CONGO: Entr'acte

While the world's statesmen hotly debated its fate in the U.N., the Congo sprawled in the equator's heat, torpid and listless. The riotous chaos and killing had mostly stopped. In its place was a vapid, restless calm.

The Congolese are supposed to hate the Belgians, but daily a wizened black appeared at the big statue of King Albert to tend the flowers and clean away the scraps of paper; no mob had thought to topple Albert or the big figure of Leopold II that stands before the Parliament building. LĂ©opoldville has no visible revenue, but somehow the lights functioned,...

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