Pastor Tracy Reads | King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild & Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

May 21, 2025 | Pastor Tracy Troxel

Let me encourage you to read both books together. King Leopold’s Ghost is a non-fiction account of how the king of Belgium, Leopold, manipulated the Congo territory for financial gain.  Joseph Conrad was a steamboat captain on the Congo during King Leopold’s horrific rule over Congo. Joseph Conrad returned to Europe and authored a penetrating novel that provides a context for thinking about the evil that lies in our hearts. Joseph Conrad’s novel is grappling in a fictional account of what he saw and experienced in Africa.

King Leopold’s Ghost provides a detailed narrative of how the region of Congo became a money machine for King Leopold, personally. Unlike other colonial projects, King Leopold personally ran Congo. Initially, it was not an official colony of Belgium. Ivory harvesting and then rubber harvesting enriched King Leopold’s personal portfolio.

The myriad of ways that King Leopold abused the inhabitants of Congo is staggering. Forced labor, slavery, murders, manipulation, and starvation became the ‘rule of law.’ It is estimated that one-half of the population of Congo perished in just a few decades. Many historians would put the death total at ten million.

While King Leopold went to great lengths to hide what he was doing in Congo, there were 3 intrepid ‘whistleblowers’ who made the plight of Congo known to the world. William Sheppard, a missionary, E.D. Morel and Sir Roger Casement took significant risks to tell the true story of the horror and terror in Congo.

One of the reasons this account gripped me is that I have two friends who have served as global partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 3 decades.  Their present stories of the trauma that continues to plague this country are a reminder of the trauma that has plagued this region for centuries.

Heart of Darkness is a short but powerful read. The fictional characters match actual characters who participated in the pillaging of Africa by King Leopold and his army of workers. One of the unique parts of the novel is how Conrad compares the darkness of what is happening in Africa to the darkness that lies in every human heart. In the following passage, Conrad uses pictures of the water, the river and the deep jungle to illustrate the darkness of human nature. “The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.”

Pastor Tracy Troxel