Les deux Congos

The Two Congos

Pierre Mille, Felicien Challaye

We published in our previous editions and in our first five series, 1900-1904, so great a number of documents, texts forming dossiers, information, and commentaries — so great a number of cahiers of letters, novels, dramas, dialogues, poems, and tales — so great a number of cahiers of history and philosophy; and these documents, information, texts, dossiers and commentaries, these cahiers of letters, history, and philosophy were so considerable that we cannot think of giving here even the most succinct enumeration.

From the same authors, and in the same vein, available at the bookshop of the cahiers: Sixth cahier of the seventh series — Pierre Mille, The Leopoldian Congo, with a preface by E. D. Morel.

The two Congos. The first of these men is the king of the Belgians, Leopold II, sovereign proprietor of the so-called Independent State of the Congo. The second is the French Republic, which possesses, on the right bank of the Congo and the Ubangi, an immense territory known as the French Congo.

[This cahier continues the investigation begun in the previous cahiers of this series into the colonial exploitation of the Congo basin, comparing the methods and results of Belgian and French colonialism. Pierre Mille examines the Leopoldian Congo — the personal domain of King Leopold II — with its system of forced labor, hostage-taking, and violent extraction of rubber that had by this time become an international scandal. Felicien Challaye, drawing on his experience with the Brazza mission, provides a comparative analysis of the French Congo, where the concessionary company system had created conditions approaching, though not yet equaling, the horrors of the Belgian system.

The cahier documents the debates in the French Chamber of Deputies over the colonial budget and the interpellations concerning the treatment of natives in the French Congo. It presents evidence gathered by the Brazza mission and examines the response of the colonial administration and the concessionary companies to the revelations of abuse. The authors argue that the fundamental problem lies in the system of great concessions itself, which by granting private companies monopoly control over vast territories inevitably leads to the exploitation and oppression of native populations.

The comparison between the two Congos serves to illuminate the common mechanisms of colonial exploitation while highlighting the particular responsibilities of the French Republic, which claims to represent the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity even in its overseas possessions.]