King Leopold's Ghost: Chapter 1

When I began reading King Leopold's Ghost, I was unaware of what it was about exactly. I never really heard about the "scramble for Africa" and why it was important. Little did I know mass murders occurred at this time because of greed. I knew a little about slave trading, but not that the slave trading was so vile. I was very unaware that anything besides what we hear about now (hunger, poverty and genocide) was present in Africa. They had a community that flourished. While much of it's success was because of slave trading (especially to the Portuguese). While I was shocked at what "the white men" did to the Africans, I was even in more shock that Africans offered up their own people in fear to the slave traders. While in later years, the people of the Congo were brutally massacred, something many fail to acknowledge, including myself. I find it almost embarrassing that I am unaware of such a huge event in world history, but the truth is, no information is made available about such events. Why is this event so unknown? Are there still events going on today as a result of the past? How did the people of the Congo deal with such a mass genocide? I look forward to answering these and many more....