Transnational elements of the Congo Reform Campaign

On December 13, 2024 By deanclayIn ArticlesLeave a comment

Belgian control of the Congo Basin was one of the most notable imperial atrocities during the imperialist age at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century. The brutal treatment of the people of the Congo Free State has come to symbolise the worst aspects of European imperialism. During the scramble for Africa, Leopold II of Belgium carved out an empire along the Congo River. This meant that the King ruled the Congo Free State as his own possession, exploiting the areas richness in raw materials, which took a huge toll in human life, as well as other atrocities, such as the severing of limbs.

The Congo Reform Association (CRA) was a humanitarian campaign set up in 1904 by E.D. Morel and Roger Casement, and also included the help of Dr Henry Grattan Guinness, and was arguably the first major human rights movement of the twentieth century, although critics would say that it was more about trade than a humanitarian issue. The CRA orchestrated debates and resolutions in Parliament, called public meetings and enlisted support in the United States.[1] Roger Casement was a British consul at the time and was instructed to investigate the alleged widespread human rights abuses and exploitation of the native people which were occurring in the Congo.[2] Casement published his report in 1904 and was instrumental in King Leopold II finally relinquishing his private territorial holdings in Africa. However, for many years prior to the publishing of this report there were reports coming from the Congo of the atrocities committed on there against its people, and slowly gained international support for their cause.

E. D. Morel would play a significant role in the activities and campaigning of the CRA. Morel first set off on his crusade against King Leopold II presence in the Congo Free State when he became aware of the atrocities perpetrated against the Africans. This happened when, whilst he was employed at a shipping firm, he noticed the ships returning from the Congo were offloading their cargo of raw materials and setting sail with weapons.[3] Switching to journalism, Morel was able to devote himself to exposing the regime and produced a series of articles on the subject. He argued that the atrocities in the Congo were the inevitable result of a system in place there which denied the native the right to free trade and, therefore, must force him to slave labour against his will.[4] Morel differed in the view of Guinness, who was an Irish Protestant Christian, in that Morel wanted to honour the 1885 Berlin Act and open up the Congo to free trade whereas the missionaries wanted to have access in order to Christianise the native population. However, Morel realised that he needed Guinness as he had the ability to influence a lot of religious philanthropic people which Morel did not have.[5] The missionaries played a very important role in spreading the information about the atrocities throughout Europe and North America. They achieved this by delivering thousands of lectures using images of mutilated Congolese natives and other horrific incidents.[6] In 1906, Morel wrote a book called ‘Red Rubber’ which was designed to arouse the emotions of its readers to the nature of the atrocities in the Congo, and in this book Morel described them as unparalleled at any other point in history.[7] To highlight the transnational element of support for the CRA, Morel was able to recruit the help of French journalist Pierre Mile to co-write a book with him, as well as support from French author Anatole France, and Belgian socialist leader Emile Vandervelde, who sent Morel copies of Belgian parliamentary debates.[8]

The CRA was able to garner support not only from people within different countries, but across the religious divide as well. An article published in The Washington Post in 1907 about Reverend R. J. Campbell declaring his belief that Great Britain could stop the atrocities, by banning Belgian coal ships from docking at British ports, supports this. Within the same article, it is mentioned that President Roosevelt has lent his weight to the campaign by declaring that he would support Great Britain in any concerted effort to end the horrors as he believed that if the two countries acted together (England and America), then no power could oppose them.[9]

Before the CRA came into existence, an awareness of the atrocities taking place in the Congo was already coming to light on the international stage. George Washington Williams, a black American Civil War veteran, minister, politician, journalist and historian wrote an open letter to King Leopold II on the Congo in 1890.[10] In this letter he detailed the suffering of the region’s inhabitants at the hands of the people who were working for Leopold. Washington appealed to the international community to ‘call and create an International Commission to investigate the charges herein preferred in the name of Humanity …’[11] Williams also wrote a letter to the U.S. President describing the cruel slave trade being enforced upon the Congo natives as ‘crimes against humanity’.[12] These efforts helped to sway public opinion against Leopold’s regime which was running the Congo and sparked the coming together of educated campaigners in powerful positions, who were eager to raise awareness and highlight the situation to the masses, thus helping the Congolese to break free from the chains of their oppressors.

However, the Congo Reform Association would also take on a transnational dimension during its existence. There was a branch in the United States, which was set up to achieve the same goals, called the American Congo Reform Association (ACRA). The list of members was illustrious, from Booker T. Washington, an American Civil Rights activist, to Mark Twain, an internationally famous author.[13] Having influential people such as this on board helped the CRA in gaining publicity for its cause. Indeed, a letter was written to the New York Times bringing to the attention of the people of the United States that they were petitioning Congress on reform in the Congo, and also promoting the sale of Mark Twain’s “King Leopold’s Soliloquy”.[14] Twain himself, whilst occupying the role of vice-president of ACRA, and in addition to writing “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” which was a work of political satire condemning the actions of Leopold in the Congo, also wrote two other unpublished pieces on the Congo. He also gave a lengthy newspaper interview about the Congo, mentioned the issue in several speeches and made three trips to Washington to talk in favour of reform with President Theodore Roosevelt and high officials in the State Department.[15]

Booker T. Washington, an American Civil Rights activist, was also involved in ACRA and participated in the campaign to end the atrocities in the Congo. At the request of Thomas S. Barbour, the organiser of ACRA, Washington set about using his influence on high American officials on behalf of Congo reform. He called personally on his friend President Roosevelt and on members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to urge American diplomatic pressure on the Belgian government and monarch.[16] Indeed, Washington carried a lot of weight behind him in terms of being able to influence people in power. When he went to the White House, Washington carried with him a protest committee of the National Baptist Convention, which was the largest of all Negro organisations at the time, which he had helped to arouse to a state of concern.[17] Washington continued to lecture on Congo Reform and spoke with Mark Twain at a series of meetings in major American cities. All of this, along with the pressure exerted by Twain and other activists, did have an effect on policy makers and people in power, and in 1909 a letter was published in the New York Times detailing five principle demands that then Secretary of State Elihu Root had issued to the Belgian Minister to the United States, Baron Moncheur.[18]

Here we can see that an organisation and a movement which started out in Britain managed to find, and appealed to, other people of a different nationality rallying behind the same cause. The petitioning that they engaged in, the publicity they gained from their actions and the influence they exerted were all of great use to the cause of Congo reform, and showed that international barriers of nationality can be broken down when a common cause is found and a common goal is sought.

All of the campaigning to raise awareness not only aroused public opinion in Britain and the United States, but also within religious circles in Europe, even in Belgium, whose own King was the perpetrator of the atrocities in the Congo. Father Arthur Vermeersch wrote a book called ‘La Question Congolaise’ in which he strongly attacked the Leopoldian system in place within the Congo. However, where Morel and the other reformers considered the main crime of the regime to be its violation of the principle of free trade, Vermeersch saw it as a violation of natural law.[19] Obviously Vermeersch had his own agenda, in terms of the fact that he was Catholic and, as such, was wary at first of international reform working to the advantage of Protestants. Ultimately, however, he, and other Catholics, became critical of the regime once it was realised that the work of the Catholics missions in the region may be sacrificed and they became allies to the reformers.[20] Although not working towards the same goals as the CRA, by looking at this example we can see how far reaching the influence of the CRA was, by analysing the level of awareness raised for people within religious circles to jump onto the bandwagon and take in an interest in the issue, if not for anything other than to further their own agenda.

The Congo Reform Association was a movement designed to highlight the horrors occurring in the Congo Free State. It was originally founded in Britain but the cause was soon to be taken up by Americans and Europeans alike. It served to highlight the contrasting views of imperialism within certain circles at the time, in that it was accepted but not at any cost. People from different professions, writers, journalists, Government employees, and historians, to name but a few, all came together alongside people within the religious hierarchy to raise awareness of the atrocities perpetrated in the Congo and, although their agendas differed, they all sought the common goal to end the suffering.

References

[1] Miers, Suzanne. Slavery and antislavery in the twentieth century. (Oxford, 2003), p.53.

[2] Grant, Kevin. A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926. (New York, 2005), pp.62-63.

[3] Cline, Catherine Ann, ‘E. D. Morel and the Crusade against the Foreign Office’, Journal of Modern History, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1967), pp. 126-137.

[4] Cline, Catherine Ann, ‘The Church and the Movement for Congo Reform’,Church History, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Mar., 1963), pp. 46-56.

[5] Grant, A Civilised Savagery, pp.62-63.

[6] Sliwinski, Sharon. “The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo.” Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 5, No. 3 (2006), p.333-363.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Daniel Laqua, The Age of Internationalism and Belgium, 1880–1930: Peace, Progress and Prestige. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013, pp. 56–59.

[9] ‘Congo Horrors Denounced’, (1907, 8 July), The Washington Post, p.3.

[10] http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/lumumba/freedom-fighters.html

[11] http://www.blackpast.org/?q=george-washington-williams-open-letter-king-leopold-congo-1890

[12] Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa. (Boston, 1998), p.112.

[13] Wheeler, E.P. (1906)’Congo Reform Appeal’, New York Times, 31 January, p.6.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Hawkins, Hunt, ‘Mark Twain’s Involvement with the Congo Reform Movement: A Fury of Generous Indignation’, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 2 (June, 1978), pp.147-175.

[16] Harlan, Louis R. ‘Booker T. Washington and the White Man’s Burden’, The American Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Jan. 1966), pp.441-467.

[17] Ibid.

[18] ‘Root’s Demands on Belgium’, (1909, 29 Jan), The New York Times, p.6.

[19] Catherine Ann Cline, ‘The Church and the Movement for Congo Reform’,Church History, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Mar., 1963), pp. 46-56.

[20] Ibid.

Bibliography

Grant, K. A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Hochschild, A. King Leopold’s Ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

Miers, S. Slavery and Antislavery in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

Cline, Catherine Ann, ‘E. D. Morel and the Crusade against the Foreign Office’,Journal of Modern History, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1967), pp. 126-137.

Cline, Catherine Ann, ‘The Church and the Movement for Congo Reform’, Church History, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Mar., 1963), pp. 46-56.

Harlan, Louis R. Louis R. ‘Booker T. Washington and the White Man’s Burden’,The American Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Jan. 1966), pp.441-467.

Hawkins, Hunt, ‘Mark Twain’s Involvement with the Congo Reform Movement: A Fury of Generous Indignation’, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 2 (June, 1978), pp.147-175.

Laqua, Daniel. The Age of Internationalism and Belgium, 1880–1930: Peace, Progress and Prestige. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013.

Sliwinski, Sharon. “The Childhood of Human Rights: the Kodak on the Congo.”Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 5, No. 3 (2006), p.333-363.

‘Root’s Demands on Belgium’, (1909, 29 Jan), The New York Times, p.6.

‘Congo Horrors Denounced’, (1907, 8 July), The Washington Post, p.3.

Wheeler, E.P. (1906)’Congo Reform Appeal Wheeler, E.P. (1906)’Congo Reform Appeal’, New York Times, 31 January, p.6.

http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/lumumba/freedom-fighters.html

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=george-washington-williams-open-letter-king-leopold-congo-1890

Spotlight – Sir Roger Casement

On December 13, 2024 By deanclayIn ArticlesLeave a comment

The first in our Spotlight series begins with one of the key figures in the early stages of the Congo reform movement – Roger Casement, also known as Sir Roger Casement CMG, who died 98 years ago this month in disgrace after being exposed as a ‘traitor’ due to his involvement in the Easter Rising of 1916; only five years before had Casement knelt before King George V to receive a knighthood for his humanitarian work.

Early Life

Casement was born on 1st September 1864 in Sandycove, County Dublin, to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. Despite being baptised in secret by his mother at the age of four[1], Casement, for most of his life, thought himself as a Protestant, only formally converting to Catholicism during his time in prison, weeks before his death. An unsettled childhood saw Casement orphaned by the age of thirteen and, along with his sister Agnes and their two brothers, Tom and Charlie, eventually moved in to the Casement family farm with their Uncle John near Ballymena. It was at Ballymena High School where Casement would receive his education, spending his holidays with his mother’s sister Grace, who lived in Stanley, Liverpool. Casement’s uncle was Edward Bannister, a serving British Consul and would describe experiences of Africa to a young Casement, arguably sowing the seeds for his later humanitarian concerns for the people of the continent.

After leaving school, Casement soon found work with the Elder Dempster shipping company in Liverpool before moving on to work as a purser on board the SS Bonny, an African trading vessel, and later gaining employment with the International Association, which was controlled directly by Leopold, in 1884, on the eve of the Berlin Conference. This was the beginning of Casement’s African career and ironic in that it was with the very regime that he would ultimately expose almost twenty years later. However, this experience of the inner working practices of the International Association would put Casement in great stead when writing his later report on the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State[2]. It was also during his time in Africa that Casement became acquainted with Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, or Joseph Conrad as he would later be known, author of the novella Heart of Darkness, which described the life of an ivory transporter down the Congo river in Central Africa and was inspired by the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State[3].

The Casement Report and Humanitarian Efforts

In May 1903 the British House of Commons passed a critical resolution on the Congo. They resolved that the British government, ‘in order to abate the evils prevalent in that state’ must confer with the other powers who were signatories of the Berlin General Act to ‘abate the evils prevalent in that State'[4], and Casement, then British Consul at Boma, was instructed to investigate the reported atrocities there. The subsequent report, which ran for forty pages of the Parliamentary Papers, and contains another twenty pages of individual statements gathered by Casement, including several detailing the kidnapping, assault, mutilation and murder of men, women and children, was a damning exposure of the exploitation taking place in the Congo Free State. Using interviews with missionaries, natives, riverboat captains and railroad workers to substantiate his claims, Casement had gathered the evidence required that allowed the British government to expose Leopold’s maladministration in the Congo Free State and, by providing detailed examples of ‘wholesale oppression and shocking mismanagement’ in the Congo, Casement had enabled the Foreign Office to take a decisive stand against Leopold and his regime in the Congo Free State[5].

Casement, however, was not convinced that action taken by the British government would help redress the wrongs of Leopold’s exploitation of the Congo. Instead, Casement believed, a humanitarian effort was needed in order to bring Leopold’s evil regime to an end and along with Edmund Dene Morel, founded the Congo Reform Association, whose aim was to pressure the British and American governments, as well as the other signatories of the Berlin Act and Leopold himself, to bring about reform in the Congo Free State and end the rampant exploitation of the Congolese people and their natural resources.

The publication of Casement’s report had enormous repercussions in parliament itself, as well as in the press, the political class and public opinion. He was now invited to speak at public meetings and private clubs, as well as being interviewed by the press. Leaflets and articles appeared regularly, generously praising the Report and Casement’s obvious commitment to the cause of justice and freedom; the resulting attacks aimed at him through official publications in Belgium and by gossip columnists in England who were propagandists for Leopold, only strengthened the image of Casement as a great humanitarian and campaigner for justice[6].

Casement would later produce the Putumayo Report in 1911, which exposed the cruel and exploitative treatment of indigenous people working in the rubber industry by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company in the Putumayo region of Peru. This, as well as his previous humanitarian efforts, earned Casement a knighthood on his return to Britain. However, during the First World War, Casement was found guilty of treason for his attempts to raise troops for a potential uprising in Ireland. After travelling to Germany to try recruit Irish soldiers who had fought for Britain but had been captured by Germany, Casement soon realised that his efforts were not successful, that an attempted uprising would be futile, and returned to Ireland. However, after being dropped off in County Kerry by a German U-boat, Casement was arrested by the British authorities and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Shortly afterwards, he was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. Attempts at securing a reprieve for Casement, a campaign which was supported by such figures as W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, proved to be futile. One reason for the failure of the reprieve campaign was the discovery of Casement’s ‘black diaries’, which revealed that he was a homosexual and, due to the explicit sexual nature of the diaries, support for Casement’s cause dwindled and prevented the chance of a reprieve; he was duly stripped of his knighthood and executed on 3rd August, 1916[7].

Legacy

Casement’s legacy is still being debated by historians. Angus Mitchell has stated that: “the great paradox in Casement’s life is that he is both a traitor and a hero. He continues to live in this no man’s land of history, claimed by no one”[8], and indeed, it seems a life full of contradictions has meant that Casement’s legacy is still being assessed. Within the unionist community in Ireland, as well as in Britain, he is primarily remembered for what they perceive to be his treachery and considered a traitor. Casement is also not universally accepted within the nationalist community in Ireland either, which Mitchell puts down to his work for the British consular service as well as his homosexuality. However, in other parts of the world, Casement’s humanitarian work is developing a growing respect and appreciation, such as in the Congo and Peru, where he was arguably the most successful in his campaigning efforts. Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian Nobel Laureate, declared that: “Roger Casement was not perfect. I think he was a tragic figure. But he should be regarded as a pioneer in the fight against colonialism, racism and prejudice.”[9]

For some, Casement was a traitor who turned his back on Britain at a crucial time during the First World War to support a rebellion in Ireland. For others, he was an Irish patriot who was also one of the great humanitarian campaigners, able to help bring about the end of oppressive, brutal treatment for native workers in both the Congo and Peru and who was also a staunch anti-imperialist. Casement’s anti-imperialist sentiment was evident in the speech he made after his conviction of treason: “Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth, a thing no more to be doled out to us, or withheld from us, by another people than the right to life itself”[10]. The debate on Casement’s legacy will no doubt rage on. One thing is for certain though, he was one of the most influential figures in the movement for Congo reform and, without whom, the entire campaign may have been over before it had even begun.

Notes

[1] Angus Mitchell, Casement, (London: Haus Publishing Ltd, 2003), pp.10-11.
[2] Ibid, p.19.
[3] Ibid, pp.21-22.
[4] Congo Free State. HC Deb 20 May 1903 vol. 122 cc1289-332, accessed 13th August, 2014
[5] William Roger Louis, Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006), p.127.
[6] Mario Vargas Llosa and Edith Grossman, The Dream of the Celt, (London: Faber, 2012), p.101.
[7] Peter Crutchley, “Roger Casement: How did a hero come to be considered a traitor?”, BBC Knowledge & Learning, accessed 13th August 2014,
[8] Ibid
[9] Ibid
[10] “Roger Casement’s Speech from the Dock”, New Statesman, accessed 13th August 2014