Book Review: King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the history of humankinds, courageous, idealistic and perfidious human behaviors, there are few stories that match the past 150 years of horror and heroism centered in the Congo of central Africa. Author Adam Hochschild takes us step by step through the plotting, scheming and conniving of King Leopold II of Belgium as he personally gains control of the vast area of South Central Africa which is today known as The Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as The Belgian Congo. In addition, Hochschild gives us insight into the peoples of the Congo who were some of the most artistic, musical, linguistically talented peoples of this continent and how the depredations of the colonial power of Belgium and the greed of later corporations, for the wealth of ivory, gold, diamonds and minerals of the country, led to genocidal behaviors by the European masters who essentially turned the Congo into a 900,000+ square mile slave colony to extract massive quantities of ivory, rubber, diamonds and most recently gold, copper and cobalt. Alongside of the terror, whippings, mutilations and chain-gangs, we see the quiet entry into the Congo of Protestant Missionaries who gradually document the crimes to humanity being committed throughout the country. Then over a period of 30 years there is a worldwide awakening to the atrocities being committed through the writing, speaking and lobbying actions of a number of brave American preachers such as George Washington Williams and William H, Sheppard, and British activists, Sir Roger Casement and E.D. Morel to attack the mass killings and mutilations that between 1870 and 1920 reduced the population of the Congo by 50% with the destruction of some ten million lives. The book is a tough read, but should be on the “must read” list for persons who want to understand how easily it is for societies, governments and individuals to descend into the brutality of plunder, murder and maiming for the simple sake of monetary gain. It took 50 years for the plotters, murders, slave drivers and thieves to rape the Congo of it’s wealth of Ivory and Rubber and for the heroes of the era to try to slow the genocidal-like terror that reigned under Leopold. Hochschild then carries the story into the present where much of the rape still continues under different corporate guises and gives us some analogies for modern America’s culpability in the continued exploitation of the Congo, Africa and elsewhere as our own empire scrambles greedily for some of the key minerals on our planet. Worthy of deep thought and discussion.

View all my reviews