King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (audiobook)

genre: nonfiction

When I began listening to this book, I am ashamed to admit that I knew nothing about King Leopold of Belgium or “his” Congo (the area known now as Democratic Republic of the Congo, once known as Zaire). Nothing. Yes, I read Heart of Darkness in high school but no, somehow that entire novel's study did not imprint in my brain the fact that Leopold absolutely terrorized and gutted that entire region for decades.

This book is a history of how Leopold’s Congo came to be and of the people who uncovered his atrocities and tried to expose them to the world. It is about mass murder and forced labor, about a world so desperate for money, ivory and rubber that the means to obtain it ceased to matter. It is about an anti-slavery movement and human rights campaign that built the foundation for other modern atrocities to be rooted out.

It is upsetting and jarring to realize both how recently Africa was decolonized and how ruthlessly an entire continent full of people was cut up and stripped bare by white people from across the sea. It is upsetting to read about families: men, women and children mutilated and abused for profit, entire villages and communities decimated. But me being upset by it doesn’t mean I should look the other way or pretend it didn’t happen. History is only as accurate as the person writing it down and for the countless Africans whose lives were cut short or completely traumatized, knowing the truth of what happened in the Congo feels essential.