Reflections on Kokemäenjoki

We remember the achievement, but not the price. We know that history is full of glory. But the price of that glory is sometimes suffering that breaks all limits that we can imagine. We forget that in the past, slaves had a big role in the economy. We remember the Holocaust, we remember Stalin’s camps. But we don’t remember Belgium Congo. Why? We can ask that of ourselves. We must realize that cotton was the main product, made by using slaves.  We can say that Finland didn’t participate in slavery, because Finland was not independent. But sometimes Finns and Swedish people participated in those actions as individuals. Belgians wanted to outsource the dirty work in Leopold’s Garden to Swedish and Finnish people. Like Swedish Reserve officers. 

Nobody knows whether Finnish businessmen knew. In 1898. About the conditions. The cotton is produced in Africa. Cotton was the main product. That was made by slaves. The cotton has a very close connection with slavery. Public opinion caused slavery. To be disbanded. But that horrifying action continued in Africa at least. In the year 1904. The slavery continued under the protection of Leopold II of Belgium. And after that, slavery is a big problem in the world. Even today, there are lots of people in the world who live in total slavery. 

The Belgian Congo and  Congo Free State case. Cotton is not a very well-known thing. For some reason, people mention rubber in that case.  But we must realize that cotton is produced everywhere there is slavery. So we must say that Leopold II might not refuse to produce and sell cotton. The main product of the Free State Congo was rubber. But as I wrote everywhere, there is slavery. Slaves collect cotton. Cotton is a better merchandise to produce by slaves. Because the cotton collector doesn’t need knives or other tools. They could use it against their guards. This is why I think that cotton was also produced in the Free State Congo. 

The family that invented the first cotton and fabric factory was the Scottish businessman James Finlayson in 1820. The factory that Finlayson established was in Tampere. And this factory was established by local businessmen in 1898. In that time, conditions in Africa were not as good as they are today. In 1898, the Belgian Congo was the private property of Leopold II of Belgium. The name of that area was the Congo Free State.

There is a possibility that he was a member of the Layson (not Lawson) family. That man was one of them. The people who made big money. Here in Finland. That was the beginning of industrialization. It was very easy to establish factories. The country needed money, officials needed uniforms, and people needed money and clothes. Fabric was a good article for trade. The cotton was brought from Africa. And then it turned to thread. The fabric factory. It was purebred cotton, and then those fabrics were sold. The Russian authorities were not interested in the conditions where those cotton workers lived in Africa.

When we think about history. Cotton was a good trade article. People in Europe were not interested in things. That was going on in Africa. The cotton was transported to the Caribbean. There, its origin is marked as the USA or some British or French colonies. Those colonies were under surveillance. Of the British and French authorities. So there was no problem with the conditions. Those people lived there. They didn’t notice. That. Lots of cotton. Were brought. From Leopold II´s private “garden”. Called the Congo. Those conditions were brutal. There.  Never investigated. Did the Finlayson. And his partners know. About those conditions, or what was going on in the Belgian Congo?

There is suspicion that the business of the cotton fabric factory was transferred into the hands of. Local businessmen. Because. Somebody asked about the low price. That. The businessmen paid for the raw material. Called cotton. Cotton was the perfect product for slaves. They couldn’t use that thing against their masters. And the cotton was easy to transport far away from England. In 1904, Sir Roger Casement wrote a report. That opened people's eyes in Europe. That report uncovered. The monstrous actions of Leopold II in Congo. Finland, or the Grand Duchy of Finland, was a good place to transport cotton. Ordinary people didn’t speak English. Or French. If there were some notes that tried to uncover Leopold’s dirty secret, people didn’t understand those texts.

The person who brought the brutal actions of Leopold II into public knowledge was Edmund Dane Morel. But Casement confirmed that information.  Later reports said. The population of the Free State Congo. The population of Congo decreased from 20-30 million to 8 million in 12 years. 

Here I must say that Leopold II lived in the final stage of slavery. Things. The telegraph made it possible to transmit information to Europe. The letters could disappear. But then. Roger Casement, the telegraph and diplomatic mails, told people the truth about things like the origin of the cotton.

Once in history. The city of Pori lived because of the river. The Kokemäenjoki offered a good route. To bring cotton to the Finlayson cotton-fabric factory. Ships and ferries also carried coal to that factory.  The images portray Kokemäenjoki in the opposite of the old cotton, or fabric factory. The facatory itself is a remarkable artifact from the past. Something that we remember, but those factories never return. Today, the building houses a university center. And a shopping center.

But they are echoes from the past. Time that we want to remember. The river is like time. The time travel through the town that was established a long time ago. Generations lived in that place. But we live here on Earth for only a short period. History teaches us. But. We cannot look at the past when we face problems. History is many times. Glorified. If we were to base our industry on the same principles as this old fabric factory, we would be in bigger trouble than we are now. Those factories that we remember from the industrialization time. In the 19th century, pollution was caused by those factories.

Finlayson got information that the cotton was not made by using slaves. And then he could live with a pure conscience. The fabrics that are made in that factory. They were marked as made in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was part of the Russian Empire. Have the people who owned that factory ever visited Africa? I think that answer was no. The reason why cotton turned into fabric in places like Finland was simple. People never blurt out what they saw in Africa. Slavery was officially forbidden in England. So there was danger that the people, like sailors or priests, could tell what conditions there were where the cotton workers lived and worked in Africa in 1898

Oy Finlayson AB bought the Porin Puuvilla Oy in 1974. And in 1981. There was a big fire in the loom, and that destroyed the factory. The production ended. In that factory in 1991.

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Dene_Morel

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlayson

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongon_vapaavaltio

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porin_Puuvilla

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casement_Report

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._D._Morel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium