After reading an amazing book on the horrors of colonisation in Africa called King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild – specifically focusing on the brutality seen in the Congo in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century by journalist-turned-explorer Henry Morton Stanley - I began thinking about the certain ‘labels’ society puts on peopleā€¦ lablels that can actually be incredibly misleading.

 

 

 

Words such as ‘humanitarian’ and ‘philanthropist’ fly around, even today, when names like Stanley are mentioned. When, in actual truth, if closer inspection were given to the subject, one would see how deceptive it really is. Nowhere was this more evident than in the supposedly free, Congo state in the early 1900s.

In between studying, an alarming amount of stimuli has inhabited itself in my mind and has not failed to resurface at any free moment I might have. As well as King Leopold’s Ghost, I have read and seen many other things that have inspired me to ‘pick up the pen’ so to say, and get writing on the subject.

For now though, more about the book: King Leopold’s Ghost. As stated above, it is written by Adam Hochschild who is an American author and journalist. Ironically, he actually spent a summer working for an anti-government newspaper in South Africa. The book is all about the Congo and the terrible happenings between the ‘native’ and the colonialists after King Leopold II of Belgium sent Stanley, by then a famous explorer who ‘found’ Livingstone after years of absence, to map out a new colony on behalf of the king, who, ruled the colony of the Congo for almost half a century and never even set foot on the Congo’s resourceful soil. If you are anything like me and enjoy a good old rant about whether colonialism is good or bad, this is a wonderful read for you.

Or, if you are just simply interested in men with strange facial hair I suppose this will be a tantalizing read for you too. While reading this book, I came across a brilliant quote and I had to share it. With my (bordering on obsession) interest in photography and quotes alike, I thought this one rang extremely true, and I can only imagine that the essence of this quote is spot on in all the world’s deadly genocides and wars. The quote, which is taken from a piece of work that Mark Twain wrote during this time called King Leopold’s Soliloquy, an imaginary monologue by Leopold II of Belgium goes as follows:

 

After all the terrible things dug up by the reformers trying to stop the vicious cycle of colonialism and slave labour that King Leopold and his associates had buried so well, comes the inevitable and gruesome truth that a photograph always reveals, as well as conquering the test of time.

To bring this concept a little more close to home I read an article titled An eye on the shame of Apartheid by Fred Khumalo in the Sunday Times. the article was about an exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery which is featuring the works of Ernest Cole, legendary photographer who ‘died in obscurity’ thousands of miles away from his home land, South Africa. One of the more poignant images was a picture taken in a doctor’s office showing lines of recruits for the ominous gold mines undergoing a group medical examination. The photograph’s absence of overt violence makes it frightening and chilling. Khumalo describes South Africa’s past as, ‘Oh, our tragic country, our tragic history.’

Admitting to shedding a few tears during the course of his visit to the exhibition, Khumalo was evidently moved by the experience and the raw reality that photography, or, photojournalism provides. South Africa’s shameful past and our uncertain future can be documented on the glossy paper of photographs. Not only candid memories stand the test of time through photography, but also a look into our past can provide historical significance to the present day.

For over a century, photography has been the incorruptible medium that Long Leopold II to Adolf Hitler to PW Botha failed to ‘silence’. It is the medium that speaks a thousand words without as much as just simply ‘showing up’.

 

 

WORDS: Jessica Jones