ROMANIAN PRESENCE IN COLONIAL CONGO

Authors

  • Valeria MICU The" Carol I" National Defense University

Abstract

Abstract: Congo, one of the largest and richest countries of Africa and of the world is, paradoxically, among the countries
with the lowest living standards, a place where war, violence, rape, atrocities and death are common words and daily routine.
Many analysts claim that horror started a long time ago when journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley got most of the
native chiefs to sign a number of ‘official papers’ giving Leopold II king of Belgium the total right of property upon their
lands. The territories thus appropriated were officially assigned to Leopold II by general international consent mostly during
the Berlin Conference of 1885. That year the Congo Free State was born, a state which became a forced labour camp, in
total contradiction with its name, as it is estimated that almost ten million people died because of the atrocious treatment they
received from their masters. Some Romanians also witnessed different episodes of that reality and shared from their colonial
Congolese experience, thus adding to the international testimonies provided by writers such as Conrad and Gide, by official
employees, Catholic representatives and many others, in their attempt to unveil and prevent the endless horrors.
Keywords: Congo, Stanley, Leopold II, Conrad, Romanians

Author Biography

Valeria MICU, The" Carol I" National Defense University

Valeria Micu a absolvit Facultatea de Limbi şi Literaturi Străine a Universităţii Bucureşti. A obţinut diploma de Doctor în Filologie la Şcoala Doctorală de Studii Literare şi Culturale a Universităţii Bucureşti. În prezent lucrează ca asistent universitar la Departamentul de Comunicare în Domeniul Securităţii, catedra de limbi străine a Facultăţii de Securitate şi Apărare din cadrul Universităţii Naţionale de Apărare ”Carol I”. Începând cu anul 2005 a publicat o serie de articole privind activitatea de predare în mediul multicultural, impactul interculturalităţii asupra relaţiilor interumane, asupra securităţii naţionale şi internaţionale, iar din 2011 şi-a concentrat cercetarea pe zona Africii, cu precădere Congo, bazându-se în mare măsură pe experienţa obţinută predând în sistemul de învăţământ francez în Maroc (1991-1997) şi participarea la conferinţe internaţionale din ţară şi din străinătate. În perioada 2009-2015 a contribuit la elaborarea Dicţionarului Interarme trilingv operativ, tactic şi logistic, publicat în martie 2016 de Centrul tehnic-editorial al armatei, Bucureşti. În paralel a continuat cercetarea situaţiei din Congo finalizând-o prin publicarea cărţii Conrad’s Heart of Darkness or Where to Look for the Roots of Violence Still Affecting Congo Nowadays, ce urmează a fi tipărită în vara 2016 la aceeaşi editură.

References

Anghelescu, Mircea, Călători români în Africa,

Bucharest, Sport-turism Publishing House,

Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Wordsworth

Editions Limited, 1995.

Conrad, Joseph, A Personal Record, New

York: Harper, 1912.

Conrad, Joseph, Notes on Life and Letters.

Garden City, N.Y., and Toronto, Doubleday,

Page & company. 1921 on http://www.archive.

org/details/cu31924013598861.

Hahn, Emily, Congo Solo. Misadventures Two

Degrees North, McGill-Queen’s University

Press, Montreal & Kingston, (1933), 2011.

Hochschild, Adam. (1998). King Leopold’s

Ghost’s: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism

in Colonial Africa. A Mariner Book. Houghton

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Published

2016-03-19

How to Cite

MICU, V. (2016). ROMANIAN PRESENCE IN COLONIAL CONGO. BULLETIN OF "CAROL I" NATIONAL DEFENCE UNIVERSITY, 5(1). Retrieved from https://revista.unap.ro/index.php/bulletin/article/view/30-35

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

The published articles are subject to copyright law. All rights are reserved to the “Carol I” National Defense University, regardless of whether all or part of the material are considered, especially the rights to translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, quotations, broadcasting through the media, reproduction on microfilms or any other way and storage in data banks. Any replicas without the associated fees are authorized provided the source is acknowledged.