Caitlin Hoover

Due: March 1st, 2016

Politics of Africa Book Summary

King Leopold’s Ghost 

By Adam Hochschild

INTRODUCTION

        In King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild gives a detailed historical account of the people who drove the genocide in the Congo and the individuals who dedicated their lives to stopping it. The book is incredibly gripping and Hochschild uses sources wisely to examine how the mass killings, slavery, and abuses took place in the Congo for so many years. Hochschild recounts how King Leopold II’s reign of terror in the Congo began, how the international community stood by, how the mass violations of Congolese fundamental human rights finally garnered the public’s eye, and how even in death the violence continued for years and the Ghost of King Leopold II still plagues the world while he is celebrated as a great humanitarian. It is as if the world has forgotten what happened in the Congo less than 100 years ago, and King Leopold’s mountain of lies continues to plague history today.

SUMMARY

Part One: Walking Into Fire

        In part One of his book, Hochschild explains the growing desire within King Leopold to seize a colony, how he came to control the Congo, the human rights violations he ordered committed there and how he convinced the international community he was acting on behalf of humanitarianism- even though people began speaking out against his reign while he scurried to silence them. Hochschild describes Kind Leopold II as cold, awkward and repulsive while he was growing up. It wasn’t until King Leopold II discovered his seemingly unquenchable lust for colonialism that he began becoming sly and learning the political game of flattery. Seemingly what the Belgian people wanted did not matter to King Leopold II, “Few Belgians shared Leopold’s love of colonies. They were deterred by practical considerations- such as their countries lack of a merchant fleet or navy- that seemed petty to him.”^[1] However, when Leopold II rose to power he spent all of his time searching for a colony and when he realized no European countries were looking to sell their own colonies, he decided to make his own.

        Even though Leopold II never set foot in the Congo himself, he used political figures, explorers (such as Stanley) and other white men he had appointed to establish the colony for him. To deter the French and British from noticing his colonial exploits, he operated under the guise of multiple organizations, some which he created like The International African Association^[2], and some which were already established such as the Aborigines Protection Society^[3], to protect native citizens and stop the spread of slavery. Leopold II was so intent on convincing the world he was a humanitarian, he even hosted multiple human rights conferences and meetings, “To the King’s great satisfaction, Brussels was chosen as the location, for eight months of intermittent meetings starting in November 1889, for an Anti-Slavery Conference of the major powers. The ‘humanitarian’ king happily entertained the delegates, in whose meeting room at the Belgian Foreign Ministry a forked slave-yoke was on display.”^[4] King Leopold II was so effective at convincing other powers, organizations, and even his own government that he was a humanitarian, that he was even granted a loan from the Belgian government to continue his work establishing “free-trade” and “Christianity” in the Congo.

        In reality, the King had taken over territory in the Congo by force, sending Stanley on marching crusades across the continent of Africa where he gained a reputation for his temper and for killing natives, “Stanley’s bloody progress down the river became part of local oral history, sometimes taking on the elements of legend, for the range and accuracy of his rifles seemed supernatural to those who had never seen such weapons.”^[5] The king’s men also forced local tribal chiefs to sign contracts giving them the “rights” to ownership of their land and forced labor. As George Washington Williams later writes about the cruelties of Leopold’s reign in the Congo, “Your Majesty’s Government is engaged in the slave-trade, wholesale and retail […] Your Majesty’s Government is excessively cruel to its prisoners, condemning them, for the slightest offenses, to the chain gang…Often these ox-chains eat into the necks of the prisoners and produce sores about which the flies circle, aggravating the running wound.”^[6] Williams, a black American, also recollected how White officers were shooting villagers for sport and to capture their women^[7]. Even though Williams began publishing these writings in public news stories, he was disregarded for many years due to the color of his skin.

Part Two: A King at Bay

        In part two of his book, Hochschild explains how the mass atrocities being committed in the Congo finally gain widespread global attention, how the violence continued for years even after Leopold II died, and how even in death- King Leopold’s ghost is celebrated as one of the first and most influential humanitarians. As previously mentioned George Washington Williams wrote fiercely and honestly about the mass human rights violations taking place in the Congo. Although it took many years for his works to be regarded by the public as true, he thoroughly influenced multiple organizations to begin lobbying support to investigate within the Congo.

In addition to this, two new writers emerged in the international spotlight, E.D. Morel and Roger Casement, both Europeans disgusted with the atrocities happening in the Congo. Morel himself began investigating and publishing multiple articles, books and telegrams, “Sometimes missionaries sent Morel the names of the dead, and these, too, he published, like casualty lists in wartime. […] Morel also exposed the web of deceptions, large and small, continually spun by Leopold and his allies.”^[8] Casement reached out to Morel through telegram after he himself witnessed happenings in the Congo, “A dog-lover himself, Casement later learned, to his horror, that Stanley has cut off his own dog’s tail, cooked it, and fed it to the dog to eat. Casement saw much more brutality on the part of other white men in Africa.”^[9] Morel and Casement were among the first White European writers to name specific individuals committing human rights violations against the Congolese and to publically pursue soiling King Leopold II’s name and regime.

        Even after Leopold’s death, the violence in the Congo continued, “Both in Africa and Europe, Leopold’s death has promised to mark the end of an era. Many Belgians felt relieved; at last they would be rid of the multiple embarrassments of his youthful mistress, his unseemly quarrels with his daughters, and the sheet nakedness of his greed. But it was soon clear the Leopold’s ghost would not vanish so easily. The King who had died while in possession of one of Europe’s largest fortunes had tried to take it with him. After a fashion, he had succeeded.”^[10] Leopold slyly hid his fortunes, profits from the exploitation of Congolese as slaves to gather rubber and ivory for him to sell, in multiple organizations and museums. Even though the previously mentioned authors and the public were well aware of the atrocities taking place in the Congo, the beginning of WWII increased the legal maximum forced labor in the Congo in an effort to bring in more rubber for military trucks.^[11] “Although they failed to end forced labor, the Congo reformers for roughly a decade were spectacularly successful in keeping the territory in the spotlight.”^[12] It was ultimately this endless pursuit of justice by those who were not profiting from rubber and ivory in the Congo which began to change the opinion of the public and bring an end to Kind Leopold II’s colony in the Congo.

        Ironically, even with the king’s death and the widespread information on the realities in the Congo, King Leopold is still regarded today as a great humanitarian. There is even a museum in Brussels named the Royal Museum for Central Africa, which was funded by King Leopold II. “It takes a full day to see all the exhibits, from Stanley’s cap to Leopold’s cane, from slave manacles to a dugout canoe big enough for a hundred men. One gallery full of weapons and uniforms celebrates the ‘anti-slavery campaigns’ of the 1890’s- against the ‘Arab’ slavers, of course. A plaque lists the names of several dozen Force Publique officers who ‘rest in African earth’.”^[13] This same forces which wiped out entire communities within the Congo through rape, torture, slavery and genocide, are being celebrated as heroes today.

CONCLUSION

Hochschild uses King Leopold’s Ghost to remind the international community of the truth of what happened in the Congo and of King Leopold II’s regime of terror. His book is an eerie warning of how history can and will be rewritten and how major world powers will turn their backs to genocides happening in Africa and around the world as long as they gain profit. Hochschild shows the world how what happened in the Congo ultimately sparked the movement of human rights around the world and how this spark is still a threat to global powers today. “At the time of the Congo controversy a hundred years ago, the idea of full human rights, political, social, and economic, was a profound threat to the established order of most countries on earth. It still is today.”^[14]

WORKS CITED

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in 
     Colonial Africa. First Mariner Book's ed. New York: Houghton 
     Mifflin Company, 1998. Print.