Could this explain the docility of the Nigerian Christian till this day? Read on. . .


Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to Colonial Missionaries, 1883

“Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots: The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate
and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire
above all Belgium interests. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach
the niggers to know God, this they know already. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi,
one Nzakomba, and what else I don't know. They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else's
wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they
know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which
means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in
that part of the world. For these things, you have to keep watch on disinteresting our savages from
the richness that is plenty [in their underground. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make
you murderous] competition and dream one day to overthrow you.
Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your
followers to love poverty, like “Happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven” and, “It's
very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” You have to detach from them and make
them disrespect everything which gives courage to affront us. I make reference to their Mystic
System and their war fetish – warfare protection – which they pretend not to want to abandon, and
you must do everything in your power to make it disappear.
Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they won't revolt when the
recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parent's teachings. The children have to learn
to obey what the missionary recommends, who is the father of their soul. You must singularly insist
on their total submission and obedience, avoid developing the spirit in the schools, teach students to
read and not to reason. There, dear patriots, are some of the principles that you must apply. You will
find many other books, which will be given to you at the end of this conference. Evangelize the
niggers so that they stay forever in submission to the white colonialists, so they never revolt against
the restraints they are undergoing. Recite every day – “Happy are those who are weeping because
the kingdom of God is for them.”

It continues. . .


Convert always the blacks by using the whip. Keep their women in nine months of
submission to work freely for us. Force them to pay you in sign of recognition-goats, chicken or
eggs-every time you visit their villages. And make sure that niggers never become rich. Sing every
day that it's impossible for the rich to enter heaven. Make them pay tax each week at Sunday mass.
Use the money supposed for the poor, to build flourishing business centres. Institute a confessional
system, which allows you to be good detectives denouncing any black that has a different
consciousness contrary to that of the decision-maker. Teach the niggers to forget their heroes and to
adore only ours. Never present a chair to a black that comes to visit you. Don't give him more than
one cigarette. Never invite him for dinner even if he gives you a chicken every time you arrive at
his house.
“The above speech which shows the real intention of the Christian missionary journey in
Africa was exposed to the world by Mr. Moukouani Muikwani Bukoko, born in the Congo in 1915,
and who in 1935 while working in the Congo, bought a second hand Bible from a Belgian priest
who forgot the speech in the Bible.

I have left out some aspects of the letter which I deem irrelevant considering the length of the letter so as not to bore you with too many details.However, if you feel like reading the write up in its entirety you can go here;

[url]http://www.fafich.ufmg.br/~luarnaut/Letter%20Leopold%20II%20to%20Colonial%20Missionaries.pdf[/url]

Very interesting article. I'm pretty sure a lot of christians have read it but where are their responses? Talking about the letter, the slave trading invaders were solely interested in keeping blacks in bondage but even today with all the education and exposure, a lot of blacks are still tied to that old mentality. You'll see how some so called born again christians will "analyse" all that was written in that letter. They'll turn everything on its head,accuse you of being confused and even as you "what is your reason" for posting this. In the end,its obvious the shackles are still there.

A lot of Africans don't think independently. They want to be led and told what to do (slave mentality). Pastors are the ones who have tapped into this "resource" and they are milking Nigerians on a daily basis. They keep preaching abundant wealth, mugus give tithes and offerings,pastor's account gets fatter and he just bought his wife a mercedes S-550, poverty remains in the land. This is the cold reality of things but watch out and see how some religious folks will jump on this thread to deny the obvious.

cold:

Could this explain the docility of the Nigerian Christian till this day? Read on. . .


Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to Colonial Missionaries, 1883

“Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots: The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate
and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire
above all Belgium interests. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach
the niggers to know God, this they know already. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi,
one Nzakomba, and what else I don't know. They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else's
wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they
know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which
means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in
that part of the world. For these things, you have to keep watch on disinteresting our savages from
the richness that is plenty [in their underground. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make
you murderous] competition and dream one day to overthrow you.
Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your
followers to love poverty, like “Happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven” and, “It's
very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” You have to detach from them and make
them disrespect everything which gives courage to affront us. I make reference to their Mystic
System and their war fetish – warfare protection – which they pretend not to want to abandon, and
you must do everything in your power to make it disappear.
Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they won't revolt when the
recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parent's teachings. The children have to learn
to obey what the missionary recommends, who is the father of their soul. You must singularly insist
on their total submission and obedience, avoid developing the spirit in the schools, teach students to
read and not to reason. There, dear patriots, are some of the principles that you must apply. You will
find many other books, which will be given to you at the end of this conference. Evangelize the
niggers so that they stay forever in submission to the white colonialists, so they never revolt against
the restraints they are undergoing. Recite every day – “Happy are those who are weeping because
the kingdom of God is for them.”

Rubbish.

Anyone can come and post anything from any source and  make it look real.

Post a reliable source  , not some random letter pulled out from some dark corner of the Internet.

^^^^^^^^^^^ that woman tries sha.
for her to be of normal disposition having you as baba omo is a great struggle or trial on her.
you seem to be sitting on your thinking source; heart and the brain.

you may be better to say the think was an evil man, if this is what he wrote.
but say it is rubbish without investigation shows that you lack judgment that is appropriate to distinguish good from evil.
to you i think anything that has attachment with christianity is good; george bush must be an angel.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3MN9382eGY&feature=fvst

^^




Jihadist Emeritus !!!

I am a follower of Jesus of the bible in this matter. And many more.

Say hello to madam. Tell her there is a man saying she dey try oo.

@Sweetnecta, ROFLMAO! Nice one!

frosbel:



Rubbish.

Anyone can come and post anything from any source and  make it look real.

Post a reliable source  , not some random letter pulled out from some dark corner of the Internet.

Actually it is a very famous historical document. I'm surprised you are still asking for reliable source. Maybe this is the first time you're hearing of King Leopold.

frosbel:



Rubbish.

Anyone can come and post anything from any source and  make it look real.

Post a reliable source  , not some random letter pulled out from some dark corner of the Internet.

You want another proof sir?Well here is your proof.& I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to discredit this source too,since i've seen you use it countless times to butress your stories.Here goes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3516965.stm

On second thought,I might just save you the rigor of clicking & post it here for your perusal.

King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence

Of the Europeans who scrambled for control of Africa at the end of the 19th century, Belgium's King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all.

King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy
While the Great Powers competed for territory elsewhere, the king of one of Europe's smallest countries carved his own private colony out of 100km2 of Central African rainforest.

He claimed he was doing it to protect the "natives" from Arab slavers, and to open the heart of Africa to Christian missionaries, and Western capitalists.

Instead, as the makers of BBC Four documentary White King, Red Rubber, Black Death powerfully argue, the king unleashed new horrors on the African continent.

Torment and rape

He turned his "Congo Free State" into a massive labour camp, made a fortune for himself from the harvest of its wild rubber, and contributed in a large way to the death of perhaps 10 million innocent people.


I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit
John Harris
Missionary in Baringa
What is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo has clearly never recovered.

"Legalized robbery enforced by violence", as Leopold's reign was described at the time, has remained, more or less, the template by which Congo's rulers have governed ever since.

Meanwhile Congo's soldiers have never moved away from the role allocated to them by Leopold - as a force to coerce, torment and rape an unarmed civilian population.

Chopping hands

As the BBC's reporter in DR Congo, I covered stories that were loud echoes of what was happening 100 years earlier.


Men who failed to bring enough rubber for agents were killed
The film opens with the shocking images of some of Leopold's victims - children and adults whose right hands had been hacked off by his agents.

They needed these to prove to their superiors that they had not been "wasting" their bullets on animals.

This rule was seldom observed as soldiers kept shooting monkeys and then later chopping off human hands to provide their alibis.

'Foreign correspondents'

Director Peter Bate uses documented accounts of such atrocities to present an imaginary court case against the monarch who he compares to a subsequent European tyrant, Adolf Hitler.

He has an actor play the bearded, heavily-set Leopold, fidgeting nervously as damning testimonies are read out, compiled by the foreign correspondents of the day, the missionaries.

John Harris of Baringa, for example, was so shocked by what he had come across that he felt moved to write a letter to Leopold's chief agent in the Congo.

"I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit."

Positive legacy

In the film's most powerful sequences we see reconstructions of the terror caused by Leopold's enforcers and agents.

We see a village burnt without warning and its people rounded up; its men sent off into the forests, and its women tied up as hostages and helpless targets of abuse until their husbands return with enough wild rubber to satisfy the agent.

This, we are told, was the "moment of truth" for the whole community.

If the men did not bring back enough and the agent lost his commission, he would order the deaths of everyone.


Children and adults had their hands chopped off
There is no doubt that Congo's history, and White King, Red Rubber, Black Death are almost too upsetting to bear, however Leopold did leave, albeit unwittingly, one positive legacy - the birth of modern humanitarianism.

The campaign to reveal the truth behind Leopold's "secret society of murderers," led by diplomat Roger Casement, and a former shipping clerk ED Morel, became the first mass human rights movement.

Its successors like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Kinshasa-based Voix des Sans Voix and Journaliste En Danger mean abuses in modern day DR Congo can never be hidden for long.

^^^

Okay I understand there is a small break down in our communication.

I am under no iota of doubt that the crimes mentioned were committed, this is a historical fact.

My contention is the letter you posted initially. Some aspects of this letter are not validated and require further clarification from reliable sources.

In addition,If you are an omnivorous reader,you might want to read a book by Adam Hoschild; 'King Leopold's Ghost'.It is an interesting,gripping and spellbinding book that would shake your faith to its foundation.
“An enthralling story, full of fascinating characters,intense drama, high adventure, deceitful manipulations,courageous truthtelling, and splendid moral fervor . . . A work of history that reads like a novel.” —Christian Science Monitor

I wonder who Frosbel will consider a reliable source. I think you have to find that out first otherwise you'll find yourself coming up with one source after another only for him to reject it.

I understand perfectly.It is often referred to as a state of denial.It's akin to hearing or seeing the loss of a loved one & refusing to believe or accept even when you know it's undeniably true

People need to learn to let go of what you cant change or else you'll end up with serious mental instability.

I dont know if the letter is fake or real (though it seems fake imo and even if it wasnt, well that's that. We're all aware of racism).

But most times africans themselves collaborate with whites to keep themselves under.

Here's an excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia, (Yes!You read right,Catholic Encyclopedia!)though they tried to water down the devious activities of the Christian missionaries & made it look like it was a necessary evil in order to save the Congolese from himself;

The natives

The irreligion and ignorance of the Congolese have often been exaggerated and misrepresented. They are not so debased as many pretend. They recognize a supreme God, Creator of all things, but they seem very largely to ignore His immediate Providence and His interventions in the affairs of this world. They believe in the existence of spirits, and admit to a metempsychosis more or less happy in a future life. Their worship is a species of gross fetishism, propagated by the sorcerers, whose influence is very great and often most pernicious. These sorcerers are the "wise men" of the Congo; they are consulted about everything. If misfortune comes or crime is committed, it is to them that recourse must be had, and whoever is designated by them as the cause of the evil must pass through the test of fire or of casque (poison drink). The State forbids such tests under most severe penalties. Superstitious fears and slavish attachments to amulets are the chief obstacles to conversion. Others are the practice of polygamy, largely due to the custom which prevents the wife from having any relations with her husband during the period of lactation — from two to three years — lest she should make her child unhappy; the cannibalism which exists in certain parts; ingrained habits of idleness; gross egoism; the worship of might as confounded with right — in short that sum of differences which separates, as by an abyss, the essentially pagan soul of the Congolese from the Christian conception of right and wrong which the missioners try to impart. [b]The excesses and the evil example of the Europeans themselves render the missionary's even more difficult. Add to this the abuse which, in the district where the rubber trade flourishes, or in the neighbourhood of towns, imposes a hard task of from fifteen to twenty days per month of forced labour instead of the forty hours fixed by the law; the unfortunate division between the Christian churches and the acts of petty opposition consequent thereon — and the problem is still further complicated. Nor is all ended when the Congolese is converted; he must be continually urged to hold fast to the gift he has received, for his fickleness is very great. Often he imagines that his obligation to remain a Christian ceases with the contract which binds him to a mission or to the service of Europeans. In the eastern part of Upper Congo the Arabs, who frequently make slave raids, have managed to win over to their religion many of the intelligent tribes of the Bakusus. These proselytes regard all their workmen as slaves for life; they are immoral, fanatic, and very hostile to the Gospel.
[/b]
The noble work of evangelization in the Congo, however, is far from being fruitless. As formerly under the Portuguese rule, so today the missionaries find souls in which their teaching takes firm root. Mgr. Augougard gives the example of a catechist of the tribe of Babois who, seeing the resources of the mission failing, undertook to feed and clothe the children of his school with the profits of his sewing-machine. The most intelligent part of the population inhabits the Domaine de la Couronne and is well disposed toward Christianity. Until 1908 these people were shut off from all immediate missionary influence; they were evangelized, however, by some of their countrymen who had become Christians while serving in the army. Many travelled long distances to see and speak with Catholic missionaries, and both men and women, nothing daunted, undertook perilous journeys in order to reach the missionary stations. It is not surprising therefore that the missionaries have been received everywhere with enthusiasm, and that the natives have offered to build their simple habitations and schools.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04228a.htm

tpia@:

I dont know if the letter is fake or real (though it seems fake imo and even if it wasnt, well that's that. We're all aware of racism).

But most times africans themselves collaborate with whites to keep themselves under.

I know it will look fake to you as well as millions of others who remain in a constant state of denial.Regardless,it is an incontrovertible fact that letter is as real as the sun rising in the East & setting in the West.It has an unarguable lofty position in the annals of history.Churned out so many books,write-ups,articles etc for over a hundred years.

@cold, Nice one.

@Frosbel, Do you need more "reliable sources"? The poster has provided from one of your known "reliable sources" and the catholic encyclopedia but I'm sure you need more "sources".

When it pays you, even play boy magazine is a credible source but when you are confounded with undeniable facts, you brush it aside as "unreliable". Aren't you ashamed? A grown man that can't face the heat. Shior.

the missionaries were run by the colonizing filth. *disgusting slavers religion.

Without appealing to my religious beliefs. Anybody who has read Chinua Achebe's "Arrow of God" and is insightful will know that the Christian Missionaries are a deceitful bunch not to talk of Soyinka's "The Trials of Brother Jero."

Absolutely !!!

But there were genuine missionaries who brought change and progress.

But the Arab missionaries were 100 times worse - Fact

frosbel:

Absolutely !!!

But there were genuine missionaries who brought change and progress.

But the Arab missionaries were 100 times worse - Fact

Muslim missionaries? You are projecting your Christian beliefs into Islam.

But do we know the response of the missionaries or are we automatically assuming (which seems to be inherent in the responses of many of the atheists here) the missionaries swallowed King Leopold's words hook, line and sinker?

maclatunji:

Without appealing to my religious beliefs. Anybody who has read Chinua Achebe's "Arrow of God" and is insightful will know that the Christian Missionaries are a deceitful bunch not to talk of Soyinka's "The Trials of Brother Jero."

History is full of evidence of Christian Missionaries being complicit in the exploitation of the black man. I don't need old Leopold's letter to know that.

maclatunji:

History is full of evidence of Christian Missionaries being complicit in the exploitation of the black man.  I don't need old Leopold's letter to know that.

Apart from the fact that arab/muslim exploitation of the black man was FAR WORSE and still goes on today (see mauritius, saudi arabia, sudan, Iraq - where blacks are still known as abd/slave till date), it is quite clear and proven from history that many of those same christian missionaries are the reason colonial africa was a much better place economically than the africa of today.

- christian missionaries brought us free schools, political literacy and infrastructure development . . . what did the muslims bring besides poverty, despair and the sword? Please see Mali, Niger for example.

- Those same christian missionaries were instrumental to ending slavery . . . it still goes on in places like Mauritius.

A muslim reacting to this thread as well? How hypocritical considering mohammad himself was a slave trader.

davidylan:

But do we know the response of the missionaries or are we automatically assuming (which seems to be inherent in the responses of many of the atheists here) the missionaries swallowed King Leopold's words hook, line and sinker?

From the horror stories that emanated from The Congo at the time,it was clear the missionaries were executing the actions of King Leopold to the latter.There was even a letter he wrote to President Roosevelt in 1915 that was published in the NY Times at the time,denying the plethora of atrocities the missionaries were undertaking.
I'll dig it out when I have the time & post it here.

davidylan:

Apart from the fact that arab/muslim exploitation of the black man was FAR WORSE and still goes on today (see mauritius, saudi arabia, sudan, Iraq - where blacks are still known as abd/slave till date), it is quite clear and proven from history that many of those same christian missionaries are the reason colonial africa was a much better place economically than the africa of today.

- christian missionaries brought us free schools, political literacy and infrastructure development . . . what did the muslims bring besides poverty, despair and the sword? Please see Mali, Niger for example.

- Those same christian missionaries were instrumental to ending slavery . . . it still goes on in places like Mauritius.

A muslim reacting to this thread as well? How hypocritical considering mohammad himself was a slave trader.

Is this some sort of justification

davidylan:

Apart from the fact that arab/muslim exploitation of the black man was FAR WORSE and still goes on today (see mauritius, saudi arabia, sudan, Iraq - where blacks are still known as abd/slave till date), it is quite clear and proven from history that many of those same christian missionaries are the reason colonial africa was a much better place economically than the africa of today.

Just how on earth this this thread become a Moslem vs Christian affair again?  Na wa o!!  So if two people are slapping you you will say at least the guy on the left is not slapping me as hard so I like him.  This one pass me o.

davidylan:

- christian missionaries brought us free schools, political literacy and infrastructure development . . . what did the muslims bring besides poverty, despair and the sword? Please see Mali, Niger for example.

"If the University of Sankore [, ] had survived the ravages of foreign invasions, the academic and cultural history of Africa might have been different from what it is today."
– Kwame Nkrumah at the University of Ghana inauguration, 1961[102]

The Timbuktu Manuscripts showing both mathematics and astronomy, a heritage of Astronomy in medieval Islam.

Timbuktu was a world centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th century, especially under the Mali Empire and Askia Mohammad I's rule. The Malian government and NGOs have been working to catalog and restore the remnants of this scholarly legacy: Timbuktu’s manuscripts.[103]

Timbuktu’s rapid economic growth in the 13th and 14th centuries drew many scholars from nearby Walata,[102] leading up to the city’s golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries that proved fertile ground for scholarship of religions, arts and science. An active trade in books between Timbuktu and other parts of the Islamic world and emperor Askia Mohammed’s strong support led to the writing of thousands of manuscripts.[104]

Knowledge was gathered in a manner similar to the early, informal European Medieval university model.[102] Lecturing was presented through a range of informal institutions called madrasahs.[105] Nowadays dubbed the ‘University of Timbuktu’, three madrasahs facilitated 25,000 students: Djinguereber, Sidi Yahya and Sankore.[106] These institutions were explicitly religious, as opposed to the more secular curricula of modern European universities. However, where universities in the European sense started as associations of students and teachers, West-African education was patronized by families or lineages, with the Aqit and Bunu al-Qadi al-Hajj families being two of the most prominent in Timbuktu – these families also facilitated students is set-aside rooms in their housings.[107] Although the basis of Islamic law and its teaching were brought to Timbuktu from North Africa with the spread of Islam, Western African scholarship developed: Ahmad Baba al Massufi is regarded as the city's greatest scholar.[36] Over time however, the share of patrons that originated from or identified themselves as West-Africans decreased.

Timbuktu served in this process as a distribution centre of scholars and scholarship. Its reliance on trade meant intensive movement of scholars between the city and its extensive network of trade partners. In 1468–1469 though, many scholars left for Walata when Sunni Ali’s Songhay Empire absorbed Timbuktu and again in 1591 with the Moroccan occupation.[102]

This system of education survived until late 19th century, while the 18th century saw the institution of itinerant Quranic school as a form of universal education, where scholars would travel throughout the region with their students, begging for food part of the day.[103] Islamic education came under pressure after the French occupation, droughts in the 70s and 80s and by Mali’s civil war in the early 90s.[103]
[edit]

Hundreds of thousands of manuscripts were collected in Timbuktu over the course of centuries: some were written in the town itself, others – including exclusive copies of the Qur’an for wealthy families - imported through the lively booktrade.

Hidden in cellars or buried, hid between the mosque's mud walls and safeguarded by their patrons, many of these manuscripts survived the city's decline. They now form the collection of several libraries in Timbuktu, holding up to 700,000 manuscripts:[108]

   * Ahmed Baba Institute
   * Mamma Haidara Library
   * Fondo Kati
   * Al-Wangari Library
   * Mohamed Tahar Library
   * Maigala Library
   * Boularaf Collection
   * Al Kounti Collections

These libraries are the largest among up to 60 private or public libraries that are estimated to exist in Timbuktu today, although some comprise little more than a row of books on a shelf or a bookchest.[109] Under these circumstances, the manuscripts are vulnerable to damage and theft, as well as long term climate damage, despite Timbuktu's arid climate. Two Timbuktu Manuscripts Projects funded by independent universities have aimed to preserve them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu#World_Heritage_Site

Jump to: navigation, search
The Timbuktu Manuscripts showing both mathematics and astronomy.

The term Timbuktu Manuscripts applies to 700,000 medieval African documents, ranging from scholarly works to short letters, that have been preserved by private households in Timbuktu. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and are mostly in poor condition.[1] Some of the manuscripts date back to the 13th century. [2]

Medieval manuscripts are not thought of as very useful in Timbuktu. Many are being sold off.[3] Time magazine related the account of an imam who picked up four of them for $50 each. In October 2008 one of the households was flooded, destroying 700 manuscripts.[4]

The majority of Manuscripts are in Arabic or in African languages written in Arabic script or Africanized versions of the Arabic alphabets, collectively called "Ajami script". These manuscripts deal with a wide variety of subjects including Islam, Astronomy, Law and even Contracts.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu_Manuscripts

Has anyone read the letter by Willie Lynch in 1772 titled "The making of a perfect slave" ?

Here is the link.

http://www.daveyd.com/willlynch.html

Here is an example:

The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.


I "m weeping uncontrollably.

Davidlan, Frosbel and Enigma, are you all reading this? See what bible-carrying maggots dd to the black race.
" self-refeling and self-generating"
WOW!

Can we now see the root of all our problems like wars, distrust, envy and fear of one another?

^^^ Why are you bringing up my name? What's your problem? You think even if the letter is genuine, it will change anything about my Christianity?

In any event apart from assertion I haven't seen you or any of the other people on the thread vaunting the letter as a historical document provide any proof that it is genuine. I am aware that the letter has been circulating on the Net since circa 2005 but, while Leopold's brutality and barbarism is well known, I am not aware of any instance where this particular letter has been confirmed to be genuine.

davidylan:

But do we know the response of the missionaries or are we automatically assuming (which seems to be inherent in the responses of many of the atheists here) the missionaries swallowed King Leopold's words hook, line and sinker?

Indeed your point is reflected if not even made by a proper reading of Post # 16 above.