Great African Reads discussion

This thread is for our March - April 2018 read King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild -> SPOILERS ALLOWED
(Find the no-spoiler thread here)

Book Summary: (from the publisher)


Adam Hochschild’s award winning, heart haunting account of the brutal plunder of the Congo by Leopold II of Belgium presents a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a royal figure as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of Shakespeare’s great villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave, committed handful of idealists, missionaries, travelers, diplomats, and African villagers who found themselves witnesses to and, in too many instances, victims of a holocaust.

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company’s ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II’s vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor on a vast scale could account for these cargoes, Morel resigned from his company and almost single handedly made Leopold’s slave labor regime the premier human rights story in the world. Thousands of people packed hundreds of meetings throughout the United States and Europe to learn about Congo atrocities. Two courageous black Americans—George Washington Williams and William Sheppard—risked much to bring evidence to the outside world. Roger Casement, later hanged by Britain as a traitor, conducted an eyeopening investigation of the Congo River stations. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming over all was Leopold II, King of the Belgians, sole owner of the only private colony in the world.


Discussion Questions (from the publisher)

1. Between 1880 and 1920, the population of the Congo was slashed in half: some ten million people were victims of murder, starvation, exhaustion, exposure, disease and a plummeting birth rate. Why do you think this massive carnage has remained virtually unknown in the United States and Europe?

2. Hochschild writes of Joseph Conrad that he “was so horrified by the greed and brutality among white men he saw in the Congo that his view of human nature was permanently changed.” Judging from Hochschild’s account and from Heart of Darkness, in what way was Conrad’s view changed? How is this true of other individuals about whom Hochschild writes? In what way has this book affected your view of human nature?

3. The death toll in King Leopold’s Congo was on a scale comparable to the Holocaust and Stalin’s purges. Can Leopold II be viewed as a precursor to the masterminds behind the Nazi death camps and the Gulag? Did these three and other twentieth century mass killings arise from similar psychological, social, political, economic, and cultural sources?

4. Those who plundered the Congo and other parts of Africa (and Asia) did so in the name of progress, civilization, and Christianity. Was this hypocritical and if so, how? What justifications for colonial imperialism and exploitation have been put forward over the past five centuries?

5. Morel, Sheppard, Williams, Casement, and others boldly spoke out against the Congo atrocities, often at great danger to themselves. Many others rationalized those same atrocities or said nothing. How do you account for Leopold’s, Stanley’s, and others’ murderous rapaciousness, on the one hand, and Morel’s, Casement’s, and others’ outrage and committed activism, on the other?

6. The European conquest and plunder of the Congo and the rest of Africa was brutal, but so was the European settlement of North America and, long before that, the conquest of most of Europe by the Romans. Hasn’t history always proceeded in this way?

7. Hochschild begins his book with what he calls Edmund Morel’s “flash of moral recognition” on the Antwerp docks. What other flashes of moral recognition does Hochschild identify, and what were their consequences? In what ways may Hochschild’s book itself be seen as a flash of moral recognition? What more recent flashes of moral recognition and indignation can you identify?

8. Hochschild quotes the Swedish missionary, C. N. Börrisson: “It is strange that people who claim to be civilized think they can treat their fellow man — even though he is of a different color — any which way.” How may we explain the disregard of “civilized” individuals and groups for the humanity and life of others because of skin color, nationality, religion, ethnic background, or other factors? Why do this disregard and resulting cruelties persist?

9. What are the similarities between the colonial and imperial aspirations of pre- and early twentieth-century nations and the corporate and market aspirations of today’s multinational companies? Whether rapacious or beneficent, most actors in the Congo, and in Africa at large, seem to have been motivated principally by profit. In what ways do business objectives continue to shape the policies and actions of national governments and international organizations?

10. Hochschild writes that Leopold “found a number of tools at his disposal that had not been available to empire builders of earlier times.” What new technologies and technological advances contributed to Leopold’s exploitation of the Congo? What impact have these tools had on both the advancement and degradation of colonial or subject peoples?

11. The “burgeoning hierarchy of imperial rule” in the Congo Free State was, Hochschild writes, reflected in “the plethora of medals” and attendant grades and ranks. What were the reasons for this extensive hierarchy and for the bureaucracy it reflected and maintained? Are there any contemporary parallels? Of what historical examples can we say that the more heinous the political or governmental crimes, the larger and more frequently rewarded the bureaucracy?

12. How does Hochschild answer his own question, “What made it possible for the functionaries in the Congo to so blithely watch the chicotte in action and . . . to deal out pain and death in other ways as well”? How would you answer this question, in regard to Leopold’s Congo and to other officially sanctioned atrocities?

13. Hochschild quotes Roger Casement as insisting to Edmund Morel, “I do not agree with you that England and America are the two great humanitarian powers. . . . [They are] materialistic first and humanitarian only a century after.” What evidence supports or refutes Casement’s judgment? Would Casement be justified in making the same statement today?

14. After stating that several other mass murders “went largely unnoticed,” Hochschild asks, “why, in England and the United States, was there such a storm of righteous protest about the Congo?” Do you find his explanation sufficient? Why do some atrocities (the mass murders in Rwanda, for example) prompt little response from the United States and other western nations, while others (the "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo, for example) prompt military action against the perpetrators?

I'm not reading it this time around, but I have read it so I'll keep my eyes on the discussion!

Diane, thanks for posting these questions. I’ll keep them in mind whilst I read along.

Jessica: glad to hear you’ll join the discussion

I've read this book twice, once years ago and just recently. To me this is a fascinating look at how the major world powers control the minor players so that the major powers can keep on with their agendas. I am sure the English, French, and Americans all thought "give Belgium the Congo, no body wants it, it's too remote and full of diseases. Meanwhile we'll take the easier spoils."
The whistleblowers suffered then as they do now - demeaned, ridiculed and often punished for daring to challenge those in control.
Why was the atrocities not better known? Well nothing has changed - the 1990 civil war in the DRC saw some 5 million deaths - few people took any notice of this due to the usual reasons of what's it to do with me, sad but what can I do, not in my sphere of concern, it's Africa so what do you expect?, etc.
And while the European direct Government control of the African nations has ended, they still manipulate the fortunes of the people. There are two books on this topic which are classics: The Colonizer and the Colonized and The Wretched of the Earth

I have started, read the first hundred pages - and find it a little long in the tooth - and it's a little ironic as the author keeps pointing out how Stanley would drag out his African books over two volumes... So far I guess it's an account of the circumstances leading up to Leopold's takeover of the entire Congo basin and getting away with it by playing the different European colonizers of Africa against each other and a serious game of lobbying in the circles of power in Germany, the US etc.

Forgot to update here, while I was away with only a small screen :)
I finished it, and found it surprisingly interesting, even if the road was a bit long and winding here and there. I was repeatedly astonished and yet knowing colonial history, not really surprised about the horror regime, the racial blindness to the suffering of others and the ruthless monetary ambition that led to this. The book has it's weaknesses (some of which the author also admits to in the epilogue) - it's rather hard not to read as an account of the white men conquering "The Dark Continent" and the (better) white men bringing the horrors of the regime to light, and fighting it, as those were largely the people left alive to tell the story, whereas the Congolese fighting the regime are largely forgotten, killed off and not recorded in (the white man's) history.

Anetq wrote: "...it's a little ironic as the author keeps pointing out how Stanley would drag out his African books over two volumes...."

Ha, that's definitely something I noticed about this (despite the fact that I quite enjoyed the overall story as well).

I think you have a good point about the "bad white colonialists" vs "white saviours" theme though, which is unfortunate. But maybe accurate, as they were the ones left to tell the story (tragic)

Jessica wrote: "I think you have a good point about the "bad white colonialists" vs "white saviours" theme though, which is unfortunate. But maybe accurate, as they were the ones left to tell the story (tragic)...."

The author is aware himself and does point it out in the afterword of my edition - but as he also points out where are few if any written sources - and the oral sources consists of some of the station chiefs turning up af bogeymen in songs and stories you tell badly behaved children in the folklore of the tribes in the region - still not much about the locals who fought - also most would have just been killed off quickly... So hard to avoid, but still a shame. I guess the way to go about closing that gap in history is fiction - like Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (the jan/feb group read) where all those forgotten people and voices are heard?

About this issue under discussion, I came up against it firsthand when I set out to document the modern-day success story of the Congolese radio station, Radio Okapi. The thing is, the radio has involved a few foreigners (including me) and many, many, many Congolese journalists, Congolese subjects and Congolese listeners. I felt hugely responsible to get Radio Okapi’s story into the world and had the time and means to try my best. Yet what to do about the fact that my voice was a minority one? And to not present myself as a white saviour, which believe you me I wasn’t. So... I tried at first to fictionalize it, as you suggest, Anetq, to bridge the gaps. The problem I then encountered though was that it was still my (writerly) voice, my head, my perspective doing the fictionalization- and worse, potentially committing cultural misappropriation. In the end what I did was write a memoir based upon extensive research and interviews with the Congolese people who appear as main characters in the book. All true to my best of ability, and I think I succeeded somewhat in getting a diversity of voices heard. Now looking back I’m convinced the issue isn’t non-Africans writing stories based in/about the continent. The problem, I believe, is the stark imbalance with African voices making it to the fore: There simply isn’t enough pluralism. For this to happen - if we as an intl society want it to happen - we need to put our money and advocacy where our mouth is: Support business and development across the African continent and call on our elected representatives to bridge trade gaps. Oh, and buy, borrow or otherwise clamour for more books by African writers about/set in Africa. All this said, I (with obvious bias) think it is a mistake to fault any voice for what it is not. Let’s remember the lovely work done by Cameroonian writer Imbolo Mbue with Behold the Dreamers set in the US.

Jennifer wrote: "About this issue under discussion, I came up against it firsthand when I set out to document the modern-day success story of the Congolese radio station, Radio Okapi. The thing is, the radio has in..."
Sounds like a good solution!

I finished the book some days ago and I am really glad I finally read it. I was pretty impressed, horrified and indignified by what happened in Congo only just over a century ago.

Looking back at the international movement of the Congo reformers, a precursor of human rights defenders, it truly is remarkable that this part of recent human history was almost forgotten. Was it because it was followed by the tragedy of World War I? Maybe. Was it needed to be forgotten so that colonial powers could continue their ruthless exploitation of the colonial territories? Probably.

Unbelievable still that a Belgian Ambassador (and former colonial officer) in the 1970s has no idea of what had happened and had so much trouble in finding out!

I also liked the afterword of the 2005 edition, in which Hochschild draws a comparison between King Leopold II and Congo's former dictator Mobutu. In fact, even after Mobutu, the greed for DRC's resources has not diminished. The scramble continues, by multinational corporations paying armies and factions, plundering Congo while violence reigns. As Hochschild writes: 'Tragically, no powerful outside constituency, like Morel's Congo reformers, exist to lobby for measures that would help.'

Indeed, it is a pity that Hochschield focuses on the (good and bad) white protagonists, without being able to tell the story from the victim's view. As he stated, not enough material survived to do so. And as Anetq already suggested: only fiction can fill this gap.

I wrote a short review, you can find it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Interesting to know as well: the infamous Royal Museum to Central Africa has closed its doors in 2013 and will be reopened later this year, but apparently it still struggles with how to represent the past.

More than 50 years after independence, and still not able to face the truth about the impact of colonization on its former colonies, Belgium still has a long way to go...