Congo Expedition 1909-1915

June 25, 2005 7:31 AM

The Congo Expedition from 1909 to 1915. A decade after Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness first depicted the mysteries and agonies of the area, Herbert Lang and James Chapin set sail for the northeastern Belgian Congo. One of the many visual and auditory treats of this site is the delightful children's book, Where are you going, Manyoni? by Catherine Stock.
posted by nickyskye (9 comments total)

Thanks nickyskye, that was really interesting.
I wish I had some stereospex.
I don't recall seeing an okapi before - looks like something from the beastblender.
The watercolours in that kids book are very beautiful in their own right.
And as usual, the competing complexities in a developing nation result in species endangerment/flora wipeout. *sigh*
fuckin' leopold
posted by peacay at 8:37 AM on June 25, 2005

Thanks peacay. Leopold is a part of the tip of a long, nasty iceberg when it comes to the complex tragedy and political mayhem of past and present malignant colonialism in West and Central Africa's countries.

But there is also great beauty, past and present in these many, varied countries.

One can watch an okapi here.
posted by nickyskye at 9:19 AM on June 25, 2005

Leo gets some comeuppance. "I will give them my Congo but they have no right to know what I have done there" *shiver*
okapi?! painted horse hid behind greenery ;- )
posted by peacay at 10:02 AM on June 25, 2005

Oh, the other thing of twisted note I read somewhere among all the above -- when they achieved independence in 1960, there had only been a total of 17 University graduates in Congo's history -- mindboggling.
posted by peacay at 11:04 AM on June 25, 2005

Yes, that 17 university graduates is mindboggling but it makes sense in light of 13 million people estimated slaughtered while Leopold had control.

Thanks for the education. Leopold's comeuppance was nothing really compared to what he and other European countries did. It looks like the Belgian people really wanted to buy into the myth of the great monarch, rather than see the truth. It's really hard for people in general to 'see' evil, naturally the fault lies in that famous river, denial.

In a way I think Herbert Lang's and James Chapin's work in the Congo helped Westerners to visualize Africa a bit so that some empathy could be felt by educated Westerners and political action gradually taken.

LOL, it's true that little video has the mystery of a yeti sighting. Really, the okapi does exist! Honest.
posted by nickyskye at 11:20 AM on June 25, 2005

Some extracts from Casement's report here. Casement then went on to uncover the equally vile " Putumayo Affair" in Peru. See Taussig's account in "Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man"
posted by TimothyMason at 12:03 PM on June 25, 2005

Thanks TimothyMason for the Taussig link:
"Taussig has brought a formidable collection of data from arcane literary, journalistic, and biographical sources to bear on . . . questions of evil, torture, and politically institutionalized hatred and terror. His intent is laudable, and much of the book is brilliant, both in its discovery of how particular people perpetrated evil and others interpreted it."--Stehen G. Bunker, Social Science Quarterly"

The subject of socialised evil and how it is perceived - or not perceived- is very interesting to me.

Looking at your site I wanted to thank you in addition for the link re the memetic origins of language.

Bruce Chatwin's The Viceroy of Ouidah about Francisco Felix da Souza, a Brazilian slave trader is another description of malignant colonialism in the Congo.
posted by nickyskye at 12:32 PM on June 25, 2005

This is a good chance to recommend a great book: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
posted by re6smith at 4:37 PM on June 26, 2005

Sure was an ugly fuck.
posted by peacay at 10:22 PM on June 26, 2005