Friday, September 14, 2012
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
At the turn of the century, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium carried out a brutal plundering of the territory surrounding the Congo River. Ultimately slashing the area's population by ten million, he still managed to shrewdly cultivate his reputation as a great humanitarian. A tale far richer than any novelist could invent, King Leopold's Ghost is the horrifying account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who defied Leopold: African rebel leaders who fought against hopeless odds and a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure but unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust and participants in the twentieth century's first great human right's movement.
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I think one of the major interests in this book to me is the sense of adventure. Henry Morton Stanley goes into the deep dark jungles of Africa and almost dies twice. It's almost like a fictional adventure.
ReplyDeleteWhere I am in the book right now is pretty sad. Some of the harsh things they did to the Africans were just repulsive. Reading a fictional book that a fictional person get killed or maimed is not a big deal. The real African people getting their hands and feet cut off by the Europeans is an almost unimaginable thought. There was a picture of one African man looking down at the severed hand and foot of his five year old daughter. Another showed a man who had lost his hands from the shackles being to tight and contracting gangrene.
This book to me, has almost slowed down to a crawl. The last interesting thing I can remember is King Leopolds crazy sister. I'm not going to drop this book of course because it is an assignment, but I will hopefully be done with it soon.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, people are finally realizing how terrible the Africans are being treated, and speaking out against it. There was a couple of funny political posters showing King Leopold in a bad light. Originally he tricked everyone into thinking he was a humanitarian. Other kings and monarchy believed he was going to the Congo to help its people and bring them up to speed with Europe's modern world.
I don't know if anyone besides Mr. Kellog has read this, but if they have; is there any thoughts they have on it?
I finished this book. It more or less ended with Leopolds death. They mentioned after he died, he was remembered for the hands he cut off the natives. People realized what he was doing in the Congo was wrong, but after he died he really became an evil person.
ReplyDeleteOver all this book was a good piece of history. I would suggest it to anyone that need to learn about the subject.
Hunter,
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the book, but I'm glad you liked it overall. Are you interested in reading more history?
Thanks,
Missy