The Crime of the Congo

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, but he was also a physician, humanitarian, and successful non-fiction writer. In THE CRIME OF THE CONGO, Doyle documents the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State, the personal possession of Leopold II of Belgium. Thousands of native Africans were forced to labor on rubber plantations for the benefit of their colonial overlords. The abuses of the Congo Free State, and worldwide denunciations when they came to light, were instrumental in the Belgian government assuming responsibility of the territory, and renaming it the Belgian Congo.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Classics, Travel

Nook

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of free Kindle edition
A Public Domain Book
Publication date: November 27, 2011
Language: English
ASIN: B006FLCCOU

The worst European colony in Africa

I have been reading a lot of Conan Doyle's fiction recently. For a change of pace, I decided to try one of his non-fiction pieces. This one is an outraged, scathing indictment of Belgian King Leopold II, the Belgian government and their crimes and atrocities in the Congo. The government guilty by a combination of association, complicity in Leopold's crimes and by turning a blind eye to his reign of greed inspired terror and near genocide in Central Africa.

By the time Conan Doyle wrote this expose' of the state of affairs, the Belgian government had taken over direct control of the Congo from the King who previously owned the Congo and its people as personal property. Conan Doyle and many others believed that the change in ownership was little more than window dressing. Conan Doyle observed that, "The Congo State was founded by the Belgian King, and exploited by Belgian capital, Belgian soldiers and Belgian concessionnaires. It was defended and upheld by successive Belgian Governments, who did all they could to discourage the Reformers". They were right. The outrageous brutality didn't end as Belgium continued to exploit the Congo.

The story of Belgium's brutal rule in the Congo is no longer widely known. It seems that the country's victim status in World Wars One and Two has served to gloss over that barbaric history. Most Americans are left with a view of poor little, oppressed Belgium as one of the world's "good guys."

Read THAN CURSE THE DARKNESS, a novella by David Drake to get a feel for what the brutality was like for individuals. Mr. Drake's story is horror fiction set within H.P. Lovecraft's Cuthula mythos but he conducted considerable research about Africa and the Belgian Congo to write truth within his fiction. The novella is available in various formats including collection in Drake's NIGHT AND DEMONS and BALEFIRES.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a book for a 21st century reader, I would say The Crime of the Congo is probably in the 3-star range. In its own day it would have been worth 5 stars, as its aims were laudable and it was apparently widely read. My rating is therefore a sort of compromise between the two. It’s a short book that Conan Doyle consciously pitched at a general audience, people who had neither the time nor the means to read a weightier tome. Today it’s most interesting as a period piece, an example of contemporary views of the Congo situation.

I know many people will know the context, but if not, between 1885 and 1908, what we now call the DR Congo was under the personal rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. The administrative entity he ruled was called “The Congo Free State”, an Orwellian name before Orwell. In practice it was a slave-based economy in which the native inhabitants were forced to work for nothing harvesting rubber. Operational control was exercised by Belgian companies who had obtained concessions from the King. Native people who failed to bring in enough rubber were hanged, mutilated, or flogged, and frequently whole villages would be massacred. No-one knows how many Congolese died, but almost all historians agree the figure was in the millions. Conan Doyle refers to it as “the enslavement of a whole people and … twenty years of uninterrupted massacre.” Writing before the time of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, he describes the Congo atrocities as the greatest crime in history, and indeed they should be considered alongside the crimes of those three.

Most of the book is taken up with personal testimony from Europeans who saw the atrocities. Those who spoke out could be jailed for fomenting rebellion, and some were even murdered. It’s hard to explain the conduct of the company officials and officers. They almost seem to have been overcome by a collective bloodlust. The French and British empires were racist but they didn’t engage in the deliberate massacre of millions of their African subjects. Contemporary observers speak of entire regions becoming uninhabited. Black African soldiers employed by the companies could be flogged if they failed to kill enough people. Conan Doyle comments that the grotesque tortures and methods of execution devised “…will not bear printing. The wildest dreams of the Inquisition were outdone.”

The book addresses the arguments used by the Belgians to respond to the allegations against them, and it’s interesting to see how little has changed. One method was what we today call “whataboutism” – deflecting the allegations by referring to misdeeds of the accusers. The Belgians for example referred to the conduct of the British during the Boer War. Whilst such criticisms were legitimate in their own context, pointing out the wrongdoings of others is of course no defence against your own bad behaviour. Unfortunately, “whataboutism” is something I see on a daily basis in political debates today. Another argument advanced was that the internal affairs of the The Congo State were nobody else’s business. Again, this is something we hear today from governments such as that of China.

I would say that The Crime of the Congo would be a good introductory text for the modern reader - in its own time it was intended as exactly that. Undoubtedly though there will be more comprehensive histories available.

[Murali Behara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colonialism in Congo, barbarism authentically Belgian!

This is a pamphlet written by Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame), about the atrocities committed by concessionaries who exploited Congo with the aid of military assistance from King Leopold of Belgium and with the blessings of the Catholic church which provided the cover of 'converting the savages to good Christians'!

This pamphlet narrates how the concessionaries separated men, women and children from their families and sent them away to live in makeshift shelters, living on little food, to collect Rubber/Latex. If they did not return with expected quantity of rubber, they were mercilessly shot and sometimes to save the limited supply of gun-powder cartridges, even the women and children had their hands amputated mercilessly.

Apparently the museum in Brussels contains documented evidence of some of these atrocities. Some knowledge will leave you changed forever. The German death camps in Namibia(long before Nazis came to power), and the Belgian horrors in Congo are such and truly horrific events. History is definitely not a tale of morality, as Christopher Hitchens said...

[Anne-marie Coonan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great book. Old and of it's time but shocking to hear how he negatively compares the rights of the Congolese to the far superior rights (as he sees them) of Black South Africans amongst others. It's hard not to be ashamed after reading this book.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent report on the horrendous policies and resulting mutilations and deaths in the Belgian "Congo Free State" in the late 1800's to early 1900's. While there is no way to accurately count the exact number of people killed during this period, estimates put it between 1 and 15 million. I had never heard of this (in result if not in intention) attempted genocide until I read this book. It was a truly horrific situation and while it is much too late for those who suffered more than 100 years ago, it should be included along with other hateful actions that have been committed against native peoples around the world. Also, to this date, no Belgian government or authority has made an apology for this behavior. I cannot say I "enjoyed" reading of this tragedy, but it is an excellent account and should be read by anyone interested in human rights and how mankind can go so wrong.

[Rachael · Rating 1 out of 5]

⭐️ 1 star — Outdated, patronizing, and hard to finish.

I picked up The Crime of the Congo after reading modern nonfiction books set in the Congo (The Siege of Jadotville by Declan Power and Cold War Navy Seal by James M. Hawes), hoping to learn more about its earlier history. I didn’t do enough research beforehand — I hadn’t realised how early this book was published, and it shows.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (better known for Sherlock Holmes) documents the horrific atrocities committed under King Leopold II’s personal rule of the Congo Free State. While it was influential at the time, today it reads more like humanitarian propaganda than serious history. Doyle’s writing is emotionally charged, prioritizing outrage over balance. Instead of a thoughtful investigation, it’s mostly a series of shocking testimonies from Europeans, framed to provoke horror rather than deeper understanding.

One major issue is how Doyle portrays the Congolese people. He positions Europeans — especially the British — as the heroes who must “save” them, treating Africans as passive victims rather than showing any resistance or complexity. The people suffering are described, but rarely heard. Doyle speaks about them, never with them, reinforcing colonial ideas that only Europeans could narrate or judge the situation.

Throughout, there’s a strong undercurrent of British moral superiority. Doyle criticizes Belgian abuses without ever acknowledging the violence and exploitation in British colonies. He wasn’t anti-colonial — he simply believed colonialism could be "good" if done properly. From today’s perspective, this is a major blind spot that undermines the whole work.

Doyle also fails to explain the broader political and economic systems that enabled the atrocities, focusing blame almost entirely on King Leopold II as an individual villain. This narrow focus ignores the systemic nature of colonial exploitation.

In the end, I found it drawn-out, patronizing, and emotionally exhausting without offering real insight. I struggled to finish and probably should have just DNF’d it. Unless you’re specifically studying early 20th-century humanitarian propaganda, I wouldn’t recommend it.

[R. Reddebrek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a powerful and thorough investigation into the crimes committed during the colonisation of the Congo.

Its graphic in recounting the many, many crimes committed in the quest for high dividends on rubber sales on the world market.

"a large part (nearly half) of the Congo Reply (notes sur le rapport de Mr. Casement, de Dec. 11, 1903) is taken up by trying to show that in one case of mutilation the injuries were, in truth, inflicted by a wild boar. A glance at the photographs which preface this book will show that there must be many wild boars in Congoland, and that their habits are of a singular nature. It is not in the Congo that these boars are bred."

But it isn't just moral indignation at the horrors of mutilation and mass executions, it presents a systemic view of the economic exploitation of the peoples of the Congo and how the state interacts and supports the tyranny.

I have but one complaint, Doyle is still a believer in white mans burden and an imperialist, so while he's disgusted with the actions of Leopold and the Belgian government and its monopoly capitalists, he can't help but compare the Congo to a favourable picture of British and French colonies.

This is disappointing, but in a way it hammers home the brutality, it wasn't just left wing activists calling for justice for the Congo, even men who supported colonisation were disgusted and appalled once the information came out.

[E. Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you rate a book that's mostly interesting as a historical artifact?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a rabid British hyperpatriot who sincerely held the belief that the only thing wrong with the Empire was that there wasn't enough of it; he was also one of the most popular writers in the world during his lifetime. The combination of both led to his publishing The Great Boer War in 1900, a piece of British war propaganda that sought to justify the extremely unpopular war for the annexation of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

Nine years later, the author was so scandalized by the horrors of the nominally independent Congo Free State, the de facto personal colony of Leopold I that he wrote this book, condemning the enterprise as the greatest crime in history. It's extremely odd to read, 110 years later, a book that condemns specifically Belgian colonialism on the one hand and extols by name the empires of Britain, France and Germany (which was had barely wrapped up its own colonial genocide of the Herero and Namaqua peoples) on the other. This is sincere but selective outrage, where Arthur Conan Doyle is horrified by the abuses of the Belgian King's murderous agents but can't make the intellectual leap connecting them to colonialism as a system.

[Patti Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did what it said it would do, it gave a great first look at the issues of the Congo in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. It gave me the who, what, where, when and why I was looking for in a compact, easy to understand report.

It is the book I chose as an introduction to my “Congo Project,” a self-imposed study that I hope will bring me an understanding of a history I know little of.

It was helpful to observe Doyle’s perspective as the writer, partly as an Englishman, partly as any man writing in that particular time. That was a bonus bit of education that spoke volumes about the ignorance of Europeans in regard to human rights, freedoms, and equality during their centuries of colonizing.

I would recommend this book to anyone else that is starting a study of how Belgium obtained and exploited this area of Africa. I will be following it up with other books, however, as it is not a comprehensive coverage…nor does it claim to be. Next up is “King Leopold’s Ghost.”

[Luis Jaquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work is truly an insightful narrative to the times of imperialism and the effect such conquests had upon the developing world. It is riveting and straight to the point. It considers the reputations of those nations that partook and ignored the occurrences of the Congo and unapologetically assigns responsibility to those countries whose inaction led to tragedy and atrocity. This is a great read and will truly benefit those interested in gaining knowledge on world affairs.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "King Leopold's Ghost" several years ago and was horrified to learn about the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State by the Belgian government and its agents under Leopold. This is a more contemporaneous publication that includes eyewitness accounts from missionaries, traders, and travelers to Congo while the "rubber regime" was in place and before international pressure finally, belatedly forced Belgium to revise its colonial administration.

[John Docherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievable cruelty on behalf of the Belgians toward the native people

This book is a compelling read, every chid in Belgium should be encouraged to read this book, it makes you react with disgust that one ruthless monarch would be driven by greed toward a native people, and still call himself a Christian . He bled the Congo dry of its natural resources and was responsible for the slaughter of a quarter of its population and the barbaric treatment of its inhabitants.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very sad but informative book. I knew nothing of these atrocities and they were very insulting to human decency and conscience. The crimes committed were beyond imagining and the turning away by Belgium and other countries was (almost) unbelievable.
I had to research the recovery of the Congo just to see if there was any recovery at all.
If you are interested in history, this is well written and factual, but otherwise, it is certainly not recreational reading material.

[Sohaib · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colonialism was brutal! I salute the author for this effort, documenting the brutalities by capturing / consolidating first hand accounts of people involved or witness to the enslavement / exploitation of Congo was the least any man of conscience could do..and sir Arthur has done that in the book. Not an easy read, I skimmed through most parts ..but this book deserves wider recognition and support

[Roberto Chavez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild book from an unlikely source: the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He presents the crimes taking place in the Congo River basin. Somehow this area was claimed by the King of Belgium as his personal property. The fact that the other European powers do nothing is almost as offensive as the destruction of the colony. Very interesting to read was is considered unjust and inhumane 120 years ago.

[NuNu · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odious awakening

Arthur Co.nail Doyle was a physician and was journalists as well was s a n author. In this treatises his intention was to enlighten the reader understanding of the situation in the Belgium Congo under King Leopold and the push for rubber.

[HJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. People should know the crimes done by Belgium against the Congolese people. Shocking account

[A.L. Sirois · Rating 3 out of 5]

British imperialism on display. Not a pleasant read.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for me

Due to eye issues and damage Alexa reads to me.
Not what I was expecting give it a try enjoy the adventure of reading 2021

[Rocío Sánchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy interesante, crudo y duro el relato que hace de los crímenes que sufrió el Congo a manos del rey de los belgas y el análisis que va hilvanando el texto.
Por otra parte, no sabía que A. C. Doyle era tan gran admirador del imperio británico (que según el lo hace todo bien y si hubiera sabido hubiera actuado antes).

[Daniel Escobosa]

Es un libro interesante de como en los finales del siglo XIX y comienzos de XX el gobierno de Bélgica (el rey) explotó de una forma cruel y despectiva el Congo. Una estrategia en la que permitieron que lo que hoy es la República Democrática del Congo se "independizara" y aprovecharon las circunstancias para explotar la nación aún más y de forma más cruel de lo que lo hacían antes de su "independencia".
No creo terminarlo, es una narrativa realista, objetiva y sincera (en cierta medida incompleta) de alguno de los extremos a los que podemos llegar como sociedad. Aún siendo un buen libro creo que hay literatura más actual y más constructiva sobre problemáticas sociales por resolver en nuestro mundo.

[Ginnystein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great journalism of an era...that stands the test of time.

[Helen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well at least I now have the Congo!