I am posting this from my iPhone so prepare for spelling errors to run rampant. I did the first half of chapter 17 for our presentation tomorrow. The first half of this chapter extends most of it's substance to illustrating the slow but steady downfall of Leopold's control over the congo (I know finally!).
The first section of this chapter highlights the movement of "African Testimony". The court system in
the Congo during that time was white ruled. White men and many African de facto officials didn't fear the legal system because it was inefficient and unjust. KL basically created a Commission of Inquiry of Rule. He sent for three commissioners who would make it their sole purpose to listen to the horrifying testimonies of the African people in the Congo. For the first time African people in the Congo had a "voice" and a chance to tell of the atrocities of king Leopold and his followers...or so they thought. It turns out that the general reports (reports were never written in detail) never were read beyond the commissioners themselves and were locked in the state archive in Brussels until 1980.
The next section of the chapter highlights Leopold's intense infatuation with France and slow building hate for all things Belgian. In his older years he traveled abroad by ship or private railway cars, spoiling Caroline with luxurious homes designed after French architecture.
Thanks to the campaign of morel and the commission inquiry reports given
to Leopold and then leaked, he was being pressured to extract himself from
the Congo. Due to the fact Leopold was becoming increasingly pressured to release his grasp over Congo he decided he would sell it and for a handsome price. He ended up selling it to Belgium in exchange for them taking over 150 million dollars in debt and paying him 50 million in gratitude and financing his building projects including the Grand Leopoldian Center for World Conferences.
Next in the chapter we learn about a man named William Morrison, a fierce ally to William Sheppard and loyal friend to Morel. Morrison encouraged many fellow ministers to speak out about the Congo atrocities. At this time missionaries and Presbyterians began being watched closely for Leopold had issued a decree mandating 5 year jail time for any calumny against a Congo Official. During the end of Leopold's rules the Compagnie du Kasai was trying to extract as much rubber as possible. The Kuba people in this region started rising against the rubber terror. The Kuban people reaped havoc on white trading posts and eventually 180 of them were killed. Sheppard wrote a story detailing how their lives went from peaceful to horrifying due to the rubber boom. The Compagnie due Kasai was outraged and exploded on Morrison and Sheppard demanding a retraction. Morrison and
Sheppard were legally vulnerable since they printed the article in the Congo which morel re-printed in Britain. Soon British vice consul started investigating and the Kasais stocks started to plummet. The company decided to legally punish Sheppard and Morrison to which they replied with a statement that they would rather go to jail than pay the fines. Morrison and Sheppard were ready to go to trial with more than a dozen Kubans by their side ready to testify in their defense. Morel called his friend and ally Emile Vandernelde and asked for a recommendation for a for a good lawyer for the men. Vandernelde revealed that he was an attorney and decided to take the case himself Pro Bono. He was a leading figure in European Democratic Socialism. When criticized by Belgians for traveling all the way to Africa to defend a couple of foreigners he replied by saying "No man is a stranger in the court of justice".
My Quiz Questions are:
1.What is the significance of the title?(Hint, last line)
2.What happened to the testimonies given by the Africans? And what does this show about the integrity or power of the commission?
3. Why was Sheppard's story about the Kubans such an outrage? What was the resulting effect of his story?
(The remaining quiz questions on Enlly's Blog Post)
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