week16-My Experience Translating and Writing about the Belgian Congo and African Slavery on Wikipedia-SHAO TIANYI

 Over the past few days, I’ve dedicated part of my time to editing Wikipedia entries, focusing on one of the most complex and painful chapters in African colonial history: the economic development of the Belgian Congo and the institutionalization of forced labor. This historical case not only reflects the entanglement of colonialism and capitalism but also reveals the long-term consequences suffered by Congolese people. I chose to work on this topic because many relevant Chinese-language entries on Wikipedia remain incomplete, underdeveloped, or biased. My goal is to contribute toward a more comprehensive and critical representation of this history.

Why the Belgian Congo?

The Belgian Congo represents one of the most brutal extremes of European colonialism. From the atrocities committed during King Leopold II’s personal rule to the later "modernized" systems of forced cultivation and labor migration, the colony offers a condensed view of how imperial economies outsourced the cost of development to the colonized themselves. These topics are rarely covered in depth in Chinese-language content, making them especially worth translating and expanding.

Challenges and Reflections in the Translation Process

1. Terminology: Accuracy in Representing Oppression

Colonial administrative language often masks violence with bureaucratic neutrality. Terms such as “mandatory cultivation” or “able-bodied worker quotas” sound benign but represent the coercion of entire communities. Translating such terms requires ethical care—ensuring fidelity to the original while revealing the underlying power dynamics.

2. Sourcing: Wikipedia Standards vs. Academic Rigor

In writing for Wikipedia, I maintained strict citation practices, using templates like {{cite book}} or {{cite journal}}, and including trans-title for clarity in Chinese. The challenge wasn’t finding sources—it was verifying whether they genuinely supported the claims. For example, I used David van Reybrouck’s Congo: The Epic History of a People to trace mining data from the 1920s, while cross-referencing with academic journal articles from Oxford Research Encyclopedia and studies on colonial taxation.

3. Linking Across Languages: Technical but Important

Many relevant Wikipedia articles like “plantation economy” or “De Broqueville government in exile” have no Chinese versions. To maintain coherence, I used templates like {{link-en|Chinese translation|English article name}} or {{tsl|en|English article name|Chinese label}} to create accurate and useful cross-language links. While technical, these edits improve the accessibility and connectivity of the content.

Writing History Is Building Memory

Wikipedia is not just a knowledge repository—it’s a space of collective memory. Choosing to translate and write is also choosing which histories deserve attention. For postcolonial regions like Africa, Southeast Asia, or Latin America, incorporating their colonial pasts into Chinese-language knowledge systems helps decenter dominant narratives and restores a measure of historical justice.

Postscript: Writing Through the Fatigue

I’ll be honest—this work is emotionally and intellectually exhausting. Every sentence feels like flipping through a chronicle of pain. Every source reminds me of how deeply colonial violence shaped the world. And yet, it’s precisely because these histories are real and raw that they deserve to be remembered and made visible.