Word: serfdom
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King Lukengu's troubles began last summer when the Congo became a republic and the new provincial government of Kasai decreed that it was "undemocratic" for one man to keep 800 wives in a life of semi-serfdom. "We have our freedom now," said Kasai President Barthelemy Mukenge, 35, "and these women must have theirs...
...tide is definitely turning," said the frail old man. "My crackpot idea is becoming the idea that will save America from economic serfdom and will bring happiness and prosperity." The time was 1937, and Dr. Francis E. Townsend was almost right: his Townsend Plan, a Depression-born pension panacea, had caught the fancy of legions of elderly Americans. At flood tide, more than 4,000,000 members in 10,000 Townsend clubs gave the lanky, mesmeric country doctor immense political power, and their contributions, in a river of nickels and dimes, flowed in at the rate...
...June 30; but bloody tribal fighting has raged for months through the Congo. Bitterest of all was in the land of the Lulua. Since the 19th century, when Arab slave raiders drove the frightened Baluba westward into Lulua territory, the Baluba had happily tilled Lulua soil in semi-serfdom in exchange for the right to remain in the area. Then last year, when whispers of Congolese independence filtered out from Leopoldville, the Baluba began declaring themselves free men, tried to take over some of the Lulua land for themselves...
...become Ruanda and Urundi, their great size (average height: 6 ft. 6 in.) froze the hearts of the tribes already living there. The pygmy Mutwas (average height: 4 ft. 6 in.) quickly became their slaves, and the industrious Muhutus (average height: average) gradually settled down into a kind of serfdom. Though only some 550,000 strong, the tall Watutsis dominated a land of 4,600,000. They dressed themselves in fine togas and rich skins, performed war dances and dedicated themselves to the accumulation of lyre-horned cattle...
...special form of wages, a survival of serfdom days when the lord, pleased with his servant, gave him a reward of money.-The Soviet Encyclopedia...