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Africa during the Scramble: Belgians in the Congo part 2
- Thread starter Gary Oswald
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Listen to the yell of Leopold’s ghost
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
- Vachel Lindsay
(From what is, incidentally, an incredibly racist poem in its own right.)
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
- Vachel Lindsay
(From what is, incidentally, an incredibly racist poem in its own right.)
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I think that the article is absolutely right to stress that though the Free State was evil, that evil was largely unique in degree, not kind. The irony of the state that was forged on the promise of fighting slavery becoming the largest plantation in human history is a bitter one, not least because of the extent to which the existing slavers were used to police its rule on the fringes of the state.
That being said, I think that perhaps the most interesting part of the debate around the Free State is that it altered the way Empire itself was discussed. Then and now, much of the reason for condemning Leopold has been as a necessary defence of imperialism- as I saw someone put it on another forum once, the argument that the British Empire was not like Those Other Ones is often analogous to saying 'We were the mildest serial killers in the prison, not like 'Chopper' Brussels!'
Equally, though, the combination of corporate enterprise and Christian philanthropy that characterised the Free State makes it a particularly enticing target for the Left- in a way, the Free State can be seen the purest form of Western brutality and hypocrisy. Your hands will be chopped off for profit- and it's for your own good. However, while all the evils of imperialism might have been found in the Free State, I think that it's too easy to make the mistake that it was the representative model for those evils. I don't think an understanding of the Congo will tell you much about how imperialism operated in Ethiopia or Algeria or South Africa. I don't even think it's that analogous to the horrific violence of its southern neighbors in Rhodesia.
The Congo was the Congo; just as the genocide in Namibia doesn't exist to teach us about the Shoah, the horrors of Leopold's Free State should teach us first and foremost about the Congo. It may be unfair to expect more of the victims.
That being said, the push in recent years to not let the brutality of the regime mask the the violence of other colonies is obviously admirable.
I do, however, suggest that people who are not familiar with the Propaganda war that lead up to the end of Leopold's personal rule to take a moment to peruse this leaflet that was printed to defend the Free State government.
To my irritation, I can't find my own scans of the Free State propaganda pamphlet, but I did find a copy online.
An Answer to Mark Twain, (Brussels, 1907.)
I think the point to note here is that this was not a propaganda battle merely in the great Colonial capitals- this was a cause that made headlines in newspapers across the world. Leopold's opponents were not anti-racist or often even anti-imperial, not as we understand it. Heart of Darkness is both racist and a deeply felt attack on the arrogance and brutality of Empire. ED Morel is one of the greatest humanitarian activists who has ever lived- he was also one of the people who spread the Black Legend of French African atrocities in the Rhineland in the 1920s. Mark Twain's denunciations of colonialism and slavery never extended to appreciating the rights of Native Americans.*
Roger Casement was perhaps the only one of them whose horror of Empire genuinely became universal; and he was the only one of them who was killed for defending those principles (while working with the architects of the Namibian genocide.)
I'll end these rambling here. But this is a deeply troubling topic, and this excellent article deserves a few minutes reflection from its readers.
* That's not even to mention the fascinating life of George Washington Williams, who deserved a portrayal by Samuel L Jackson- but did not deserve that portrayal to be in The Legend of Tarzan.
That being said, I think that perhaps the most interesting part of the debate around the Free State is that it altered the way Empire itself was discussed. Then and now, much of the reason for condemning Leopold has been as a necessary defence of imperialism- as I saw someone put it on another forum once, the argument that the British Empire was not like Those Other Ones is often analogous to saying 'We were the mildest serial killers in the prison, not like 'Chopper' Brussels!'
Equally, though, the combination of corporate enterprise and Christian philanthropy that characterised the Free State makes it a particularly enticing target for the Left- in a way, the Free State can be seen the purest form of Western brutality and hypocrisy. Your hands will be chopped off for profit- and it's for your own good. However, while all the evils of imperialism might have been found in the Free State, I think that it's too easy to make the mistake that it was the representative model for those evils. I don't think an understanding of the Congo will tell you much about how imperialism operated in Ethiopia or Algeria or South Africa. I don't even think it's that analogous to the horrific violence of its southern neighbors in Rhodesia.
The Congo was the Congo; just as the genocide in Namibia doesn't exist to teach us about the Shoah, the horrors of Leopold's Free State should teach us first and foremost about the Congo. It may be unfair to expect more of the victims.
That being said, the push in recent years to not let the brutality of the regime mask the the violence of other colonies is obviously admirable.
I do, however, suggest that people who are not familiar with the Propaganda war that lead up to the end of Leopold's personal rule to take a moment to peruse this leaflet that was printed to defend the Free State government.
To my irritation, I can't find my own scans of the Free State propaganda pamphlet, but I did find a copy online.
An Answer to Mark Twain, (Brussels, 1907.)
I think the point to note here is that this was not a propaganda battle merely in the great Colonial capitals- this was a cause that made headlines in newspapers across the world. Leopold's opponents were not anti-racist or often even anti-imperial, not as we understand it. Heart of Darkness is both racist and a deeply felt attack on the arrogance and brutality of Empire. ED Morel is one of the greatest humanitarian activists who has ever lived- he was also one of the people who spread the Black Legend of French African atrocities in the Rhineland in the 1920s. Mark Twain's denunciations of colonialism and slavery never extended to appreciating the rights of Native Americans.*
Roger Casement was perhaps the only one of them whose horror of Empire genuinely became universal; and he was the only one of them who was killed for defending those principles (while working with the architects of the Namibian genocide.)
I'll end these rambling here. But this is a deeply troubling topic, and this excellent article deserves a few minutes reflection from its readers.
* That's not even to mention the fascinating life of George Washington Williams, who deserved a portrayal by Samuel L Jackson- but did not deserve that portrayal to be in The Legend of Tarzan.
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As ever @SenatorChickpea that is a fantastic comment. Your responses have been the best thing about writing this series. Especially since you claimed in the comments of the first one that you wouldn't have much to say! As I've said before, I would be delighted to see one of your own articles at some point.
I think you're right too in that most colonialism wasn't like the Congo. Even the other rubber colonies, Angola, French Congo, German Cameroon, which used the same methods of forced labour didn't have the casual brutality. And colonies outside that ran on an entirely different model. For all Leopold has become a justification for imperalists to whitewash their own crimes, it's also not accurate to say he was no worse than everyone else.
Also I did not know the latest Tarzan movie was about fighting the Free State. Wow, that's certainly a choice.
I think you're right too in that most colonialism wasn't like the Congo. Even the other rubber colonies, Angola, French Congo, German Cameroon, which used the same methods of forced labour didn't have the casual brutality. And colonies outside that ran on an entirely different model. For all Leopold has become a justification for imperalists to whitewash their own crimes, it's also not accurate to say he was no worse than everyone else.
Also I did not know the latest Tarzan movie was about fighting the Free State. Wow, that's certainly a choice.
I Saw A Red Sky
He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but 🤓
Roger Casement was a real hero, I would like to read more about him.
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As ever @SenatorChickpea that is a fantastic comment. Your responses have been the best thing about writing this series. Especially since you claimed in the comments of the first one that you wouldn't have much to say! As I've said before, I would be delighted to see one of your own articles at some point.
You're too kind.
Also I did not know the latest Tarzan movie was about fighting the Free State. Wow, that's certainly a choice.
It's an interesting failure of a film. You can see the idea, right? They want to update Tarzan, it's an inherently racist and colonialist property- I know, let's do what Spielberg did when he put the grave-robbing Westerner up against the Nazis!
You pick a suitably abhorrent villain and your own bloke looks good.
It... it does not work well in practice, in part because of the strange decision to have Christoph Waltz as the villain, playing the actual Léon Rom! For those who aren't familiar with that name, Rom was the most abhorrent of Leopold's henchmen- he put heads on stakes in his garden, and is believed to be the chief model for Kurtz.
In the Indiana Jones analogy, that's like putting Indy up against Heydrich. It keeps reminding you that this isn't pulp, these were actual atrocities, and in real life they weren't prevented by a naked white man leading an army of gorillas.
I can imagine the Belgians being used as pulp villains- though I think you'd need an African star and director. I can imagine a film about Leon Rom . I can imagine a film about George Washington Williams.
I cannot imagine how anyone thought it was a good idea to combine all of those at once....
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I knew about the horrific methods of compelling Congolese people to go extract rubber through mass mutilation, hostage taking, rape and killings, and I knew this was because nobody wanted to actually do it, but I figured that the harvesting was something on the level of cotton-picking, not the horror scrubbing rubber off your body must have been like.
I don't have much to add except I like the style of in-your-face, don't-you-dare-look-away, no-ifs-no-buts-no-qualification-of-statements writing of your articles. Colonialism and imperialism were crimes against humanity, full stop. None of it was justifiable.
The only possible slight alteration I could see is if rubber hadn't been so valuable, either because Goodyear is delayed, or because the British steal the seeds earlier. But once again it's a question of degree, since the exploitation for ivory and other resources will still be there.
I don't have much to add except I like the style of in-your-face, don't-you-dare-look-away, no-ifs-no-buts-no-qualification-of-statements writing of your articles. Colonialism and imperialism were crimes against humanity, full stop. None of it was justifiable.
The only possible slight alteration I could see is if rubber hadn't been so valuable, either because Goodyear is delayed, or because the British steal the seeds earlier. But once again it's a question of degree, since the exploitation for ivory and other resources will still be there.
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I knew about the horrific methods of compelling Congolese people to go extract rubber through mass mutilation, hostage taking, rape and killings, and I knew this was because nobody wanted to actually do it, but I figured that the harvesting was something on the level of cotton-picking, not the horror scrubbing rubber off your body must have been like.
Yeah that's just something else in terms of horror.
I think to add to the entire thing is why Leopold seemed so gung-ho about getting a colony... any colony to call his own. His adventure in Mexico is a prime example of this. While it was really Napoleon III taking over Mexico and placing Maximilian I, a Hapsburg, on the throne they invented it was also Leopold who sent Charlotte of Belgium (later Carlota of Mexico) out to be the new Emperor's wife. Now this was when Leopold was the so-called "Nestor of Europe" for his reputation as a mediator, match maker, and more diplomatic actions on his part. But when it came to Mexico Leopold seemed to have gotten that first real spark of his "I need a colony" crazy. Not lobbing off hands crazy but when much of Europe abandoned Mexico Leopold was rushing around trying to find someone to back Maximilian and his daughter's fledgling Empire. From articles I have read what Leopold seemed to have grand economic plans of plantations and more but he lacked the military and international support to keep any real sway in Mexico. This is what sent him looking out for other areas to make into a Belgian colony.
Roger Casement was a real hero, I would like to read more about him.
A bunch of the great and good, including IIRC the Archbishop of Canterbury, campaigned for his pardon until the government went "he says in his diary he's very gay" and then the great & good mostly went silent.
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Yes. Depressingly, until quite late in the twentieth century defences of Casement often hinged on the idea that the diary was a forgery.
Francisco Cojuanco
Sometime traitor to his class
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I think a lot of the propaganda for imperial rule, especially in the Congo was due to the religious aspect of it - Leopold was seen as bringing not only Western civilisatiom, but Western Christian civilisation.
Except on the ground, you had the Force Publique beating or worse their subjects who had the temerity to kindly ask if they could go to Mass on Sundays and major holidays.
Except on the ground, you had the Force Publique beating or worse their subjects who had the temerity to kindly ask if they could go to Mass on Sundays and major holidays.
I think a lot of the propaganda for imperial rule, especially in the Congo was due to the religious aspect of it - Leopold was seen as bringing not only Western civilisatiom, but Western Christian civilisation.
Except on the ground, you had the Force Publique beating or worse their subjects who had the temerity to kindly ask if they could go to Mass on Sundays and major holidays.
Tintin au Congo is an interesting document in that regard: the Congolese people are mostly nice, just portrayed as rather silly in how they mimic Europeans in cargo cult-fashion, but the witch doctor is the evil one, resentful of losing his control over the credulous villagers. And the one unambiguously good white character is the missionary.
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I went to the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels in 2011 and it still had allegorical statues in the rotunda like 'Belgium Brings Civilisation to the Congo'- two black children being comforted by a Belgian Madonna figure.
Francisco Cojuanco
Sometime traitor to his class
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I remember the story I talked about because one of the people beaten up by the Force Publique has a cause for at least beatification in the Vatican (the young man killed was as staunchly Catholic as many Belgians were at the time, and so perhaps because of that he thought he could get Leopold's officials to give the people a very small break on this, as after all, they were all Catholics here, right? Right?)Tintin au Congo is an interesting document in that regard: the Congolese people are mostly nice, just portrayed as rather silly in how they mimic Europeans in cargo cult-fashion, but the witch doctor is the evil one, resentful of losing his control over the credulous villagers. And the one unambiguously good white character is the missionary.