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Rubber was exported from the Belgian Congo, starting in 1890. Congo rubber was a commercial rubber most notable for its forced harvesting under conditions of great human suffering, in the Congo Free State, detailed in the 1904 Casement Report.
Some estimates, that during 1885-1908 about 10 million people were killed in rubber industry in Congo.
History
According to a 1905 article (shortly after the peak of Congo production):
Red Kasai and Congo rubbers are obtained from the same species of vines, namely, the Landolphia, Owariensis Pal. Beauv., L. Gentilii De Wild and L. Droogmansiana De Wild. The difference in color, which is the chief distinction, is probably due to the different climatic conditions in the two districts, and different modes of collecting and coagulating, and not to any inherent property of the latices. Landolphia Klainei also gives a reddish rubber when grown under the same conditions as the above mentioned species. The red colour of the rubber appears to be accentuated more and more as the district in which the vine is cultivated is farther from the zone known as the Great Equatorial Forest. In the south of the Congo territory, for instance, latitude 7S and 8S, the india-rubber collected is almost red. In the Upper Congo the latex from these varieties is very watery, whilst in the Kasai district it is thick. In the former district it is coagulated by means of Bosanga, and in the latter it coagulates spontaneously in contact with air.
The bosanga method is described in the 1907 Journal of the African Society (as noted in a preface and postscript by the editor, a vastly more pleasant description than the outraged accounts of the Congo Reform Association a few years previous):
In modern times Landolphia owariensis Beauv., known as "white rubber vine" and Congo rubber, eta, or abo, is primarily used for its fruits, but occasionally for rubber band production; it was a major source for rubber from nations including Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria in the early 1900s.