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E-book
Author Burroughs, Robert

Title African Testimony in the Movement for Congo Reform : the Burden of Proof
Published Milton : Routledge, 2018

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Description 1 online resource (201 pages)
Series Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa Ser
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa Ser
Contents Cover; Half title; Title page; Copyright page; Table of contents; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Note on place names; Map; Introduction; The burden of proof; The Congo: from conquest to condemnation; Bearing witness and receiving testimony; Congo testimony in historical perspective; The chapters; 1 Humanitarianism and diplomacy: West African migrants in the Congo Free State (c.1890-1903); Introduction; Migrant letters: West African testimonies; Questions of trust: British diplomatic responses; West African evidence amid the rise of Congo reform; Conclusion
2 Behind the Casement report (1903-4): guides, interpreters, and intervieweesIntroduction; New Christian evangelists as guides, informants, and interpreters: Frank Teva Clark; Emerging networks and the interviews at Bolobo and Bonginda; A receptive mission: interviews at Lake Mantumba; Conclusion; 3 Before the Commission of Inquiry (1904-5): travellers and testifiers; Introduction; The Commission of Inquiry; 'Multitudes of witnesses': meetings with the Commission; The commissioners' palimpsest: Congolese testimonies in the report; Conclusion: from palaver to archive
4 The silencing of witnesses: the Stannard trial (1906) and the Sheppard trial (1909)Introduction; Law in the Congo Free State; Intimidation in the context of reform: the Stannard trial; A recruitment problem: witnesses for the Sheppard trial; Conclusion; 5 'Bringing hands to the English': injured bodies as evidence; Introduction; Objects of terror: severed hands; Retrieval: gathering body parts; Living proof: the Epondo case; Conclusion; Conclusion; A humanitarian history from below; Bibliography; Index
Summary The humanitarian movement against Leopold's violent colonisation of the Congo emerged out of Europe, but it depended at every turn on African input. Individuals and groups from throughout the upper Congo River basin undertook journeys of daring and self-sacrifice to provide evidence of atrocities for the colonial authorities, missionaries, and international investigators. Combining archive research with attention to recent debates on the relation between imperialism and humanitarianism, on trauma, witnessing and postcolonial studies, and on the recovery of colonial archives, this book examines the conditions in which colonised peoples were able to speak about their subjection, and those in which attempts at testimony were thwarted. Robert Burroughs makes a major intervention by identifying African agency and input as a key factor in the Congo atrocities debate. This is an important and unique book in African history, imperial and colonial history, and humanitarian history
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Africans -- Violence against -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
Atrocities -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
Atrocities.
Race relations.
Colonial Congo
Congo Atrocities
Congo Colonialism
Congo Reform Movement
Leopold Congo
Atrocities
Race relations
SUBJECT Congo (Democratic Republic) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80061022
Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- To 1908. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85149565
Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Race relations
Subject Congo (Democratic Republic)
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781351804332
1351804332
1351804324
9781351804325
9781315208664
1315208660