Wow, I guessed it correctly, but I'm pretty surprised to hear that Mount Stanley hasn't been renamed. He was a total piece of crap even by the standards of 19th century colonialists.
It's named that in English because he was the first European to reach it (but it might be known by another name in native languages). I don't know much about Henry Morton Stanley at all, but he was a newspaper correspondent when he was sent to Africa to locate the missionary and explorer David Livingstone, who by the way still has several African cities named after him, as he is still revered and respected by modern Africans.
That's actually untrue. He wasn't that bad for his time (which was still horrible by todays standards) but a smear campaign by his enemies made him out to be a monster. Though he did pave the way for the Belgians to take over the Congo which was horrible.
I'm just going on what I read in Leopold's Ghost, but that book seemed to imply that even the other Europeans he was with thought he was incredibly cruel. Either way, by the standards of the time or not, he was a horrible, cruel person.
Still would be a cool trivia question though especially when you consider how big that fight was. It was well before my time, but that was boxing at its finest. Nowadays if they tried another Rumble in the Jungle they wouldn't be able to even if they tried.
There was very little here that was actually about Congo. It was a lot of "here are some things that are peripherally related to Congo, because we assume that 'people' wouldn't know things actually about Congo."
the pygamies are an actual indengenious group deep in the forests in the DRC and the central african republic. Genetically shorter than the average human being super intresting to learn about them actually
okay thanks. will take your word for it. Though I've heard of many other things referred to as "pygmy" not from the Congo. Maybe the word originates there?
I have a treasured book from my childhood, Thirty One Brothers and Sisters by Reba Paeff Mirsky, copyright 1952, about a South African Zulu girl named Nomusa who goes on an elephant hunt, and they encounter a group of small people. Her father tells her they are Pygmies, "who live in the forest here...Only once before have I ever met any, and that was when we had gone on a hunt ten sleeps away. These Pygmies have wandered a long distance from their home, far to the north."
^ right. And seems unlikely that this is the same tribe of people as you would find in Congo. I've also heard the term applied before to people in Indonesia, New Guinea, and other countries in Africa. Not to mention other species like hippos, goats, and even date palms.
Quite disrespectful that there isn't at least one clue related to Patrice Lumumba and his work in the country. Foreign powers worked to take him out because they knew he would prioritize his people first, ending the foreign exploitation of their resources. Ignoring his legacy is ignoring the history that's actually important to the Congolese people and Africans everywhere. And if you're going to include Leopold, don't water down his atrocities to "badly mistreating." He committed genocide and enslaved the population.
agree - include lumumba, someone actually relevant to the DRC. not three or four whole questions about other countries that just share a trait with it. it doesn't matter if few quiz takers will get it right, we don't come here to only do quizzes we can ace! we come here to learn!
Well, if we want to get technical (and as a Genocide Studies teacher, I do), it wasn't a genocide. Leopold's possession of the Congo Free State was brutal, violent, and unethical, but not genocide. He did not intend to end the race or ethnicity of the Congolese people. All the policies were aimed at making money by selling rubber. His regime committed brutal crimes against humanity, with a quota or death system and millions of deaths. But it was not genocide.
^under the UN Genocide Convention definition anyway. Maybe one day colonial actions that are ambivalent to the survival of indigenous groups will count as genocide.
Surprised the Congolese dictator was the lowest answer. I went to grad school with a guy who spent four years in the French Foreign Legion almost all of it in Africa - CAR, Chad, Congo, etc. His unit was waiting for instructions but the order to kill or capture didn't come until after the dictator's motorcade had driven by. Btw, he said his scariest experience was the first Gulf War --- was afraid of friendly fire from Americans. He didn't sign up for a third term because of it. He also has some interesting stories of ex-Yugos and other eastern Europeans secret service personnel who joined for a new identity post 1989.
i dont like this very much, brazil and algeria shouldnt be answers as they are not directly related with the country, its like having the question "name an african island country that starts with the same two letters" for marshall islands, for example
I think it's notable that the DRC is the second largest equatorial country in the world and the second largest African country, no problem asking to identify the #1 in each list surely?
It's questionable whether Stanley should be referred to as 'British' since he was American at the time. He was born in Wales and had British citizenship later in life.
3 of the Great Lakes in north america are larger.