The Report
Morel's campaign through Europe and America influenced the public and pressured England's Foreign Office to investigate his claims. They commissioned Sir Roger Casement, the British Consul in the eastern portion of French Congo, to travel through the basin and investigate.
"[A sentry in the employ of one of the concessionary private companies] said he had caught and detained as prisoners (eleven women) to compel their husbands to bring in the right amount of rubber required of them on the next market day. . . . When I asked what would become of these women if their husbands failed to bring in the right quantity of rubber . . , he said at once that then they would be kept there until their husbands had redeemed them" -Sir Roger Casement, Congo Report When he returned in 1904, he delivered a detailed report of the abuses in the Congo.
The report moved the Foreign Office to pressure the Belgian Government into purchasing the Congo from King Leopold II. After many years of negotiations and further campaigning, in 1908, the Belgian Government purchased the Congo and absorbed Leopold’s debt of 110 million Francs. King Leopold’s rule over the Congo was now over and the Congo Reform Association had accomplished its goal of changing the Congo.
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Excerpt from the Report of Roger Casement:"June 5: The country a desert, no natives left.
July 25: I walked into villages and saw the nearest one - population dreadfully decreased - only 93 people left out of many hundreds. July 26: Poor frail folk . . . - dust to dust ashes to ashes - where then are the kindly heart, the pitiful thought - together vanished. August 6: Took copious notes from natives . . . They are cruelly flogged for being late with their baskets (of rubber) . . . Very tired. August 13: A. came by to say 5 people from Bikoro side with hands cut off had come as far as Myanga intending to show me. August 22: Bolongo quite dead. I remember it well in 1887, Nov., full of people then; now 14 adults all told. I should say people wretched, complained bitterly of rubber tax . . . 6:30 passed deserted side of Bokuta . . . Mozede says the people were all taken away by force to Mampoko. Poor unhappy souls. August 29: Bongandanga . . . saw rubber “Market.” nothing but guns - about 20 armed men . . . The popln. 242 men with rubber all guarded like convicts. To call this “trade” is the height of lying. August 30: 16 men, women, and children tied up from a village Mboye close to the town. Infamous . The men were put into prison, the children let go at my intervention. Infamous. Infamous, shameful system. September 2: Saw 16 women seized by Peeter’s sentries and taken off to prison." - Roger Casement, King Leopold's Ghost |