05.19.09
My Comments on King Leopold’s Ghost
I finished reading King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild last weekend, and oh my!, what a book it is. . . The story Hochschild reveals is incredible. While the main topic of the book is about the Congo and King Leopold II’s influence on the Congolese, which ultimately resulted in the deaths of an estimated 10 million Congolese through Leopold’s greed to harvest ivory and wild rubber, nothing remains in a vacuum. Thus many other issues are touched upon in the book. Issues ranging from the history of other nations in their quest of power through colonialization, to the lives of various individuals involved with exploration and colonialization and humanitarian rights, and to the nature of man throughout history.
On the whole I would say that I have a fair amount of interests, however one topic that really pulls on my heart strings is that of oppression and abuse of the poor and the innocent. The story of King Leopold’s Ghost is the epitome of such oppression and abuse imposed upon the Congolese by foreign peoples and even by themselves over the course of more than 400 years. However, as Hochschild points out, what happened in the Congo, despite how horrific it was, was not an isolated event. The horrors that took place there–the destruction of villages and the massacres of the villagers, the forced slavery, and the mutilations–is a recurring theme throughout the history of mankind. I’m always appalled when I learn about such abuses on a small scale (such as a random murder case relayed on the nightly news). Then I become utterly stunned when I learn of it on a large scale (such as the massacres in Rwanda in 1994 wherein close to a million people were killed in about 3 months). Things run through my mind like, “how can these things happen on such a large scale?” Where’s the outcry? Then I realize that it happens over and over again throughout history from the time of the Egyptians, to the Romans, to the Armenian genocide, the Jewish Holocaust, the Great Leap Forward, etc. to name only a few. I’m left to realize that God is really a merciful God to allow us to continue to live while we humans continually perpetrate evil every day. One would think that to look at the human race from the outside would prove us barbaric and not worthy of living (much like the story line of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”). And then I remember that along with all the evil, there is also good. Just as evil and terror have existed throughout history, so has good existed as those who see injustice stand up and fight for those under oppression. In the Bible before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, God spoke to Abraham. God told him that the evil in Sodom and Gomorrah cries out to Me. I’m gonna go down there and check it out. . . Abraham then pleaded with God to spare the people. In Genesis 18:23 it says, “And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” “What if,” asked Abraham, “there were 50 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, would You destroy them along with the wicked?” God replied that He would not destroy the place if there were 50 righteous people. Then Abraham asked, “How about if there were only 45?” Again, God replied that He would spare the people. Abraham continued to press and asked, “How about 30?” Again, God would spare the place. Abraham continued, “How about 20? How about 10?” “For 10,” God replied, He would spare the people, and down He went to visit Sodom and Gomorrah, where evidently He did not find even 10 righteous people. The rest is history. From the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, I think the reason humanity continues to exists even amidst all the evil is that there are still some good people struggling amongst the evil. So not only does God see all the evil, He also sees the good.
I have never been to any part of Africa, but from the varied news clippings I’ve seen of the different African countries, it seems so vast to me and difficult to understand. That is, why is there so much poverty and starvation? Why are there so many wars and in-fighting? I’ve learned of little things here and there, but often times I get a hodge-podge of information that really leaves me clueless regarding understanding Africa. While Hochschild’s book deals primarily with the Congo, now Zaire, I would say that it was the best overview of Congo’s history that I’ve ever learned of any of the other African countries. I have read Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, which was an amazing account of the events that lead up to and through the 1994 Rwandan massacres, but I was still very much in the dark as to understanding much of African history or culture. The little bit I gleaned from the Rwandan massacre was that during the occupation of the Belgians, the Tutsi were placed as overseers to the Hutu, which subsequently garnered much strife between the two groups. Hochschild’s book started back farther in history and really helped to give me an overview of how so many people in a place like the Congo and other parts of Africa could be subjugated by a smaller population of foreigners. From what I can gather, it seems to be a combination of superstition on the part of the Africans and superior firepower on the part of the European invaders, that allowed greed to overtake and engulf the people’s of Africa. The superstition that the white man was the dead come alive coupled with the white man’s Maxim gun and other modern inventions really gave the Europeans an upper hand over the less armored African natives. Certainly bows and arrows were no match for high powered rifles and machine guns. Any native who did not want to co-operate was killed. Whole villages were wiped out as examples of the consequences of refusing to comply. Comply to what? Ivory and rubber harvesting. The rubber harvesting was particularly devastating to the Africans. Women, children, and the elderly were kidnapped and held ransom for the native men to work collecting wild rubber. It took days and even weeks to collect enough rubber to satisfy the “traders.” During that time the hostages would starve, no work in the villages could go on as the men were out harvesting rubber and the women held hostage in stockades. Naturally starvation ensued along with increased diseases.
Meanwhile in Europe and America the fate of Africa is discussed amongst themselves. No consideration that perhaps the Africans would care to have a say in what happens to Africa or “who” owns Africa. How is it that man can have so little value of another man’s life? Apparently, it’s been done over and over again throughout history. Generally it stems from one man thinking that he is superior to the other. And in the case of Africa, that the Africans weren’t even really human. Many were treated like animals, and this is evident when during an African exhibit in Europe, live Africans were set up on “display” as if in a zoo.
Dehumanization goes both ways. While one man is looked upon as less human or subhuman, the act of looking upon one as less human also dehumanizes the one thinking himself superior. An amazing example of this is Hochschild’s quote from one of the colonizers’ diary. Station chef Georges Briscusse describes in his diary a hanging he ordered in 1895 of a man who had stolen a rifle:
“The gallows is set up. The rope is attached, too high. They lift up the nigger and put the noose around him. The rope twists for a few moments, then crack, the man is wriggling on the ground. A shot in the back of the neck and the game is up. It didn’t make the least impression on me this time!! And to think that the first time I saw the chicotte [a whip made of course hippo hide commonly used for flogging] administered, I was pale with fright. Africa has some use after all. I could now walk into fire as if to a wedding.”
Hochschild did a wonderful job quoting many journal entries and using those along with news articles and letters to piece the history of Leopold’s Congo together. He tried to see as many angles as possible and lamented that since all the recorded history is from the colonizers or westerners, there is very little in comparison of the perspective of the African. However even so, the journals and myriads of documentations from traders, soldiers, missionaries and others helped tremendously in exposing the torment the Africans had to endure. Photographs of Africans in chains and with severed hands are apparently still filed away in the humanitarian society in the UK that was founded by E.D. Morel.
King Leopold’s Ghost also reveals how even back then, literally more than 100 years ago, the media was easily manipulated. Newspaper agents were bought and used for propaganda to fool the public. And the nature of the masses then, as they are today, is to easily “forget” any or even all wrong-doings. Fortunately, amongst all the chaos, there is always those who are more alert and full of conscience. They are the ones who take up the task to fight for the oppressed. E.D. Morel along with several others such as Sir Roger Casement, Reverend William H. Sheppard, Hezekiah Andrew Shanu, George Washington Williams, and others were the lights that dared to expose the evils in Africa. I would also say that Adam Hochschild joins their ranks as his book, King Leopold’s Ghost not only raised awareness, but also did raise dissent. Africa evidently, has vast resources, of which many corporations have high stakes.
There is so much more that can be discussed regarding Hochschild’s book. It’s an amazing work. I know I’m gonna want to reference it again another time. I’m very glad to have read it, and it certainly has rekindled my yearning to understand more of what this life is all about. Towards the end of the book Hochschild mentions that one of the on-going problems in Africa is that they need to respect the women more. Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate on that. I wish he had. While I certainly think that it’s important to respect the women, I personally think one of the major things needed in Africa is Christ’s love. Because greed and selfishness is what I think perpetuates the corruption in Africa today. Particularly in the diamond mines and the harvesting of other natural resources. There is so much to Africa. I’m glad I read Hochschild’s book. I give it a two thumbs up, and highly recommend it to anybody.
Marlakins
