King Leopolds Ghost
The book is mainly about the leadership of Congo and the torture the people went through before the country gained independence. The country had been privately controlled by the King of Belgians, Leopard II. Leopard used his power to gain all the wealth in the country, that is ivory and rubber. He made people work as slaves in these industries which were intended for own benefits. With time, Christian missionaries and other nations such as Britain and US intervened making the administration of the country to be transferred to Belgium. This did not free the people, the slavery continued until all the ivory and rubber in the country were exhausted.
Chapter fifteen is titled as reckoning. It mainly talks about the death rate of the people in Congo during the colonialism period which was then administered by King Leopold. Different causes of deaths are discussed in detail in the chapter. People are said to have died due to individual murders, suicide, massacres, starvation, exposure to dangerous climates and diseases such as small pox and sleeping sickness. The birth rate also goes down because of slavery, sexual harassment to the women working as slaves and also imprisonment which included physical terror and psychological torture.
According to many articles that were published at that time, it is clearly indicated that the population of the country went down by almost half. According to the statistics of the first census done in the country in 1924, the total population was found to be ten million people. The results were a shock since there was no genocide that had ever happened in the country. The high death rates had been systematic due to the brutality and torture in the country. Others have been said to have occurred as a result of forced labor. This chapter mainly details in showing the reader how the murders had taken place. It also talks about the slavery and harassment in the country.
Morel together with other humanitarians did all they can to prevent all these atrocities. They publicized them and campaigned day and night against them. On getting these complains Leopold responded to them aggressively. He started giving bribes to journalists, politicians and newspaper editors so that they could change the information and not expose him. He even went to the extent of purchasing a space in the newspaper where lies about the situation in Congo were written he made sure that people believed Congo was a paradise in Africa. He even published many books showing the administration in Congo.
He had employed people whose work was to decline with what Morel told people and instead display Leopold to be a humanitarian who can never torture people. In his process of hiring people, he hired Henry I. Kowalsky who was a skilled lawyer. Henry had a good appeal in the public and therefore could not be trusted. Leopold therefore noticed his mistake and decided to fire him. Unhappy with what Leopold had done to him, he turned against him and gave Morel hundreds of documents showing how Leopold had given judges, politicians, journalist and newspaper editors bribes so that they could provide cover for him.
On getting the information, Morel republished those newspapers exposing all what Leopold had been doing to the public. Leopold began receiving pressure from every direction including international political front. All this pressure resulted to people starting to believe the Casement report which Leopold had prior declined. He therefore decided to form his own commission to of enquiry, which had three cronies. This commission was supposed to visit Congo and come up with reports on the situation in the country. It travelled to Congo where it spent quite sometime investigating the activities taking place.
In its investigation process, it managed to take three hundred and seventy official depositions which were related to murder, slavery, torture and sexual harassment. Leopold had done this so that the commission could come up with reports which were disapproving the Casement report and also Morels claims. He got a rude shock when the commission instead, brought a detailed report on the true situation in the country, agreeing with the Casements report and supporting what Morel fought for. He damaged the source of the report and instead came up with a summary which had little or no resemblance to the original report. His efforts were futile the original report had been already published and spread allover.
Leopold when he was in his seventies had a mistress by the name Caroline. This brought about many questions in Belgium. He is also said to have been hypochondriac and a germophobe. The situation about Congo was getting hard on him. He therefore decided to sell Congo to Belgium. They entered into a negotiation and he ensured that he had several terms favoring him. Congo was then sold to Belgium but to the peoples disappointment, nothing really changed. The country however had its name changed. Chapter seventeen deals with mainly on summaries of various people. An example is Sheppard, who was tried for the publication of atrocities in Congo.
He was not convicted but he was fully exonerated from the country. He returned to America but had been involved with several sexual relations with the local women. On the case of Casement, he travelled to Peru where he documented many abuses against the people there. He later took the cause for the independence of Irish. Other people including Mark Twain and Conad Doyle joined Morel in his campaign against the atrocities in the Congo republic. Leopold later fell ill and decided to marry Caroline. He later died leaving behind Caroline who got married to a pimp later. At that time, the relationship between him and his daughters had ended.
After Leopolds death, the situation in Congo remained unchanged for a long time. Morel and the other humanitarians still continued to demand for the rights of the natives. However, in the next decade, the situation started to slowly improve. By that time, rubber production in the world was increasing at a high rate. As a result, the rubber market in Congo dropped drastically. This helped to improve the situation in the country since many people had been taken as slaves in order to harvest rubber. Chapter 18 continues to give us short bibliographies about people. For instance, Henry is said to have died early in life.
Alice Harris together with her husband founded a center for human rights. This centre is still present up to date. Sheppard on the other hand decided to speak to Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. For the case of Casement, he travelled to German where he tried to seek German assistance for the case of Irish independence. He was later arrested and convicted to treason. He spent some sentence in Pentoville prison and was later hanged. Morel was later arrested and charged with exporting of war materials to neutral countries. He was therefore given a six month sentence in Pentoville prison. After his sentence, he got into politics.
Chapter 19 shows how people, after the Second World War wrote articles about it and forgot of the atrocities in Congo. Today, no one is aware of the first international campaign against atrocities. An historian named had Jules Marchal is brought in as the book ends. He was born in Belgium in 1925.By 1948, he started working in Congo. He worked in Congo for a long time till it gained independence. In 1970, he started working for the Belgian Foreign ministry and was also given the post of being the ambassador to many African nations. He came across an article in Congo which talked about the rule of Leopold and the atrocities in the country at that time.
The note indicated how Congo had lost half of its total population. He did not believe the note since many people saw Leopold as a humanitarian who could never torture people. He began investigations and later knew of the international media outcry which had been organized by Morel. He later returned to Brussels and continued his work in the foreign ministry. He tried to investigate on the articles he had read but he could not be given access. He started publishing books concerning the era of colonialism and he was later given access to the materials and summarized them. As the book ends, we are shown the process of Congos independence and the current situation in the country.
Chapter fifteen is titled as reckoning. It mainly talks about the death rate of the people in Congo during the colonialism period which was then administered by King Leopold. Different causes of deaths are discussed in detail in the chapter. People are said to have died due to individual murders, suicide, massacres, starvation, exposure to dangerous climates and diseases such as small pox and sleeping sickness. The birth rate also goes down because of slavery, sexual harassment to the women working as slaves and also imprisonment which included physical terror and psychological torture.
According to many articles that were published at that time, it is clearly indicated that the population of the country went down by almost half. According to the statistics of the first census done in the country in 1924, the total population was found to be ten million people. The results were a shock since there was no genocide that had ever happened in the country. The high death rates had been systematic due to the brutality and torture in the country. Others have been said to have occurred as a result of forced labor. This chapter mainly details in showing the reader how the murders had taken place. It also talks about the slavery and harassment in the country.
Morel together with other humanitarians did all they can to prevent all these atrocities. They publicized them and campaigned day and night against them. On getting these complains Leopold responded to them aggressively. He started giving bribes to journalists, politicians and newspaper editors so that they could change the information and not expose him. He even went to the extent of purchasing a space in the newspaper where lies about the situation in Congo were written he made sure that people believed Congo was a paradise in Africa. He even published many books showing the administration in Congo.
He had employed people whose work was to decline with what Morel told people and instead display Leopold to be a humanitarian who can never torture people. In his process of hiring people, he hired Henry I. Kowalsky who was a skilled lawyer. Henry had a good appeal in the public and therefore could not be trusted. Leopold therefore noticed his mistake and decided to fire him. Unhappy with what Leopold had done to him, he turned against him and gave Morel hundreds of documents showing how Leopold had given judges, politicians, journalist and newspaper editors bribes so that they could provide cover for him.
On getting the information, Morel republished those newspapers exposing all what Leopold had been doing to the public. Leopold began receiving pressure from every direction including international political front. All this pressure resulted to people starting to believe the Casement report which Leopold had prior declined. He therefore decided to form his own commission to of enquiry, which had three cronies. This commission was supposed to visit Congo and come up with reports on the situation in the country. It travelled to Congo where it spent quite sometime investigating the activities taking place.
In its investigation process, it managed to take three hundred and seventy official depositions which were related to murder, slavery, torture and sexual harassment. Leopold had done this so that the commission could come up with reports which were disapproving the Casement report and also Morels claims. He got a rude shock when the commission instead, brought a detailed report on the true situation in the country, agreeing with the Casements report and supporting what Morel fought for. He damaged the source of the report and instead came up with a summary which had little or no resemblance to the original report. His efforts were futile the original report had been already published and spread allover.
Leopold when he was in his seventies had a mistress by the name Caroline. This brought about many questions in Belgium. He is also said to have been hypochondriac and a germophobe. The situation about Congo was getting hard on him. He therefore decided to sell Congo to Belgium. They entered into a negotiation and he ensured that he had several terms favoring him. Congo was then sold to Belgium but to the peoples disappointment, nothing really changed. The country however had its name changed. Chapter seventeen deals with mainly on summaries of various people. An example is Sheppard, who was tried for the publication of atrocities in Congo.
He was not convicted but he was fully exonerated from the country. He returned to America but had been involved with several sexual relations with the local women. On the case of Casement, he travelled to Peru where he documented many abuses against the people there. He later took the cause for the independence of Irish. Other people including Mark Twain and Conad Doyle joined Morel in his campaign against the atrocities in the Congo republic. Leopold later fell ill and decided to marry Caroline. He later died leaving behind Caroline who got married to a pimp later. At that time, the relationship between him and his daughters had ended.
After Leopolds death, the situation in Congo remained unchanged for a long time. Morel and the other humanitarians still continued to demand for the rights of the natives. However, in the next decade, the situation started to slowly improve. By that time, rubber production in the world was increasing at a high rate. As a result, the rubber market in Congo dropped drastically. This helped to improve the situation in the country since many people had been taken as slaves in order to harvest rubber. Chapter 18 continues to give us short bibliographies about people. For instance, Henry is said to have died early in life.
Alice Harris together with her husband founded a center for human rights. This centre is still present up to date. Sheppard on the other hand decided to speak to Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. For the case of Casement, he travelled to German where he tried to seek German assistance for the case of Irish independence. He was later arrested and convicted to treason. He spent some sentence in Pentoville prison and was later hanged. Morel was later arrested and charged with exporting of war materials to neutral countries. He was therefore given a six month sentence in Pentoville prison. After his sentence, he got into politics.
Chapter 19 shows how people, after the Second World War wrote articles about it and forgot of the atrocities in Congo. Today, no one is aware of the first international campaign against atrocities. An historian named had Jules Marchal is brought in as the book ends. He was born in Belgium in 1925.By 1948, he started working in Congo. He worked in Congo for a long time till it gained independence. In 1970, he started working for the Belgian Foreign ministry and was also given the post of being the ambassador to many African nations. He came across an article in Congo which talked about the rule of Leopold and the atrocities in the country at that time.
The note indicated how Congo had lost half of its total population. He did not believe the note since many people saw Leopold as a humanitarian who could never torture people. He began investigations and later knew of the international media outcry which had been organized by Morel. He later returned to Brussels and continued his work in the foreign ministry. He tried to investigate on the articles he had read but he could not be given access. He started publishing books concerning the era of colonialism and he was later given access to the materials and summarized them. As the book ends, we are shown the process of Congos independence and the current situation in the country.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment