The black man's burden: African colonial labor on the Congo and Ubangi rivers, 1880-1900

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Book

Title:	The black man's burden: African colonial labor on the Congo and Ubangi rivers, 1880-1900
Author:	Samarin, William J.
Year:	1989
Pages:	276
Language:	English
Series:	African modernization and development
City of publisher:	Boulder, CO
Publisher:	Westview Press
ISBN:	0813377404
Geographic terms:	Central African Republic Congo (Democratic Republic of) France Belgium
Subjects:	colonialism black workers forced labour
Abstract:	This is the story of the colonization of central equatorial Africa, where today are found the Central African Republic and Zaire. When King Leopold II of the Belgians and the government of France set out in the 1880s to occupy and exploit the land, the colonizing forces came in very small numbers. Nonetheless, in twenty years the colonialists had successfully established themselves in the heart of Africa. They did this by mobilizing vast numbers of indigenous peoples into the work force. The conscription of central African peoples into the work force led to suffering, displacement, disease, and depopulation. A new social order rapidly came into being and with it arose the region's lingua francas, which originated as work languages. This book describes the work forces, both foreign and indigenous, used by whites, and considers colonial capitalism in the context of the ideology of work in the West.