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Analysis Of King Leopold's Ghost

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Summary of the text: Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa is a historical fiction published in 1998 (Hochschild, 1998). It comprises a myriad of evidence to testify the Belgian King Leopold II’s atrocities in Congo between 1885 and 1908 for the sake of capturing the attention of various readers towards the Belgian imperialist delinquencies through a detailed narration of a number of main characters’, including George Washington Williams and William Henry Sheppard, experiences in Belgian Congo (Hochschild, 1998). In this excerpt, it illustrates William’s peaceful exploration in Congo as the first American-Black missionary. During his journey, not only did he explore the Congolese culture, …show more content…

With reference to the storyline, owing to technological improvement after the Industrial Revolution, rubber has become prevalently adopted in a great variety of industries (Hochschild, 1998). Nonetheless, thanks to the mass production of several rubber commodities, for instances, tires, rubber insulation for electronic devices, hoses and so forth, a shortage of rubber, which led to a dramatic price increase, emerged (Hochschild, 1998). It is unambiguous that various imperialists started exploring more rubber in other countries so as to ameliorate the shortage of rubber emerging from the growth and rivalry of the European …show more content…

As Foster (2006) analyzed, on account that the transitional government were not entitled to sign any long term oil contracts, the US government had to strengthen its geopolitical influence in the region. Expectedly, the US’ privatization of the Iraqi oil enterprises after a year denotes the promulgation of neoliberal economic model in Iraq, which guarantees the US’ economic benefit acquired from the oil trade (Foster, 2006). Seeing that the war in Iraq and the privatization of Iraqi oil corporates occurred chronologically, one cannot help but wonder if the US plotted to disguise its bona fide, yet unscrupulous, conspiracy by waging its war on terrorism in the Middle East. As priorly mentioned, detailing the military to maneuver the other country for economic benefits is one of the perquisites to imperialist regime. In the aforementioned warfare, the US not only sent its army to legitimize its sovereignty over Afghanistan and Iraq, but it also conspired to take democratization as an excuse to uncover its real intention of gaining profit. To recapitulate, not only does imperialism exist in Belgian Congo in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, but also in Middle-East in the twenty-first

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George Washington Williams, an African American legislator, and Kande Kamara, an African colonial subject, both experienced some of the most brutal products of European Imperialism. Williams, in the late nineteenth century, toured the Belgian controlled Congo and witnessed the harsh measures King Leopold implemented to maintain absolute control and bleed the country of its resources. Kamara, on the other hand, bore witness to the end result of overzealous imperial ambitions when he was forced to fight for the allies in the trenches of WWI. These two men’s experiences, although considerably different, both shed light on Europe’s colonial philosophy of racism and ethnic superiority and its position of immense power during this period.

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This becomes apparent when Adah notices, “The king of America wants a tall, thin man in the Congo dead… By this secret: the smiling bald man with the grandfather face has another face” (Kingsolver 297). Thus, Adah recognizes the irony behind Eisenhower ordering the assassination of the Congo’s President as Americans were largely responsible for the democratic election of the President in question. As a result, Adah comes to the decision that Eisenhower is more a king than a President, as he seeks to control the Congo without Congolese democracy interfering. This critical view of Eisenhower, and America by extension, mirrors the view of the Congolese, who appear just as weary and critical of the invasion of western culture in their country.

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Thesis Critique of King Leopold’s Ghost Adam Hochschild's King Leopold’s Ghost is a story recalling the effects of European imperialism in Africa. Hochschild writes about the Belgian King Leopold’s exploitation over the Congo. Leopold’s rule over an African territory becomes a devastatingly lucrative monopoly over rubber. Leopold’s brutal tactics and use of forced labor ultimately leads to millions of deaths of the Congolese natives.

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The family, whether they realized it or not, were contributing to the ignorant ideals of the white man 's burden. They had originally came to the Congo to Christianize the African villagers, which overall was a political and social tactic to control the continent through imperialism. In this book, the author includes many different perspectives of this concept, including points of view from the common villagers, Nathan, the daughters, and even figures such as the Kilanga chief, Tata Ndu. Although Kingsolver doesn 't write chapters from these people 's points of view, their opinions and attitudes towards the Price family and the notion of the “white man’s burden” are presented clear enough for the reader to understand the effects of imperialism. All of family members have different opinions on what they see in the Congo, therefore they are all contributing to the White Man’s Burden in differing

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