King Leopold’s Propaganda War
On May 10th, 1897, within the grand Parc du Cinquantenaire of Brussels, the white-bearded and burly King Leopold II of Belgium inaugurated the opening of the 1897 World Fair.
The Fair was divided into two main areas, the main one in the Parc du Cinquantenaire and another fairground, connected by an electric tram in the suburb of Tervuren. In the main grounds of the fair, spectators marvelled over recent innovations in industrial production, electrical innovations, architecture, infrastructure, and design, many of which showed Belgium’s burgeoning Art Nouveau style. The main site was given a cultural and sophisticated taste.
The Tervuren site, 10 kilometers away, had a different flavour. The site showcased exotic objects, animals, and goods such as cacao, stuffed chimpanzees, gazelles, and crocodiles, among other animals, and the mesmerising ivory elephant tusks. Grand lush landscapes replete with exotic plants and trees decorated the grounds, but the visitors were not the only ones who found themselves transported to a new world. Within the exhibition grounds, a carefully crafted African village was displayed. Congolese people, often sitting inert in their alien surroundings, were displayed in a sham village; many of them didn’t survive their time in Belgium.
The Tervuren site was a demonstration of King Leopold’s personal project of the Congo Free State, an African land 70 times the size of his European nation. The exhibition was filled with propaganda that emphasized the civilizing mission of the Belgian influence in the Congo. By this time, Leopold had withstood criticism of his ownership and the brutality of his regime in the Congo, but in the following years, the exposure of the barbarous nature of his regime would become unavoidable. This is the story of how the extensive Propaganda network of King Leopold II managed to portray the Congo Free State as a humanitarian project when infact, it was one of the largest abuses of human life of the century. This is a story of two wars, one against the Congolese people, and another against the reality of the Congo Free State’s representation through propaganda.
The Builder King
King Leopold II was Belgium’s second King. The Kingdom had been formed in 1830 after the predominantly Catholic southern provinces of the Netherlands gained independence. Insecure of his Kingdom’s meagre size in comparison to nearby established European powers, Leopold II looked abroad to expand his wealth and influence.
From an early age, Leopold took an interest in commerce and geography. He was particularly captivated by the exploits of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley, whom he contracted to explore and develop trading posts in the Congo Basin. To veil his colonial aspirations, Leopold founded the International African Association, an ostensibly international association aimed at “organizing the scientific exploration of the still unknown regions of Africa, of opening up paths to civilization, and of seeking the means of gradually extinguishing the traffic in slaves.”
Gradually, the Organization pivoted to focus more on the Congo Basin, continuing to espose it’s justification through esposing the three Cs of civilization, Christianity, and commerce.
Patches of Arab and Muslim states scattered throughout Africa, many of them, particularly in Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa, had been much more integrated with the local populations than the more recent waves of European merchants.
These predominantly Islamic states were designated as a common enemy to the European colonial ambitions. Through the rhetoric of ending slavery, and promoting Christianity, Africa was seen as a continent that needed liberation, and missionaries, many being honest and genuine in their mission sought to achieve this goal. But to the burgeoning imperial ambitions of the European powers, the goal was, as always one of commerce and enrichment.
Leopold understood this best and masqueraded his colonial ambitions in as a humanitarian and liberating force. His ploy proved effective, In 1885, during the conclusion of the Berlin Conference in which European powers carved the map of Africa to their liking, Leopold's Association emerged as the Congo Free State, a Belgian-run nation with free trade that encompassed what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fearing heightened tensions between European powers over the vast lands of the Congo, on February 26th, in concluding the Berlin Conference, the European powers agreed to recognize the Congo Free State.
Most important to the Europeans, of course, was that the State was a free trade zone, yet the State failed to enforce this and discriminated against non-Belgian trade.
Tusks and Bones
The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse.
The commodity that was most sought after in the Congo were the long bone white tusks of elephants that roamed the forests and savannas of the Congolese interior.
It was used for various ornaments and furnishings among the European elite. Once Leopold was granted his corporate project, the exportation of ivory accelerated with estimates as high as 200 tons a year. Agents and traders were incentivized to extract as much as they could.
Integral to the extraction of ivory was the systematization of the Congo Free State's military, the Force Publique.
The Force Publique consisted Belgian officers and mercenaries from other countries. In order to grow their ranks, the military enacted an aggressive and coercive enlistment of local Congolese into the force. Many locals saw joining the force as more favorable than falling victim to the violent and oppressive measures the Force Publique enacted to extract resources. Villages were ordered to produce quotas of ivory, and if they failed to meet these demands or refused, significant repercussions would be met.
Villages were often burned, women, children, and village chiefs were held hostage, and people were whipped often to death with the brutal hippopotamus-hide whip, the chicotte.
The invention of air-inflatable tires by Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop increased the already significant global rubber demand and added another significant and destructive commodity to be extracted from the Congo. The rubber terror swept through the land, and the same brutal and inhumane measures in resource extraction for ivory became even more widespread.
The brutality of the Force Publique coupled with the vast interior jungle of the Congo caused attrocities to spread like wildfire, as indiscriminate violence spread.
The Propaganda War
It did not take long for observers to condemn the inhumane practices in the Congo. Missionaries wrote to Leopold and Belgian officials about the atrocities, but their pleas were either ignored or responded to by a feigned concern and hollow promises of reform. Those who leaked information to the press rather than directly to Leopold and his officials were intimidated and silenced.
George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, two African Americans, the former a writer and historian, the latter a Presbyterian missionary, became Leopold's most obstinate early critics. Williams wrote in an open letter to the King that the regime committed “crimes against humanity”, while Sheppard detailed the massacres of villages. Leopold tried to silence Sheppard and Williams, but it would not work; they remained obstinate in their perceptions of the Free State of Congo, but being Black, they were largely slandered and ignored in Europe.
Leopold’s extensive network of diplomats and propagandists was prepared. With his title, wealth, and his tactful association with various associations and societies concerning Africa, he had considerable power and leverage.
Leopold funded newspapers to give the Free State favorable coverage. He allowed for two narratives: one that the Congo Free State was a humanitarian mission dedicated to ending slavery and civilizing the local population; the other that the state had problems but these were isolated incidents often exaggerated by critics and that the King was adamant in stamping out atrocities that blighted his State.
Carefully crafted tours of the Congo controlled well by the State were provided to few foreign observers. One of which, the writer Mary French Sheldon declared "I have witnessed more atrocities in London streets than I have ever seen in the Congo."
The king also cultivated relationships with Catholic missionaries and instutions often portraying himself as a victimized Catholic. Petitioning the Vatican numerous times to purchase Congo Bonds to help the spread Christianity.
When news about the atrocities mounted, Leopold formed “The Commission for the Protection of the Natives,” an advisory body stationed in the Congo to investigate the atrocities composed of 6 prominent missionaries, half Catholic, half foreign and Protestant.
The European press commended Leopold and believed that he meant what he said when he vowed to stop the atrocities.
But the commission was ineffective and poorly funded; they were not given the means to travel deep into the Congo, where much of the rubber terror was, and they were instructed to report their abuses to the Congo State authorities.
But by 1900s, the writings of Williams, Sheppard and others became amplified by the work of E.D. Morel. In 1890s, the young Morel worked as clerk with the shipping company Elder Dempster, and witnessed firsthand ithe enourmous quantities of ivory and rubber that came from the Congo to Antwerp, while guns and shackles were shipped out. Morel became convinced that the stories told were true and that the people of the Congo were indeed being plundered and enslaved. He began writing about these trade discrpecies and when he voiced them, he was swiftly repremended by his Boss, who happened to be bribbed by Leopold.
Dedicating himself fully to exposing the atrocities, Morel founded the journal West African Mail, where he compiled testimonies from just about anyone who had something to say about the Congo. He cultivated a network of contacts in Belgium, Britain, and the Congo, and uncovered many of Leopold's
In 1904 Morel founded the Congo Reform Movement, and activism spread globally and coalesced. Drawing support from the United States and the United Kingdom, the organization used pamphlets, public lectures, political lobbying, and photography to challenge Leopold’s carefully constructed narrative. Among the most influential allies of the reform movement, which included the likes of Mark Twain and William B Du Bois, was Roger Casement, the British consul whose official 1904 report confirmed widespread forced labor and violence. His findings lent governmental credibility to the accusations.
By 1904, the gruesome photographs of Alice Seeley, a British missionairy became well known around the world; the maimed hands and murdered bodies could not have been staged.
Leopold, among growing pressure from his own parilement appointed a commission to investigate the abuses reported in the Congo. To Leopold's dismay, the results of the commission became public, and the widespread nature of the atrocities of the Congo Free State was confirmed. Undermounting pressure, after lengthy legal proceedings Leopold sold the Congo Free State to the Belgian government in 1908 for a hefty sum. He died in 1909.
Leopold’s Legacy
Outside of the Royal Palace of Laeken, is an immense greenhouse, housing impressive collections of cammelias, geraniums, azeleas and palm trees that reach for the sky.
The Greenhouse was one of the many projects Leopold commissioned and built with funding he acquired from revenues from The Congo Free State. And like many of his projects their was an element of controlled exoticism from the Congo.
Leopold had never set foot in the Congo. He never looked at the atrocities of the country in it's face. Rather he imported the Congo that he wanted to see, one of exotic plants, animals, artificats and goods. He saw a Congo that could be used to extensively fund his lavish building projects and lifestyle.
As the Congo Propaganda War took place, the Congo itself resembled a warzone. Though the efforts of the Congo Reform movement brought light to the attrocities commited in the Congo and stemmed their propagation the region would continue to suffer from instability. Systemic violence still plagues the region as roving bands of militias terrorize the country most notably in the mineral rich Kivu area.
The legacy of Leopold’s rule is not confined to the past. The structures of extraction he helped establish remain one of the defining challenges of the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo and are a window into the problems that plague many African nations.
