King Leopold's Ghost

A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

By: Adam Hochschild

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II's vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms.

Correctly concluding that only slave labor on a vast scale could account for these cargoes, Morel resigned from his company and almost singlehandedly made Leopold's slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world. Thousands of people packed hundreds of meetings throughout the United States and Europe to learn about Congo atrocities. Two courageous black Americans - George Washington Williams and William Sheppard - risked much to bring evidence to the outside world. Roger Casement, later hanged by Britain as a traitor, conducted an eye-opening investigation of the Congo River stations.

Sailing into the middle of the story was a young steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming over all was Leopold II, King of the Belgians, sole owner of the only private colony in the world.

©1998 Adam Hochschild (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"Hochschild's fine book of historical inquiry, which draws heavily on eyewitness accounts of the colonialists' savagery, brings this little-studied episode in European and African history into new light." (Amazon.com review)

"Hochschild's superb, engrossing chronicle focuses on one of the great, horrifying and nearly forgotten crimes of the century: greedy Belgian King Leopold II's rape of the Congo, the vast colony he seized as his private fiefdom in 1885....[M]ost of all it is a story of the bestiality of one challenged by the heroism of many in an increasingly democratic world." ( Publishers Weekly)

A Worthwhile Book

I have a particular interest in the African Diaspora, the US reconstruction, and Jim Crow years. This book provides fine background on a particularly dark era. First, Leopold II’s story is well documented here and those who are unfamiliar with the story will greatly benefit. Individuals who became cognizant of the “goings on” in African under the King and fought are aptly covered. King Leopold realizes that Europeans are profiting from African in general and the Congo in particular and wants his share of the booty. How he does that and the aftermath is the story of this book. I would have enjoyed gaining a more nuanced understanding of the culture, communities, and detail related to what was happening “on the ground” in the Congo. Essentially, this book details, outlines, and retells what took place. There are examples and a few short biographical sections (a African head collector for example), but the story does not come to life. This is not a new book (1999), but very worthwhile. Geoffrey Howard reads wonderfully.

Great book

I had to read the book for school but it was absolutely amazing. My only complaint is that the audio didn’t always match my book. Especially chapter 19 where almost half of the spoken recording was skipping parts of the written book I had, and/or shortened the sentence present in the book. A few times they completely added new parts to ch 19 that I didn’t have in my book.

Just Astonishing

To see how todays so-called western democracies treated their colonies! A horrific genocide of epic proportions yet no apology nor compensation ever made to Congolese people by Belgium! Same goes for Britain, France, Spain, Portugal etc

A great book, let down so slightly by recording

An excellent account of the Congo. The narration can be janky at transitions but this is easily looked past.

worth the long listen

the reader was a bit monotone, but ok considering the length of the volume. Had to it in portion because the gravity of the history was overwhelming

BEYOND EVIL

Great narration of Leopold's still long-ignored stomach-churning evil despotic theft and genocidal murder of the Congo and its people.

Enjoyable Yet Dark

I enjoyed listening to this book talking about the Congo Free State. I only knew it through Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but to hear that it was worse in real life really astonished me.

Only issue I had was when the narrator repeated sentences; can't tell if that was him or the editor didn't catch it.

Good overall

Author shows a mild bias on some subject not related to the Congo and also tends to meander a little bit. Not sure why every historical work concerning events around the turn of the century needs to take an extended detour into the lives of American socialites.

That being said, I enjoyed it and feel it provides a good introduction to the events in the Dutch Congo.

Just when you think history is horrible enough...

You read something like this and realize it's WAY worse than you thought. Just look up what a "chicotte" is and you'll get an idea of what I mean. It's a great listen though. Check it out, for your health.

Interesting history of a brutal regime

I knew next to nothing about the Belgian Congo’s history. Mr. Hochschild has written a well-flowing and informative tale of horror that is regrettably true. This is an important work as we as a species must never forget the tragedies of The Congo, Rwanda, Armenia, etc.