Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson two of four on the inquiry, how do we uncover the lived experience of those rule by Empire in Africa? Today's lesson title is 'The Rubber Coils', and I'll give you a moment to write that down.

For this lesson, you'll need a pen, something to write on, and you also need to make sure that wherever you are, you're free from any distractions.

Take a moment to write down that title, and then I'll explain to you exactly why I've chosen it for today's lesson.

Hello, it's me again, Mr Hewitt.

And we're going to start this lesson looking at some firsthand accounts, really trying to uncover the lived experiences of those who lived under Empire.

In 1884, the European palace gathered together in Berlin for what would be the partitioning of Africa at the Berlin conference.

Leopold II, the Belgian King was known to vehement one of his aides at the conference that he did not want Belgium to miss out on this fantastic opportunity to get what he described as or this magnificent cake.

It's rather disturbing to think that a European such as Leopold would have thought of Africa as a cake, something to be consumed simply for the pleasure of Europeans.

But this was the reality of colonialism.

There, we see Leopold grabbing the money that he's scurrilously hoarding from the rubber he's taking from the Congo.

And of course in the background, the dark truth, which he would rather ignore: the vicious murder of Congolese people, living under Empire by Belgians extracting this rubber.

And for what? Simply to make Leopold a richer man.

I'll get my head out of the way so that you can see this map of central Africa better.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is shown.

The DRC is where the formerly known Belgian free state colony, which King Leopold ruled over, was.

It was in this colony in particular, Africans living under Empire faced vicious exploitation in the pursuit of rubber.

We can see here in the cartoon on the right, King Leopold quite rightly portrayed as a snake, choking and crushing this African.

And the caption reads 'In the rubber coils', the Congo quote on quote free state.

Of course, despite being named this, the state was far from free for those who lived under Empire and the cartoonist is pointing out that Leopold there was destroying, literally murdering, those who lived under colonial rule in pursuit of the valuable commodity of rubber.

Let's take a look at one of the firsthand accounts of living under Empire in the Belgian Congo.

This is from a witness testimony to a British government employee, Roger Casement, who was sent to investigate conditions in the Congo.

It's a firsthand account from an African who is forced to work, collecting rubber.

From our country each village had to take 20 loads of rubber.

These loads were big.

We had to take four times a month and we got no pay.

Wild beasts, leopards killed some of us.

We begged the white man to leave us alone saying, "Would you get no more rubber?" The white man's soldiers said "Go, "you're only beasts yourselves." We tried, always going further into the forest.

And when we failed, soldiers came to our towns and killed us.

I want you to read the source again on your own, and then I want you to think about these questions on the left.

First of all, what can we learn from this source about the firsthand experience of living under Empire? And second of all, does the fact that this source was collected and recorded by a British government employee limit its utility? In other words, do we have to be careful when using it to think about how it was produced? Pause the video, jot down your thoughts, then when you're ready, un-pause it, and we can share some of those ideas.

Very interesting.

You're right.

Well done.

The source indicates that life under Empire was brutal, terrifying, abusive, and of course, exploitative.

You're also right.

We do have to be careful.

Casement had an agenda.

In fact, he was trying to represent the Belgian colonials as worse than the British.

This is unfair.

The British were also very economically exploitative.

And we know in the case of this statement that what's said is accurate.

But as historians, we need to remember the warning always to make sure that we are looking for the experiences of the colonised, not something that's been told just by the colonist themselves.

Take another look at that powerful source.

It's so important that we study and understand it.

We can't allow for these experiences to be forgotten, all the horrors of Empire to be ignored.

Read it.

"You are only beasts yourselves," the individualist told.

There's clearly a complete lack of respect and concern for the life and identity of those people living under Empire.

And when not enough rubber is collected, soldiers come to the town and kill those living in the Belgian colony.

This individual was the proud and shrewd Zulu King, Cetshwayo.

I want to take a step away from the Belgian Congo now and go to Southern Africa, where we look at Zulu kingdoms and British colonialism there.

King Cetshwayo was one of the last great Zulu Kings and he attempted at first to pacify the British then to fight them.

On several occasions Cetshwayo was successful.

And ultimately his experience, like that of many of the Zulus, was of one of colonialism expanding, destabilising and destroying the great kingdom and society.

There's the Zulu kingdom in South Africa shown on a map.

So that you can get a sense of where we are in the world.

Take a look at this source.

It's from Cetshwayo and he's writing to the British, opposing their colonisation of his kingdom in 1878.

I hear of troops arriving in Natal, that they are coming to attack the Zulus and to seize me.

In what have I done wrong that I should be seized like an Umtakata, a wrongdoer? The English are my fathers.

I do not wish to quarrel with them, but to live as I've always done at peace with them.

I want you to read the source again and to look at the two questions on the left.

Does the author express fears or concerns about colonialism? And if so, what? The author implies that the Zulus have lived at peace with the British, and he even describes them as family at one point in the source.

But remember, who is the author writing to? Is he trying to persuade them of something? Might this be important to us trying to uncover the lived experience of colonialism? Pause the source, jot down your thoughts and we'll share our ideas.

Brilliant work.

The author is clearly afraid that colonial rule will bring violence and attacks on his people.

He speaks of troops coming to seize him and begs the question, "What have I done wrong?" We might also say that perhaps the author is speaking of peace and describing the English as fathers, not because he really feels this way, but ultimately because Cetshwayo was trying to persuade the British and pacify the colonists to please spare his life and not keep expanding into his kingdom.

We see a general sense of foreboding and also a desire ultimately to live with the British if necessary.

Clearly one of the experiences of colonialism was to be ignored and permanently under threat.

No matter what the colonists had said to Cetshwayo initially about being able to keep his kingdom, he could tell that slowly they were going to expand further and further, ever creeping over African societies and undermining them.

Sadly, this was one of the experiences of living under Empire.

It's true to say that the vicious greed and what we might call avarice, which means extreme greed, was one of the features that characterised white colonial rule.

As I said earlier, the Belgian King famously described Africa as , a magnificent cake.

A disturbing metaphor, which tells us really how Europeans often thought about Africa at this time.

Something to be consumed solely for their pleasure.

African societies and the experience of living under colonialism were often tumultuous, traumatic, damaged, torn apart by this avaricious demand for labour and natural resources like rubber.

You've done an excellent and tricky job working with those difficult sources.

Now I'd like you to complete these comprehension questions.

Pause the video, work through them, and when you're done we'll come back and take a look at what you got.

All done.

You've come to the end of this challenging lesson and you've worked hard to uncover some of the experiences of those who lived under Empire.

Let's take a look at the answers you could have got to these comprehension questions.

So what valuable commodity were Congolese peoples exploited for under Belgian rule? Fantastic.

It was rubber.

You could of course extend your answer by saying that the experience was one of violent exploitation and that Europeans often forced Africans to work in order to extract valuable resources.

What about this question? Which African peoples did King Cetshwayo lead? Well, if you said the Zulus, you've done a great job.

That's quite right.

Cetshwayo was a proud and true leader, you might've added, but one who ultimately faced the fear and reality to a British colonial rule.

One feature of source A which a historian has to be aware of when using it to uncover the experiences of colonialism? Don't forget that although it's a firsthand account, you're quite right to say this, it was transcribed, written down by a white colonist.

This doesn't mean that it can't be useful to us, or that what's in it isn't true.

But we, as historians, have to be very careful that we're looking for the honest experience of the person living under Empire, and not something that's gone through the voice of a colonist.

One feature of source B which a historian also has to be aware of when using it to uncover the experiences of colonialism? Well, of course the author was scared and trying to persuade the reader.

So Cetshwayo perhaps might have been more favourable to the British than he really felt himself to be.

"Zulu King was writing under duress", you might've said.

He was trying to pacify the British.

And so he might not have been able to express his thoughts freely.

Audience, remember, is really important when reading a source.

What can we uncover then from both the sources studied in this lesson about experiences under colonialism? Well, you've done really great if you put the people were exploited and afraid and you could do even better by saying that for many Africans, the experience was traumatic.

It involved violence, economic exploitation, and that whilst there were complex relationships beyond this, the general character of colonialism was very exploitative.

We'd be really impressed to see your great work.

If you've got a parent or guardian who's using Twitter, you'll want to share it with us.

That's fantastic.

We look forward to seeing you next lesson, where we're going to go further in uncovering the experiences of those who lived under Empire.

See you then.