Book Description

The story of the colonisation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium during the scramble for Africa is one of the greatest human rights tragedies of recent history. At its core was the exploitation of wild rubber, then in increasing demand in Western markets. The population of the region was subjected to what was in effect slave labour - a regime of unbridled savagery which included imprisonment, whipping, bodily mutilations and killing. On 5 June 1903, Roger Casement left his consular base on the Lower Congo River and made a journey through the regions of the Upper Congo to investigate at first hand reports of alleged atrocities. After three months travelling, he arrived back in Leopoldville on Stanley Pool on 15 September and telegraphed the Foreign Office immediately: 'I have returned from the Upper Congo today with convincing evidence of shocking misgovernment and wholesale oppression.' Towards the end of the year Casement returned to London, where he put together his formal report in consultation with officials of the Foreign Office. The Congo Report was presented to Parliament in 1904. It was a crucial instrument in the British government's efforts to bring about change in King Leopold's Congo Free State. This edition includes not only the report, which has long been unavailable in English, but also Casement's diary of that year. The diary provides invaluable glimpses of the details of his investigation of the human relationships involved and of the life of a remarkable consul during a key year of his life. Both documents have been carefully edited: names which were omitted from the original published report have been reinstated, and explanatory notes provided for the report and diary. -- Publisher description.