Today the memory of the earthquake in Haiti is still vivid. More than 300 thousand died, millions were left homeless and without a roof over their heads. Hunger and looting. But the international community extended a helping hand to the victims. Rescuers from different countries, concerts famous artists, humanitarian aid... Thousands of reports and broadcasts around the world. And today we would like to talk about a country in which the Apocalypse came a long time ago! But they rarely talk about it, even less often they show it on TV... Meanwhile, the number of deaths there cannot be compared with Haiti!
In this country, for many decades, residents do not know what peace is. Here you can lose your life for a handful of cartridges, a canister drinking water, a piece of meat (often your own!). Simply because you have something that appeals to a person who has a weapon. Or because your skin color is a little darker or you speak a slightly different language...Here, in the virgin jungles and vast savannahs, looting, robbery and murder are a way of life! A country where a child’s first (and often last!) toy is ammunition and a Kalashnikov assault rifle! A country in which a raped woman is glad to be alive... A country of contrasts, where the richest palaces of the capital are adjacent to the tents of refugees fleeing the fighting. Where Western mining companies earn billions, and the local population is dying of hunger...
We will tell you about the heart of the Dark Continent - the Democratic Republic of the Congo!
A little history. Until 1960, the Congo was a Belgian colony; on June 30, 1960, it gained independence under the name Republic of the Congo. Since 1971 renamed Zaire. In 1965, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu came to power. Under the guise of slogans of nationalism and the fight against the influence of mzungu (white people), he carried out partial nationalization and dealt with his opponents. But a communist paradise “the African way” did not work out. Mobutu's reign has gone down in history as one of the most corrupt in the twentieth century. Bribery and embezzlement flourished. The president himself had several palaces in Kinshasa and other cities of the country, a fleet of Mercedes cars and personal capital in Swiss banks, which by 1984 amounted to approximately $5 billion (at that time this amount was comparable to the country's external debt). Like many other dictators, Mobutu was elevated to the status of a virtual demigod during his lifetime. He was called the “father of the people”, “savior of the nation”. His portraits hung in most public institutions; members of parliament and government wore badges with the portrait of the president. On the evening news, Mobutu appeared every day sitting in heaven. Each banknote also featured the president.
Lake Albert was renamed in honor of Mobutu (1973), which had been named after Queen Victoria's husband since the 19th century. Only part of the water area of this lake belonged to Zaire; in Uganda the old name was used, but in the USSR the renaming was recognized, and Lake Mobutu-Sese-Seko was listed in all reference books and maps. After the overthrow of Mobutu in 1996, the former name was restored. However, today it became known that Joseph-Désiré Mobutu had close “friendly” contacts with the US CIA, which continued even after the end of “ cold war"The US declared him persona non grata.
During the Cold War, Mobutu led a rather pro-Western foreign policy, in particular by supporting the anti-communist rebels of Angola (UNITA). However, it cannot be said that Zaire’s relations with socialist countries were hostile: Mobutu was a friend of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, established a good relationship with China and North Korea, A Soviet Union allowed the construction of an embassy in Kinshasa.
All this led to the fact that the country's economic and social infrastructure was almost completely destroyed. Wages were delayed for months, the number of hungry and unemployed reached unprecedented levels, and inflation was at a high level. The only profession that guaranteed stable high earnings was the military profession: the army was the backbone of the regime.
In 1975, an economic crisis began in Zaire; in 1989, a default was declared: the state was unable to pay off its external debt. Under Mobutu, social benefits were introduced for large families, the disabled, etc., but due to high inflation, these benefits quickly depreciated.
In the mid-1990s, mass genocide began in neighboring Rwanda, and several hundred thousand people fled to Zaire. Mobutu sent government troops to the eastern regions of the country to expel refugees from there, and at the same time the Tutsi people (in 1996, these people were ordered to leave the country). These actions caused widespread discontent in the country, and in October 1996 the Tutsis rebelled against the Mobutu regime. Together with other rebels, they united in the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo. The organization was headed by Laurent Kabila, supported by the governments of Uganda and Rwanda.
Government troops could do nothing to oppose the rebels, and in May 1997, opposition troops entered Kinshasa. Mobutu fled the country, again renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This was the beginning of the so-called Great African War,
which involved more than twenty armed groups representing nine African states. Bloody clashes began with massacres of civilians and reprisals against prisoners of war. Gang rapes became widespread, both of women and men. The militants have the most modern weapons in their hands, but horrific ancient cults have not been forgotten. Lendu warriors devour the hearts, livers and lungs of slain enemies: according to ancient belief, this makes a man invulnerable to enemy bullets and gives him extra magical powers. Evidence of cannibalism during the Congolese civil war continues to emerge...
In 2003, the UN launched Operation Artemis, the landing of an international peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. French paratroopers occupied the airport in Bunia, the center of the civil war-torn Ituri province in the east of the country. The decision to send peacekeepers to Ituri was made by the UN Security Council. The main forces are from EU countries. Total number peacekeepers - about 1,400 people, most of them - 750 soldiers - are French. The French will begin to command the contingent in the French-speaking country. In addition, there will be soldiers from Belgium (the former mother country), Great Britain, Sweden and Ireland, Pakistan and India. The Germans avoided sending soldiers, but took over all air transportation and medical assistance. UN forces have previously been stationed in Ituri - 750 soldiers from neighboring Uganda. However, their capabilities were extremely limited - the mandate practically prohibited them from using weapons. Current peacekeepers have heavy equipment and have the right to shoot “to protect themselves and the civilian population.”
I must say that the local residents are not very happy with the “peacekeepers”, and there is a reason...
Example - A BBC investigation found evidence that Pakistani UN peacekeepers in eastern DRC were involved in illegal gold trading with the FNI armed group and were supplying militants with weapons to guard mines. And Indian peacekeepers stationed in the vicinity of the city of Goma entered into direct deals with paramilitary groups responsible for the genocide of local tribes... In particular, they were involved in the drug and gold trade.
Below we would like to present photographic materials about life in the country of the Apocalypse.
However, there are quite decent neighborhoods in cities, but NOT everyone can go there...
And these are refugee camps and villages outside...
Death by one's own hands, when one no longer has the strength to live...
Refugees fleeing war zones.
IN rural areas local residents are forced to organize self-defense/police units, they are called Mai-Mai...
And this is a soldier of an armed formation guarding a village field with yams for hire.
This is already a regular government army.
There is no point in relaxing in the bush. A soldier even cooks sweet potatoes without releasing his machine gun...
In government units of the Congolese army, almost every third soldier is a woman.
Many fight with their children...
And children fight too.
This patrol of government troops was not careful and attentive enough... No weapons, no shoes...
However, it is difficult to surprise anyone with corpses in the world after the Apocalypse. They are everywhere. In the city and the bush, on the roads and in the rivers... adults and children...
Lots and lots...
But the dead are still lucky, worse are those who, having received a serious injury or illness, remained to live...
These are wounds left by a panga - a wide and heavy knife, a local version of the machete.
Consequences of ordinary syphilis.
They say that this is the effect of long-term radiation exposure in uranium mines on Africans.
Juvenile marauder...
The future marauder is holding a homemade panga in his hands, the traces of which you could see on his body above...
Just like that, this time they used the panga as a cutting knife...
But sometimes there are too many marauders, inevitable quarrels over food, who will get the “roast” today:
Many corpses, burned in fires, after battles with rebels, Simbu, simply marauders and bandits, are often missing some parts of the body. Please note that the female burnt corpse is missing both feet - most likely they were cut off before the fire. The arm and part of the sternum are after.
Indonesia
Perhaps the most cannibal-dangerous place on Earth is the jungle of the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea (Irian Jaya) and the island of Kalimantan (Borneo). The jungles of the latter are inhabited by 7-8 million Dayaks, famous skull hunters and cannibals. The most delicious parts of their body are considered to be the head (tongue, cheeks, skin from the chin, brain removed through the nasal cavity or ear hole), meat from the thighs and calves, heart, palms. The initiators of crowded campaigns for skulls among the Dayaks are women.
At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the Indonesian government tried to organize the colonization of the interior of the island by civilized people from Java and Madura. The unfortunate peasant settlers and the soldiers guarding them were slaughtered and eaten. This is the last significant outbreak of cannibalism in Borneo.
Dayak skull hunts are initiated by women
Great contribution to the elimination of cannibalism on the islands South-East Asia contributed by Sukarno, the “father of Indonesian independence,” and military dictator Suharto. But they also failed to greatly improve the situation in Irian Jaya (western New Guinea). The Papuan ethnic groups living there (Dugum-Dani, Kapauku, Marind-Anim, Asmat and others), according to missionaries, are not averse to eating people and are characterized by unprecedented cruelty. They especially like liver with herbs. However, penises, noses, tongues, meat from thighs will also come off.
But this is all on the western part of the island. What's in the eastern part? In an independent state Papua New Guinea There are far fewer cases of cannibalism than in Irian Jaya. Cannibals in this region can still be found on the islands of New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. If you're tired of taking risks, safe places are Australia and New Zealand (although there is Cannibal Bay there). Cannibalism will be eliminated there end of the 19th century century.
Africa
Cases of cannibalism in Africa are mainly associated with the activities of organizations such as Leopards and Alligators. Until the 80s, human remains were found in the vicinity of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire. "Leopards" are usually dressed in leopard skins and armed with their fangs. Both "Leopards" and "Alligators" believe that eating people makes them faster and stronger.
"Leopards" believe that human flesh makes them stronger and faster
The movements are still common in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Togo, South Africa, and local tribes sometimes practice eating human flesh for ritual purposes. The Mau Mau movement in Kenya (1950–60s) stands apart, covering its sectarian, openly cannibalistic essence with ultranationalist, anti-European political slogans.
India
The history of human sacrifice is very long in India. What is most curious is that the culture of religious sacrifices reached its peak under the British rule. However, eating victims was common only in the northeast and south of India. Until the beginning of the 20th century, residents of the northeastern state of Assam made annual sacrifices to the mother goddess Kali: the boiled lungs of the victims were eaten by yogis, and the aristocracy was content with rice boiled in human blood. Ritual cannibalism in honor of the Earth god Tari Pennu was developed among the Gonds, a large South Indian people.
Aghoris do not disdain corpses from the Ganges
Even in the south of India, there still exists the Aghori sect, which spun off from Virashaivism. For ritual purposes, several thousand people eat raw decomposed corpses of people from the Ganges, as well as the corpses of domestic animals and the remains of burnt corpses. They do not disdain living ones - some specifically want to be eaten.
At the end of such a “positive” article, one only needs to quote Andrei Malakhov: “Take care of yourself and your loved ones.” And choose carefully where you are going to travel.
How many mysterious and unknown things the mysterious Africa hides within itself!
Its rich fabulous nature, amazing animal world and to this day are of great interest to scientists and excite the inquisitive minds of travelers. Inexplicable admiration, along with animal fear, is caused by the customs and morals of the local aborigines, belonging to the most diverse tribes that inhabit the black continent everywhere. Africa itself is quite contrasting, and behind the façade of the civilized world often hides the unprecedented savagery of the primitive communal system.
Wild Africa. Tribes of cannibals
One of the most mystical secrets of tropical Africa is, of course, cannibalism.
Cannibalism, that is, people eating their own kind, in many African tribes, constantly at war with each other, was originally based on the belief in the miraculous effect of human blood and flesh on such qualities of warriors as courage, masculinity, heroism and bravery. Some tribes of cannibals widely used various potions made from burnt and powdered human hearts. It was believed that such a black ointment based on the resulting ash and human fat could strengthen the body and raise the spirit of a warrior before battle, as well as protect against enemy spells. The true scale of all kinds ritual murders unknown, all rituals, as a rule, were performed in deep secrecy.
Wild tribes. Reluctant cannibals
Cannibalism was in no way connected with the level of development of a particular Aboriginal tribe or with its moral principles. It was just that it was very widespread throughout the continent, there was an acute shortage of food, and besides, it was much easier to kill a person than to shoot a wild animal while hunting. Although there were tribes that specialized, for example, in cattle breeding, which had enough animal meat, they did not engage in cannibalism. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the territory of modern Zaire, there were huge slave markets where slaves were sold or exchanged for ivory exclusively for food. On them one could see slaves of different sexes and ages, these could even be women with babies in their arms, although men were in great demand for food, since women could be useful in the household.
Cruelty of morals
The cannibal tribes openly declared that they liked it because of its juiciness; fingers and toes, as well as female breasts, were considered a delicacy.
A special ritual was associated with eating the head. Only the most noble of the elders received the flesh torn from the head. The skull was carefully stored in special pots, in front of which rituals of sacrifice were subsequently performed and prayers were recited. Perhaps the most inhumane ritual among the natives was the ritual of tearing off pieces of human flesh from a still living victim, and some Nigerian tribes of cannibals, distinguished by their special, ferocious cruelty, used a pumpkin used as an enema to pour boiling palm oil into the throat or anus of the captive. . According to these cannibals, corpse meat that had lain for some time and was completely soaked in oil was much juicier and more tender in taste. In ancient times, food was mainly consumed from the flesh of foreigners, primarily captives. Nowadays, fellow tribesmen often become victims.
Tribes of cannibals. Creepy hospitality
Interestingly, according to the cannibal customs of hospitality, refusal to taste the delicacy offered to guests was perceived as a mortal insult and insult.
Therefore, without a doubt, in order not to be eaten and to move freely across the continent from tribe to tribe, as well as as a sign of friendship and respect, African travelers probably had to taste this food.
The last cannibals are known to live in Papua New Guinea. People still live here according to the rules adopted 5 thousand years ago: men go naked, and women cut off their fingers. There are only three tribes that still engage in cannibalism, these are the Yali, Vanuatu and Karafai. The Karafai (or tree people) are the most brutal tribe. They eat not only warriors of foreign tribes, lost locals or tourists, but also all their dead relatives. The name “tree people” came from their houses, which stand incredibly high (see the last 3 photos). The Vanuatu tribe is peaceful enough that the photographer is not eaten; several pigs are brought to the leader. Yali are formidable warriors (photos of Yali begin with photo 9). The phalanges of the fingers of a woman of the Yali tribe are cut off with a hatchet as a sign of grief for a deceased or deceased relative.
Most main holiday Yali is a holiday of death. Women and men paint their bodies in the form of a skeleton. On the holiday of death before, perhaps they still do it now, they killed a shaman and the leader of the tribe ate his warm brain. This was done in order to satisfy Death and absorb the knowledge of the shaman to the leader. Now Yali people are killed less often than usual, mainly if there was a crop failure or for some other “important” reasons.
Hungry cannibalism, which is preceded by murder, is regarded in psychiatry as a manifestation of the so-called hunger insanity.
Domestic cannibalism is also known, not dictated by the need for survival and not provoked by hunger insanity. In judicial practice, such cases are not classified as premeditated murder with particular cruelty.
Apart from these not very common cases, the word “cannibalism” often brings to mind crazy ritual feasts, during which victorious tribes devour parts of the bodies of their enemies in order to gain their strength; or another well-known useful "application" of this phenomenon: the heirs treat the bodies of their fathers in this way in the pious hope that they will be reborn in the body of the eaters of their flesh.
The most “cannibalistic” strange modern world is Indonesia. This state has two famous centers of mass cannibalism - the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea and the island of Kalimantan (Borneo). The jungles of Kalimantan are inhabited by 7-8 million Dayaks, famous skull hunters and cannibals.
The most delicious parts of their body are considered to be the head - the tongue, cheeks, skin from the chin, the brain removed through the nasal cavity or ear hole, meat from the thighs and calves, heart, palms. The initiators of crowded campaigns for skulls among the Dayaks are women.
The latest surge in cannibalism in Borneo occurred at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, when the Indonesian government tried to organize the colonization of the interior of the island by civilized immigrants from Java and Madura. The unfortunate peasant settlers and the soldiers accompanying them were mostly slaughtered and eaten. Until recently, cannibalism persisted on the island of Sumatra, where the Batak tribes ate criminals sentenced to death and incapacitated old people.
The activities of the “father of Indonesian independence” Sukarno and the military dictator Suharto played a major role in the almost complete elimination of cannibalism in Sumatra and some other islands. But even they could not improve the situation in Irian Jaya, Indonesian New Guinea, one iota. The Papuan ethnic groups living there, according to missionaries, are obsessed with a passion for human meat and are characterized by unprecedented cruelty.
They especially prefer human liver with medicinal herbs, penises, noses, tongues, meat from thighs, feet, and mammary glands. In the eastern part of the island of New Guinea, in the independent state of Papua New Guinea, much less evidence of cannibalism is recorded.
In fact, here and there in the jungle they still live according to the rules adopted five thousand years ago - men go naked, and women cut off their fingers.
There are only three tribes that still engage in cannibalism, these are the Yali, Vanuatu and Karafai. The Karafai are the most cruel tribe. They eat not only warriors of foreign tribes, lost locals or tourists, but also all their dead relatives.....
Amasanga scoured the Internet and found a pop article about historical and modern cannibalism in Africa. And I decided to post it in order to shock the reader with a fine mental organization.
PS
I saw interesting photographs from Angola in the late 80s - early 90s of the 20th century.
P.P.S.
About cannibalism among the Indian peoples of the Amazon (in historical period) Amasanga wrote
No other continent hides as many mysteries, mysteries, and unknowns as Africa. The fabulous, rich nature and amazing fauna of the “dark continent” with the many-sided, diverse world of African aborigines has always aroused and arouses admiration, surprise, fear and inexplicable undying interest in the soul of an inquisitive person.
Africa is a continent of contrasts. Here you can see the centers of the modern, so-called civilized world and immediately plunge into the depths of the primitive communal system. They don't know wheels here yet. Shaman healers rule. Polygamy prevails. The population is divided along tribal lines. Separatism, black racism and tribalism are present. People are monstrously superstitious. Behind the outer façade of the white-stone capitals, primitive wildness reigns.
One of the dark, black secrets of tropical and southern Africa is cannibalism - cannibalism. Eating your own kind.
Belief in the effective influence of human flesh and blood is characteristic of many African tribes. Civil wars and fierce tribal clashes have always provoked the production of courage-stimulating potions from human flesh. Often it became widespread.
In the languages of African aborigines, this drug is called “diretlo” or “ditlo” and, according to ancient customs, is prepared from the heart (sometimes the liver) of the enemy, in order to thereby adopt his courage, courage and heroism.
The heart was ground into powder, from which potions were prepared. Pieces of human meat were burned over a fire with medicinal herbs and other ingredients until the result was a charred mass, which was churned and mixed with animal or human fat. It turned out something like a black ointment. This substance, called lenaka, was placed in a hollow goat's horn. It was used to strengthen the body and spirit of warriors before battle, to protect native village, to counter the spells of enemy magicians.
In past times, this drug was prepared mainly from the flesh of foreigners, especially captives. Nowadays, to obtain a special drug called “diretlo”, it is necessary to cut the flesh of a living person in a certain order, and the victim is selected from among his fellow tribesmen by the healer of this tribe, who discerned in this person the necessary magical abilities necessary to prepare a powerful drug.
Sometimes even a relative of one of the ritual participants may be chosen. No details regarding the chosen victim are ever given to anyone. This is decided by the healer - omurodi. The entire ritual is performed in deep secrecy.
To prepare "diretlo" it is necessary not only to cut off the flesh of a living person, but then to kill him and first hide the corpse in secret place, and then move it somewhere away from the village.
Here is one example of such a ritual. A group of blacks led by Omurudi came to the hut of the one chosen for ritual murder. He, not knowing anything, went outside with them. He was immediately captured. The protesters remained deathly silent. The unfortunate man shouted that he would give everything he had if only he would be released. He was quickly gagged and dragged away from the village.
Having found a more secluded place, the blacks quickly stripped the doomed man naked and laid him on the ground. An oil lamp immediately appeared, by the light of which the executioners, deftly wielding knives, cut off several pieces of meat from the victim’s body. One chose the calf of the leg, the second - the biceps on right hand, the third cut a piece from the right breast, and the fourth from the groin. They laid out all these pieces on a white rag in front of the omurodi, who was to prepare the necessary potion. One of the group collected the blood flowing from the wounds into a pot. Another, pulling out a knife, tore off all the flesh from the face to the bones - from the forehead to the throat, cut out the tongue and gouged out the eyes.
But their victim died only after she was slashed sharp knife on the throat.
Nowadays, all Africans understand that a magical potion made from human flesh is not capable of ensuring victory in a civil war, but nevertheless it is widely used as a way to increase intrigue and behind-the-scenes maneuvers.
Instead of enemy captives, the victims are now members of the same tribe - a rather rare form of human sacrifice, which previously required only strangers, slaves, captives, and in no case fellow tribesmen.
The scale of such ritual killings is unknown. Everything happens in deepest secret even from the residents of the villages where they are carried out. Currently, there is already an opinion among African aborigines that ritual killings are not “ritual” to the end, and therefore are not real human sacrifices. However, the choice of victim, the method of killing and disposal of the corpse convince us that a carefully developed ritual accompanies each stage of the preparation of the drug.
Belief in the effective influence of human flesh and blood in tropical and south africa common to many tribes. For them, human meat turned into a spell not only gives the desired privileges to representatives of the highest African nobility, but also influences the gods, encouraging them not to skimp on the fat harvest.
This is how the anthropologist and ethnographer Herbert Ward, who studied this region well, described the slave markets on the tributaries of the Lualaba River.
Probably the most inhumane practice among native tribes should be considered the tearing of pieces of flesh from a living victim. Cannibals become like a hawk pecking out the flesh of its prey.
As incredible as it may seem, captives are usually led from one place to another in front of those hungry for their meat, who, in turn, mark with special signs those tasty morsels that they would like to buy. This is usually done either with clay or with strips of fat glued to the body.
The stoicism of these unfortunate victims, in front of whose eyes there is a brisk trade in their body parts, is amazing! It can only be compared with the doom with which they meet their fate."
- Do you eat human flesh here? - Ward asked in one of the villages, pointing to long spits strewn with meat over smoking fires.
“We’re eating, aren’t you?” - came the answer.
A few minutes later, the leader of the tribe came out and offered a whole dish of large fried pieces of meat, which was undoubtedly human. He was terribly upset when he received Ward's refusal.
Once upon a time in big forest, when Ward's expedition settled down for the night with a group of captured slave warriors and their fellow tribesmen, the whites were forced to change the place, as they were bothered by the sickening smell of fried human meat, which was being cooked everywhere on fires.
The leader explained to the whites that the conditions for devouring a human victim depended on what it was. If it was a captive, then only the leader ate the corpse, and if it was a slave, then the corpse was divided among the members of his tribe.
As for mass ritual killings in Africa, they were the exception rather than the generally accepted rule. The essence of Zimbabwean ritual human sacrifice was that it required the death of one person, rather than the mass destruction of people.
Cannibalism is far from dead in Africa. In our time, the ruler of Uganda, educated in the West, turned out to be a “civilized” cannibal who ate more than fifty of his fellow tribesmen.
It is absolutely impossible to exercise any control over the aborigines in the deep jungle. Because of false modesty and a reluctance to appear savage, the authorities hide the true picture of cannibalism.
In the north of Angola, on the border with Zaire, such an incident occurred. One provincial policeman (chief), standing on the threshold of his house and listening in the night to the booming long voice of a tom-tom, remarked: “They are probably cutting someone up there.” - “Why aren’t you doing anything?” - we asked. - “If I send one of my assistants there, he will only pretend that he has been there. He will not stick his nose there, fearing that he himself will end up on a spit. We can do something if we have evidence on our hands and we will discover human bones. But they know how to get rid of them too."
In the seventies of the twentieth century, during the liberation struggle of the movement (later the party) for the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands from the Portuguese colonialists, the rebels had to escape from the attacks of Portuguese troops to the north, to Senegal. In order not to lose mobility, they left the wounded in the settlements of friendly tribes. But, returning again to Guinea-Bissau, they did not find the wounded soldiers left behind. There were many such cases.
And then the leader of Paigk Amilcar Cabral ordered to dig up the places where, according to the aborigines, they buried the dead. They found nothing there. The Africans admitted that “they ate them.” Bones and skulls were found outside the settlement boundaries. The rebels shot the cannibals with machine guns and burned all the settlements.
The authorities have to fight cannibalism, but despite all efforts, some tribes continue this monstrous practice. Some blacks have sharpened teeth - a sign of cannibalism. This was also pointed out by 19th century anthropologists who explored the Lualaba basin. Where the “sharp-toothed ones” live, it was not possible to find at least one grave anywhere nearby - very eloquent proof of this.
The custom of eating the dead was widespread among all the clans of the large Bogesu tribe (region of the Ubangi River). Eating was carried out during the period intended for mourning the dead.
The deceased remains in the house until evening. Relatives called for this occasion gather to mourn him. In some special cases, such gatherings took a day or even two, but usually they got by with one day. At sunset, the corpse was carried to the nearest vacant lot and laid on the ground. At this time, the clan members hid around in the bushes, and when the darkness deepened, they began to blow their gourd horns, creating a noise similar to the howls of jackals. Villagers were warned about the appearance of “jackals,” and young people were strictly forbidden to leave their homes. With the onset of complete darkness, a group of old women, relatives of the deceased, approached the corpse and dismembered it, taking the best pieces with them and leaving the inedible parts to be torn apart by wild animals.
Over the next three to four hours, relatives mourned the deceased. After this, all participants in the ceremony cooked his meat and ate it, after which they burned his bones at the stake, leaving no traces of him.
Widows, however, burned their grass loincloths and either went naked or covered themselves with the small aprons usually worn by unmarried girls. After this ceremony, widows again became free, able to get married. Such a ceremony was observed in one of the settlements in northern Angola. Very similar story Cubans who fought as part of an expeditionary force against Zairean troops in the north and northeast of Angola spoke about cannibal rituals. Members of the tribe explained the custom of eating their dead as follows. If, they said, you bury a dead person in the ground and, as is usually done, allow him to decompose, then his spirit will annoy everyone in the area: it will take revenge for the fact that the corpse is allowed to rot in peace.
And this is how the burial of a dead African goes. The deceased's legs were bent, and the crossed arms were extended along the body in front of him, which was done even before death. The corpse was tied in such a position that it would not straighten, and with the onset of rigor, all its members would harden. All jewelry was removed from the deceased. The grave was usually dug here, in the hut, and the body was lowered into it on an old mat or skin, and in sitting position. The grave was then filled up. Women were buried outside the hut. The corpse was laid on its back, its legs were bent, and its arms were pulled from both sides to the head.
The brother of the deceased immediately took all his widows to him, but left one of them in the hut so that she would look after the fresh grave for a month (lunar month), and everyone else had to carry out the daily program of mourning the deceased with screams and heartbreaking cries. The mourners ate meat, then washed, shaved their heads and cut their nails. The hair and nails of each participant in the ceremony were placed in a bundle, which was hung from the roof of the hut. At this point the mourning ceremony ended, and no one else paid any attention to this place, although, of course, everyone was sure that the spirit of the dead man was wandering somewhere nearby.
A dug grave inside the hut, which was then collapsed on it, can, of course, to some extent explain the phenomenon of why no burial sites can be discovered. Travelers have also encountered this in the past, from which they drew a completely reasonable conclusion: African tribes supported an ancient custom obliging them to eat their dead relatives on the spot.
The practice of cannibalism in some regions of Africa was secretive, secret character, in others, on the contrary, open, striking the imagination. Anthropologists managed to collect a huge amount of facts. Here are some examples.
The aborigines of the Ganavuri tribe (Blue Mountains region), for example, tore the meat from the bodies of their defeated enemies, leaving only the entrails and bones. They returned home with pieces of human meat on the tips of their spears, where they handed the booty into the hands of the priests, who were supposed to fairly divide it among the old people. The most noble of the elders received the flesh torn from his head. To do this, the hair of the victim was cut off from the head, then the stripped meat, cut into strips, was cooked and eaten near the sacred stone.
But no matter how the young members of the tribe showed themselves in battle, they were strictly forbidden to take part in such a feast.
The Ganavuri tribe usually limited themselves to eating the dead bodies of enemies killed on the battlefield. These savages never deliberately killed their women. However, the neighboring Ataka tribe did not disdain the female flesh of their enemies; another tribe, the Tantales, engaged in “skull hunting,” “specialized” in consuming meat cut from women’s heads.
Cannibals from the Kohleri tribe tried to eat as many corpses of their enemies as possible. They were so bloodthirsty that they killed and immediately ate any stranger, both white and black, if he suddenly found himself on their territory.
The cannibals from the Gorgum tribe usually waited two days after their warriors returned with the spoils and only then began their cannibalistic feast. The heads were always boiled separately from the rest of the body, and no warrior was allowed to eat the flesh from the head unless he personally killed that enemy during the battle. The rest of human flesh did not have this of great importance, and all fellow tribesmen - men, women and children - could feast on it. In this tribe, even the entrails were eaten after they were separated from the body, washed, and cleaned with a mixture of ash and herbs in water.
The cannibals of the Sura tribe (Aruvimi River) added salt and vegetable oil to the meat of their victims when boiling and more widely used the age limit of their victims. They did not allow any woman of their tribe to even look at human flesh, but they fed boys and young men, even by force, if they refused to eat, since, according to the elders, this instilled in them more courage and courage.
The Anga tribe refused to eat the meat of boys and young men, because, in their opinion, they had not yet developed any special virtues suitable for passing on to others. They also did not eat old people for the reason that even if in their mature years they were brave and courageous people, skilled trackers, then with age all of them best qualities were clearly falling into disrepair.
Some of these cannibalistic tribes had a fairly well-developed "penal code" associated with their cannibalistic practices. In the Anga tribe, it was allowed to eat the flesh of a fellow tribesman if he was recognized as a criminal and sentenced to death penalty. The cannibals of the Sura tribe ate the flesh of their fellow tribeswoman if she committed adultery.
The Warawa tribe were ready to sacrifice any member of the clan who in any way violated the law, and such punishment was accompanied by an elaborate ritual. The culprit was not just killed, but sacrificed. Blood was pumped out of him for a kind of Eucharist (communion), and only after that his flesh was transferred for consumption to members of the tribe.
Some tribes had a slightly different motivation, not as “ignoble” in nature as a brutal passion for human flesh. They had deeply rooted superstitions: by eating the head and other parts of the body, they supposedly destroyed the spirit of the victim, depriving her of the opportunity to take retribution, to return from the other world to harm those who were still here. Although it was believed that the victim's spirit resided in her head, there were suspicions that it could, if necessary, move from one part of the body to another. Hence the desire to destroy the entire victim without a trace.
But there was another belief. Members of the Anga tribe usually ate their old people, who had not yet reached senile dementia and had demonstrated their physical and mental abilities to the proper extent. The family that made the fatal decision turned to a man living on the outskirts of the settlement with a request to take upon himself the execution of the unspoken sentence and even offered him payment for this.
After killing a person, his body was eaten, but the head was carefully kept in a pot, in front of which various sacrifices were subsequently made, prayers were said, and all this was done quite often.
The Jorgum and Tangale tribes (Niger River) practiced the most primitive form of cannibalism. An unquenchable passion for human flesh, coupled with an equally strong passion for retribution, played an important role. The people of this tribe even had a ritual prayer in which they expressed their hatred of their enemies and shameful passion for human flesh, which excited them even more.
Cannibalism is in no way connected with the level of development of a particular tribe or with its “moral standards”. It was widespread even among those tribes that had the most high level development. (Tribes such as the Herero and Maasai never engaged in cannibalism, as they were pastoralists. They had enough meat from livestock)
Cannibals stated that they ate human flesh only because they liked to eat meat, with the African aborigine preferring human flesh because of its greater juiciness. The biggest delicacy was considered to be the palms of the hands, fingers and toes, and the woman's breasts. The younger the victim, the softer its meat. Human meat is the most delicious, followed by monkey meat.
Some Nigerian tribes were distinguished by their ferocious cruelty. The cannibals of the Bafum-Banso tribe often tortured captives before death. They boiled palm oil and, using a gourd used as an enema, poured the boiling contents either down the unfortunate man's throat into his stomach, or through the anus into his intestines. In their opinion, after this the meat of the captives became even more tender, even juicier. The bodies of the dead lay for a long time until they were soaked through with oil, after which they were dismembered and greedily eaten.
In the heart of equatorial Africa lies a swimming pool great river Congo (Lualaba). Many, many travelers, missionaries, anthropologists, and ethnographers devoted themselves to exploring this area. One of them, James Dennis, said in his Travel Notes: “In central Africa, from the east to the west coasts, especially up and down the numerous tributaries of the Congo River, cannibalism is still practiced, which is accompanied by brutal cruelty. Almost all tribes in the Congo Basin are either cannibals or until recently were, and among some the disgusting practice is on the rise.
Those tribes that had never been cannibals until that time, as a result of constantly growing conflicts with the cannibals around them, also learned to eat human flesh.
It is interesting to note the predilections of various tribes for various parts human body. Some cut long, strip-like pieces from the victim's thigh, legs or arms; others prefer the hands and feet, and although the majority do not eat the head, I have not met a single tribe that disdains this part of the human body. Many people also use the innards, believing that they contain a lot of fat.
A person with eyes will certainly see terrible human remains either on the road or on the battlefield, with the difference, however, that on the battlefield the remains are waiting for jackals, and on the road where the tribal camps are located with their smoking fires, there are a lot of white broken , cracked bones - all that remains from the monstrous feasts.
During my travels through this country, what struck me most was the enormous number of partially mutilated bodies. Some corpses were missing arms and legs, others had strips of meat cut from their thighs, and still others had their entrails removed. No one could escape such a fate - neither a young man, nor women, nor children. All of them indiscriminately became victims and food for their conquerors or neighbors."
The cannibals of the Bambala tribe considered human meat a special delicacy if it had lain buried in the ground for several days, as well as human blood mixed with cassava flour. Women of the tribe were forbidden to touch human flesh, but they still found many ways to get around such a “taboo”, and carrion extracted from graves, especially those that reached high degree decomposition.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Catholic missionaries who spent many years in the Congo told how cannibals many times turned to the captains of ships plying along the river from the mouth of the right tributary of Mobangi (Ubangi) to Stanley Falls, so that they would sell them their sailors or those , who constantly worked on the ocean coast.
“You eat chickens, other poultry, goats, and we eat people, why not?”
One of the leaders of the Liboko tribe, when asked about the consumption of human flesh, exclaimed:
- Ay! If it were up to me, I would devour every last one on this earth!
In the Mobangi River basin, cannibals organize surprise raids on settlements scattered on both banks of the river, capturing the inhabitants and enslaving them. The captives are fed for slaughter, like cattle, and then transported up the river in several canoes. There, cannibals exchanged live goods for ivory.
The new owners, resellers, kept their slaves so that they had a decent, “marketable appearance”, after which they killed them, dismembered the corpses and sold the meat by weight. If the market was oversaturated, then they kept some of the meat, smoked it over the fire, or buried it to the depth of a spade bayonet near a small fire. After this treatment, the meat could be stored for several weeks and sold without any haste. The cannibal bought a leg or other part separately, cut it into pieces and fed them to his wives, children and slaves."
This is a picture Everyday life thousands and thousands of people in black Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. Missionaries who spread the new faith among the natives of Africa claimed that the newly converted cannibals began to lead a righteous, quiet Christian life.
But there were few of them. One talkative savage, when asked why he eats human flesh, answered indignantly:
“You white people think pork is the most delicious meat, but it can be quite compared to human flesh. Human meat tastes better, and why can’t you eat what you especially like? Well, why are you attached to us? We also buy our live meat and kill it. What do you care about this?
In conversation with a missionary local admitted that he had recently killed and eaten one of his seven wives: “She, a scoundrel, violated the law of family and tribe!” And he feasted gloriously with the rest of the wives, filling himself with her meat for edification.
IN east africa Cannibalism existed until recently, as stated by the authorities of the countries of this region, but it was accompanied by much less cruelty and atrocities compared to cannibalism in equatorial Africa, especially in its western part.
Cannibal customs in eastern Africa are characterized by some kind of “domestic” economy. The flesh of old people, sick people, incapable of anything, was dried and stored with almost religious reverence in the family pantry. She was offered as a sign special attention as a delicacy for guests. Refusal to eat was perceived as a mortal insult, and agreement to accept the offer meant an intention to further strengthen the friendship.
No doubt, many travelers to East Africa, for the above reasons, had to try this food. And here you shouldn’t be a hypocrite. How else can one explain the fact that expeditions consisting of several whites could freely cover vast distances across eastern and equatorial Africa, inhabited by savage, bloodthirsty tribes who ate their own kind as a matter of course?
How to explain all this? During their travels, they were actively helped by the indigenous population. What was their friendship based on? On strict implementation local traditions and customs. Anyone who has been lucky enough to visit the African outback knows this firsthand.
In their memoirs, the great travelers to eastern, western and equatorial Africa did not say a word about the fact that, due to certain circumstances, they had to violate the commandments of Christianity. Morals and ethics did not allow them to write this.
The same cannot be said about the legendary African explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Arms in hand, he made his way through the jungles of Africa, not alone, but as part of squads armed with firearms, numbering from 150 to 300 or more people.
Stanley carried with him the morality of "the present" white man. He went down in the history of exploration of the African continent as a cruel, unyielding white colonialist who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals.
Man is carnivorous by nature. For many hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years he adhered to traditions of their ancestors- eating their own kind. This is evidenced by bones and skulls discovered in Switzerland and other countries. And later, at the end of the Bronze Age, while processing metals, man ate human flesh. Evidence of this is the judgment and point of view of Diogenes. Polemicizing about the benefits of labor as the most terrible and invincible opponents of lazy people, he proposed subjecting the latter to “purification rites, or better yet, killing them, cutting them into meat and eating them, as they do with large fish.”
Based on information collected in the 19th and 20th centuries, it can be assumed that the practice of eating human flesh existed on all continents, except Europe .
Back in the 17th century, the great French philosopher and moralist Michel Montaigne suggested leaving the cannibals alone, because the customs of the Europeans, although different in many ways, were, in essence, even more cruel and misanthropic than those of the cannibals.
