Colonial atrocities left their mark on Africa and nowhere more obviously than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A recently announced movie to be directed by Ben Affleck and produced by Martin Scorsese based on Adam Hochschild’s best-selling book King Leopold’s Ghost will throw a bleak spotlight on what was truly the heart of darkness in the centre of the continent.
In the late 19th Century King Leopold of Belgium founded and was sole owner of the Congo Free State which he ran for his personal gain. The vast sums he made exploiting ivory and then rubber were used for public and private construction projects in Belgium. His administration was characterised by murder, torture and systematic brutality, extreme even by the standards of the times. Millions died: modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million deaths. Eventually the reports of deaths and abuse forced the international community to demand he hand the country to the Belgian state.
Yet only now is his legacy being challenged in Belgium where roads named after to him are being renamed and memorials removed.
Not that the USA’s hands are entirely clean since post-Leopold they acquired a strategic stake in the enormous natural wealth of the Congo, following use of the uranium from Congolese mines to manufacture the first atomic weapons, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. During the Cold War, fear of strategic raw materials falling into the hands of the Soviets led directly to the assassination of Patrick Lumumba, the first prime minister after independence, who wanted full control over the country’s resources to improve the living conditions of the people.
Leopold was born 9 April 1835 at 1.30am Brussels, a first cousin of Queen Victoria, although reportedly a retiring personality, had a starkly ruthless chart with an Aries Sun and Pluto opposition Saturn square Mars in Cancer. He ruled for 44 years and was unpopular as monarch. He took many mistresses after separating from his wife, latterly a 16 year old French prostitute whom he married just before his death.
His chart is reflected – tragically – in the Democratic Republic of Congo Independence chart of 30 June 1960 – which has a brutal Grand Trine of Pluto trine Mars in Taurus trine Saturn, formed into a Kite by Saturn opposition Sun Venus in Cancer.
Despite its vast natural resources, it remains poor, under-developed, rife with corruption, with high levels of starvation and displacement of people from constant fighting. DR Congo’s level of human development was ranked 176th out of 187 countries by the Human Development Index.
Ben Affleck has spent many years campaigning to improve living conditions in the Congo. On his astrocartography his Sun and Mercury Midheaven lines run through central Africa, making it a prime area of interest for him.
He was born 15 August 1972 2.53 am Berkeley, California, and has a Leo Sun trine Jupiter in Sagittarius with a Scorpio Moon. He doesn’t have a particularly heavy chart considering his interest in deprivation in the Congo. Angelina Jolie who also works in disadvantaged and conflict-zones has a Mars, Pluto, Saturn in her chart; as does the author Adam Hochschild, 15 October 1942, who has a Sun Mars in Libra trine Saturn, sextile Pluto.
Affleck’s healing 12th Harmonic is more descriptive with Mars Pluto opposition Uranus square Sun; and his get-it-together 5th Harmonic is also gritty with Mars Saturn square Venus and inconjunct Pluto.
He’s in for a tough couple of years with tr Pluto opposition his Mars/Saturn midpoint which suggests shooting the film won’t go without mishaps; and he’ll have more than his fair share of worries with tr Neptune square his Saturn and conjunct his midheaven in 2020 as well. However he’ll bounce with more enthusiasm 2021 to 2024 as tr Pluto squares his Sun/Jupiter and Mars/Jupiter midpoints.
The tragedy of colonialism apart from the appalling mistreatment at the time was there was no effort to develop a social infrastructure with an educated middle class. So when the colonials left there was a vacuum into which stepped the gangster governments which are the curse of the continent now.
Apart from Frank Dikotter’s history of China under Mao, King Leopold’s Ghost is the most appalling expose’ of human depravity I have read. As it sprawls over several decades it is hard to see how Affleck will make it into a coherent movie. But good on him for aiming to bring this colonial stain to popular attention.