To my own surprise. I found the first chapter of King Leopold's Ghost to be very interesting. One of the things I found to be most interesting where the accounts of Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, an African ruler, during the time when many people from Congo were being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Especially after reading both "The White Man's Burden" and "The Black Man's Burden" which posed different viewpoints on imperialism, we hadn't read anything that came directly from someone who was on the other side of imperialism. Not only did I find his views to be interesting, but the way he lived and strived to learn many things about European lifestyle was interesting to me, especially in comparison to what was said about Africans in things we read previously in class. Something else I found to be interesting was the life of John Rowlands, and not only how his life was, but how he portrayed it to others. Also, I found it odd that Rowlands, later Stanley, would seek solace in Africa when before returning to Europe, he acted like it wasn't good enough for him or any other Europeans.
Did slave traders go specifically to the Kingdom of Kongo to seek people that could be sold into slavery? If so, what allowed the Kongo to be so susceptible to kidnappings/slave trade?
What made the lives of the kidnapped slaves more valuable to the Portuguese than any goods that could possibly be traded between Congo and the Portuguese?
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