King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost

I am a member of the AP World History Listserv. Recently, I noticed that an AP World History teacher was recommending Adam Hochschild’s book King Leopold’s Ghost. Since I have read this non-fiction book, I want to devote a blog to it, and also recommend the book for history teachers and for advanced world history students. But beware! It is gruesome reading.

One-Person Rule Most people do not know that the Congo Free State was not a colony of Belgium from 1885 to 1908, but was a personal fiefdom of Belgium’s King Leopold II. Although the King never visited his central African state, he had complete control over what went on there and raked in an estimated $1 billion for his personal use. He did not give this income to the Belgian government, and in fact sometimes billed the Belgian government for expenses.

Why the Congo? This area of Africa was a source of ivory (from elephants) and had rich mineral deposits. But what made Congo especially appealing to Leopold was the sap of rubber trees (see below). Processed rubber was starting to be used in bicycle tires (and, later, motor vehicle tires) and as insulation in electrical and phone lines. In 1885, there were not yet any mature rubber tree plantations, so the only way to harvest rubber was to send people into the rain forests to look for wild rubber trees.

Rubber Harvesting To get the rubber harvested, Leopold’s company forced millions of Congolese people to go into the forests and bring it out. The Belgians hired Africans to form security forces all over the Congo. Each unit was headed by a white man, not necessarily a Belgian. Even though slavery had been outlawed internationally, the security forces in the Congo temporarily enslaved village after village through force and intimidation. One method was to take the women of the village hostage, telling the men that the hostages would be released if a rubber quota was met. While waiting for the men to come back after weeks of hard work, some of the women might die of hunger. If the men came back with something less than the quota, the women were killed, and so were the men who returned. The security forces nevertheless kept the rubber, moving on to the next village, where the process was repeated. Sometimes the villagers ran away before the mercenaries arrived. In that case, the security forces took all the food and livestock and burned down the village. Some of those who stayed out in the rain forest starved to death for lack of food. But if they came back to their village, they could get caught and killed.

Horrifying Reminders Some villages and tribes resisted the Europeans. In that case, the security force’s reaction was to call for the death of everyone in those villages and tribes. A bounty was put on each person killed. Rather than have to haul the dead bodies out of the rain forests, a method was devised to cut off the right hand of each dead person. Sometimes the hand was smoked and cured so it would not stink and deteriorate. Those who hauled a cartload or boatload of the severed hands to a trading post were given money (or what passed for money) in return. Some enterprising scoundrels would chop off the right hand of live persons in order to collect the reward. Thus, photos exist of Africans posing for a portrait with one hand missing.

The author estimates that 3 to 8 million indigenous people died as a result of the actions of Leopold’s company. Not all of the Congolese were murdered, however. Some died of diseases brought to the area by Europeans. Others died from malnutrition or exposure due to hiding out in the rain forests. But any way you look at it, the numbers are of Holocaust proportions.

Basis of Heart of Darkness? One point that the author makes is that Joseph Conrad based his novel Heart of Darkness on real events that had taken place in the Congo Free State, and that the main character, Kurtz, was a composite of several real white functionaries in the Congo. In the novel, the heads of African victims were displayed on posts near where Kurtz lived. Conrad knew what he was writing about because he had spent time voyaging up and down the Congo River during Leopold’s reign.

How Did It End? Despite efforts of King Leopold to censor accounts of what was happening in the Congo Free State, some missionaries and journalists did speak out, especially in Great Britain. As a result of the exposés, the Congo became an official Belgian colony in 1908. The system of enforced labor ended. But why did it take the Belgian government 23 years to reign in its monarch?