King Leopold's Ghost

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

By: Adam Hochschild

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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 sorry sad story

One of my favorite books, "Poisonwood Bible", piqued my interest in exactly what had happened in the Congo. The reality was worse than I ever had imagined. Mass genocide and other atrocities were so severely inflicted on the people of the Congo that all but the faintest hints of oral traditions were eradicated, along with most of the culture. The author takes some time in exploring the parallels to Joseph Conrad's fictional "Heart of Darkness" and makes a strong case that fictional people and events truly existed. There are heroes in this story, but current events in the Congo make any hope of the restoration of the once vibrant culture truly faint. That one man can destroy so much is an unfortunate lesson the humankind keeps having to repeat. Narration is competant but there are annoying repeated phrases as an earlier reviewer states.

Read this book, it's sickening but the truth

I loved this book because it is a well written account of a truly horrible event in human history that more people should know about. I am sad that I didn't read it sooner and it makes me ashamed that there is so much of world history that remains hidden, not through censorship, but through apathy.

Buy this one -- you will not regret it

This is such an epic story of greed, pure evil, lies, but also nobility, truth and heroism -- it's hard to believe that the entire thing is true.

On the one hand, there is the pure embodiment of lust, greed and sheer evil genius, King Leopold. If Leopold didn't exist, you'd almost have to invent him just to personify all the bad intentions and misdeeds that created the Congo Free State. But that's what's so amazing about this book -- people like Leopold actual existed and did the things that are described here. I always have trouble imagining a person of pure, unadulterated evil, just sheer badness with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The shorthand view for this person is always Hitler, but I think the cool thing about this book is bringing one to the realization that there are other Hitlers who existed in their own periods of time. Leopold did not have the military might of a Germany at his disposal, but he used every tool at his disposal to build a concentration camp for the people of the Congo -- not for racial cleansing or any high ideals like that, but just to line his own pockets. Wow.

And at the same time, there's the heros of this book -- none of whom have any of the money or power or connections of Leopold, but they use the one thing at their disposal eventually to bring him down. The truth. This part of the book actually made me wish for a time like the early 20th century, when we still had the capacity to be shocked by the sorts of abuses then happening in Leopold's Congo.

Anyway, do not miss this book. It is an awesome story that is all but forgotten in today's history overviews. I would give this book six stars if I could.

A must read

A period in history which exemplifies the brutality of colonialism. All the duplicity, lies and propaganda used by Leopold can be cut and pasted onto the political and industry leaders of the 21st century. Heart of darkness indeed.

Amazing tale of a buried era

An amazingly told story with more characters than one would expect. Excellent introduction into the period

Phenomenal & necessary!

Adam Hochschild has filled a chasm in my historical knowledge and understanding the depth of which was beyond what I realized! His thorough telling of this fascinating, hauntingly tragic reality is mesmerising, forcing you to keep your gaze toward manifestations of racism, greed and colonialism that you'd rather look away from. His writing style, including the occasional touch of wry sarcasm that illuminates further everything from the horrific to the heroic, is brilliant, as is Geoffrey Howard's excellent handling of it. I will, with no uncertainty, be drawing from this work in ongoing efforts to show how current oppression in society has been shaped by such painful history as this!

Excellent history

This is an excellent account of European colonialism in Africa, specifically in the Congo. Hochschild's account of rubber extraction in the Congo is chilling, but essential to understanding how colonial legacies continue to shape the present.

Fascinating, educational, and sad

The phrase I came away with might not be original and certainly not meant to be funny, but it is simply, in Africa no one can hear you scream. Certainly true in the era written about here, but in many ways there is truth in that still today.

The callous inhuman abuses heaped upon the African people by Europeans claiming to be civilizing them is mind boggling. Perhaps most shocking is how recently all of this occurred. Perhaps it took 2 World Wars to teach us empathy.

This history should be taught right alongside the holocaust, because the level of inhumanity is quite comparable, only were aren't talking about neural Nazis. These were perpetrated by what I've always believed were the peaceful Belgians.

The reading was superb, but ruined by poor editing and producing. It's normal for a reader to stop and reread a passage they wish to improve or to pickup the next session by rereading a line or 2 to get the pace set. But it is the editor's job to correctly edit the pieces together, not simply slam the reads together without trimming the redundancy off. This was disorienting and broke the flow of the story. In my opinion, very unprofessional.

The final distraction came at the end. The book has ended, then without any introduction another book begins, the entire introduction is read, about 24 minutes. Then the recording ends. I suppose it was a teaser to sell another book, but it seemed like a mistake on par with the other editing mistakes throughout the recording. I suspect this was simply awful producing and a lame teaser attempt.

In conclusion, great book whose audio production was awfully produced and edited.

King Leopolds Ghost

Historical content is beyond reproach. Very well writtened.
The narrator was very eloquent.
I enjoyed the book from the standpoint of learning about the Congo. Was horrified at learning of practice of slavery and other human rights violations.

Exposing a hidden corner of history

Excellent writing and a thorough research uncovers the dark European secret. This book should be an obligatory school reading in all Western countries and of course in Congo.