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gigireadswithkiki 's review for:
King Leopold's Ghost
by Adam Hochschild
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Many of the nonfiction books I’ve read on the Congo have highlighted the deposition of Lumumba, as well as the ways in which our current technocracy continues to pillage and colonize the cobalt mines of the Congo. “King Leopold’s Ghost” (KLG) was a fresh new perspective for me, in the way that it dove more deeply into the ways in which Congo started out as the “Belgian Congo” and Adam Hochschild is definitely an author I would reach for again in the future.
The narrative Hochschild paints in KLG is immensely accessibly, diverging away from the need to drown readers in a myriad of historical years and dates. Instead, the author zeroes in on specific key players that contributed to King Leopold’s fight to colonize the Congo, building these individual stories in a way that felt personable. This was accomplished through what felt like the momentous task of combing through mountains upon mountains of correspondence between the historical figures that Hochschild researches, and this is confirmed as fact when he mentions the ways in which he had to scour countless libraries for books that had not been checked out in decades, in order to find specific letters. The research for this book is such a labor of love, and this comes through loud and clear in how painstakingly detailed each storyline is. From David Livingstone to King Leopold himself, the author allows for an almost conversational tone with which he writes their stories, resulting in a nonfiction historical book that is compulsively readable.
In addition, the storyline this book is so refreshing in that it never shies away from how the atrocities committed against the Congo are all at the hands of extractive colonization. To that end, Hochschild takes the argument further, analyzing why it was so popular to critique the subjugation of the Congolese while the countries performing the critiques were also committing violent atrocities against people in the Global South (namely highlighting the colonization of the Philippines at the hands of the United States government). My one and only small critique (and one that is a little selfish) is how I felt that the more recent events of Congo history felt very much breezed over, as I would’ve greatly enjoyed Hochschild’s perspective on the more recent uprisings and coups within Congo. All in all, an excellent historical nonfiction, and definitely one of my favorites highlighting the ways in which the Congo has, and continues, to suffer under the brute forces of the Global North.
The narrative Hochschild paints in KLG is immensely accessibly, diverging away from the need to drown readers in a myriad of historical years and dates. Instead, the author zeroes in on specific key players that contributed to King Leopold’s fight to colonize the Congo, building these individual stories in a way that felt personable. This was accomplished through what felt like the momentous task of combing through mountains upon mountains of correspondence between the historical figures that Hochschild researches, and this is confirmed as fact when he mentions the ways in which he had to scour countless libraries for books that had not been checked out in decades, in order to find specific letters. The research for this book is such a labor of love, and this comes through loud and clear in how painstakingly detailed each storyline is. From David Livingstone to King Leopold himself, the author allows for an almost conversational tone with which he writes their stories, resulting in a nonfiction historical book that is compulsively readable.
In addition, the storyline this book is so refreshing in that it never shies away from how the atrocities committed against the Congo are all at the hands of extractive colonization. To that end, Hochschild takes the argument further, analyzing why it was so popular to critique the subjugation of the Congolese while the countries performing the critiques were also committing violent atrocities against people in the Global South (namely highlighting the colonization of the Philippines at the hands of the United States government). My one and only small critique (and one that is a little selfish) is how I felt that the more recent events of Congo history felt very much breezed over, as I would’ve greatly enjoyed Hochschild’s perspective on the more recent uprisings and coups within Congo. All in all, an excellent historical nonfiction, and definitely one of my favorites highlighting the ways in which the Congo has, and continues, to suffer under the brute forces of the Global North.