King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild is a historical and well-crafted narration of King Leopold II of Belgium and his suspected ambivalent government in the colony that he claimed to be his own such as Congo, Belgian Congo, and Zaire. In reality, it is a wild and disastrous exploration of the treatment of the Congolese (Congo Free State) during the late 1800s era. It is about the maltreatment done to the people of Congo such as the system of force labor that kept them in a condition of virtual slavery.
In characterization, Leopold is a greedy man who is obsessed by the desire for a territory. He works his true motives by doing misleading “humanitarian activities” in order to take possession of a certain place. With his genuine political tactics to deceive other leaders such as Henry Morton Stanley – one of the world’s greatest explorers of the time, he freely materializes acts of corruptions, propaganda, and political intrigues. With the happening of Berlin Conference and other diplomatic engagements, Leopold’s colony achieved its recognition.
In the book, Hochschild’s efforts of tedious and extensive historical research were manifested. He was inspired by the results of researches conducted by Belgian authors. As a matter of fact, he acknowledged the significant contributions of Jules Marchal for information on massacres. The challenging gathering of restricted facts by the author is also a story itself. Accordingly, most of the relevant information about Leopold’s rule especially to his murderous acts was accumulated by his enemies.
The book was originally written with the purpose to make the public informed and aware of the various criminal acts committed by white rulers in Africa. Additionally, after some hardships in searching for potential publishing houses (nine out of ten United States-based publications refused), the political masterpiece of Hochschild became a bestseller accounting to 400,000 copies in various languages circulated worldwide. In an interview with him, he declares that his intention in writing the book is to narrate the story in "a way that brings characters alive, that brings out the moral dimension, that lays bare a great crime and a great crusade".
Basing from the above presented facts, I can say that Hochschild’s historical literature is considered a masterpiece. Many authors, critics and reviewers praised him for his outstanding capability to tell a wonderful story. The accumulation and disclosure of known but hard to find facts written in several African books was appreciated by historians and Africa specialists. In particular, South African Nobel prize winner for literature Nadine Gordimer commended his work.
The book presented vibrant, clear, and effective portrayals of Leopold’s misrule. The heroes in this historical but repulsive tale are somewhat depicted as superior over the natives. Even though some people resisted to believe Hochschild’s claims, the facts presented are well supported and established throughout the history.
Hochschild posed a big question – WHERE ARE THE AFRICANS? in order to emphasize the rights of African voice to be heard. His book’s ‘unseen’ objective is to find the voices of African people in the writings of African history. He found these voices in the writings of Europeans about the country and also to the non-documented sources like oral interviews.
In relation to the intriguing title – King Leopold’s Ghost, the death of Leopold paved way to rumors proliferated that he did not die but instead gone to live in the Congo. However, there is a more plausible and idiomatic claim that become known. Leopold's perceived ghost is the return of some leaders that imitated and applied the latter’s ruling that haunt the Congo for more than three decades after its eventual independence.
This book was not only an academic account in the history of world politics but a clear manifestation of human rights episodes. The plot of the story presented glimpse on the images of the terrors behind the shadows of the explorers and their hidden agenda. This is an excellent source of information about the real stories behind colonial Africa. The book leaves a deeper impression and intellectual challenge of searching the true happening in Africa and its people over the past few centuries.
In my own trusted virtues, the book is a reasoned and acceptable representation of the presence and scope of horror acts of colonialism by leaders not only before but also today’s current history. It is a book that is educating, simplified, and detailed that makes the reader highly interested to finish the manuscript. In the long run, I realized the philosophical cliché adage “Power corrupts” is still relevant yesterday and even for tomorrows to come.
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