King Leopolds Ghost Essay -- Essays Papers

ability Leopolds apparitionKing Leopolds Ghost tells a story of the Belgian King Leopold II and his misrule of an African colony, named (at the time) the Congo Free State. It is a wild and god-awful story of a mans capacity for evil and the peculiar manifestation of it. In telling this story, Hochschild does a extraordinary job of talent detailed descriptions, curiously of the colorful individuals involved, both good and bad. His analysis of the situation is very solid, kickoff with the movement when the Congolese hero (Morel) engenders out a very austere fact and moving on through his (Morel) analysis and actions, all the trance telling the story of a treacherous monster. Set in the palaces and boardrooms of atomic number 63 and in the villages of central Africa, it tells the story of the tragedy that took place during Leopolds so called rule, a tragedy that is so familiar to African-Americans, being told of our African brothers residing in the homeland. This repugnan ce story is just in fact that, a horror story, giving and revealing the utter most secrets of the respected King Leopold. Allow me to land you on a journey, pointing out the Kings determination and, reasoning for what hed done and the scars he left deep within the heart of the Congo.In the introduction I stated that Morel was the character that I considered to be the hero of this story, now the master(prenominal) question behind that would be, why? Along with, Who is Morel? His complete name was Edmund Dene Morel he was a young clerk who worked for a Liverpool based firm where his duties were to negociate the unloading and reloading of the ships arriving in Antwerp, Belgium. As Morel watched the shipments arrive he noniced something, a great amount of ivory and rubber were being transported into Belgium but postal code was being taken out, as the obtain states There is no betray going on here. Little or nothing is being transfer for the rubber and ivorywith almost no good s being sent to Africa to put up for them, he realizes that there can be scarce one explanation for their source slave labor. (p.2)With his newfound revelation at hand Morel does not sit still. Demonstrating that he refused to turn a blind eye to what serving had allowed him to see, he soon becomes active with his newfound knowledge. Soon afterward Morel utilise his life to stopping slavery in the Congo. From the early 1900s until afte... ... their own, getting educated, and fifty-fifty going to the lengths of forming Greek organizations, that their fellow brother in Africa were being inhumanely mutilated and stripped of their humanity. Hochschild has done an exemplary job of writing this book by gathering details and evidence not to mention the wonderful writing skills that hes displayed throughout the entire book. In my opinion, the account of shocking and brutal nature of Belgian colonial rule, is worth reading on its own, if only to remind us of the horror of the c olonialism from which the US has recently escaped. And anyone with an interest in the way we car for or mistreat other humanbeings may find a great deal of food for thought here as well.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hochschild, a renowned journalist has taken on Stalin and Russian psyche in previous books. He has been criticized the almost unshared focus of the CRA movement on Belgium, citing comparable brutality by the US in the Philippines, the British in Australia, the Germans in what is now Namibia. BibliographyHochschild, Adam King Leopolds Ghosta story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa. commencement Mariner Books 1998. New York