It was actually taken to expose the crimes of the ‘Belgian Free State’ colonial forces. The Belgian colonialists tried very hard to keep news of their atrocities from reaching the rest of the world (and, for that matter, Belgium itself), since, even by the extremely low standards of turn-of-the-century European imperialism, what they were doing was horrifying even to their fellow European imperialists.
And I bet this photo was taken so they could show it to him as a reminder for the rest of his life, too…
It was actually taken to expose the crimes of the ‘Belgian Free State’ colonial forces. The Belgian colonialists tried very hard to keep news of their atrocities from reaching the rest of the world (and, for that matter, Belgium itself), since, even by the extremely low standards of turn-of-the-century European imperialism, what they were doing was horrifying even to their fellow European imperialists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsala_of_Wala_in_the_Nsongo_District
Well that’s good to hear at least. History is so full of awful shit that I just assume the worst.