King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism |
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Adam Hochschild
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Pages: 356 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0330441981
Pub: Pan Books
Pub date: 2006-01-20
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 12413
Editorial Review:
Years ago, Adam Hochschild came across a reference to the "five to eight million lives" destroyed in the colonial exploitation of the Congo. Startled, he realised that this had been "one of the major killing grounds of modern times. Why were these deaths not mentioned in the standard litany of our century's horrors?" His corrective history makes sobering and gripping reading. In King Leopold of Belgium, who decided to buy himself an empire to compensate for his country's smallness, he portrays a villain of Shakespearian dimensions. Aided by Stanley (of "Mr Livingstone I Presume" fame) the king appropriated a section of central Africa the size of Western Europe as his personal territory. The appalling brutality that ensued, as Europeans plundered the country for rubber and ivory, is vividly captured by Hochschild. He manages to leaven the horror with touches of grotesque humour--for instance, when tricking tribal chiefs into signing away their land for bales of cloth, Stanley would, to impress his dupes, secrete a battery in his pocket with the wires in his palm, so that on shaking hands the chief "was greatly surprised to find his white brother so strong that he nearly knocked him off his feet". Hochschild has something of Simon Schama's gift for populist history; and among other things he provides astonishing background to Joseph Conrad's Congo-set masterpiece, Heart of Darkness. --Adam Roberts
Reader Reviews:
excellent (0/0 people found this helpful)
Not sure where some of the other reviewers are coming from on this book. It is first rate: entertaining, informative, well written. A real page turner. I live in Belgium and am familiar with some of the issues the book is concerned with, particularly the absence of any collective guilt about where so much of the money that built so many monuments actually came from. Strongly recommended if you enjoy reading and want to be educated at the same time....
Cursed with Wealth (0/0 people found this helpful)
The coldly-executed, bloody-minded exploitation of the Congo by King Leopold and his business partners is a story well-worth repeating. At times his conduct is so disgraceful as to force one to a variety of admiration. The ruthless self-interest has surely been a model for later exploiters of Africa (or whatever hue) but few can have stolen as much (once adjusted for current prices) as the King. Such a great evil summoned forth worthy opponents though at all stages they seem to have had to break through disbelief before they could get on the King's wavelength. The King's ability to understand and exploit European sentiment required his arch-opponent E.D.Morel to raise his game. This is a sorry tale, well-told by its author. However, it is really not quite as unknown as the puffery claims. Hochschild has not discovered a forgotten Holocaust, but he has kept its disgraceful memory "bright".
This should be read (4/6 people found this helpful)
This is an important book that really should be on School curriculums everywhere. If you're thinking of visiting or going to work in Africa you should read this book. It is written in an accessible and non academic way that will appeal to students and casual readers alike. A genocide almost still in living memory and but largely forgotten by the mainstream. Reading this book it helped me understand the Africa of today and how it is possible to see a direct relation between the action of the colonizers of yesterday and the mass apathy and western collusion in more recent and contemporary African genocides. However there is also a story of hope here as this book is also a exploration of how ordinary people (both black and white) came together to bring about social change.
A planted evil (13/20 people found this helpful)
The Congo basin is the most cruelly raped part of Africa. It and its immediate northern and southern neighbors were the principal source of slaves for the American plantations. In colonial times, Belgian Congo suffered more than all the other African territories from the harshness of colonialism, a legacy that was carried over to the 1960s when efforts at liberation led to the independence of many African countries. That contemporary legacy of misrule, the fomentation of ethnic strife and genocide is what is haunting the land today, and the Belgian king Leopold played a crucial role in bequeathing that horrible legacy. The genocide in Rwanda and the strife in Burundi are all parts of the legacy. French genocidal legacy abound in Cameroon, Algeria etc. German legacy is felt in Namibia. DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, LE GENOCIDE FRANCO-AFRICAIN,WHEN VICTIMS BECOME KILLERS, THE HERERO REBELLION IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA , THE TROUBLED HEART OF AFRICA are some of the books that provide an insight into the plague.
Who should be blamed for seed of ethnic strife and genocidal tendencies that has been planted in Africa? Is it the fault of some of those former colonial masters who have not changed their ways and support the African leaders with the evil disposition who have hijacked their nations? On the other hand, is it the inherent fault of the Africans who fail as masses to liberate themselves from the horrible legacies?
the forgottoen holocaust (10/17 people found this helpful)
the style of the book is the least - but it forgets two important points:
+ the lack of any comment on present day teaching in belgium - where children are still taught belgians went on a crusading and christening mission, instead of on a rape and robber one
+ lack of comment on the money belgium still is making from it.
apart from that: one of the clearest books i have ever read on the subject.
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Books -> Subjects -> History -> Other Historical Subjects -> Slavery
Books -> Subjects -> History -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
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