King Leopold’s Ghost Questions

1. In King Leopold’s Congo, carriage was not a rare sight. Many were forced into labor and died as a result. This massive population decrease was fueled for a variety of reasons such as greed, conquest, money, and image. However, this suffering is virtually unknown. We can trace this lack of knowledge back to Leopold’s reign. After the Congo was sold to Belgium, a mass burning of important documents took place. Yet this is not the only reason why there is a lack of remembrance.

Just like Nazi Germany did years later after the Holocaust, they denied that such brutality took place. For decades, documents such as first hand accounts were never released. It was no until the late 1900’s that a pesky author was able to get them to be released. Even with these straightforward documents released, Belgian still continued to deny their past. Other factors such as communication contributed to a lack of past and modern day response. If the Internet had been around in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, such atrocities could not be possible. Take for example the program RED. This program has become very popular with many websites and has thus attracted many people to it’s cause. If such an enormous information superstructure had been in place in the past, more people would have been aware of the real Congo.

2. Conrad’s view’s changed when he went to the Congo by realizing what true human nature was. He saw that basic human thoughts can be skewed by greed, power, and money. As was prevalent in the Congo, white business men were not just that. However, they were commanders in the war for money and power. They were blind to the carnage and deprivation of human rights. The only thing that was important was self gain and personal prosperity. One example of this brutality was Captain Leon Rom for his mass murdering and decapitation of black individuals. My views human rights has not changed. Even today, every person does not act in the way of and peace and equality when given power and money.

3. King Leopold can be viewed as a precursor to many other mass killings of people. However, his reasons are quite different. His platform on colonizing the Congo was not on the basis of humanitarianism and conquest, but for profit. We can see this false image in the Holocaust as well. However Leopold’s main point was not to kill people, as was Hitler’s. These twentieth century killing arose from the same social and political sources such as the need for power and force. However, both these mass killings still have differences such as world interpretation and response.