Greed Disguised as Humanitarianism: The Story of the Congo Reform Movement

William Tyler Grove

Dr. Eloranta

HIS 5106-375

European Imperialism Fall 2009

December 7, 2009

2

Theoretical Bibliographic Introduction

There are an enormous amount of sources dealing with the history and aftermath

of the colonization of the Congo by Leopold II. The sources are scattered around the

world, but many are readily available. Many of these books are out of copyright and are

available in their entirety from Google Books. The writings about the Congo Free State

and the Congo Reform Association were originally written in both English and French.

The following is a chronological histiography of the sources. This is not a complete list;

many sources were not used due to time constraints.

Primary Sources:

This paper begins with articles from The New York Times dated March 28, 1877

and March 28, 1883. These are not the first to mention the Congo. The author also uses

an article from The Times of London, dated March 28, 1883. Henry Morton Stanley’s

address in 1884 to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce is used to give a perspective of

European opinions of Africa.

The first example of the protest movement was the 1890 ‘Open letter to King

Leopold the second of Belgium’ by George Washington Williams. It is located in John

Hope Franklin’s George Washington Williams: a Biography. Force Publique Officer Guy

Burrows provides a novel based on his experiences in The Land of the Pigmies published

in 1898 which also includes a letter written by Leopold.

Morel was the protégé of Mary H. Kingsley, whose West African Studies (1899),

was the most progressive European opinion of Africans at the time. Kingsley believed

that trade was the essence of Britain’s relationship with West Africa.

2

3

The first work that E.D. Morel published under his own name was The Congo

Slave State: a Protest Against the New African Slavery; and an Appeal to the Public of

Great Britain, of the United States, and of the Continent of Europe in Liverpool in 1903.

The positive response to this book inspired Morel to work on African affairs full time.

With the success of his first book, Morel went on a writing spree publishing King

Leopold’s Rule in Africa in London in 1904. The Morel papers are located in the archives

of the London School of Economics. The archives are not available online. Morel would

also publish many other books that were not referenced in this paper.

As Morel’s anti-Leopold books came out, a propaganda war began with positive

accounts such as John MacDonnell’s King Leopold II: His rule in Belgium and the

Congo. Published in 1905, it was a secondary source at the time it was written; it contains

many speech excerpts from Leopold II. American lawyer Henry Wellington Wack

published another positive account, The Story of the Congo Free State: Social, Political,

and Economic Aspects of the Belgian System of Government in Central Africa in New

York in 1905. The volume contains a transcript of the speech given by Leopold at the

Brussels Conference of 1876. Another anti-Leopold viewpoint used in this paper was L.

Call Barnes’ “Fresh Light on the Dark Continent” published in 1906, in The American

Journal of Theology.

Morel’s seminal work was Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade

which Flourished on the Congo published in 1906, it was the most scathing and horrific

account of what was occurring in the Congo using all the knowledge available at the

time. It was considered the most important work of investigative journalism of the era.

3

4

A letter from King Leopold to M. Beernaert was included in The American Journal of

International Law.

E.D. Morel would die before he was able to complete his History of the Congo

Reform Movement. Morel had wanted a noted historian such as John Hobson to complete

his work if he could not. It was completed by historians William Roger Louis, an

American, and Jean Stengers, a Belgian. These two historians working on opposite sides

of the Atlantic completed Morel’s book in 1968 using all available resources and

deciphering his notes.

Secondary Sources:

With the independence of the Congo in 1960, another group of scholarship

emerged. Neal Aecherson’s The King Incorporated: King Leopold II in the Age of Trusts

was published in 1964. This book was the first historical work to portray Leopold II as an

ingenious politician, to achieve his colonial ambitions rather than to argue whether

Leopold was a devil or saint. For an extensive history of the negotiations by Leopold to

purchase the Philippines from Spain, Leopold Greindl’s La recherche d’un Etat

Independent: Leopold II et les Philippines (1869-1875). Its valuable appendix contains

162 documents, including 54 written by Leopold. The author was not able to use this

resource due to language difficulties but this resource seems to be one the best to get an

idea of Leopold’s motives.

The 1972 printing of E.D. Morel’s The Truth and the War includes an

introduction by Catherine Ann Cline that provides a good synopsis of Morel’s life.

Thomas Pakenham’s book The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark

Continent from 1876-1912 provides statistics of the exploitation of the Congo among

4

5

other things, and contains a history of all European involvement in Africa between 1876-

1912.

The most current scholarship is Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold's Ghost: a

Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa published in 1998. It was an

unexpected bestseller, telling the haunting story of the Congo in an easy to read format.

This work was used to put Leopold in historical context. Hochschild covers all sides of

the establishment of the Belgian Congo in his book. Hochschild focuses especially on the

freedom movement lead by E.D. Morel and Roger Casement. Hochschild is a journalism

professor based in California and has become an expert in Congo Affairs. In the New

York Times book review for King Leopold’s Ghost, it is described as “Genocide with

Spin Control.” Hochschild also completed an article in 2001 for Economic and Political

Weekly titled “Congo’s Many Plunders” which provides a history of exploitation in

Congo from 1960 to 2001.

In 2001, Kevin Grant wrote “Christian Critics of Empire: Missionaries, Lantern

Lectures, and the Congo Reform Campaign in Britain” in The Journal of Imperial and

Commonwealth History, which follows the history of the lantern lectures in Britain.

Sharon Sliwinski’s “The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo” in the

Journal of Visual Culture in 2006 tells the story of how the media influenced the

outcome of the Congo Reform Movement. She also gives a background of the Congo

Reform Association and includes an extensive reading list.

In 2003, producer Peter Bate put the transcript of Leopold’s 1905 Commission to

video for BBC Channel Four Storyville Documentary: Congo- White King, Red Rubber,

5

6

Black Death. Leopold II and his Congo, if history is our guide, will continue to be

presented. But, this author is unsure if any new scholarship will emerge.

6

7

Introduction

Belgian King Leopold II felt that every true European monarch needed to have his

own colony. Leopold II looked around the world, making offers for colonies and

eventually took the large Congo River basin as his personal property. He professed to the

world through media and expositions that he was going to civilize these savages and take

them away from terrible Arab slave traders.

Edmund Dene Morel was a clerk for the British firm Elder Dempster that shipped

goods for King Leopold II from Antwerp to the Congo. An intelligent and bilingual man,

Morel realized that there was a massive trade deficiency. The vast amount of expensive

raw goods that were coming from the Congo did not even closely equal the amount of

goods being sent back to Belgium. The only items that were shipped back to the Congo

were tools of war: guns, ammunition and knives. In Morel’s mind, this meant only one

thing: slavery. Morel was an excellent writer who would make this issue his personal

campaign.

Although many historians have argued that this was the first humanitarian effort

of the 20th century, the motives were not humanitarian and were based solely on trade and

greed by King Leopold II. This effort was not a precursor to Amnesty International.

The Founding of Belgium

Belgium was a relative late-comer to the European community formed in 1830

after a revolt with Holland. It was formed after the separation of Belgium and the

Netherlands. Like any good European country, it needed its own monarch. Leopold I, a

relative of Queen Victoria, became the king. His son, Leopold II would ascend to the

7

8

throne in 1865 at his father’s death. In King Leopold’s Ghost, author Adam Hochschild

finds that the king had an unhappy personal life. As with any monarch, his first duty was

to create a male heir; his wife did have one son, but he died at a young age. Hochschild

believes the most devastating moment of Leopold’s life was when his nine year old son

fell into a pond. He caught pneumonia and died. This was the only time that Leopold was

seen in public with tears in his eyes; his successor was dead.1 Hochschild finds that

Leopold II had a loveless marriage and rarely spent much time with his wife, the queen.

Instead, he spent time in a series of affairs, the most noteworthy of which was with a girl

who was nearly sixty years younger. Leopold had three daughters who did not share his

interest in geography and politics. His sister Carlota was the Empress of Mexico, who

came back to gain support when her husband Maximilian was killed in 1867; she suffered

extreme mental illness, refusing to believe that her husband was dead. These experiences

were just a few examples of the traumatic and unhappy events that plagued Leopold’s

life.

Despite a miserable personal life, Leopold recognized that he could make a name

for himself with his fellow monarchs by acquiring a colony. Hochschild believes that the

ideas of Belgium gaining a colony were based in Leopold’s childhood experiences. He

also felt that having colonies would ensure his country’s prosperity and his own personal

fortune. Due to his position as a constitutional monarch, Leopold knew he did not have

the power to create a colony for Belgium. The Belgian people would not support his

affairs, so he would have to work as an individual, not as king. His first attempt to gain a

colony was trying to buy the Philippines from Spain. The negotiations lasted six years but

1 Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: a Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998): 39.

8

9

were eventually unsuccessful. For Leopold, a man beginning close to a century later than

the rest of the imperialists, there was only one unclaimed area. In 1870 roughly 80% of

sub-Saharan Africa was living under indigenous rulers. By 1910 virtually all of it

consisted of European colonies or white settler regimes. It was the fastest land grab in

history.2 Leopold would be an active participant in this second wave of imperialism.

Stanley Exploration / Hiring

Leopold realized to become a serious player in the international exploration

community, he would need to become friends with the explorers who were discovering

these new lands. In 1876, he sponsored a conference in Brussels for these explorers. It

was a lavish public relations campaign and Leopold was happy with his position of

wielding control from the background. This conference was to discuss the issues of

Africa. The goal was “to open to civilization the only part of our globe where Christianity

has not yet penetrated and to pierce the darkness which envelops the whole population.”3

His other stated aim was to fight the Arab slave traders. Leopold II masqueraded as an

individual who had the native Africans’ best interests in mind.

Out of his 1876 conference, the International African Association was formed and

Leopold, the ever gracious host was elected its president. At the time, Leopold II believed

80% of Africa was ripe for conquest “for protection”.4 Leopold was at his best as the

“behind the scenes” sponsor of African exploration, but he knew he could not do it on his

own. Leopold needed a well-known explorer to make his case. Enter Mr. Henry Morton

Stanley, the most famous explorer of the era.

2 Hochschild, Adam. Congo’s Many Plunders. Economic and Political Weekly. vol. 36, no. 4. (Jan 27- Feb 2, 2001) 287-288. 3 Parkerman, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912. (London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1991.)21. 4 Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, 42.

9

10

Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-born American explorer, emerged from the

forests of Africa near the mouth of the Congo River in 1876. He had traced the Congo

River to its source. Stanley was loved by the worldwide press and Leopold realized that

this could be used to his advantage. The New York Times wrote in 1877 that “it is very

certain that if skill, bravery and perseverance could ensure success, Stanley would solve

every problem of the African geography within the next two years.”5 Realizing the value

of having such a person as his representative, Leopold contacted Stanley to see if he

would be willing to open up Central Africa and the Congo River Valley to world markets.

The Congo River Valley was originally a Portuguese colony and was very active in the

slave trade from the sixteenth century. Eventually, after finding that Britain was not

interested in more colonies, Stanley agreed to work for Leopold. Between 1879 and 1884,

Stanley built a road around the Congo River where there were impassable cataracts,

reassembled steamboats above the cataracts and created numerous trading posts on the

Congo River. Henry Morton Stanley’s comments to the Manchester Chamber of

Commerce in 1884 present the sentiments of Europeans at the time:

“There are 40 million naked people on the other side of the rapids, and the cotton-spinners of Manchester are waiting to clothe them...Birmingham's factories are glowing with the red metal that shall presently be made into ironwork in every fashion and shape for them... and the ministers of Christ are zealous to bring them, the poor benighted heathen, into the Christian fold.”6 While Stanley was working in Africa, Leopold created another organization, the

International Association of the Congo, which would be paying for its development.

Leopold was using deception in creating these organizations. A press report published in

the New York Times that was titled the “International Congo Association” which people 5 The New York Times. March 28, 1877, p. 4 column 4. 6 Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Address of Mr. H. Stanley. Manchester. A. Ireland, 1884, 26-27.

10

11

thought was written by a Belgian correspondent was actually written by Leopold

himself.7 The article said that “the International Congo Association does not seek to gain

money, and does not beg for aid from any state, (it) resembles in a measure…the society

of the Red Cross; it has been formed by means of large voluntary contributions and with

the noble gain of rendering lasting and disinterested services to the cause of progress.” 8

King Leopold declared in the founding of this organization that he had no intention of

ownership over the region.9 To deceive the public and politicians, he started

interchanging the names of the International Africa Association and International

Association of the Congo. But for his colony to be considered legitimate, Leopold

needed another country to recognize his claim.

In America, Leopold found some unlikely allies who, after the American Civil

War, considered the possibility of sending ex-slaves back to Congo. Through Leopold

II’s contacts, America officially recognize the claim of Leopold to the Congo on April 2,

1884. The Congo was 11,000,000 square miles located in the heart of Africa and

encompassed 1/13th of the continent. This area was 76 times the size of Belgium. At age

fifty, Leopold finally had his own colony.

Germany’s Bismarck called the European powers for a conference on Africa in

1884-85, which led to the “Scramble for Africa.” In this meeting, Leopold was given

complete control over the Congo Free State; in return, he guaranteed free trade rights, no

7 The Times, March 28, 1883, p. 3 column E. 8 The New York Times. March 28, 1883, p. 4, column 5. 9 Leopold II. Speech given at the Brussels conference of 1876. As shown in MacDonnell, John. King Leopold the second his rule in Belgium and the Congo. (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1905.) 94.

11

12

monopolies, no taxes and no tariffs. The act legally guaranteed the moral well-being of

the native tribes.10

In 1885, Leopold II was recognized and named the sovereign of the Congo.11 The

stated aim for his empire was a benevolent society, a group to bring civilization to these

people of the Congo.

“It (Leopold’s reforms in the Congo) will connect closely the Congo with the mother country, which will prompt Europe (whose eyes follow us) to take a benevolent and generous interest in all our labours, which will convey to our progress a more and more rapid and decisive impetus, and which will soon introduce into the vast region of the Congo all the blessings of Christian civilization.”12

With the Congo under Leopold’s control, the extraction of resources began.

Leopold created a state run monopoly on natural resources. The first was ivory. In 1887,

the inflatable bicycle tire was invented and spawned, along with the car tire, a worldwide

rubber boom. The Congo just happened to have one of the largest natural reserves of wild

rubber in the world. The Congo was a “treasure house” teeming with resources.13

In 1891, the government seized all “vacant lands.” The law explicitly established

that “any attempt on the part of the aboriginal inhabitants of the State to utilize the fruits

of the soil would be regarded and treated as a penal offence, and that European merchants

residing for the time being within the confines of the State should seek to benefit from the

utilisation of the soil’s fruits by the aborigines through the normal operation of purchase

10 “General Act of the Berlin Conference” 1885. As shown in Gavin, RJ. The Scramble for Africa: Documents on the Berlin west African Conference and Related Subjects 1884/1885 (Ibadan Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1973) 288- 301 11 ibid. 12 Burrows, Guy. The Land of the Pigmies. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, 1898). 288. 13 Pakenham, 524.

12

13

or sale, would be prosecuted in the courts.”14 This mass privatization of land

fundamentally contradicted the African ideal of land.

A currency was developed for paying the Congolese natives; they were brass

rods, a worthless currency redeemable only in stores owned by the Belgians. The natives

were expected every fifteen days to report to their station and turn in all the rubber they

had collected. If they did not have the minimum amount of rubber, there would be

punishment from the Force Publique. The Force Publique was the Congo Free State’s

military. The Congo Free State was organized to specifically extract wealth from local

populations in the process, destroying the established traditional economies.

Early Attempts at Reform

An American, George Washington Williams, traveled up the Congo River and

wrote a letter to the king about the atrocities which were occurring. Written in 1890, it

was the first account of the tricks and cruel slave trade which were being forced upon the

Congo natives. Williams also wrote a letter to the U.S. President describing it as “crimes

against humanity.”15 This was the first documented usage of this term. A counter

movement to defame Williams was quickly established by Leopold. But in 1891,

Williams’ death ended the opportunity for early reform efforts. 16 As Williams was not

mentioned in Morel’s History of the Congo Reform Movement, it appears that the Congo

Reform Association was unaware of his early actions.

In the Land of the Pigmies, written by a Force Publique officer, is a novel about

life in the Congo Free State that contains an introduction by H. M. Stanley and also

14 E.D. Morel’s History of the Congo Reform Movement. William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968). 44. 15 Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, 112 16 Williams, George Washington ‘Open letter to King Leopold the second of Belgium’, in John Hope Franklin (ed.) George Washington Williams: a Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1985.

13

14

includes a letter from Leopold in which he says, “Our only programme, I am anxious to

repeat, is the work of material and moral regeneration, and we must do this among a

population whose degeneration in its inherited conditions is difficult to measure.”17 At

the end of the letter, it is simply signed: “Leopold.”

Leopold explains his motivation for colonization in a letter to Minister Beernaert of the Congo written August 5, 1885.

“History teaches that countries with small territories have a moral

and material interest in extending their influence beyond their narrow borders. Greece founded opulent cities, bastions of arts and civilization, on the shores of the Mediterranean. Later, Venice built its grandeur on its maritime and commercial relations no less than on its political success. The Netherlands have 30 million subjects in the Indies who exchange tropical products for the products of the mother country. It is in serving the cause of humanity and progress that peoples of the second rank appear as useful members of the great family of nations. A manufacturing and commercial nation like ours, more than any other, must do its best to secure opportunities for all its workers, whether intellectual, capitalist, or manual. These patriotic preoccupations dominated my life. It is they that caused the creation of the African effort”.18

The Force Publique

To enforce the rules of the Congo, a military force called the Force Publique was

established. It was essentially Leopold II’s personal army, made up of 19,000 men. The

officers were white, and the soldiers black. The officers came from all over the world,

and could be considered mercenaries as they were loyal to whoever paid.19 Its brutality

has been compared to Hitler’s SS. Its first responsibility was making sure that the

government had a monopoly on the trade of raw materials through the collection laws.

The Force Publique ruled with an iron hand, killing anyone who was in its way. The

leaders were sadistic; one officer, Leon Rom, was known to have his garden lined with

17 Burrows, 287. 18 Letter of the King to M. Beernaert, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 3, No. 1, Supplement: Official Documents (Jan., 1909), pp. 27-28. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2212025 19 Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, 124.

14

15

the heads of dead Africans.20 The Force Publique routinely took and tortured hostages

(mostly women), flogged, and raped the natives. At its height, half of the state budget

was used by the Force Publique. One instrument of torture that would become notorious

and unique to the Congo was the Hippo-skin whip called the chicotte.21 Leopold had set

up a vast labor camp. As deaths rose, so did Leopold’s profits.

The first news from the Congo Free State that garnered major international

attention was in 1895 when Charles Stokes, a white man, was killed. Stokes’ trading

competed with that of the State and a Force Publique expedition was sent out to find him.

Stokes was hanged on the spot.22 In response to public outcry after the death of Stokes,

Leopold established the Commission for the Protection of Natives (1895) to ensure the

well being of natives. This commission gave the illusion of progress in the Congo.

Early Missionaries

At first, missionaries were quiet about the atrocities. They would hear stories and

evidence but actually never viewed the atrocities first hand. There were two reasons.

First, they were concerned that if they mentioned this to the government, they would be

forced to leave the country. Second, the missionaries believed that although many

natives died of numerous atrocities, at least they died as Christians. There was

competition between the Protestant and Catholic missionaries for larger areas of

influence. But these missionaries were key witnesses and would eventually support the

public outcry against events in the Congo.

20 ibid, 145. 21 Sliwinski, Sharon. “The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo.” Journal of Visual Culture. Vol. 5 No. 3 (2006), 334. 22 Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, 174.

15

16

E.D. Morel’s Life

Georges Edmond Pierre Achille Morel de Ville was born in Paris on July 15,

1873. The product of a French father and English mother, Morel would not know his

father because he would die early in his life. He was raised by his Quaker mother in Paris

and would later take English Citizenship and change his name to Edmund Dene Morel.

In 1891, Morel was awarded a clerkship with the Elder Dempster Company, a

shipping firm. Morel moved to Liverpool and his French language abilities helped him

become the firm’s contact for shipping between Antwerp and the Congo. This position

stimulated his interest in West Africa and furnished him with information concerning the

developments in the region. This position served as the basis for the majority of his

writings. After viewing the Congo trade and analyzing the records, Morel noticed

someone was obviously skimming the profits because they greatly exceeded what was

written on the books. Morel found that “something like 80% of the articles that were

being imported into the Congo were remote to trade purposes.”23 Morel states that upon

his discovery of this trade, it was as if “I had stumbled upon a secret society of murderers

with a King for croniman.”24 So not only were these atrocities occurring but someone

was making a lot of money on the illegal trade. In his book The Scramble for Africa,

Thomas Parkenham refers to Morel as the “bulldog.”25

Morel modeled his arguments after those of his contemporary, author Mary

Kingsley. She saw the African “neither as the half devil and half child of the pseudo

Darwinists nor as the benighted brother of the Christian missionaries.”26 Of the three

23 Morel, History of the Congo Reform Movement, 36. 24 Ibid, 42. 25 Parkenhan, 524. 26 Morel, E.D. Truth and the War. ed. Catherine Ann Cline. (New York: Garland Publications, 1972) 14.

16

17

groups of Europeans in Africa at that time, missionaries, government officials and

traders, Kinglsey approved only of the traders. Morel believed the only reason for the

European involvement was “We are in West Africa to trade not to preach.”27 The traders,

whose interests Morel defended, were “the most enlightened European element in

African affairs.”28 Increasingly, Morel mused on the “difficulties of the opposing

European civilizations in the tropics, finely questioning whether the benefit to the

Africans could possibly be worth the price they had paid in the loss of life resulting from

European penetration.”29 Morel could be considered a progressive thinker of his day; he

had a growing respect for African culture. Morel believed that uplifting the natives with

better conditions would also help the ruling country. Morel was “skeptical of the excuse,

which he had himself offered earlier, which was African barbarism, rather than the policy

of the regime, which was responsible for the frequent atrocities.”30 His opinions were

definitely changing in response to the reports surfacing from the Congo Free State.

Morel’s first series of articles about the Congo was titled “The Congo Scandal”

and was published anonymously in July of 1900.31 The positive reaction to these articles

encouraged Morel to quit the Elder Dempster shipping line in 1901, but not before his

superiors attempted to buy him off. At twenty seven, Morel was going to be a journalist

focusing on exposing the barbarities in the Congo. Morel began publishing the West

African Mail, a weekly illustrated newspaper in 1903, which kept people informed of

what was occurring in the Congo, based on the insider reports that were smuggled out.32

27 Ibid, 15. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid, 14. 30 Ibid, 19. 31 Ibid, 17. 32 Grant, Kevin. “Christian Critics of Empire: Missionaries, Lantern Lectures, and the Congo Reform Campaign in Britain.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 2001. 32.

17

18

It also provided a forum of West and Central African questions. Morel’s journalism

abilities were all self-taught and impressive. He brought international concern over the

reports of atrocities and freely made himself the arch-nemesis of Leopold.

For Morel, even describing the Congo Free State as a state is “palpably a

misnomer, a fiction and a subterfuge.”33 Because there was no law making body, any

laws were simply decrees and all the respective districts were simply responsible for the

collection of taxes. The proceedings of the courts were not published, so there was no

legal accountability. Leopold operated as the legislative and executive branches as the

Sovereign of the Congo, a different role than the one he played as King of the Belgians.

There were no limitations on him and no oversight by any group. Morel describes

Leopold in chilling terms “in the fullest and most literal sense of the word, Leopold II

was the supreme dictator, the sole arbitrator of the destinies of a vast population of

Africans whom he had never seen, inhabiting an immense territory.”34

In 1903, Morel completed his first book, The Congo Slave State: A Protest

Against the New African Slavery; And an Appeal to the Public of Great Britain, of the

United States, and of the Continent of Europe,35 which presented damning statistics of

the trade deficit between the Congo and Belgium. Even today, if you look at statistics

from the Congo at this time period, they probably originally came from Morel. He was

one of the few to see the actual documents and was noted for his painstaking accuracy

33 Morel, History of the Congo Reform Movement, 45 34 Ibid. 35 Morel, Edmund D. The Congo Slave State: A Protest against the New African Slavery; And an Appeal to the Public of Great Britain, of the United States, and of the Continent of Europe. (Liverpool: John Richardson & Sons, Printers, 1903.)

18

19

and few factual errors. “Over the years, enemies and allies alike have searched his w

for factual errors, with scant success.”

ork

36

Leopold was able to successfully fend off public accusations until 1903, when

humanitarian pressure eventually led to parliamentary debate on the Congo in the British

House of Commons. In May, the House of Commons passed a resolution urging that

Congo natives be governed with humanity. The House sent Consul Roger Casement to

report on the conditions in the Congo. He traveled in the Upper Congo investigating the

treatment of the natives. After three months, Casement returned to Leopoldville and

telegraphed the Foreign Office immediately. His response was overwhelming, “I have

returned from the Upper Congo today with convincing evidence of shocking

misgovernment and wholesale oppression.”37 He had harsh words for the European

nations, which he accused of turning a blind eye to the atrocities, “It is an extraordinary

thing that the conscience of Europe which seventy years ago…put down the slave trade

on humanitarian grounds tolerates the Congo state today. It is as if the moral clock had

been put back.”38 Upon his return to England, Casement wrote his report, which would

be one of the most critical reports on the situation of the natives in the Congo. The

Casement Report of 1903 was the first official government document exposing the

atrocities in The Congo.

Casement was able to contrast conditions with those of his previous Congo travels

in 1890. In what were once thriving towns, the people had died or fled, leaving trails of

desolation. His descriptions of the decline of human and animal populations, the crippling

36 Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, 188. 37 Sir Roger Casement, Séamas Ó Síocháin, Michael O'Sullivan. The Eyes of Another Race: Roger Casement's Congo Report and the 1903 Diary (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2003.) 2. 38 Pakenham, 656.

19

20

taxation of natives, and the provision of slave labor horrified the British public. The most

scandalous criticism was twofold: his confirmation of the Congo regime’s use of the

Force Publique for hostage taking, and the documentation of one particular mutilation

that became the icon of Leopold’s entire colonial regime: the cutting off of the hands.39

The Casement report suggested that Belgian officers required proof of native deaths by

bringing a right hand. These hands were usually smoked to keep them from decaying in

route to the officers. He found this information from a government informant, and also in

two interviews with victims of the atrocities.40

Each historian who has written about the Congo in the last fifty years has

mentioned the lack of African voices in the atrocities. The Casement report does provide

a chilling account from a Congolese voice: Mola. Mola told of his hands being tied up

with leather thongs and it rained, the leather constricted, swelling the hands. In the

morning, the soldiers beat the hands with their rifles, as a white man ‘Ikatankoi’ sat

drinking palm wine.41 The Casement report was a fatal blow for Leopold. It was the

proof of atrocities of an established system. The second element was the missiona

descriptions that confirmed the report.

ries’

Personally, Roger Casement wanted to be active in a campaign to bring attention

to the cause, but due to his government position Casement knew that he could not

personally do it, so he contacted his friend Morel to get him to start an organization. The

Congo Reform Association was founded and based in Liverpool. According to her article,

“The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo” Sharon Sliwinski considers

39 Sliwinski, 338. 40 Ibid, 339. 41 Casement, 159-60.

20

21

this to be the first humanitarian effort of the 20th century.42 It was a machine designed by

Morel to arouse public opinion against the King. The images it published in 1905 became

the most effective in changing public opinion of the atrocities in the Congo.

This alliance between the Congo Reform Association and the missionaries

consisted of two groups with a common goal but, differing motivations. Morel and his

group wanted to open the Congo to true free trade and honor the Berlin Act of 1884-85.

The missionaries wanted to have access in order to Christianize the native populations. In

his first six months of Congo Reform Association, Morel published fifteen thousand

brochures and wrote three thousand letters soliciting donations. The reasons for donations

to the Congo Reform Association were often not as noble as one might think. Some of

the largest donors, such as William Cadbury, simply wanted commercial access to the

area. Cadbury wanted to find raw materials for his confectionary business, particularly

cocoa beans.

Morel increasingly viewed himself as the leader of the Congo Reform Association

and he believed himself to be the link who could write under philanthropic, missionary,

and commercial interests in a demand for British diplomatic action against the Congo

Free State. By 1905, Morel believed himself to be a “servant of the public cause,” not a

journalist.43

In 1906, Morel published the infamous Red Rubber. The book was a deliberate

effort to arouse the emotions of its readers.44 Morel describes the treatment of the

Congolese as “a crime unparalleled in the annals of the world.”45

42 Sliwinski, 334. 43 Morel, E.D. Truth and the War 21. 44 Sliwinski, 344. 45 Morel, E.D. Red Rubber. xxvii.

21

22

“I have stood on that quay of Antwerp and seen that rubber disgorged from the bowels of the incoming steamer, and to my fancy there has mingled with the musical chimes ringing in the old Cathedral tower, another sound – the faintest echo of a sigh from the depths of the dark and stifling hold. A sigh breathed in the gloomy Equatorial forest, by those from whose anguish this wealth was wrung.”…“But the Leopoldian conception of humanity is the humanity of the human tiger thirsting, not for blood, but for rubber.”46

Morel describes his radical beliefs for the time as the Congolese possessing

certain inalienable rights such as the right to property and control over their free labor.47

Red Rubber would become the most famous example of British investigative journalism

at the turn of the century, a British equivalent of The Jungle.

Americans also were active in Congo Reform. In 1906, Mark Twain wrote King

Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule, which was a long monologue written

from the point of view of Leopold himself as he fusses and fumes about the state of his

colony.48 Twain specifically brings up the influence of the Kodak. Leopold tells what he

thinks about the Kodak camera saying,

“The Kodak has been a soul calamity to us. The most powerful enemy indeed. In the early years we had no trouble in getting the press to expose details of mutilations as slanders, lies, inventions of busybody American missionaries and exasperated foreigners…. Then up all of the sudden came the crash! That is to say the incorruptible Kodak – and all the harmony with the hell.”49

As with any campaign, when well-known public figures became involved, it

provided more publicity for the cause. Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle also

46 Ibid, 99-100. 47 Ibid, xxviii. 48 Sliwinski, 345. 49 Mark Twain, King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule. (New York: International Books. 1906): 68.

22

23

became involved in Morel’s efforts writing the introduction to his 1909 book, The Crime

of the Congo.

Joseph Conrad's 1902 novel The Heart of Darkness was based on his 1890 trip on

the Congo River as a boat captain. Conrad saw some of the most shocking and depraved

examples of human corruption he’d ever witnessed. He was disgusted by the ill treatment

of the natives, the scramble for loot, the terrible heat and the lack of water. Marlow, the

main character in Conrad’s book, described colonialism as “the conquest of the earth,

which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or

slightly flatter noses than ourselves, (and) is not a pretty thing when you look into it too

much.”50 In The Heart of Darkness, Conrad called the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 as

the “International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs.”51

The Missionaries

A key component of the Congo Reform Movement was the missionaries, which

spread information about the atrocities. They did this by delivering thousands of lantern

lectures with heartbreaking images throughout Europe and North America. In his article

Christian Critics of Empire: Missionaries, Lantern Lectures, and the Congo Reform

Campaign in Britain, Kevin Grant believes that “missionaries played a central role in

mobilizing popular support for the Congo Reform campaign in Britain, the largest

humanitarian movement in British Imperial politics during the late Victorian and

Edwardian eras.”52 The article tells the stories behind the most infamous photos that

came out of the Congo. These missionaries appealed to a mythic ideal of universal human

dignity and alternately used the Congo crisis to promote their respective ambitions for

50 Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. (New York: Penguin Classics, 1902): 14. 51 Ibid, 137. 52 Grant, 28.

23

24

Central Africa.53 In his article, Grant suggests the images that were included were

“simultaneously to embody the humanity of the Congo people and the inhumanity of

regime that literally consumed them in its accounting”.54 Grant believes this campaign

was the first humanitarian movement to use atrocity photographs as an essential tool.55

The reports from the Congo gave another perspective and gave credence to the claims.

“Missionaries reported the Congo State officials required their African sentries to

produce one hand for every shot fired, in order to ensure that cartridges were spent on

people, rather than wild game.”56

In her article “The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo,”

Sharon Sliwinski finds the writings on the subjects offer a complex indictment that can be

regarded as a forerunner to the work of present day humanitarian groups such as Human

Rights Watch and Amnesty International.57

The Belgian Inquiry of 1905

In response to the Casement Report, Leopold established his own committee to

study the conditions of the natives in the Congo. Leopold was unable to control the

outcome of the committee that formed. One member of the inquiry was the missionary

John Harris, who would write of the atrocities that were occurring and provided images

and documents used by Morel and in the lantern lectures. In a remarkable move for the

time, Harris even asked in a widely printed letter if the King should be tried and hanged

at the newly established international tribunal in The Hague.58

53 Sliwinski, 335. 54 Grant, 33. 55 Sliwinski, 334. 56 Grant, 33. 57 Sliwinski, 334. 58 Twain, 51-56.

24

25

The war of the words had started, with propaganda on both sides being sent out in

increasing numbers. One of the positive accounts that was distributed was American

Henry Wellington Wack’s The Story of the Congo Free State.59 Leopold set up centers of

publication in Brussels, Frankfurt and America. A French language monthly magazine La

Vérité sur le Congo was distributed in the Low Countries.

The Death of Leopold II

In August 1908, Leopold burned the Congo State Archive. Leopold was quoted as

saying, “I will give them my Congo, but they have no right to know what I did there.”60

In 1908, King Leopold II officially turned the Congo over to Belgium for 150 million

francs. The next year, Leopold II died. He had wanted a small private funeral but was

given a large public one where his procession was booed. At the time, he was considered

the most hated man in Europe, largely due to the success of the anti-Leopold Congo

propaganda.

At its last meeting on June 13th 1913, the Congo Reform Association claimed

victory. Was this really a victory? Though life had improved for the natives, they were

still bound to the land by taxes. One system had been replaced by another. The problem

for the Congo Reform Association was with the death of Leopold, they had lost their

villain.

The Congo since Independence

Belgium would rule the Congo from 1909 until granting it independence in 1960.

The Congo held their first true election in 1960, electing Patrice Lumumba as prime

minister. Only a few months later he would be assassinated. Lumumba had announced

59 Wack, Henry Wellington. The Story of the Congo Free State: Social, Political, and Economic Aspects of the Belgian System of Government in Central Africa. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905.) 60 Ibid, 294.

25

26

the possibility of talking with the Soviet Union, and at the height of the Cold War this

was unacceptable for many countries, including the United States. The CIA helped

establish the dictatorship of Joseph Désiré Mobutu in 1960, who had served as a non-

commissioned officer in the Force Publique. Mobutu took full control of the country in

1965. His reign was marked by kleptocracy, the massive spending by his family and the

poverty of his people. In the height of his rule, Mobutu made no distinction between

public and personal assets. Mobutu sent his wives to Europe for shopping trips, while the

Congolese starved. Mobutu was pro-west and anti-communist. It is thought that Mobutu

proceeded to plunder his newly named Zaire on an even faster scale than Leopold. By the

1990’s Mobutu was one of the richest men in the world with an estimated wealth of four

billion dollars.61 The U.S. gave him more than one billion dollars in civilian and military

aid.62 After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mobutu became a liability for the United States.

Mobutu was finally overthrown by the Congolese people in May 1997. In a way, Mobutu

simply imitated Leopold.63

During the 1990s the U.S. supplied more than $125 million in arms and training

to six of the seven states who have had troops fighting on several sides in Congo Civil

War.64 Between 1998 and 2001, four million Congolese had been killed. Even today,

there is not an accurate population count. Today, the exploitation continues with gold,

diamonds, copper, cobalt, oil and the help of multi-national companies.

Conclusion

61 Hochschild, Congo’s Many Plunderers, 288. 62 Ibid. 63 Hochschilds, King Leopold’s Ghost, 304. 64 Hochschild, Congo’s Many Plunderers, 288.

26

27

Demographers estimate that between 1880 and 1920, the Congolese population

was slashed in half, a loss of 10,000,000 people.65 Leopold II became one of the richest

men in Europe, but he did not have a successor. The area was misnamed the Congo Free

State; it was in fact the personal property of King Leopold. During the time, Leopold

made a profit from the territory equal to at least $1.1 billion in today’s U.S. dollars.66

Instead of helping ‘civilize’ the native population, King Leopold II established a regime

that is thought to have been directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of half of the

Congolese population and many more were maimed for life.

Leopold II is held in high esteem in his home country with numerous monuments

and relics celebrating his reign. Leopold created the Royal Museum of Central Africa to

showcase artifacts from the colonies. The museum is still open today.

Still it can be very challenging for researchers to gain access to the remaining

Congo Free State archives. There is a wealth of information about the events in the

Congo, but it has only started to be known in Belgium based on the work of Jules

Marchal.67 For the Europeans this was simply a matter of economics. Leopold had shut

off a vast area of wealth from other Europeans. The lantern images were used to solicit

responses and donations, but these were merely a side show.

The world will never know if Leopold felt guilty about his reign of the Congo.

But does this really matter? What are the feelings of one man opposed to the blood of 10

million people? Maybe it was the poor treatment of Belgium during both world wars?

Was it a well documented Holocaust of the Jews during World War II that caused these

earlier atrocities to slide into the background?

65 Hochschild, Congo’s Many Plunderers, 288. 66 Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, 287. 67 Ibid, 296.

27

28

Morel describes the actions in the Congo as “a great crime against humanity.”68

Neal Aecherson labels Leopold as a great deceiver but as a man with great charisma.69

Both were correct. It was simply greed and competition that motivated the Europeans; the

philanthropic intentions were merely a politically correct cover story for their true

ambitions

68 Morel, History of the Congo Reform Movement, 167. 69 Aecherson, Neal. The King Incorporated: Leopold II in the Age of Trusts. (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1964): 13.

28

29

Bibliography

Primary Sources: Barnes, L. Call. “Fresh Light on the Dark Continent” The American Journal of Theology,

vol. 10, no. 1. (1 Jan 1906): 192-199. Burrows, Guy. The Land of the Pigmies. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Company.

1898. Kingsley, Mary H. West African Studies. New York: The Macmillan Co, 1899. Letter of the King to M. Beernaert, The American Journal of International Law, vol. 3,

no. 1, Supplement: Official Documents (Jan., 1909): 27-28. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2212025

MacDonnell, John. King Leopold II: His rule in Belgium and the Congo. New York:

Negro Universities Press, 1905. Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Address of Mr. Henry Morton Stanley. Manchester.

A. Ireland, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection, The University of Manchester, The John Rylands University Library, (1884): 26-27. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60230098

Morel, E. D. The Congo Slave State: a Protest against the New African slavery; and an

Appeal to the Public of Great Britain, of the United States, and of the Continent of Europe. Liverpool: J. Richardson & Sons, Printers, 1903.

Morel, E. D. King Leopold’s Rule in Africa. London: William Heinemann, 1904. Morel, E. D. Red Rubber: the Story of the Rubber Slave Trade which Flourished on the

Congo for Twenty Years 1890-1910. New and revised edition. Manchester: National Labour Press, 1919.

Morel, E.D. History of the Congo Reform Movement. William Roger Louis and Jean

Stengers. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968. Morel, E.D. Truth and the War ed. Catherine Ann Cline. New York: Garland

Publications, 1972. The New York Times. March 28, 1877, p. 4 column 4. The New York Times. March 28, 1883, p. 4, column 5. The Times, March 28, 1883, p. 3 column E.

29

30

30

Wack, Henry Wellington. The Story of the Congo Free State: Social, Political, and

Economic Aspects of the Belgian System of Government in Central Africa. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905.

Williams, George Washington. ‘Open letter to King Leopold the second of Belgium’, in

John Hope Franklin (ed.) George Washington Williams: a Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Secondary Sources: Aecherson, Neal. The King Incorporated: King Leopold II in the Age of Trusts. New

York: Doubleday and Company, 1964. Cline, Catherine Ann. E.D. Morel, 1873-1924: The Strategies of Protest. Belfast:

Blackstaff Press, 1981. Grant, Kevin. “Christian Critics of Empire: Missionaries, Lantern Lectures, and the

Congo Reform Campaign in Britain.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. vol. 29, no. 2 (May 2001): 27-58.

Hawkins, Hunt. “Joseph Conrad, Roger Casement, and the Congo Reform Movement,”

Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 9. no. 1 (1982): 65- 80. Hochschild, Adam. Congo’s Many Plunders. Economic and Political Weekly. vol. 36, no.

4. (Jan 27- Feb 2, 2001): 287-288. Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: a Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in

Colonial Africa. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Parkenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark

Continent from 1876-1912. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1991. Sliwinski, Sharon. “The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo,” Journal

of Visual Culture. vol. 5 no. 3 (2006): 333-363.