Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History
Belgium's 1923 Uele Forced Labour Revolts: Cotton and Resistance
In 1923, the remote Uele district of the Belgian Congo erupted in a series of coordinated revolts against forced cotton cultivation. This episode zooms in on the Uele cotton scheme, a brutal pillar of Belgium's colonial economy. We follow the story of Mbange, a local chief who organized a rebellion across multiple villages, and trace the conflict to the village of Bondo, where the colonial state responded with a violent punitive expedition led by the Force Publique. We examine how the Office des Produits Agricoles du Congo (OPAC) imposed quotas, the role of the Banda and Zande peoples…
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