William Henry Sheppard: one of the most influential Black missionaries to expose the inhumane practices carried out by King Leopold in the Congo. From Hochschild’s descriptions of Sheppard, readers grasp a strong understanding of his devotedness and caring for others, especially when “Sheppard saved someone from drowning and rescued a women in a burning building, while getting burnt in the process” (Hochschild 153). This suggests that Sheppard continually put others needs before his own — which is one of his many positive traits that aided in the abolition of Leopold’s Congo.
Sheppard continuously sacrificed his own life and wellbeing to ensure Leopold’s rubber production gained worldwide recognition. In doing so, he made detailed notes about the inhumane acts carried out by the Force Publique towards the innocent Congolese population and wrote “articles about severed hands and slaughtered Africans that captured international attention” (Hochschild 173). During Sheppard’s time in the Congo, he became witness to eighty-one “severed hands [of Congolese slaves] being smoked over a fire …which later became the most widely quoted pieces about the Congo, through eyewitness account” (Hochschild 173 & 259). Sheppard’s bravery and exposing of Leopold’s holocaust was one of the ways in which the world became known about these practices, which suggests that Sheppard’s detailed writings were a key component in ending Leopold’s rubber production altogether. Not only did these acts risk Sheppard’s life, but his doing so proved him to be an exemplary model of a humanitarian.
Further, Sheppard was a key leader in informing the United States about Leopold’s practices. Sheppard “led a group of Presbyterians to see President Theodore Roosevelt about the Congo… he was the most outspoken of any of the American Congo missionaries” (Hochschild 260). Without Sheppard’s constant dedication to ensuring the United States — and not to mention the global community — were made aware of Leopold’s actions, perhaps the Congolese rubber production would have continued to flourish, taking many additional lives with it. Even after Leopold’s death in 1909, Sheppard “continued to write and speak widely about Africa and was honoured in the black community” (Hochschild 283). Sheppard’s continued dedication on educating the world about Leopold’s human rights infractions proved him to be an influential person to the history of human, but specifically, Black rights.
Of the many human rights violations that occurred by Leopold in the Congo, the ones that stand out most are genocide and starvation. Firstly, readers become witness to how the Indigenous Congolese population were routinely amputated and murdered by the Belgian Force Publique officers for failing to meet rubber production quotas. Oftentimes, “the police were required to provide the severed hands of their victims as proof for killing someone” (Hochschild 164); however, “if a village refused to submit to the rubber regime, state or company troops often shot those in plain sight” (Hochschild 165). The fact that the Congolese were forced to abide by Leopold’s regulations or be punished by death emphasizes how marginalized groups — especially those under control of higher-powered individuals — are often stripped of their individuality and rights. Appropriating genocide reveals Leopold’s true intentions while he was under control of the Congo: he solely cared about profits rather than promoting humanitarian policies, guaranteeing free trade within the colony, and imposing zero import duties, as he legitimized himself to do in the public eye.
Secondly, Leopold routinely deprived the Congolese population of food, and both physically and mentally exhausted them with his forced labour camps. Villagers were forced to “give up much of their bananas, manioc, fish, and meat to feed the soldiers… men, like women and children, are thin, weak, without life, and very sick” (Hochschild 230–1), This behaviour itself is a violation of their human rights as every person is entitled to both food and water, as they are fundamental for survival. In addition to the slave-like duties Leopold ordered amongst the Congolese, the exhausted beings were forced to carry baskets of rubber on their heads for more than twenty miles (Hochschild 163). The coerced acts of labour demonstrate that Leopold continually exhausted, both mentally and physically, the Congolese to ensure a large profit.
Belgium and King Leopold sought to legitimate, hide, and deny these human rights violations in various ways, but predominantly through the creation of two organizations: the “philanthropic” International African Association and the International Association of the Congo. These were meant to render invisible the human rights infractions Leopold was guilty of by emphasizing how his intentions were to “serve as a means of information and aide to travelers… and humanizing influences to secure the abolition of the traffic in slaves” (Hochschild 66). Leopold and his accomplices, but particularly Stanley, knew their rubber production was a severe infringement on the Congolese’s rights but continued forward to make a large profit. By using the anti-slavery campaign to Leopold’s advantage, he legitimated the human rights violations by implying his work in the Congo was to enhance the livelihoods of those who inhabited the area, particularly through the influence of Christian theology — which is ironic as he did opposite of that.
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Mariner Books, 1998.
