Hochschild Study Questions

Prologue

1. When did Europeans first encounter the region of the Congo?

2. What was the Kingdom of the Kongo like prior to European colonization?

3. What poses a significant shortcoming regarding our knowledge of Africa?

Chapter 1, “'I Shall Not Give Up the Chase'”

1. Summarize Stanley's biography. What does Hochschild note about Stanley's own presentation of his life and experiences?

2. What were Europeans' primary motivations for colonizing African in the latter part of the 19th century?
   How did they often justify this colonization?

3. What was Stanley’s own view of Africa, Africans?

Chapter 2, “The Fox Crosses the Stream”

1. From whom did Leopold learn some of the methods he would employ in adminstering his future colony?

2. What vision for Africa is laid out at Leopold's Brussels conference?

3. What was one of the tactics Leopold would use when promoting his plan for colonization?

Chapter 3, “The Magnificent Cake”

1. What did the explorer Richard Burton say about Stanley's treatment of Africans?

2. How does Hochschild characterize Stanley’s books?

3. What were some of the facets of the final stage of Stanley's journey, from Stanley Pool to Boma?

Chapter 4, “'The Treaties Must Give Us Everything'”

1. What conclusions was Stanley able to draw from his crossing of Africa?

2. What were the terms of Leopold and Stanley’s agreement in 1879?

3. Why was ivory a valuable commodity and how much seemed to be in Africa?

4. What were some of the tactics Leopold used in presenting his plans for the Congo?

5. What did Stanley do during his 5 years in the Congo and how did he accomplish what he did?

6. What other Europeans were active in the area of the Congo?

7. What does Hochschild note about Leopold’s treaties with Africans?

8. How does Hochschild describe Congolese societies?

Chapter 5, “From Florida to Germany”

1. What tactics and rhetoric does Leopold (and Sanford) use to gain US support?

2. Why Senator Morgan of Alabama support Leopold's plan?

3. How does the Senate report characterize Leopold's undertaking?

4. Why do the French and eventually the Germans also recognize Leopold's claim to the Congo?

5. What happens at the 1884 Berlin Conference regarding Africa?

6. What did John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty, say was a "legitimate mode of government" in dealing with "barbarians"?

7. What is the relationship between the new Congo Free State and Belgium itself?

Chapter 6, “Under the Yacht Club Flag”

1. What tools does Hochschild say that will allow a few thousand whites to control some 20 million Africans?

2. What does Hochschild note about Europeans' anti-slavery campaigns during this time?

3. What new expedition does Stanley undertake in Africa in 1887? What is its fate?

Chapter 7, “The First Heretic”

1. What was pioneering about the writing of George Washington Williams according to Hochschild?
   What did the New York Times say about his work?

2. How did Leopold describe his interest in the Congo in his interview with Williams?

3. Summarize the main points of Williams' “Open Letter.”

4. How does Leopold respond?

5. What are some of the negative and positive assessments Hochschild makes of Williams?

Chapter 8, “Where There Aren't No Ten Commandments”

1. What does Hochschild say was distinctive about the governance of the Congo?

2. How does Hochschild describe the colonial system's operations and the labor involved?

3. What does Stanislas Lefranc describe?

4. How does Hochschild compare those who carried out the atrocities of colonization with those in the Holocaust and other mass atrocities? What are the reasons he lists that might explain their participation?

5. Describe the Force Publique.

6. What do the Swedish missionaries describe and what conclusions do they reach?

7. What conclusion does Hochschild draw about the Africans working for the Congo Free State, including Force Publique soldiers?

8. Summarize Ilanga’s story.

9. What does Hochschild say about the activities of the Catholic missionaries?

10. What does Hochschild say that the Congo offered to young Belgians (and non-Belgians), such Léon Rom?

Chapter 9, "Meeting Mr. Kurtz"

1. What does Hochschild emphasize about Conrad's fictional portrait in Heart of Darkness?

2. Who may have been some of the real-life models for Kurtz?

3. What elements of Conrad's novel does Hochschild reference that make it the “greatest portrait in fiction of Europeans in the Scramble for Africa” (147)?

4. What does Hochschild say regarding Kurtz's “intellectual pretensions" 147)?

Chapter 10, “The Wood that Weeps”

1. Who was William Sheppard and what are some of the notable aspects of his presence in the Congo?

2. When and why does rubber become an important commodity? What will its impact be for the Congolese?

3. Why did it create a labor problem for the Congo Free State and what methods will the State begin to employ?

4. What conclusions does Hochschild make about the colonial system on page 163?

5. What are some the actions that Sheppard describes?

6. How are the methods of Léon Fiéves?

Chapter 11, “A Secret Society of Murderers”

1. Describe the construction of the Matadi railway.

2. What does Hochschild say about the non-Catholic missionaries?

3. How does Leopold react to criticism regarding the Congo?

4. What happens following the killing of a white worker in 1896?

5. What does Hochschild mean when he says that, rather than going to the Congo, Leopold brought the “Congo” to him?

6. What is displayed in Brussels in 1897?

7. How does Morel discover that what is going on in the Congo must be different from the way it is being portrayed?
   What does he conclude?

Chapter 12, “David and Goliath”

1. How does the company initially try to deal with Morel's accusations?
   What does Morel then do?

2. What does Hochschild suggest regarding the reasons that Morel became so devoted to the Congo cause?

3. Who are some of the other voices besides Morel’s, and on whom does Morel rely for information and testimony?

4. What web does Hochschild say Morel exposed (see 191)?

5. What is the human cost for which Edgar Canisius obtained some twenty tons of rubber?

Chapter 13, “Breaking into the Thieves’ Kitchen”

1. Who was Roger Casement?

2. How does Leopold justify to Casement some of the atrocities occurring in the Congo?

3. What were views of homosexuality during this era?

4. How does Casement describe the Congo in his diary entries?

5. How does Hochschild describe the report Casement's investigation produces? What was its impact?

6. What is one of the major outcomes of Morel and Casement's meetings?

Chapter  14, “To Flood His Deeds with Day”

1. What were some of Morel’s weaknesses, according to Hochschild?

2. What does Hochschild note about the humanitarian tradition that influenced Morel?
   What were their views of Imperialism? Why was this crucial for Morel's success?

3. Why does Hochschild claim Morel's views were even more subversive than he realized?

4. What happened to Hezekiah Shanu and what trend does his story reflect?

5. What conclusion does Hochschild offer regarding Leopold's personal and family issues?

Chapter 15, “A Reckoning”

1. Why do you think Hochschild pauses at this particular point in his book to estimate the casualties?
   What makes doing so difficult?

2. What does Hochschild note about the diaries of several Force Publique officers?

3. What quotation from Conrad's novel does Hochschild find especially apt to describe the actions of the colonizers?

4. What were the various causes of death attributable to colonization?

5. What do Jan Vansina’s data suggest was the impact on population between 1880 and 1920?

6. How does Hochschild explain the seeming counterproductivity of the atrocities colonization inflicted?

Chapter 16, “'Journalists Won’t Give You Receipts'”

1. What methods do Leopold and his supporters use to counter the criticisms of the Congo Free State?

2. What strategy does one of Leopold's American agents advise?

3. What view is expressed in the footnote that includes the quotation from the American academic Frederick Starr

4. What happened as a result of Leopold's attempt hiring and then marginalizing of the American lawyer Henry Kowalksi?

5. Why does the Commission of Inquiry report threaten to backfire on Leopold?
   How does he try to mitigate its impact?

Chapter 17, “No Man Is a Stranger”

1. What does Hochschild say about the Commission report?
   What happened to the testimonies of Africans that were gathered as part of the invesitgation?

2. As the pressure continues to increase on Leopold, what options are considered?
   What option is almost entirely ignored?

3. Why does Hochschild say that, in many ways, Leopold had Belgium in a corner?

4. Even at this late date, what does Leopold still claim about the Congo?

5. What are the terms of his deal with Belgium?

6. What happens in the trials of William Sheppard and William Morrison?

7. What happens upon Leopold's death in December 1909?

8. What happens to Morel's cause after Belgium takes possession of the Congo?

9. What does Hochschild say about the impact of Morel’s efforts on the Congo and the broader implications for colonialism in general?

Chapter 18, “Victory?”

1. What does Hochschild estimate that the Congo earned Leopold in total?
   What happened to a good deal of the money left behind?

2. What does Hochschild say was the impact of the Congo reform movement?
   Does he end up answering his own question about whether it did any good or not?

3. What does Belgium do in Africa during and after WWI?

4. Beyond the Congo itself, what problem does Hochschild see regarding the Congo reform movement?

5. Why does Hochschild find the quotation from Conrad poignant: "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz."

6. What does Sir Roger Casement do after he stops working for Britain and what happens to him?

7. What does Hochschild say was rather rare for its time regarding Casement's views?

8. What gets Morel in substantial trouble during WWI?
   What happens to him after the war?

Chapter 19, “The Great Forgetting”

1. Comment on the following: “[T]he world we live in—its divisions and conflicts, its widening gap between rich and poor, its inexplicable outbursts of violence—is shaped far less by what we celebrate and mythologize than by the painful events we try to forget.  Leopold’s Congo is but one of those silences of history” (294).

2. What did Leopold and the Congo Free State attempt to do?

3. Why was Belgium itself never held to account regarding its role in the Congo?

4. What did Jules Marchal produce?

5. What does Hochschild say about knowledge and acknowledge of this history both in Belgium and in the Congo?

6. What happened to the Congo after independence?

7. Describe the reign of Mobutu. Who supported him?

8. What does Hochschild say about the legacy of Morel, Casement, and others.

9. Comment on Hochschild's closing: “At the time of the Congo controversy a hundred years ago, the idea of full human rights, political, social, and economic, was a profound threat to the established order of most countries on earth.  It still is today” (305).