Ep 45: HANDy Treats in Belgium

#IDKMYDE... 1884 -1885 INTERNATIONALLY for EUROPE was about splitting up Africa ... What left the continent wide open for robberyA Congo legend? Mixed with regional pride. A treat that will make you cringe like halloween.... King Leopold II & more... World wide facts, wars and legends” Symbolism that matters!

B Daht explains more about this sweet international fact.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either,
were traveling across the waters to Europe, and I would
say I could use your hand and getting the word
out about this, but that might be a little disrespect.
I didn't know. Maybe you didn't get. I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't kid. I didn't know. Maybe you didn't
get I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

(00:22):
I didn't know. Now, of course we know about Hitler
killing six million Jews, But did you know about King
Leopold the Second of Belgium who killed over ten million
Africans in the Congo? Because I didn't, All right, so
did it? In eighteen eighty four and eighteen eighty five,
that was this Berlin Conference, a conference where the European
nations all got together and decided how they were gonna

(00:43):
split up Africa. The disrespect. They pretty much said that
all of Africa could be occupied by whoever could take it. Translation,
if you can get the land, you can have the land. Man.
Them nations set out murdering Africans left and right, then
taking their wealth and making Europe even are wealthy. Now.
King Leopold the Second, oh he set out for congo
to that was untapped terrain. Now the congo was rich

(01:07):
and a lot of different minerals all right, ivory, rubber,
and at that same time, guess what just happened to
be being manufactured tires. Oh, rubber was in high demand.
So King Leopold he set up a real, real tough system.
If you didn't reach your regular rubber collection quota, you
were murdered or mutilated. It cut off the hands of

(01:28):
millions upon millions of Africans man. To this day, the
congo is still property of the Europeans. But what's even
more disgusting is the chocolate hands of Belgium. See in
nineteen o eight, Belgium negotiated to about the congo from Leopold.
Now the most populous city in Belgium is Antwerp, and
there are shops in Antwerp where you can go and

(01:49):
find chocolate hands on sale. Yes, little handy treats. Now,
the mayor of Antwerp says this has nothing to do
with the congo, these little brown chocolate hands. Oh no
to there's a local legend that a mythical giant once
lived there near the river, and he charged a toll
to everybody who crossed the river, and if anybody objected,
he cut off one of their hands and threw it

(02:10):
in the river. And some hero named Brebo finally killed
the giant and threw one of his hands into the river. Right,
I mean to be honest, Even if you do want
to talk about this fictitious character Brebo who killed the
mythical giant that lived near the river and was charging
a toll to everybody and cutting off their hands, it's

(02:30):
a bit insensitive. I mean, symbolism matters. It's like the
Confederate flag here in the United States. You know you've
got some races read next to say, this isn't a
defensive right salism. It represents regional pride or that region
was real racist the black people. So for you to
continue to want to promote the regional pride means you
want to continue to promote the racism. Severed hands, they

(02:51):
symbolize a chapter of Belgium's history, and in my opinion,
making snacks in that shape marks the people that were murdered, tortured,
raped and mutilated. So don't tell me it's a coincidence.
My therapist say, ain't no such thing as coincidences. Moral
of the story King Leopold the Second was heinous, and
I wish I could take some of them a little
chocolate handed treats and slept the whole country of Belgium

(03:13):
with them. Because I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either,