From Joey Ratliff

congo2, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. This picture is from 1947 or 1948. The elephant men are from the Asandeh tribe in the Congo. This was project started by the Belgian king Leopold II around 1900, he wanted to start an elephant brigade to be control parts of the colony. He brought in mahouts from India to train the elephants and the men. In the 30's it became a full military unit with colors and uniforms. The unit lasted until around 1964 when the Congo gained it's independence from Belgian with four animals living into the 1980's. At it's peak the camp is said to have had 100 trained military elephants in 1952.