King Leopold’s Ghost: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Henry Morton Stanley traveled to meet King Leopold in June of 1878. At the time, Stanley was Europe’s leading expert on the Congo River, having traveled through it over the course of two years. Leopold understood that, by controlling the Congo River, he could control the passage of European ships across Africa, thereby making huge sums of money.

When Leopold finally met with Stanley, Leopold was 43 years old, and a shrewd, experienced monarch. Stanley, thirty-seven, was famous across Europe and America, but still wildly insecure about his status in the eyes of Europe’s elite. Perhaps sensing this, Leopold flattered Stanley, giving him luxurious gifts and praising his bravery and ingenuity. Stanley accepted a contract of 50,000 francs a year (the equivalent of about 250,000 dollars) to lead an expedition to the Congo.

What did Leopold expect to find in the Congo? In no small part, he was excited by the prospect of ivory, which was seen as a luxury good throughout Europe. However, as before, he took great pains to appear to be a benevolent humanitarian. He established a new organization, the International Association of the Congo (IAC). Leopold evidently wanted people to confuse the IAC with the IAA; indeed, the two organizations even had the same flag. Leopold publicized the information that the IAC would be traveling to “the Congo”—a phrase which now referred to an area of land, not just the Congo River—in order to build “hospices” to protect and benefit the African peoples. As before, donations poured in from Europe’s greatest humanitarians. Leopold even claimed that he was sending Stanley to investigate the possibility of building “free negro republics” around the Congo, whose presidents would live in Europe and rule with King Leopold’s help. Privately, however, Leopold assured Stanley that there would be no “negro republic” in the Congo—white people would have all the power.

For the next five years, Stanley worked diligently on behalf of King Leopold. His men, some of whom were white Europeans, some of whom were Africans who lived near the river, spent two years building infrastructure. During this time Stanley brutally punished anyone thought to be shirking hard labor. In his letters to Leopold, Stanley criticized his workers for being lazy and weak-minded. On one occasion, Stanley nearly died of malaria, but he remained loyal to his mission and to King Leopold throughout his illness. Meanwhile, Leopold carefully used his political influence to spread the message that his intervention in the Congo was economically disinterested; at the same time, however, he instructed Stanley to gather as much ivory as possible, and claim the territory surrounding the Congo River.

During Stanley’s expedition, other European powers began exploring the area surrounding the Congo. Afraid that he would lose his colonial holdings, Leopold instructed Stanley to work as quickly as possible to secure his Congolese landholdings. Stanley, backed by a private army of thousands, negotiated treaties with dozens of African chiefs who lived along the river. Though Stanley wanted to leave the chiefs some sovereignty over their own land, Leopold pressured Stanley to arrange for treaties granting Belgium total control over the land. In reality, many of the African chiefs didn’t realize they were singing “treaties” at all—many had never seen written words before, and didn’t understand that they were surrendering their land forever. Also, Stanley was shrewd in using alcohol to persuade African chiefs to agree to give up their lands; he would offer the chiefs gin in return for their cooperation.

What do we know about the societies that existed along the Congo River before Stanley’s arrival? To begin with, societies along the Congo were incredibly diverse. Some of the Congo River societies were seminomadic; they wandered along the river in pursuit of big game. Other Congolese societies were more sedentary, and had sophisticated arts and sciences. Congolese baskets, mats, masks, and woodcarvings played a major role in inspiring the Cubist artwork of Pablo Picasso. But for now, Europeans didn’t stop to notice the beauty of Congolese art. Finally, many of the societies along the river had strong spiritual traditions—for example, one society elected its leaders via a compromise between the society’s elders, the spirits of their ancestors, and wild animals.

By June of 1884, Stanley’s work in the Congo was done. He’d arranged for hundreds of treaties granting the Belgians control over Congolese land, and he’d built sturdy roads and buildings. Stanley complained more than once about Leopold’s greed, even though it was Stanley himself who allowed Leopold to realize his greedy ambitions. By this time, the scramble for Africa had truly begun: the great powers of Europe were busy organizing expeditions to explore and colonize various parts of the African continent. Leopold, meanwhile, was trying to find a way to get other nations to recognize his newly secured landholdings in the Congo.