Tydskrif vir Letterkunde (Jan 2018)
The Congo in literature
Abstract
The year 2008 marks the hundredth anniversary of King Leopold II’s relinquishment of his Crown colony on the equator in favour of the Belgian State. In modern Belgium there were hardly any celebrations of this centenary. This is not surprising as Belgium was a reluctant partner in a hastily arranged marriage of convenience in 1908. The colonial link was forged when Leopold II was granted sovereign rule over the Congo at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. From 1885 to 1908 the Congo remained the fiefdom of Leopold II, an acquisition named the Congo Free State. When the inhuman treatment of the Congolese population was revealed, mainly through the sustained efforts of Edmund Dene Morel, a British activist, and Roger Casement, the British Consul to the Congo, Leopold II was forced to hand over the Congo to the Belgian State. On 15 November 1908 the colony was renamed the Belgian Congo.
