I Was Born in the Congo

King Leopold's Ghost Book Review There are a couple of different reasons as to why the genocidal tendencies stemming from Belgium's King Leopold "and its immediate aftermath" (Hochschild 233) -- which were responsible for the mass deaths in Africa at the turn of the 20th century -- and other greedy Western imperialists remained mostly unknown throughout the United States and most of Europe. Keeping their deadly actions unknown enabled these imperialists to propagate them and to continue to rape the continent and the people of Africa.

If individuals in Western society would have become aware of these facts there could have been more measures created to reduce the autonomy and the devastation wreaked by such tyrants. Conrad's view of human nature was changed by what he witnessed in the Congo in a way that was definitely worse than his previous regard for human nature, specifically as it applied to Westerners. The same phenomena that is evinced in the novel "Lord of the Flies" is evinced in the works of literature of both Conrad and Hochschild.

When bereft of the cultural, social, and even humanistic restraints of so-called civilization, Westerners will turn as savage and as crude as any non-Westerner -- and in most cases turn even more so. This book affected my view of human nature by demonstrating the worst of that nature. In some ways, Leopold II functioned as a precursor to the mass 20th century extermination efforts of men such as Hitler and Stalin.

However, there have always been these sorts of efforts enacted in the world -- during the 20th century technology and science had evolved not only so that the killers were able to be much more efficient, but also so that the rest of the world would know and acknowledge these acts. In this respect, these three men did respond to similar psychological, social, and cultural sources.

The plundering of Africa and Asia in the name of progress is certainly hypocritical, because it involved the same base, backwards methods of murder that are abhorred by the societies that propagate them. The typical justifications for this hypocrisy are that cultures that are at variance with Westernized cultures are innately beneath the latter -- and require the latter's assistance. The rapaciousness of Leopold, Stanly and others enabled the activism of those like Morel, Casement and others. Without wrong (which applies to the aforementioned group), there is no right.

The latter group exists because of the former. Unfortunately, history has always proceeded with a brutal conquest of land and peoples in that land by others. Such a reality ultimately speaks (not positively) to the true nature of human nature, and supports the notion that the only difference between the 20th century atrocities committed is that due to technology they were better documented than those that preceded them. Hochschild's entire book serves as a flash of moral recognition.

The activism of Morel, Sheppard, Williams and Casement also were moral flashes of recognition that helped to spread awareness of the situation in the Congo. Some more recent flashes of morality include social commentary such as the film "Blood Diamond" that depicts the iniquitous proclivities of Europeans in Africa. This disregard persists because of the innate sense of rectitude existent within Western Culture that stems from its preoccupation with technology.

Other groups that are less technologically savvy -- regardless of their other differences -- are considered lesser people and subject to be subjected by Westerners. There are no differences between the imperial aspirations at the turn of the 20th century and those of multinational corporations; the business objectives of the latter largely dictate the policy of national governments and international organizations. This fact is corroborated by Hochschild's characterization of multinationals as "intertwined" (p. 37) with the pursuits of Leopold. Leopold's efforts benefited from technological advances in communication, transportation, and armed conflict.

His soldiers in the area were heavily armed with cutting edge weapons (for the time) and could enforce the king's will while maiming and murdering Africans. He was also able to set up vocational and religious schools. The principle reasons for the hierarchy and bureaucracy effected in the Congo was it kept laborers for the king ignorant of the deprivation taking place, and also distanced the king from it. Historical examples of this propensity include Hitler's Third Reich and the bureaucracy it imposed.

Contemporary parallels for this type of bureaucracy involve multinational corporations and their hierarchies. The author answers this question by alluding to the iniquities of human nature and the fact that as long as the individual.