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Summary: Congo deserves better
Review: Although Adam Hochschild's work is admirable it is not the masterpiece it is made out to be. In fact the author's holier-than-thou attitude and his un-nuanced view of foreign affairs in the late Nineteenth Century, makes his book an irritating read. Irritating because the Congo deserves better: with so much horror and so much bloodshed, the author really did not have to pepper his literature with his own chewed out opinions. He should have let the facts and the stories speak for themselves. Additionally, he should have taken more time to fit the Congo into its historical perspective. Narrative history should show some balance, this book doesn't.
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Summary: A True Story of Incredibly Shocking Evil
Review: King Leopold's Ghost was a very well written true account of a very diabolical man. This book should be read by all races and a documentary should be made. It is truly a failing of all man kind to exploit others for profit. The atrocities in this book will make you want to cry (and you should) but the heroics of the people that exposed this brutality will make you see that even one person that truly believes in a cause can make a difference. Please read this account of the rape of the Congo and its people.
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Summary: This Thing is Evil - Satan's Daddy
Review: I call him thing because I would never give him the respect of calling him king. This book is so unbelievably horrific that I can't believe I was reading what I was reading. You will be mystified at what people will do in the name of "greed." People of African descent had better read this book and never forget what you read. Many thanks to the author for bringing this ghost to my attention.
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Summary: This Thing is Evil - Satan's Daddy
Review: I call him thing because I would never give him the respect of calling him king. This book is so unbelievably horrific that I can't believe I was reading what I was reading. I'd like to dig him up and torture him like he tortured my African ancestors. You will be mystified at what people will do in the name of "greed." People of African descent had better read this book and never forget what you read. Many thanks to the author for bringing this ghost to my attention.
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Summary: The Real Heart of Darkness
Review: King Leopold's Ghost is proof that truth can be more exciting than fiction. Covering a lot of the same ground as Joseph Conrad's famous Heart of Darkness (and the film Apocalypse Now), it tells the story of Belgian king Leopold II's empire in the Congo. Readers of Thomas Pakenham's The Scramble for Africa will find a lot of this book familiar. It was an empire founded, like so many others, on brutality and enslavement of the native peoples. There are strange natives, dangerous animals, heroes, and plenty of villains. All of this makes for a great book, and Hochschild is just the one to write it. Anyone with an interest in African or colonial history would find this book worth their time.
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Summary: A must read
Review: Okay, I'll admit it - I'm not done with the book yet...but I'm already here giving it five stars and ordering it to send to other people. It's that good. The story it relates is one of unimaginable horror, all the more horrible because it has largely disappeared from history. How can we forget so easily? The early dissenters emerge as amazing figures of integrity in an age blighted by greed and racism. The writing is gripping, and flows along with intertwining tales where the research is evident, but never hits you over the head in an academic way.
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Summary: MUST HAVE A SHORT MEMORY....
Review: I find it strange with all of the books now coming out based upon the presumption that history has been "forgotten." Maybe I am a product of a good Canadian Education System which taught us all about King Leopold's lark when we were 12, but I thought this was all well known. Also no one ever listen to Australia's rock band Midnight Oil before? ...conquistador of Mexico... ...the Zulu and the Navajo... ...the Belgians in the Congo, Hey, Short Memory! Short Memory, Must have a, Short Memory And I think that is what is going on here. It comes as a "shock" to people that such attrocities were perpetrated in the backwaters of the Congo at the turn of the last century. The author does us a favour by reminding all of us in a good, ripping read about the inanity of King Leopold and his lackeys, from the higher-ups like H.M. Stanley, to those lesser govt. officials of "Heart of Darkness" fame. It is not a attack on colonialism in general and to see it as such is projecting our values backward in time. It does show us rather that King Leopold and his morality was so out of step with the times that the other colonial powers, whose colonial systems were based upon less harsh (though perhaps equally) exploitive aims, had to take the colony away from him. In brief Leopold was so horrid that even the other colonial powers held their noses when they visited him in Laeken, Belgium. Colonialism existed on a continuum and anyone familiar with the times will know that idealism and good intentions played as much in foreign policy implementation as the clearly manifest evil intentions of Leopold in the Congo. The real builders of empire like Britian ruled, as an ideal, indirectly, integrated locals into the security and administation structure of the colony, and invested in their colonies while all the time taking profits from it. Rule of law was also developed and, although it might not have done locals a lot of good at the time, it was there as a nascent institution which sometimes served the newly independent countries well. The Belgiums were on the other end of the scale: direct rule from the home country, no attempt to build up independent adminstrative and education branches, and therefore no attempt to integrate locals into the security forces of the time. It was simple and direct, rule at the point of a whip with no recourse to law. Strip the place bare and move on. Cut and run colonialism where the master never took the time to learn the language. Therefore one would get a rather slanted view of colonialism if one thought that all colonies operated like the Congo. The Congo is noteworthy for one point alone, that it was viewed even then as a dysfunctional colony.
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Summary: A history repeated in all ex-colonies around the world.
Review: This very well written book open the doors of a segment of the African history unknown for most of the people. This is a shocking research that show us how a huge area in Africa became an ivory and rubber hell where the brutality, cruelty and ambition of the Belgium king and his employees reduce the native population to a slave condition by force but also shocked me the doble morale of those people who denounced the crimes and exposed the reality of the colony and the other face of King Leopold so strongly but said nothing or almost nothing against the British, French, German and Dutch Empires that were committing the same or worst crimes in their colonies at the same time applying the same policy of robbery and cruelty as King Leopold in his Free State of Congo later known as the Belgium Congo.
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Summary: excellent and eye opening
Review: This is a compelling read. The author goes to great pains to demonstrate the extent to which personal greed fueled the effort by Europeans to slice up the world at the end of the nineteenth century. If there is anyone who wonders why the West continues to viewed with a jaundiced eye by many folks in the Third World, this book will demonstrate just why that is the case. The strongest parts of the book deal with the savagery employed by the Belgians to ensure the production of rubber. Further, the book also gives a fascinating look at the private life and motives of King Leopold himself. In many respects, he becomes the focus of the book and stands in for the general greed of white Europeans. Finally, the use of missionary societies and "philanthropic" societies comes in for strong critique in this book. While Christianity has done great good in much of the poorest parts of the world, it was shamelessly employed as a form of soft imperialism to grease the skids for the real purpose of European presence in Africa - to steal and make a profit off of other people's misery. Good book. Recommended.
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Summary: King Leopold II of Belgium
Review: Hey... yes, I know he was not the nicest king around but he had good tactics.. He didn't know what was happening in the Congo... partly because he did not set foot there! I think this book is great reading to understand what happened in the Congo.. We do not know everything about Belgium so, this is a good book to read.. too bad there are not that many books on that country here in the states. I love Belgium! :) Beautiful country.... but back to this book, if you want to learn about the Belgian Congo, then read this, it is written properly!
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