence on June 30, 1960. Light toning, handling, and corner wear; photos remain clear and several inscriptions legible en verso; overall in very good condition. This archive gives Belgian colonialism a concrete human scale through officials posed with indigenous children, workers, ceremonial performers, industrial railway spaces, and royal reception scenes arranged around the unequal encounter between European power and Indigenous Congolese life.

Congolese ceremonial and colonial encounter photo archive showing indigenous ceremonial dance, dress, and culture, uniformed troops, and Belgian officials in the Belgian Congo during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Key scenes are tied to the 1947 visit of Prince Regent Charles to Paulis. Belgium ruled the Congo from 1908 until independence on June 30, 1960, after the Belgian parliament took over King Leopold II's Congo Free State following international exposure of forced labor and mass abuses. Several captions appear to place the photographs during the governorship of Eugène Jungers, Governor General of the Belgian Congo from December 31, 1946 to January 1, 1952, a period when Belgian rule promoted "paternal" administration while Congolese political pressure and demands for advancement were growing. The strongest scenes center Congolese public ceremony rather than colonial officials alone: men dancing in lines, drummers seated before large instruments, children gathered for viewing, and performers facing crowds in open fields and palm-lined roads. Chief Tongolo and his daughter appear among colonial representatives during the Prince Regent's visit, giving the archive a named Indigenous presence within a public ceremony shaped by Belgian authority. Photo archive of 24 silver gelatin photographs, measuring approximately 3" x 4" each, Belgian Congo, 1940s-1950s. Several French captions can be translated; "Governor General Jungers"; "the regiment's standard at the cemetery"; "parade of the veterans"; and "Congolo gives his speech." Congolese men dance in feathered or fiber headdresses, body ornaments, patterned waist cloths, shields, and drums, sometimes advancing across open ground before lines of onlookers. Belgian men in white suits and pith helmets stand with Congolese adults and children outside official buildings and in outdoor assembly areas, while other scenes show African soldiers in formation, a ceremony near railroad tracks, a colonial cemetery observance, and a station or compound with crowds gathered along walls and platforms. After the Second World War, Belgium's Congo policy remained formally paternalist, while urbanization, war service, missionary education, and wage labor created new Congolese claims to political recognition that colonial rule could not contain;within thirteen years of Prince Regent Charles's 1947 visit, the Congo gained it's independence and became Republic of the Congo. Light handling wear, toning, and minor curling; captions remain legible on several versos, images remain clean and clear. Overall in very good condition. The archive records Congolese ceremonial life at the point where public dance, veteran commemoration, colonial ceremony, military display, and Belgian administrative power occupied the same public spaces.

Belgian Congo photo archive documenting colonialism and segregated settlement in Paulis, Jadotville, and at Kiubo Falls in 1946-1947, while Belgian rule expanded displacing Congolese communities from political power and control over local resources. Made by an unidentified traveler or colonial observer, the group moves between industrial sites, river traffic, town streets, waterfalls, village compounds, and posed encounters with Congolese residents, placing daily life beside the infrastructure of empire. Jadotville, in Katanga, had been built within the orbit of Union Minière du Haut-Katanga and the copper economy that tied the Congo to European industry; Paulis belonged to the northeastern colonial administrative network that extended surveillance, mission activity, and commercial penetration into local societies. By the later 1940s, these systems were producing wealth for Belgium and foreign markets through forced and controlled labor regimes. Photo archive of 36 black and white silver gelatin photographs, various sizes, ranging from 2.5" x 3.5" to 5" x 7", Belgian Congo, 1946-1947. Nine photographs are identified to the Paulis region in 1946, including versos inscribed in French with "Habitations Européens à Paulis," "Pavillon de l'hotel," and "Le Kigoma sur le fleuve." These images show European-style houses set among palms, a large riverside or lakeside steamer, a broad colonial street with automobiles and low commercial buildings, thatched structures, and Congolese figures posed near village compounds and along a tree-lined road. The remaining photographs, from Jadotville and Kiubo Falls in 1947, include multiple views of the falls from overlooks and near the waterline, several repeated compositions of cascades and riverbanks, a dense electrical installation with transformers and steel framing, public crowd scenes, dugout canoes on calm water, groups standing beside temporary camp structures, and additional views of thatched settlements, large shade trees, and Congolese men, women, and children positioned before houses or in open clearings. Several photographs set European-built environments against Congolese dwellings and occupied landscapes, making the colonial dichotomy apparent within this grouping. Waterfalls, river steamers, electric infrastructure, and ordered streets mark the channels through which copper, labor, and administrative authority moved outward to Belgian and international markets, while the photographs of Congolese settlements and residents show the populations who bore that reorganization of land and economy. In the late colonial Congo, extraction and transport depended on African labor under coercive conditions, and urban growth in places such as Jadotville advanced through racially unequal housing, wage structures, and civic access, leaving Congolese people concentrated in subordinate quarters or rural zones even when their work sustained the entire system. Light wear and occasional creasing; several versos inscribed in French; overall very good condition. An intimate look into Belgian colonial rule at the point where industrial wealth, infrastructure, and local displacement met on the ground. Signed.