Congo Basin

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## Congo Basin

### films

The African Queen
Tarzan

### attractions

Jungle Cruise (attraction)
Tower of Terror (referenced)

### Inhabitants

Belgian colonial empire
Tarzan
Pygmy tribe
Jane Porter
Prof. Archimedes Q. Porter
Gorilla raiders
Kejo the Silverback
Mangani
Baboons
Jungle Navigation Company
Mtundu tribe
Shiriki Utundu (formerly)
Pith gorilla
Baby gorilla
Parent gorilla
Marksman gorilla
Ituri Okapi Project
Igwe Olugu
Congo Hunting Party
R.V. Laust Surveying & Cartography
Charlie Allnut (formerly)

### Visitors

Frank Wolff
Dr. Albert Falls
Aero-Casablanca
Luana Teixeira
Thompson J. Gazelle
Indiana Jones
David Livingstone
Sir Morton Stanley

**The Congo Basin** or more simply known as the **Congo** or in colonial history as the **Belgian Congo** is a real-world location.

## Description

The Congo basin is a sedimentary basin around the Congo river in Central Africa. It is a vast tropical locale which is home to various Indigenous Africana tribes.

### Points of interest

#### Water-bodies

* **Boyoma Falls**:
* **Congo River**:
* **Schweitzer Falls**: Schweitzer Falls was a waterfall at an intersection of the Rivers of Adventure, connecting the Nile, Congo and Zambezi rivers.
* **Ubangi River**:

#### Assorted

* **Boathouse**:
* **Democratic Republic of the Congo**:
* **Gorilla Territory**:
	+ **Congo base camp**:
* **GRACE**: This was the *Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center*, located around the Northern Congo.
* **Ituri Rainforest**: The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest in modern-Ituri Province located northeast in the Congo. In modern days, this rainforest was used for conservation of okapi populations.
* **Kisangani**:
	+ **Stanleyville Research Station**:
* **Mtundu village**:
* **Pygmy camp**:
* **Republic of Congo**:
* **Rocks**:
* **Tarzan's treehouse**:
* **Ubundu**:

### Wildlife

#### Fauna

* **Baboons**:
* **Leopards**:
* **Gorillas**:

## History

### Real-world background

#### Indigenous history & Sir Morton Stanley

The Congo is home to a vast multitude of Indigenous peoples. In 1867, British colonist Sir Morton Stanley journeyed through the Congo in search of lost physician David Livingstone. An imperial colonial explorer, Stanley named many features after himself (despite them already having been named and frequented by the aforementioned multitudes of Africana peoples). In the November of 1871, Stanley tracked down Sir Morton Stanley and met him with the words, "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?".

Sir Morton Stanley returned to Europe in 1878, he profiteered off of stories of his exploration. In this time, he spread propaganda to a multitude of circles that it was the duty of the British Empire to conquer the Congo to, "pour the civilisation of Europe into the barbarism of Africa". This propaganda caught on with the tyrant Leopold II of Belgium who sent Morton back to the Congo to barter and manipulate Indigenous peoples into selling their land to Belgium. The result of this was Leopold becoming the constitutional king of the, "**Congo Free State**" in a reign defined by various atrocities and mass death throughout the Indigenous population.

#### Tyranny of Leopold II

From 1885 to 1908, the Belgian government exploited the land and its people for the natural rubber exporting industry. Companies in this industry were allowed to effectively enslave the Indigenous population via forced labour in obtaining rubber. Leopold II also assembled a personal army known as the *Force Publique* which enforced these labour-laws and would destroy entire villages if even one inhabitant disobeyed servitude; this army was also known to chop off the hands of those they murdered to keep tally. Orphaned children would be kidnapped and forced into Catholic schools to be abused, fed propaganda and be raised into soldiers for the Force Publique.

In addition to this, diseases brought by the Europeans and increased importing/exporting also ravaged the Africana population. Leopold's extortion of the land also resulted in mass famine amongst Indigenous communities. An exact number of dead is not known but in campaigns against the Congo Free State, activist Edmund D. Morel referred to the loss as that of, "20 million souls". In 1890, a campaign against Leopold II began though it the rule was only ended in 1908. The Congo Free State was subsequently transformed into the **Belgian Congo** which pressured the government to end many (but not all) of the colonial horrors set on the state by the Belgian Empire which continued to rule the state.

King Leopold II took several measures to cover up several of his atrocities, including burning down a library of evidence. The Congo still however was highly oppressed by European powers, hosting many companies and missionaries who took advantage of the land. From this time into the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo became subject to many racist ideas of, "Evolving" the Indigenous population and forcing comparatively inhumane capitalist industries onto the land. In 1959, the Congolese people began an uprising against European and Christian rule which gained them their independence.

### Disney Parks

#### Shiriki Utundu

Between roughly 1829 and 1839, there was a rivalry between the Mtundu tribe and Kokoko tribe. This rivalry resulted in the Kokoko forcing the Mtundu off of their land. To reclaim their land, the Mtundu stole a wooden idol known as *Shiriki Utundu* from another tribe, an idol depicting a god of carnage. The Mtundu partook in a ritual to bring the idol to life and fight off the Kokoko.

The following morning, the Mtundu found the idol's spear drenched in blood. The Mtundu subsequently learned that every man, woman and child of the Kokoko people had been murdered. However, the land which was reclaimed had become near worthless. Mortified, the Mtundu decided to become caretakers of the idol and keep the rest of the world safe from its violence. The Mtundu passed on this noble role for several generations to come.

#### Settlers & colonial exploration

Around 1862, a wealthy couple and their infant son were stranded in a region of the Congo which was part of Adventureland. The two proceeded to make a treehouse in a Disneyoendron tree before being killed by the leopard Sabor. The couple's infant son was adopted by a troop of gorillas and given the name of, "Tarzan". Through unknown means at an unknown time, petroglyphs would be made at the base of this tree depicting, "Treehouse Juju" pendants traded by the colonial *Adventure Trading Company* in the likeness of the treehouse built by the Robinson family of the Swiss East-Indies in 1805.

In 1867, knighted British explorer Sir Morton Stanley travelled to the Congo Basin in pursuit of lost physician David Livingstone. Stanley documented much of the Congo while writing propaganda against the Indigenous peoples and dubbing already named features after himself, such as the feature of, "Stanley Falls" (Boyoma Falls). In the November of 1871, Stanley tracked down Sir Morton Stanley and met him with the words, "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?".

In 1882, Tarzan met with a gorilla-studying expedition lead by Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his daughter Jane. Here, Tarzan was taught about human culture by the expedition. Conflict came when resident hunter Clayton attempted to lead a mutiny and sell off the gorillas only to be defeated by Tarzan. Following this, the professor and his daughter chose to stay with Tarzan in his treehouse while Tarzan also became king of the apes.

#### Subjugation

Throughout the 1880s-1890s, the Belgian Empire subjugated the Congo Basin with assistance from Sir Morton Stanley. Under the tyranny of the Belgian Empire, the Congo was renamed to, "The Belgian Congo".

Around the July of 1891, British colonist Dr. Albert Falls used the mystical *Rivers of Adventure* to access the Congo from India's Ganges river. This was part of a 13-day expedition to document the *Jungle Rivers of Adventureland*. Falls spent somewhere between three and four days in the basin and would make his most famous, "Discovery" in the form of *Schweitzer Falls*. Falls left the basin by using the Rivers of Adventure to travel from the basin to access the Nile river in North Africa (either in Egypt or Sudan) and the African veldt along it.

In the year 1899, the evil billionaire Harrison Hightower III of the *Society of Explorers and Adventurers* travelled to the Congo with his guild of colonial robbers, the *Pillagers Brigade*. While attempting to rob Indigenous peoples, Hightower and his manservant Smelding were separated from the group and saved by the Mtundu tribe. After learning about the Shiriki Utundu idol, Hightower and Smelding stole the sculpture in the night and took it to the Hotel Hightower of New York City. Hightower held a party in the Hotel Hightower to celebrate the theft with many members of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers attending to commemorate his robbery only for Shiriki Utundu to spring to life and kill Hightower, leaving the hotel abandoned.

In 1906, S.E.A. member Dr. J.L Baterista who attended Hightower's ceremony presenting Shiriki Utundu went on a riverboat expedition on the Congo River. This voyage was later commemorated by the society through mounting its oar in a colonial Polynesian base of theirs. Prior to 1938, victorian S.E.A. member Luana Teixeira would photograph much of the basin and publish images of it in her book *Photos of Congo*. On the April 8th of 1911, Dr. Albert Falls founded the Jungle Navigation Company which regularly passed through the Congo. At some point, the Jungle Navigation Company constructed a boathouse in the Congo along the Congo river. At some point following 1916, the basin was visited by JNC boatsman Frank Wolff on an expedition to map a new route for the Rivers of Adventure, accessing it from the Amazon rainforest then using it to leave for the Nile.

#### The Jungle Cruise

Despite their colonial activities, the Jungle Navigation Company was seemingly allied with the Indigenous, "Pygmy" tribe of the region and frequently stopped at their tribe. Another company which established its presence in the Congo was the airline *Aero-Casablanca* which offered, "*Aero-Casablanca's Belgian Congo River tour*" that stayed in the Congo for a minimum 25 years per tour. Between 1913 and 1938, one of these airplanes is believed to have crashed in the Congo.

On the October 1 of 1931, Jungle Navigation Company president Alberta Falls started the, "Jungle Cruise" tourism service which passed through the Congo. Amongst the Jungle Cruise's offerings were dangerous, "Nighttime excursions down the Congo" that the company seemed to Shanghai, "Volunteers" for. A base camp was established along the Congo river which was used around 1936 by a group of big-game hunters. These hunters were robbed by the local gorillas with said ransacking having been reported by Nigel Greenwater on the *Global Broadcasting Service*. A Jungle Navigation Company boat known as the *Jungle Princess* went missing in the Congo and was lost spotted on the May 27th of 1936. The boat was presumed as missing by the company.

Around 1936, the *Adventure Trading Company* came to Adventureland at which time, the petroglyphs of treehouse jujus were discovered at the base of Tarzan's Treehouse. This discovery was covered in *The Daily Gnus* newspaper by journalist Tallahassee Glover who interviewed British witch-doctor Colonel Nedley "Shrunken Ned" Lostmore and talking-bird José of the Enchanted Tiki Room on the subject to little avail. Following this, aspiring members of the Trading Company investigated it themselves and received their own Treehouse Jujus for the mission. Also around this time, Daily Gnus reporter Thompson J. Gazelle interpreted the gorilla raiders as being the, "Adventureland Gorilla Theatre Company" performing Hamlet and reported on such in the Daily Gnus, even going on to write a book on the subject titled, "Gorilla Theatre". Correlating with these events, an invasive species of North American mallard ducks infesting the Congo along with other regions of Adventureland. While scientists were perplexed by their migration and concerned with the potential harm they could do to the ecosystems, they were put up with due to how cute they were.

In a December between 1935 and 1937, the Congo Basin was polluted along with the rest of the Rivers of Adventure by the Jungle Navigation Company. The company had imported a large amount of Christmas decor and paraphernalia which their pilot by accident dumped in the Rivers of Adventure resulting in mass pollution. Amidst this event, the gorilla raiders ransacked a JNC camp used to store Christmas presents and baking ingredients while the company's crime was reported on by Tallahassee Glover of *The Daily Gnus*. Due to the success of leading Christmas oriented, "Jingle Cruise" tours through the jungle, this act of pollution became an annual standard for the Jungle Navigation Company.

By 1938, the camp was repurposed by R.V. Laust Surveying & Cartography and the Jungle Navigation Companywho who found it robbed by the gorilla raiders. In 1938, the JNC's, "Guest Skipper" Admiral Bartholomew Wrongway was recruited to lead Congo River tours, a region which Wrongway had not traversed before. Due to this, it is believed that Wrongway's driving was reckless and potentially disastrous. At some point following a 1938 adventure to find the Holy Grail, famous archaeologist Indiana Jones visited the Congo Basin, within the region of the JNC's base camp. Jones accidentally left behind a crate from the U.S. government's top secret *Hangar 51* containing the biblical *Ark of the Covenant*. Jones accidentally left the crate in the Congo where it came into the possession of the gorilla, "Kejo the Silverback" before being spotted by the JNC and later reclaimed by the US government.

#### Later history

At some point in time, Trader Sam rode the JNC's boat the *Yangtze Lotus* through Congo where he found the, "Old Family Recipe" of the *Angolada* rum.

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## Jungle Cruise appearances

### Adventure Trading Company

The *Treehouse Juju* mission was set in Tarzan's treehouse. Here, guests had to investigate mysterious petroglyphs at the base of the treehouse shaped like jujus used by the Adventure Trading Company. In *The Daily Gnus* newspaper, both Shrunken Ned and José were interviewed on the subject of the mysterious petroglyphs. There was also a story by Thompson J. Gazelle on the gorilla raiders.

### Africa (Disney's Animal Kingdom)

#### Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail

In this attraction there are posters for for GRACE (the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is also a letter to the Harambe Wildlife Reserve indicating reserve managing director Mae L. Petersen spent time at GRACE. There is also a letter to Dr. K. Kulunda from Igwe Olugu, director of the Ituri Okapi Project in the Ituri forest. This letter brings up how three of the okapis in the Harambe Wildlife Reserve came from the Ituri rainforest.

#### Rafiki's Planet Watch

The Eastern Star Railway is mentioned as connecting to Kisangani, the capital city of Tshopo province.

### Jungle Cruise

A portion of the Jungle Cruise is set in the Congo. Scenes featured have including the gorillas at the base camp, gorilla at the rock, and pygmy tribe. The boats Congo Queen and Congo Connie are named for the region. In the Amazon River Base is an illustrated map of the surrounding regions of Ponthierville in the Belgian Congo. There is also a piece of stone with an add for air tours of, "Casablanca" written on it, mentioning daily departures for, "The Belgian Congo".

In Walt Disney World, Albert Awol makes several announcements related to the Congo. Amongst these are, "*Attention, skippers:  if you're looking for some variety and need to log extra time at the wheel, another group of...uh..."volunteers"...is being shanghaied for nighttime excursions down the Congo.  These fascinating cruises through total darkness can be both exhilarating and unpredictable*","*The DBC is proud--and financially pleased--to welcome a new sponsor to the AWOL Airwaves. It's Aero Casablanca. As an introductory offer, all Jungle Cruise personnel will receive discounted fares on Aero Casablanca's Belgian Congo River tour. All flights must be booked at least two minutes in advance of takeoff, and stays in the Congo region must be for a minimum of twenty-five years. Fly the skies of Aero Casablanca: the airline no one comes back on*"," *This week's Special Guest Skipper is Admiral Bartholomew Wrongway. Admiral Wrongway will be piloting several excursions into the deepest, most dangerous regions of the Congo. Since the Admiral is new to the area, and as such, quite unfamiliar with our waterways, it is recommended that you steer clear of his vessel*" and, "*Individuals taking excursions into the Congo should provide their own drinking water and rations, since snacks will not be served*". Awol also references Tarzan, the gorilla raiders, David Livingstone and Sir Henry Morgan in his spiel.

#### Indiana Jone Summer of Hidden Mysteries

In this refurbishment, the crate from the U.S. government's Hangar 51 containing the *Ark of the Covenant* was left in the Congo by Indiana Jones, near Kejo's rock.

#### Jungle River Cruise

The boathouse in this attraction is set within the Congo and boats pass by Tarzan's treehouse.

### Skipper Canteen

There is a book in the library by Luana Teixeira titled *Photos of Congo*.

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

Artwork of the camp was hung in the washroom of this bar. There is a tribal mask with a note saying, "Gift from the Beyembe people of the Congo. -T.S.".. The description for the bars by Skip Dockmonkey mentions Trader Sam having visited the Congo while studying liquor.. The menus mention that Trader Sam found his family recipe for the *Angolada* drink while riding the Yangtze Lotus through the Congo.

### Tropical Hideaway

There is an oar from the S.E.A. which reads, "Dr. J.L. Baterista, Congo River, 1906".

### Other connections

#### The African Queen

Parts of the film The African Queen were filmed in Ponthierville. This included the titular boat falling off a waterfall, as represented by a model created by the local monastery featured on the Jungle Cruise's Congo map. The map in the base shows a tramp-steamer resembling the African Queen with the advertisement of, "Follow the Route of the *Jungle Queen*".

## Other appearances

### Adventurers Club

A portrait in this club was retconned into depicting the Pillagers Brigade in the Congo.

### Tower of Terror

The Congo is part of this attraction's backstory, having been pillaged by Harrison Hightower III of S.E.A..

## Trivia

* It is unclear at time of writing if the Jungle River Cruise's *Canyon of the Gods* and *Temple of Immortality* are located in the Congo or North Africa.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/new-map-sits-at-the-entrance-to-the-queue-on-jungle-cruise-news-photo/1327854113
2. ↑ https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/a-walk-through-pangani-forest-exploration-trial/
3. ↑ https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/disneys-magic-kingdom-late-morning-adventureland-touring-with-jungle-cruise-pirates-and-crowds/
4. ↑ https://www.mousesteps.com/2011/09/25/detailed-look-at-trader-sams-enchanted-tiki-bar-disneyland-hotel-from-august-2011/2/
5. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B7JrGeCgxUJ/
6. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CRhxm1Hg\_ow/
7. ↑ https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/disney-trader-sams-menu-christmas-1904102599
8. ↑ https://www.movie-locations.com/movies/a/African-Queen.php