Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Bruce Gilley

Quote by Bruce Gilley

“Pendant les 25 dernières années, l’idée du Congo a été étroitement liée dans l’imaginaire occidental au livre de 1998 intitulé “Le fantôme du roi Léopold” de l’écrivain américain Adam Hochschild. Ce livre est largement étudié dans les lycées et les universités, et il figure régulièrement en tête des listes des meilleures ventes en matière d’histoire coloniale, africaine et occidentale. Hochschild est devenu une sorte de roi du Congo, ou du moins de son histoire. Le livre est systématiquement cité par les universitaires réputés dans leurs notes de bas de page chaque fois qu’ils veulent affirmer qu’il est “bien connu” et “indiscutable” que des hommes sinistres en Europe ont semé le chaos en Afrique il y a plus d’un siècle. Toute discussion sur le Congo, ou sur le colonialisme européen en général, commence invariablement par la question : “Avez-vous lu Le fantôme du roi Léopold ?”

Quote by Bruce Gilley

Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
Create image

Work

King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Bruce Gilley

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Bruce Gilley. more

You May Also Like

“Certaines personnes pourraient considérer “Le canular du roi Hochschild”, comme nous pourrions l’appeler, comme une fable valorisante pour les Africains modernes aux dépens de l’homme blanc. Mais ses effets débilitants sur l’Afrique, et sur le Congo en particulier, en font le contraire. C’est un coup de chicotte (fouet en forme de lanière de cuir) insensible et négligent sur le dos de tous les Africains noirs, un porno narcissique de la culpabilité pour les libéraux blancs au détriment de l’Africain. L’avocat congolais Marcel Yabili l’appelle “la plus grande falsification de l’histoire moderne”, un compliment en quelque sorte, je suppose.”

CongoLeopold IiAdam HochschildBruce GilleyBelgiqueLes Fantômes Du Roi LeopoldRoi Leopold Ii
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
Create image

“God who distributed the goods of the earth among the regions and peoples of the earth, has therefore made them no less in the service of all mankind. The human groups have no right to assume that the riches offered by the regions inhabited by them are solely for themselves. A fruitful division of labor must therefore be practiced, making these resources available to all members of humanity. The divine plan is disregarded, humanity is robbed of its future, when, through inability the backward peoples fail to exploit the treasures of their soil. As long as nobody has been set up with remedying this disorder, every state, provided it has the means, has the right to assume this task and if necessary to deprive the natives of the rights which it appears to have made common. welfare of all peoples.”

ColonialismCongoBelgian Congo
Author:Jozef-Ernest van Roey
Create image

“The first and biggest deceit at the heart of King Leopold’s Ghost is the attempt to equate Léopold’s “État indépendant du Congo” or EIC (long mistranslated as the Congo Free State) with Western colonialism. Yet the EIC was a short-term solution to the absence of colonial government in the Congo river basin.”

CongoLeopold IiCongo Free State
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
Create image

“The deal was simple: Léopold was to open the area to trade and eliminate endemic Arab slave empires and African tribal wars. In return, he hoped to bring glory to the Belgian people for having done what no other European ruler dared (one in three Europeans who traveled to the Congo died, usually of illness). The EIC had nothing to do with the Belgian government. To the extent that limited abuses and misrule occurred in some parts of his domain, this was a direct result of its not being controlled by a European state. As no less than Morel insisted (not quoted by Hochschild), “Let us refrain from referring to the Congo as a Belgian colony, let us avoid writing of ‘Belgian misrule.”

CongoLeopold IiCongo Free StateAdam HochschildLeopold S Ghost
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
Create image