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In Limbo: The Story of Stanley's Rear Column
In Limbo. The Story Of Stanley's Rear Column
- GenresAfrica
269 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 1979
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February 10, 2008
African explorer Henry Stanley is a controversial figure, but perhaps nothing in his storied life caused greater scandal than the fate of the "rear column," consisting of five officers, 250 porters, and the bulk of the supplies for the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1886-1889, one of the last major 19th century European African expeditions. This vast undertaking's ostensible purpose was to rescue Emin Pasha, the German-born governor of Equitoria, who was being beseiged by Mahdist forces. To understand this situation fully requires a bit of background knowledge of the various colonial and native forces at play during this time, but chief among the players were Muhammad Ahmad, a Sudanese Sufi who had declared himself Mahdi (Islamic prophet/redeemer); King Leopold of Belgium, who had recently set up almost exclusive ownership of the Congo Free State; and Tippu Tip, a Zanzibar slaver who had established a strong presence in central Africa.
The Mahdists were conducting an anti-European uprising in the Sudan (ultimately quashed by the British in 1899). Meantime, King Leopold needed a better way to mark his new territory, which was only vaguely defined, and so he decided to the best way to do so would be to send the famed African explorer Henry Morton Stanley on a scouting expedition. Thus Stanley's "rescue" mission took a very roundabout route to reach the supposedly imperiled Emin Pasha.
In actuality, Pasha had no desire to be rescued, and the entire expedition, although initially declared a success, eventually became infamous when details of what had transpired eventually reached the European press. In particular, the hardships faced by the rear column caused scandal. The five officers had expected to wait four months for Stanley's return. Instead, Stanley was gone fourteen months, and when he eventually returned to the rear column's camp he found only one officer still there. Two had died, one had been sent home an invalid, and the last man was stranded somewhere down the Congo River. Over a hundred graves marked where starvation and disease had felled native porters.
After returning home, Stanley pointed the blame toward the officers left in charge of the rear column, and in typical Stanley spin-control fashion began a smear campaign against the officers he'd abandoned. Eventually both the shocking details of what happened to the rear column as well as the even more shocking details of what was going on in Leopold's Congo Free State emerged.
One of the reasons I read this book was because of my interest in Herbert Ward, the officer of the rear column who had gone down the Congo River. Ward is in my pantheon of personal heroes, along with Alfred Russel Wallace, Mary Kingsley, TE Lawrence, and a few select others. I'd also read several books on Stanley, not to mention Adam Hochschild's searing account of Leopold's genocidal plundering of the Congo, King Leopold's Ghost.
I suppose one of the reasons the history of this region so intrigues me is that, much like the history of WII, it has very clear forces of good and evil pitted against one another. It's also a very good example of how it's possible to conceal the most incredible wrongdoing with sufficient spin and enough clout, assisted, of course, by widespread public apathy.
The Mahdists were conducting an anti-European uprising in the Sudan (ultimately quashed by the British in 1899). Meantime, King Leopold needed a better way to mark his new territory, which was only vaguely defined, and so he decided to the best way to do so would be to send the famed African explorer Henry Morton Stanley on a scouting expedition. Thus Stanley's "rescue" mission took a very roundabout route to reach the supposedly imperiled Emin Pasha.
In actuality, Pasha had no desire to be rescued, and the entire expedition, although initially declared a success, eventually became infamous when details of what had transpired eventually reached the European press. In particular, the hardships faced by the rear column caused scandal. The five officers had expected to wait four months for Stanley's return. Instead, Stanley was gone fourteen months, and when he eventually returned to the rear column's camp he found only one officer still there. Two had died, one had been sent home an invalid, and the last man was stranded somewhere down the Congo River. Over a hundred graves marked where starvation and disease had felled native porters.
After returning home, Stanley pointed the blame toward the officers left in charge of the rear column, and in typical Stanley spin-control fashion began a smear campaign against the officers he'd abandoned. Eventually both the shocking details of what happened to the rear column as well as the even more shocking details of what was going on in Leopold's Congo Free State emerged.
One of the reasons I read this book was because of my interest in Herbert Ward, the officer of the rear column who had gone down the Congo River. Ward is in my pantheon of personal heroes, along with Alfred Russel Wallace, Mary Kingsley, TE Lawrence, and a few select others. I'd also read several books on Stanley, not to mention Adam Hochschild's searing account of Leopold's genocidal plundering of the Congo, King Leopold's Ghost.
I suppose one of the reasons the history of this region so intrigues me is that, much like the history of WII, it has very clear forces of good and evil pitted against one another. It's also a very good example of how it's possible to conceal the most incredible wrongdoing with sufficient spin and enough clout, assisted, of course, by widespread public apathy.
Displaying 1 of 1 review