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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
This was an interesting read about atrocities committed on the Congo. People are introduced within the story to create a flow that makes this book worthwhile. The entirety of the book is filled with ways the people of the Congo-and any other enslaved peoples are harmed throughout history. Well worth a read.
One of the best books on history that I've ever read. Absolutely horrifying story, but I will be recommending this to everyone I know (apologies in advance) as one of the lesser told stories of colonial terror.
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book. I've been meaning to read it for years because I read Bury the Chains by him as well. I enjoy that he approaches the history from several different perspectives but the author still manages to maintain the integrity of the narrative.
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
much more of a biography, or set of biographies, than i expected. not so much a direct history, but you very much get it along the way. struggles with lack of african perspective, but this of course, is referenced and acknowledged, as there is no way this story could be told from the same type of african perspective.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Belgium! Just the name conjures up so many vivid images! Chocolate! Waffles! Beer! Wooden shoes! Wait, that last one is the Netherlands…cuckoo clocks? No, that’s definitely Switzerland…um, you know, all those other famous Belgian things…okay, so maybe Belgium is a bit of a blank spot on your mental map of Europe, but Adam Hochschild’s 1998 book King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, will teach you a lot about the massive colony that Belgium used to own.
King Leopold’s Ghost is a superb examination of the Congo Free State as it existed under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908. Leopold had been aching for Belgium to have a colony, and thus transcend its status as just a place known for great waffles. Slowly and deliberately, Leopold acquired lots of land in central Africa, which eventually became the Congo Free State. The unique thing about the Congo Free State was that the land wasn’t owned by the Belgian government-it was owned by King Leopold himself. The Congo was his personal colony, and it was the site of terrible atrocities. Forced labor and slavery were common, as was the gruesome practice of cutting off hands of dead or living Congolese people.
Leopold craftily set up a humanitarian pretext for his involvement in the Congo-supposedly the Belgians were driving out “Arab slavers.” This was enough to not arouse anyone’s suspicion as to what was really happening in the Congo. However, as Hochschild details, stories of atrocities eventually leaked out, and led to an international effort for reform of the Congo Free State, which ultimately culminated in Leopold selling the colony to the Belgian government.
The Congo brought Leopold untold riches, as the territory had an abundance of many natural resources, including rubber, which was in high demand in the 1890’s. Leopold went out and squandered many of his riches on extravagant palaces for his teenage mistress. Many of the worst human rights abuses occurred because of the demand for rubber-Congolese men were often forced to extract a certain amount of rubber during a period of time otherwise their wives would be killed. Oh, and of course the Congolese weren’t paid for their labor. It’s brutal to read about the total disregard for human life during this period in history. Because there was no accurate census of the Congo until 1920, we will never know for certain how many Congolese died during the reign of the Congo Free State, but Hochschild puts the estimate at around 10 million people, or roughly half the population of the Congo Free State.
Hochschild vividly brings his cast of characters to life, and his story is filled with fascinating people, including the odious King Leopold II, the egotistical explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who charted much of the Congo area for Leopold, the crusading shipping official E.D. Morel, who became one of the most vocal advocates for reform of the Congo, Polish shipping captain Joseph Conrad, whose 1890 voyage up the Congo River provided inspiration for his novella Heart of Darkness, and the mercurial Sir Roger Casement, who led an investigation for the British government into the abuses occurring in the Congo.
Although the Congo reform movement gathered many headlines in England and the United States more than a century ago, the atrocities committed during Leopold’s reign had not been the subject of much scholarship before King Leopold’s Ghost. Part of the reason for this was the Belgian government itself. Towards the end of the book, Hochschild details the struggles of Jules Marchal, a Belgian diplomat, to get access to government files relating to the Congo Free State. Marchal was blocked at nearly every turn as he attempted to research the Congo Free State in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Eventually the government made papers accessible to scholars and historians, and Marchal wrote a four volume history of the Congo Free State in French. Hochschild has done an important service by reminding the world of what happened in the Congo Free State. But he had a difficult time getting the book off the ground, as his proposal for the book was rejected by the first nine publishers he took it to.
King Leopold’s Ghost connects to the next two books that Hochschild wrote, 2005’s Bury the Chains, about the British anti-slavery movement, and 2011’s To End All Wars, which details the anti-war movements during World War I. All three of these books are concerned with crusades for social justice, and show the impact that protests can have, which is an important lesson for 2017.
King Leopold’s Ghost is a superb examination of the Congo Free State as it existed under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908. Leopold had been aching for Belgium to have a colony, and thus transcend its status as just a place known for great waffles. Slowly and deliberately, Leopold acquired lots of land in central Africa, which eventually became the Congo Free State. The unique thing about the Congo Free State was that the land wasn’t owned by the Belgian government-it was owned by King Leopold himself. The Congo was his personal colony, and it was the site of terrible atrocities. Forced labor and slavery were common, as was the gruesome practice of cutting off hands of dead or living Congolese people.
Leopold craftily set up a humanitarian pretext for his involvement in the Congo-supposedly the Belgians were driving out “Arab slavers.” This was enough to not arouse anyone’s suspicion as to what was really happening in the Congo. However, as Hochschild details, stories of atrocities eventually leaked out, and led to an international effort for reform of the Congo Free State, which ultimately culminated in Leopold selling the colony to the Belgian government.
The Congo brought Leopold untold riches, as the territory had an abundance of many natural resources, including rubber, which was in high demand in the 1890’s. Leopold went out and squandered many of his riches on extravagant palaces for his teenage mistress. Many of the worst human rights abuses occurred because of the demand for rubber-Congolese men were often forced to extract a certain amount of rubber during a period of time otherwise their wives would be killed. Oh, and of course the Congolese weren’t paid for their labor. It’s brutal to read about the total disregard for human life during this period in history. Because there was no accurate census of the Congo until 1920, we will never know for certain how many Congolese died during the reign of the Congo Free State, but Hochschild puts the estimate at around 10 million people, or roughly half the population of the Congo Free State.
Hochschild vividly brings his cast of characters to life, and his story is filled with fascinating people, including the odious King Leopold II, the egotistical explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who charted much of the Congo area for Leopold, the crusading shipping official E.D. Morel, who became one of the most vocal advocates for reform of the Congo, Polish shipping captain Joseph Conrad, whose 1890 voyage up the Congo River provided inspiration for his novella Heart of Darkness, and the mercurial Sir Roger Casement, who led an investigation for the British government into the abuses occurring in the Congo.
Although the Congo reform movement gathered many headlines in England and the United States more than a century ago, the atrocities committed during Leopold’s reign had not been the subject of much scholarship before King Leopold’s Ghost. Part of the reason for this was the Belgian government itself. Towards the end of the book, Hochschild details the struggles of Jules Marchal, a Belgian diplomat, to get access to government files relating to the Congo Free State. Marchal was blocked at nearly every turn as he attempted to research the Congo Free State in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Eventually the government made papers accessible to scholars and historians, and Marchal wrote a four volume history of the Congo Free State in French. Hochschild has done an important service by reminding the world of what happened in the Congo Free State. But he had a difficult time getting the book off the ground, as his proposal for the book was rejected by the first nine publishers he took it to.
King Leopold’s Ghost connects to the next two books that Hochschild wrote, 2005’s Bury the Chains, about the British anti-slavery movement, and 2011’s To End All Wars, which details the anti-war movements during World War I. All three of these books are concerned with crusades for social justice, and show the impact that protests can have, which is an important lesson for 2017.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
I have this book 4.5 stars. I wish Goodreads will let you do quarter and half and seventy five percent for books. This book was truly an amazing journey from the start. Looking further into the characters that would be at play and slowly bringing new ones in. From showing how Leopold abused the power of his fellow man to achieve what he wanted. This was a disgrace to Belgian when he slowly started to unwind in the public eye. He was a disgrace of a king abusing his power of people. If you love history I will say this really felt like a fiction history book how it was read.
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
The information shared is horrifying and very necessary as this was one of first books to be widely read regarding colonial Congo since the 1920sish. But is still very much told from European standpoint. The author calls this out and laments the lack of African primary sources, which makes sense, but the final page of the book, the close of the afterword, smacks of paternalism and on the one hand acknowledges that the U.S. and other large countries have vested interests in the current status of the Congo and are happily reaping profits while funding rape and ongoing mass murder and on the other hand calls the situation “complicated” and points an outsize finger at Mobutu and African male chauvinism as causes for the ongoing human destruction. Very disappointing to the end the story on that note.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic