Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History
The 1897 Boma-Banana Railway: King Leopold's Iron Road to Plunder
In 1897, King Leopold II of Belgium opened a railway linking the Atlantic port of Banana to the colonial capital Boma, a 140-kilometer line that became the economic spine of the Congo Free State. But building it cost hundreds of African lives, and the railway itself was a tool of extraction for rubber and ivory that enriched Leopold while devastating the Congo. This episode tells the story of the railway's construction through the eyes of African laborers—Kongo, Yombe, and Sundi people forced into brutal work—and the Belgian engineers who drove them. We explore the railway's role in…
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