King Leopold's Ghost is a narrative of horror and genocide (1) not so far from us in time. My grandfather (below) was a grown man at the time the holocaust in the Congo occurred.
There are many events described in King Leopold's Ghost that I can't simply get out of my head. Hochschild talks about how people who knew what was happening tried to psychologically distance themselves, to excuse themselves of responsibility. In this context he talks about Dr. Johann Kremer, a physician at Auschwitz, who justified himself watching orderlies make lethal injections into people he selected -- "I myself never made any lethal injections." (p.122)
The Europeans forced Africans to capture the slaves, lead the chain gangs, order the troops, do the whipping and killing that they, the Europeans, demanded. Of course, as with Dr. Kremer, this does not remove their responsibility. It makes them more guilty for involving others in their crime.
There were Europeans and Americans who acted on what they saw. George Washington Williams, H.D. Morel, Roger Casement, and William Sheppard emerge from this book as true heroes. But, there were far too few heroes, and far too many who simply went along.
What of those who lived during the time, such as my grandfather, but never bothered to look into what was going on? What of them?
And, in 2008, what of us?
(1) I use that word "genocide" even though Hochschild refuses it (p.225). As far as the Europeans were concerned the Africans were an "ethnic group" and their program of slavery and robbery amounted to a campaign to annihilate them. Indeed, Hochschild says that the population was "reduced" by 50%.
3 comments:
I flip back and forth on whether I could technically write that is was a genocide. There is no doubt it was terrible, but in the definition of genocide it implies that it was deliberate. Without more research I cannot say that the majority of Europeans in the Congo area were deliberately and systematically killing Africans. I flip back and forth on the term daily, my fix is to create a new word, or use a word like megadeath (except larger).
Allen, your blogs always make me think, as does your class. It is hard to think about so many emtionally challenging things in one day, ya know? I truly feel like the learning that goes on in your classrooms must be shared with as many people as possible. It is kind of saddening to see the ignorance people can claim by simply placing blame on someone else. By the way, I deleted the last comment because I wanted to add more.
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