Trauma in the Congo

 

A review of Land of Tears – The Exploration and Exploitation of Equatorial Africa by Robert Harms, Basic Books, NY 2019.

 

This is a definitive history of the greater Congo basin during the latter half of the nineteenth century until about 1908 when the Congo Free State was transferred to Belgium. It is a sad recitation because of the unbridled exploitation of the region first by slavers and seekers of ivory, followed by the misery forced on the inhabitants by rubber barons. The whole epoch reeks of unchecked abuses and atrocities sanctioned by theories of white superiority buttressed by rationales of commerce, Christianity, and civilization.  The abusers were anything but civilized.  

Author Harms traces the history of the region in part by focusing on three principle characters – explorer Henry Morton Stanley, slaver Tippu Tip, and explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza.  Each man was a force unto himself. Stanley as a fiercely determined explorer, the first European to traverse the Congo, and secondly as an operative who secured control of the central Congo for King Leopold II.  Although he was of mixed Africa/Arab heritage, Tippu Tip was culturally an Arab from Zanzibar who controlled the slave and ivory trade for years from his ruling post in Kosongo, eastern Congo. De Brazza came later onto the scene and successfully wrested authority over the western side of the Congo river for France. Stanley and Tippu Tip knew each other and interacted cautiously over the years.

These men notwithstanding, the tragedy of the Congo was written mostly on account of exploitation. First it was slaves sent by Arabs east to the markets of Zanzibar. Villages were raided and captives taken. Life for the people was completely disrupted.  Concomitantly, vast ivory stocks that had been accumulating for centuries in jungle villages were pillaged and also sent east.  Stanley and others in thrall to Leopold contested to acquire and send ivory west to the Atlantic.  The quest for this white gold became extremely violent as stocks were limited.  Slowly the external slave trade and Arab suzerainty were eliminated. However, the system of brutal acquisition transferred easily to rubber, where it became much more prevalent under authorities granted to concessional companies, both in the Congo Free State and in French territory. Villagers were compelled to produce quantities of wild rubber upon pain of death. Many were killed, maimed – hands and ears cut off, hostages taken, men flogged, etc. to compel production.  But like ivory, wild rubber too was an un-replenishable resource. 

The victims of exploitation were the African inhabitants of the region.  Probably more than 3 million perished.  Author Harms goes to some length to acknowledge that Congo basin villages had working political systems based on the rule of a “big man.”  However, the nature of the vast rain forest limited inter connectivity and there were no larger political groupings.  This made outside exploitation easier as villagers could not raise coalitions to combat the interlopers.  Yet, they resisted. Rebellion was brutally suppressed. Harms notes that as the Arabs/Europeans sought to extend control beyond the forest, they encountered better organized local opposition.

Against the backdrop of what was going on in Africa, Harms recounts machinations in Europe regarding the Congo. His detailed history tabulates King Leopold’s quest to own the region, the complex diplomacy of Europe, the justification (and hypocrisy) of anti-slavery motivations, and the corruption involved in it all.   It is a telling indictment of greed, manipulation and narcissism run amuck. Calls for the civilizing mission won over the public until it finally became evident that the exploitation of the Congo basin was based on extreme abuses of the indigenous people.  For this there was little final reckoning, instead the   brutal coercive systems were subsumed into government run colonialism that lasted another sixty years.   

Harms certainly did his homework. This is a well-researched, well documented history.  Sources were not just European diaries and records, but also recollections by Africans. The sum is a definitive study of Equatorial Africa in the time referenced.  Besides that, it is an engaging read of interest not just to scholars, but to a wider readership.       

Interview with Robert Gribbin, author of The Last Rhino

Q. Why did you write this book?

A. I lived many years in Africa and have accumulated many stories and anecdotes about life there and interactions amongst people. A number of these items have been published here and there.   I wrote an earlier novel entitled State of Decay. In some ways The Last Rhino is a sequel.  At least in the sense that I used several characters from State of Decay and made vague references to their backstories. So, when I started thinking about a new book, I already had a setting – Africa – and a protagonist – Philippe. I just had to figure out a plot.

I find that fiction reveals as much in general terms of knowledge as does non-fiction. A realistic setting and reference to authentic events and places generates genuine understanding of issues.  The fictional part of it permits the author to create plot, concentrate on problems and to people the story with characters of his own choosing. 

Q. Do you have the plot mapped out ahead of time?

A. No, I do not. I know that some writers think it all through in advance and even outline where it is all going to go. Part of the fun for me is figuring it out as I go along…and as I go back to add something or flesh out a shorter bit. I mull things over while I reread and often get a new idea.  I am indebted to reader/reviewers who have pointed out what was good, what was bad, and what needed to be improved.  

Q. What is the major theme of The Last Rhino?

A. Obviously, conservation is a key theme.  Poaching is a real problem that has devastated big game throughout the continent. The Congo is no exception. I did want to draw attention to this crisis. I hope that the book does that. 

I realized as I was writing that another theme is that of second chances.  Most of the characters experienced difficulties in earlier phases of their lives. For example, Philippe gets to rebound from traumatic loss, both in his sense of self and mission but also in love. Godfrey and Sia sustained terrible shocks at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Christopher goes from limited prospects to possibilities and so forth. One of my reviewers was pleased with the depiction of women, especially Marie. On the larger scale Garamba and its creatures have a second chance, as does the Congo itself – if, and it is a big if – if it can manage to bring some order out of chaos.  I left some hope that there might be a second chance for white Rhinos as well.

Q. What is the most fictional part of the story?

A. Most everything in the book is based on reality, but the Wayamba people as a tribe living near the park are fiction. Even so, their philosophy of life: self-contained, disdain for the modern world, living in harmony with nature and aspects of their political system can be found in real tribes in eastern Africa. I adapted what I needed for my plot.

Q. What about the rhinos?

A. Sadly, the white rhinos which used to range widely in Garamba Park are gone.  The remaining ones were probably killed by poachers about ten years ago. Only two northern white rhinos remain alive. They are zoo bred females, now captives in the Ole Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. It is hoped that one or both might be artificially inseminated by sperm from a southern white rhino, but this remains problematical. A healthy population of southern white rhinos exists in southern Africa and efforts are well advanced to protect black rhinos throughout their range in eastern Africa.   Yet, despite such efforts rhinos remain in danger of extinction as long as habitat is lost, and their horns are valued for medicinal and other purposes in Asia and the Arab world.

Q. Tell us about the cover photo.

A.  The photo is of a white rhino.  I took it in Meru Park, Kenya in 1983. Although well protected, accompanied daily by rangers and housed overnight in a corral, sadly that animal and two others were slaughtered by poachers a year or so later.

If readers have questions for the author, please post them in a comment.