Summary Of The Butcher Of Congo By Baffour Ankomah

“When these other mass murders went largely unnoticed except by their victims, why, in England and the United States, was there such a storm of righteous protest about the Congo?” In the reigning of King Leopold at Congo, unfairness, judgement, and brutality are only some of the things seen. In Baffour Ankomah‘s essay, The Butcher of Congo, Ankomah talks of Adam Hochschild’s new book, King Leopold’s ghost. He describes it as ‘brilliant’, and both the story and events as something that “..Africa and the world must not forget.” Ankomah points out several details and central ideas that can be seen in King Leopold’s Ghost, and with them he includes excerpts of Hochschild’s explaining and opinions: little compliments like, “Hochschild tells it better”

Like Hochschild says, this true story was “the great forgetting”. Many folks overlooked this detail, and ended up concluding that King Leopold and his reign over the Congo was one of the worst. However, this is not true, what with “what the Americans and the British were doing, or had done, elsewhere.” Yes, King Leopold was not so good of a guy, but that point is emphasized too far as Hochschild points out, “that is so only if you look at sub-Saharan Africa as the arbitrary checkerboard formed by colonial boundaries”. This brutal and even worse behaviour could be seen in various ruling countries, some of which include: France, Portugal, Germany, America, and Britain. One great example of these countries’s brutality is how “thousands of refugees ….fled across the Congo River to escape Leopold’s regime”, and how they “eventually fled back to escape the French”. This piece of evidence really helps contrast the things that were going on in France and the Congo, and with this, it seems as if things are going way better in Congo, which is saying something. Another country that gives a bad impression based on this evidence is America. During this time, America was in the middle of a war in a war with the Filipinos, where they “tortured prisoners, burned villages, killed 20,000 rebels, and saw 200,000

This is due to the Sir Roger Casement, an Irish investigator that was sent to observe Congo. His description was too harsh and disturbing for the British to publish without making a “sanitized version”, to which when printed, got a very upsetting reaction and an “18-page letter of protest” from Casement. Alas, “The Butcher of Congo” was gone by March of 1908, leaving behind “110 million francs worth of debt.” Funny enough, Britain gave King Leopold 50 million francs “as a mark of gratitude for his great sacrifices made for the Congo.” As if, although one does have to give him credit for not being as terrible as other countries. A time of chicottes, fraud, cruelness, and “sliced hands”, King Leopold and his ruling over Congo is something unforgettable. “It was the brutality of Leopold’s agents that would catch the eye of the world.” A time when ruling countries like France sent refugees back to Congo. A time when “brutal” was the only would people knew. A time when a place like Congo, ruled by King Leopold II, caught “the eye of the world”. A time when a ruler like King Leopold II was protested and criticized, while genocides and crudeness dotted the