The Atrocity and Brutality of Belgium’s Black Hand Chocolates
Chocolate is the most loved food item in the world
Antwerp is a city of Belgium also known as the capital of chocolate. For decades, they have been selling a variety of chocolates in various shapes and flavors. Out of all shapes of chocolates, the most popular shape is the severed hand.
The Belgium mythological story
In the ancient Belgian city of Antwerp, a giant demon named Druon Antigoon used to live near the Scheldt river. He was the guardian of the bridge on the river. He used to frighten the people who would cross the river. He demanded toll fees from the merchants crossing the river. If someone fails to pay him or disobey him, he would punish them by hacking off their right hands. After cutting their hands, he would throw them in the river. This made his terror reach more heights.
As all stories have their happy endings, there always a hero for a villain. A brave Roman soldier, Silvius Brabo. He fought with the monster and after conquering him, he cut off the giant’s hand to teach him a lesson and tossed it into the river. The hand that had wrought so much terror and evil ended in the same river that was the center of the demon’s rule. And that was how the city Antwerp got its name from Dutch “hand,” with the same meaning as the English word, and “werpen”, which means thrower.
Until today, in Antwerp, they sell hand-shaped chocolates in celebration of Brabo’s win over the demon and the death of its reign of terror. For the people of the city, it was more like celebrating good over evil.
The city also has a statue of Brabo throwing the severed hand of the Antigoon into the Scheldt river. This was named the Brabo fountain.
King Leopold II’s took over Congo
In the late 18th century, the Congo Free State was under the personal rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. Today, it is known by the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are well-documented atrocities on the Congolese people.
These atrocities took place to collect natural rubber for export. Disruptions such as these caused a lot of problems like famine and a decline in the birth rate which in turn wiped out a large portion of the Congolese population. In the end, around 15 million people died, and hence the population declined.
There was a conference held in Berlin, in 1884–85. The European powers eventually allocated the Congo Free State to Leopold II, who had held ambition for colonial expansion. This territorial expansion was about eighty times over his current domain, which resulted in financial problems which culminated when, later, the state went bankrupt.
The economic boom led to increasing the demand for natural rubber. Between 1891 and 1906, companies increased productivity for maximizing profit, with no considerations about what it meant to laborers.
A native paramilitary army was created to enforce labor policies at any cost. Any individual laborer who refused to work could be killed and their entire village could be razed.
There were no medical facilities provided to the laborers. Despite these atrocities, the main cause of the population decline was disease, which was exacerbated by the social disruption caused by the Free State.
Epidemics such as smallpox, influenza, swine influenza, and amoebic dysentery, ravaged indigenous populations.
In 1901, approx 500,000 Congolese people had died from just African sickness. Famine, violence, and diseases combined to decline the birth rate while excess death rose.
Mutilation and brutality
If any laborer failed to meet his rubber collection quotas he was punished with death. Meanwhile, the native paramilitary was ordered to provide the hands of their dead laborers as proof that they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that there would be an imported force from Europe instead of a native paramilitary force. So native paramilitary forces followed the orders and continued brutalities and atrocities, this way. they would not get replaced by an imported European force.
Sometimes the hands of those killed were collected by the soldiers, sometimes by villagers themselves.
There were even small wars. The villagers attacked their neighboring villages to gather hands if their rubber quotas were too unrealistic to fill. Even in the name of atrocities, the paramilitary soldiers made young men kill or rape their own sisters and mothers.
“The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State…. The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber; they even went out to harvest them instead of rubber. They became a sort of currency.”
— says Peter Forbath, a historian.
Historias note that each right hand proved a killing. They simply cut off the hand and left the victim to live or die. Survivors acted dead by not moving even when their hands were severed and waiting for the soldiers to leave.
Because of the brutalities and atrocities, a tremendous rebellion started.
The Belgian Army couldn't control the rebellion easily.
Then the Belgian army made it a rule that they would cut off the hands of as many dead rebels as they could and use them as decoration in their offices.
These severed hands were displayed on government offices so that any black person would tremble when they saw these hands.
Then it also became a matter of pride for the Belgian army, and these hands sold expensively among the soldiers who had started using them as currency and used to take them back to Belgium to show their friends and family. It was assumed that whoever had more severed hands was the bravest.
Gradually, the demand for these severed hands increased so much that the Belgian army started cutting off the hands of the living in order to get promotions and sell them. Now, all Belgian soldiers were brave and full of pride.
Conclusion
Black hand chocolates are still very popular in Belgium today. It is also still believed that they signify the victory of good over evil, symbolized by Silvius Brabo’s victory over the Druon Antigoon monster.
However, after the genocide and inhumanity in the Congo, the Belgian itself became a Druon Antigoon monster, who would cut off the hands of the Congolese if they did not let them rule themselves!
Belgium had fought and won over that monster in mythology, but now, Belgium became that same monster.
What we think of ourselves, what we believe, does not matter at all if our actions do not back it up. Many times it happens that we are not the heroes that we consider ourselves to be when we become the hero of our own story. In the end, we do not know ourselves.
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