Good Finds

King Leopold's Ghost was required reading for a recent course of mine, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. It's one of the few school books I've thoroughly read, and Amazon is listing it at only $10.20, compared to the $22 I paid for it at the campus bookstore.

The book itself is about the Congo Free State, specifically how King Leopold of Belgium conspired to get his own private territory for the sole purpose of increasing his own private wealth by pitilessly exploiting the natives while still maintaining the ruse of being a great humanitarian. We then learn about how he was subsequently exposed by the first great global civil rights crusade after the abolitionist movement.

The book pulls on a number of sources to paint the plight of indigenous tribesmen, even calling on tribal records, photographs, the testimony of religious missionaries, Belgian government documents, and even Joseph Conrad!

If you have an interest in African history or civil rights movements, or you enjoyed Heart of Darkness, be sure to pick up a copy of this book. It's an excellent read.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 10:14 AM and is filed under Books, Music, & Movies. You can skip to the end and leave a response.