A Father Looking At The Severed Hand And Foot Of His Daughter Who Was Cannibalized
Alice Seeley Harris Photograph helped overthrow King Leopold II’s brutal regime.
The photo above of a man staring at the severed foot and hand of his daughter who was killed and allegedly cannibalized by the members of ABIR Congo Company Militia is a photograph taken by Alice Seeley Harris in 1904. Her photographs helped expose the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State under the regime of King Leopold II of the Belgians.
In the book “Don’t Call Me Lady: The Journey Of Lady Alice Seeley Harris” Alice gave her account: “He hadn’t made his rubber quota for the day so the Belgian-appointed overseers had cut off his daughter’s hand and foot. Her name was Boali. She was five-year-old. Then they killed her. But they weren’t finished. Then they killed his wife too.
And because that didn’t seem quite cruel enough, quite strong enough to make their case, they cannibalized both Boali and her mother. And they presented Nsala with the tokens, the leftovers from the once-living body of his child who he loved. His life was destroyed.
They had partially destroyed it anyway by forcing his servitude but this act finished it for him. All of this filth had occurred because one man, one man…
