Lord Leverhulme's ghosts : colonial exploitation in the Congo / Jules Marchal ; translated by Martin Thom ; introduced by Adam Hochschild

Object Details

author

Marchal, Jules 1924-2003

Author

Thom, Martin 1951-

Hochschild, Adam

Subject

Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever Viscount 1851-1925

AFA copy 39088019585728 gift of Janet Stanley.

Contents

The early years (1911-1922) -- The Lejeune Report (1923) -- The establishment of a monopoly in the Circles (1924-1926) -- In Barumbu Circle (1917-1930) -- In the Basongo and Lusanga Circles (1923-1930) -- The Portuguese of Bumba against the HCB, Act Two (1928-1930) -- The Compagnie du Kasai proves to be worse than the HCB (1927-1930) -- Pierre Ryckmans' report on Lusanga (1931) -- The Revolt of the Pende (1931) -- The Lusanga HCB transformed into a "model employer" (1931-1932) -- Coercion and consolidated monopolies (1933-1935) -- The years between 1935 and 1939 -- The apogee of forced labour during the war (1940-1945)

Summary

"In the early twentieth century, the worldwide rubber boom led British entrepreneur Lord Leverhulme to the Belgian Congo. Warmly welcomed by the murderous regime of King Leopold II, Leverhulme set up a private kingdom reliant on the horrific Belgian system of forced labour, a programme that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi Holocaust. In this definitive, meticulously researched history, Jules Marchal exposes the nature of forced labour under Lord Leverhulme's rule and the appalling conditions imposed upon the people of Congo. With an extensive introduction by Adam Hochschild, Lord Leverhulme's Ghosts is an important and urgently needed account of a laboratory of colonial exploitation."--Publisher's description.

2017

20th century

1908-1960

Type

Books

History

Physical description

xxii, 244 pages ; 22 cm

Place

Congo (Democratic Republic)

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Rubber industry and trade--History

History

Race relations

Record ID

siris_sil_1084249

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0