WHY H*TLER IS MORE FAMOUS THAN LEOPOLD

In this video, African Stream’s editor-in-chief Ahmed Kaballo tries to make sense of the indifference shown to the suffering of the Congolese people. He argues that history shapes current perceptions and responses to atrocities. King Leopold's atrocities in Congo in the late 19th century, which k*lled an estimated 10-million people, set a precedent that allowed subsequent mass k*llings in Africa to receive less attention and condemnation. Because Leopold got away with the Congo atrocities, it made it easier for the world to ignore the around 6-million Congolese people k*lled in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Colonial figures responsible for mass African deaths are not properly recognised or condemned - even within Africa - thanks to Western biases regarding how history is framed and taught. Compare, for example, the legacy of brutal figures like H*tler, whom many Africans unhesitatingly recognise as the embodiment of evil, even though he did not commit violence against Africans on the scale seen in the Congo.

Do you agree that history has desensitised the former colonial powers to African suffering today?