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Quote by Adam Hochschild

“Bruce Gilley is right, that I was misleading in respect to one quotation I cited from another official, Charles Lemaire. I am sorry about that and it should be corrected. Lemaire was a more complicated case. His early diaries, which I quote elsewhere in the book, unroll a lengthy list of villages he ordered burned to the ground and a triumphant roster of death tolls: “20 natives killed” here, “around 15 blacks killed” there, and many more such boasts. But later in life, to his credit, Lemaire had deep regrets, and in fairness to him I should have referred to them.”

Book:The Ghost Still Haunts: Adam Hochschild responds to Bruce Gilley, who follows in kind

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The Ghost Still Haunts: Adam Hochschild responds to Bruce Gilley, who follows in kind

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Adam Hochschild

Adam Hochschild is an American author renowned for his historical works. His writing often focuses on social justice and human suffering, particularly historical events of the 19th and 20th centuries. His style is well-received by readers for its in-depth research and vivid storytelling. more

“Most centrally, how did approximately 10,000 people killed in skirmishes between the EIC police and natives in a small portion of the territory over a 20-year period mushroom into 10 million dead, “mass murder on a vast scale” and “a forgotten Holocaust”? Rather than climb down from this ludicrous claim, which the doyen of Congo studies, Jean Stengers, called “absurd” and “polemical,” Hochschild repeats it. His source? The same Jan Vansina whose work, I noted, was based on an erroneous reading of an earlier report (a Harvard study that rejected the report of the Permanent Committee for the Protection of the Natives of 1919 that Hochschild cites in his letter) and whose own work was based on nothing more than “oral traditions.”

Holocaust Leopold Ii Adam Hochschild Leopold S Ghost Bruce Gilley King Leopold Ii

Book:The Ghost Still Haunts: Adam Hochschild responds to Bruce Gilley, who follows in kind

Source: The Ghost Still Haunts: Adam Hochschild responds to Bruce Gilley, who follows in kind

“By contrast, dozens of serious demographers and statisticians—not just the Jean-Paul Sanderson I mention—have concluded the overall population rose slightly or was unchanged at around 8 to 10 million from 1885 to 1908. Others include Bruce Fetter, Guy Vanthemsche, Jean-Luc Vellut, Pierre-Luc Plasman, Anatole Romaniuk, and, as mentioned, the later Jan Vansina. Taken on its own, the EIC was a positive influence on the black population in the Congo because of its campaigns against slavery, endemic tribal warfare, cannibalism, and polygamous rape and torture. Infrastructure and trade brought life-saving income. Population remained unchanged only because of the persistence of endemic disease and slavery. According to Romaniuk, venereal disease alone can explain the depression of population growth after 1900 when the EIC had finally brought a modicum of peace and prosperity to the region.”

Leopold Ii Adam Hochschild Leopold S Ghost Bruce Gilley King Leopold

Book:The Ghost Still Haunts: Adam Hochschild responds to Bruce Gilley, who follows in kind

Source: The Ghost Still Haunts: Adam Hochschild responds to Bruce Gilley, who follows in kind

“België is enorm conservatief, dat is omdat we een klein land zijn, dat is ongelofelijk, Leopold II zij het al, die zij: Petit pays, petit esprit.”

Leopold Ii Kunst Hedendaagse Kunst Jan Hoet

Author:Jan Hoet

“Congo Free State had an annual 'Bulletin Officiel' from 1885 to 1908, it was a member of the Universal Postal Union and one Congolese franc was worth one Reichsmark. The Bulletin had 9,777 pages in 23 editions from 1885 to 1908. The Free State's income rose from 0.6 million Congolese francs in 1891 to 35 million in 1908. So by no means all the money went to Leopold II. These figures are hushed up by all critics.”