In its heyday a century ago, King Leopold’s Congo was the world’s biggest
and most brutal slave camp. The Belgian king’s henchmen used the efficiency of
Europe’s scientists and industrialists to strip the Congo of ivory and plant it
with rubber, killing several million Africans along the way with a terrifying
insouciance. Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost reveals that Conrad’s “heart
of darkness” was in Europeans all along. Published by Macmillan, £22.50,
ISBN 0333661265.
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