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- Page navigation anchor for Primary care at Yakusu in the Belgian Congo, 1921–1960Primary care at Yakusu in the Belgian Congo, 1921–1960The author attributes the decline in population noted in the Congo, at least up to the 1920s, to that of the “spread of diseases through a now much more mobile population” rather that “the notorious brutality of Leopold’s early rule”. However, I cannot understand how the causes of population decline can be separated into either Leopold’s “brutal regime” or to that of a “mobile population”, as the mobile population he is referring to describes the internally displaced people who fled the violence of the brutal regime.One must realise that the area now known as Congo wasn’t part of the Belgium empire initially, rather it was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II of Belgium, and was known initially as The Congo Free state. Leopold sent his officers from a variety of European countries with the purpose of organising a system to extract rubber, amongst other produce, from populations along the river. Those who ended up as Congo Free state officials in the Congo were often young poor men. They would lead this corporation to use force to get what they want. Much of the enforcement was carried about by The Force Publique, a mercenary band of soldiers from as far afield as Zanzibar and Liberia, as well as from specific ethnic and social demographics.1 Those who refused their labour were met with coercion repression and violence. Failure to meet rubber q...Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.