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William2's Reviews > King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
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William2's review
bookshelves: christianity, history, nonfiction, africa, empire-post-colonial, 20-ce, us, slavery, belgium
Dec 06, 2014
bookshelves: christianity, history, nonfiction, africa, empire-post-colonial, 20-ce, us, slavery, belgium
A few things. First, I have read widely about Mao's Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward (40 to 70 million dead), Stalin's purges and programs of collectivization (20 million dead) and Hitler's genocide (11 million dead). I am largely unshockable. However, the avarice and deceit of King Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo (15 million dead) has been something of a revelation. I hereby enter his name in my Rogues Gallery roster. It is important that we remember what he perpetrated for his own personal gain. Adam Hochschild's book does an excellent job of registering these crimes in the collective memory. The book has been justly praised. Let me add my own.
Also, it turns out the first great unmasker of Leopold was an American, George Washington Williams. He was a lawyer, minister, popular author and activist. He wrote an open letter to Leopold that was published in the Times in 1890 and which might have saved millions of lives had he been listened to. Williams was a man of considerable intellectual acumen and courage. Largely because he was black, however, he was ignored. I had always thought that that great whistleblower was Roger Casement. And certainly Casement's key contribution is recounted here, as is that of the great popularizer of the Congo cause, E.D. Morel, but Williams' audacious early warning was a surprise to me. I hereby enter his name into my book of latter-day Cassandras, and decree he be given greater emphasis in all relevant texts and courses.
Also, it turns out the first great unmasker of Leopold was an American, George Washington Williams. He was a lawyer, minister, popular author and activist. He wrote an open letter to Leopold that was published in the Times in 1890 and which might have saved millions of lives had he been listened to. Williams was a man of considerable intellectual acumen and courage. Largely because he was black, however, he was ignored. I had always thought that that great whistleblower was Roger Casement. And certainly Casement's key contribution is recounted here, as is that of the great popularizer of the Congo cause, E.D. Morel, but Williams' audacious early warning was a surprise to me. I hereby enter his name into my book of latter-day Cassandras, and decree he be given greater emphasis in all relevant texts and courses.
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Reading Progress
December 6, 2014
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Started Reading
December 6, 2014
– Shelved
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
nonfiction
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
history
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
christianity
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
africa
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
empire-post-colonial
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
us
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
20-ce
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
slavery
December 6, 2014
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39.0%
December 6, 2014
– Shelved as:
belgium
December 16, 2014
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Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 67 (67 new)
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Lilo
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rated it 5 stars
Dec 08, 2014 02:13AM
I am presently reading "The Vertigo Years", by Philipp Blom (a highly recommendable book, btw). There it says the first unmasker of Leopold II in the Belgian Congo was Edward Dene Morel, an English shipping clerk, who later met Casement and worked together with him.
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You're right. Morel saw but Washington wrote. He is therefore referred to here has 'the first heretic.' :-)
Morel wrote much later. Williams was disbelieved because he was black, a bigamist, and a debtor. Yet Williams was the first. No question of that.
Regardless who was first, it provides a tiny glimmer of hope that, at least, a few people spoke up. If it weren't for that, one would have to totally despair about our species.I guess, I am despairing, nevertheless. These humane voices and efforts were nothing but a drop in the ocean of human savagery, which continues to this day on this globe -- if not here, then there.
Don't read this book then. For despair you will. Thousands of white people went in and out of the Congo before Williams wrote his piece . No one said anything.
William wrote: "Don't read this book then. For despair you will. Thousands of white people went in and out of the Congo before Williams wrote his piece . No one said anything."No, I won't read this book. "The Vertigo Years" supplies more than enough horror already.
Unbelievable that it took thousands of white people witnessing these atrocities and mass murders before anyone said anything. Reading history, I have come to the conclusion that our species is a miserable one, with decent specimen being the exception.
William, I came across your excellent book by chance and I'm pleased I did. This sounds a fascinating book and I was particularly interested with the mention of Roger Casement. Can you recommend the best biography on him?
The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa is an excellent fictionalised biog of Roger Casement - covering his humanitarian investigations in the Congo & Amazonia ( present day Equador & Peru) plus his fatal involvement with Irish nationalism
Is your Rogues Gallery roster available to us mere mortals, William1, or are we left to speculate who you'd have on the rack? :-) Another excellent review. The mind-boggling numbers of the Congo genocide got me flashing on Subharan Af and my Sudanese student who keeps me apprised that up to 3 million have been killed in a dozen years in So. Sudan, including 500 just recently.
This book is a real eye-opener. Even though it was called the Belgian Congo, it was really owned by King Leopold. Fascinating reading.
Excellent book!
Have you read Jonathan's Sperber's new bio of Karl Marx? PS The numbers are consensus numbers.
As a Belgian I feel obliged to read this book about a dark period in our history. Among many politicians here in Belgium the question raise if we should apologise about these atrocities caused during the colonial period.
I think an apology from the government—not any public group—would be appropriate. The Belgian people had nothing to do with it. The only problem is that this opens the way for reparations, or more reparations. I don't know anything about the history of reparations between the parties. Thank you for your comment.
What books would you recommend about Mao's Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward and Stalin's purges and programs of collectivizatio?
Sorry for the late reply. There are two books by Simon Sebag Montefiore on Stalin. The first called Stalin:The Court of the Red Tsar and the second called Young Stalin. Please also see Chang and Halliday’s Mao: The Unknown Story.
Question: what is different today regarding these same issues? Is it still happening? What will we say now?
Hi Charla! Good question. By way of an answer I’d like to direct you to Steven Pinker‘s Better Angels of Our Nature. I hope you’ll read it. Be well.
Fenris wrote: "I'm shocked that you actually bought into the propaganda that you've read. How can you say so assuredly that Stalin and Mao killed that many people? You do realize there are many others who have di..."OMG! Who has brainwashed you? And what if the numbers weren't quite correct? The neo-Nazis keep arguing about Holocaust numbers. So the communists are now arguing about the numbers of Stalin's and Mao's mass-murders. I don't get it.
What difference does it make whether a mass murderer butchers 1, 10, 20, ... ... ... or 70 million people? Does this make him less evil? How about calling him a saint if he murdered less than a million people?
Bernd wrote: "As a Belgian I feel obliged to read this book about a dark period in our history. Among many politicians here in Belgium the question raise if we should apologise about these atrocities caused duri..." Apologies are always a nice gesture. Yet I would prefer a document of deepest regret of what has happened. (And I am not sure whether the German government ever issued such a document to the Jews.)
A simple apology for a grave matter always remind's me of the ridiculous sentence in Knigge's famous etiquette book. There it says: "If a gentleman pokes out a lady's eye with the tip of his umbrella, he must apologize."
Cute, LILO! That’s a good one. (For some reason this phone always capitalizes your name. Oh well.) Be well.
The first I learned of the atrocities in my own education was reading “The Heart of Darkness” by Conrad (fiction, no less). In researching the book for a lit paper I learned much about King “L” which was conspicuously left out of our history texts.
As a direct descendant of Leopold, I am looking forward to reading.
Well, hang in there, Juli. Remember, there’s no such thing as collective guilt. Peace.
Hi William, nice review I am really looking forward to reading this book. I have one question, can you advise me of a brief book that covers the history of Stalin’s regime?
Thanks Qais. Very brief? See Martin Amis’s Koba the Dread. But eventually you’ll have to read Richard Pipes’s Russian Under the Bolshevik Regime, which is actually the last of three big books on Russia. Cheers.
Thank you Usno25.
I mean those numbers are wildly inaccurate but I agree with the sentiment.
They’re the consensus numbers. I have no stake is making such estimates.
This is what might be called an "open secret" in Belgium. There was (in 2018) an excellent TV series called "Kinderen van de Kolonie" (Children of the Colony) on the Belgian Canvas TV channel, that was nevertheless attacked by certain politicians of the ruling right-wing NVA party. There are still statues of, monuments to, and streets named after Leopold in Brussels and Antwerp. And as far as a Belgian government acknowledgement that leads to potential reparations, well, Europeans corporations are still extracting (under the corrupt eye of local governments) the wealth and resources of the Congo. One of the most shocking statistics in "Kinderen van de Kolonie" was that in Leopold's time 40% of the Belgian economy was due to Congolese colonization.
I agree that reading that book was an eye opener about the potential of evil
Wow. I was interested in this book but am now on my way to get it today based on this review alone. Well done!
Thanks, Morgwynn and Martha!
Martha wrote: "I agree that reading that book was an eye opener about the potential of evil"It is a genuinely brilliant book, I would fully recommend it.
I agree with Crooked, Martha.
An insightful book on one of unknown and forgotten periods of the late 19th & early 20th century.
There are so many little disregarded pockets of history like that, Roger.
Just ordered it off Amazon. Seems a good way to take ones mind off current events.
It will do that! :-)
Before I saw this book on Amazon, l stumbled onto the video of the same name and found it horrendous. Reading the book would only reinforce the horror for me. Your review is an accurate depiction of what I saw.
I didn’t know there was a film, Mary. Thank you for that information. Stay well.
I wouldn't put Mao on that list, replace him with Winston Churchill instead
Really Jaycee? Because Mao didn’t cause 40 million of his people to die? I won’t defend Churchill’s warts but he doesn’t come close. You belittle legitimate suffering when you make statements such as you just did.
I think you’re just regurgitating western propaganda mad at the fact that they lost China to communism. It’s a bit absurd that the same imperial powers are now crying crocodile tears after they plundered and pillaged China for over a hundred years causing hundred millions of death in India and China. It’s literally genocide. Tell me why was there a US embargo on wheat when the Great Famine was happening? This narrative of Mao in the west as evil is useful towards racist and white people trying to ameliorate their sordid past but to the vast Chinese people Mao freed them from their tyranny. The west hates him because he attained his goal through a violent revolution unlike the western approved methods of non-violence of MLK and Ghandi
