International African Association

Last updated December 09, 2023

The International African Association (in full, "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa"; in French Association Internationale Africaine, and in full Association Internationale pour l'Exploration et la Civilisation de l'Afrique Centrale) was a front organization established by the guests at the Brussels Geographic Conference of 1876, an event hosted by King Leopold II of Belgium. The Association was used by King Leopold ostensibly to further his purportedly altruistic and humanitarian projects in the area of Central Africa, the area that was to become Leopold's privately controlled Congo Free State. King Leopold volunteered space in Brussels for the International African Association's headquarters, and there were to be national committees of the association set up in all the participating countries, as well as an international committee. Leopold was elected by acclamation as the international committee's first chairman, but said that he would serve for one year only so that the chairmanship could rotate among people from different countries.

The new body was welcomed throughout Europe (contributions were sent by the Rothschilds and Viscount Ferdinand de Lesseps) and the national committees were to be headed by grand dukes, princes, and other royals, but most of them never got off the ground.^[1] The international committee met once in the following year, reelected Leopold as chairman, despite his earlier pledge not to serve again, and then disintegrated. Nevertheless, thanks to the Association, Leopold succeeded in his goal of convincing the Belgian people and the major powers of Europe that his interest in Africa was purely altruistic and humanitarian-oriented. The Association was succeeded by the short-lived Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo, and the International Association of the Congo, which eventually dissolved when Leopold renamed the area the Congo Free State.

History

Creation

The organization was created at the 1876 Brussels Geographic Conference to which Leopold invited nearly forty well-known experts, who were mainly schooled in the geographic sciences or were wealthy philanthropists. They hailed from a number of European countries. As a result, the Association was originally conceived as a multi-person, scientific, and humanitarian assembly but it quickly became dominated by Leopold and his economic interests in Africa. Originally, the stated goal of the group was to "discover" the largely unexplored Congo and 'civilize' its natives, whence it full name "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa". In his novella Heart of Darkness, the author Joseph Conrad therefore sarcastically referred to the Association as "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs".^[2] The Association was intended to be a joint effort on the parts of all European countries present at the Conference, however, each nation formed its own national committee for exploration which would, in theory, share information with the whole of the Association, hence, a cooperative effort. However, national economic interests quickly took precedence over the group's supposedly philanthropic ideals. Each of these committees organized nationalized expeditions into the African interior and there was very little sharing of information, resulting in each nation claiming certain portions of African land for themselves.

Exploration of the Region

From 1879 to 1884 famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley returned to the Congo, this time not as a reporter, but as an envoy from Leopold, and under the guise of the Belgian Committee, with the secret mission to organize a Congo state. At the same time, the French marine officer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza traveled into the western Congo Basin and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville in 1881. The Kingdom of Portugal, which also claimed the area due to old treaties with the native Kongo Empire, made a treaty with Great Britain on February 26, 1884, to block off the Congo Society's access to the Atlantic.

At the same time, various European countries tried to acquire a foothold in Africa. France occupied Ottoman Tunisia and colonized today's Republic of the Congo in 1881, followed by the Rivières du Sud colony at the Gulf of Guinea in 1884. In 1882, Great Britain occupied the Khedivate of Egypt, an Ottoman vassal which ruled over much of present-day Sudan and parts of Somalia. In 1870 and 1882, Kingdom of Italy took possession of the first parts of Eritrea, while the German Empire declared Togoland, German Cameroon, and South-West Africa to be under its protection in 1884.

Disintegration

The large number of competing interests caused the Association to fracture and disintegrate over each member state's national interests. The Association's break-up eventually forced the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, effectively beginning what became known as the Scramble for Africa. Despite the failure of the initial committee, the Belgian Committee that the Association generated continued to sponsor "humanitarian" missions into the bush.

Formation of the International Association of the Congo

In 1879, the International Association of the Congo was also formed, having more economic goals, but still closely related to the former society. Leopold secretly bought off the foreign investors in the Congo Society, which was turned to imperialistic goals, with the Association serving primarily as a philanthropic front. By these means, Leopold morphed the organization's "ideology from an international philanthropic association to that of a private commercial enterprise…[and] the change from a commercial plan to a political reality: the Congo Free State."^[3]^[4]

Related Research Articles

The history of the Republic of the Congo has been marked by diverse civilisations: Indigenous, French and post-independence.

Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

The Belgian Congo was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.

The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo, was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by King Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the Kingdom of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate nations were in a personal union. The Congo Free State was not a part of, nor did it belong to Belgium. Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade. Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1885. The Free State was privately controlled by Leopold from Brussels; he never went there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin Conference</span> 1884–1885 regulation of colonisation in Africa

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference or West Africa Conference, met on 15 November 1884, and after an adjournment concluded on 26 February 1885, with the signature of a General Act, regulating the European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. The conference was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany at the request of King Leopold II. The General Act of Berlin can be seen as the formalisation of the Scramble for Africa that was already in full swing. Some historians however warn against an overemphasis of its role in the colonial partitioning of Africa, and draw attention to bilateral agreements concluded before and after the conference. The conference contributed to ushering in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, once made the point that the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was responsible for "the old carve-up of Africa". Other writers have also laid the blame in "the partition of Africa" on the doors of the Berlin Conference. But Wm. Roger Louis holds a contrary view, although he conceded that "the Berlin Act did have a relevance to the course of the partition" of Africa. Of the fourteen countries being represented, seven of them – Austria-Hungary, Russia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden–Norway, the Ottoman Empire and the United States – came home without any formal possessions in Africa.

<i>King Leopolds Ghost</i> Book by Adam Hochschild

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998) is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908, as well as the large-scale atrocities committed during that period. The book, also a general biography of the private life of Leopold, succeeded in increasing public awareness of these crimes in recent decades.

Colonization of the Congo Basin refers to the European colonization of the Congo Basin of tropical Africa. It was the last part of the continent to be colonized. By the end of the 19th century, the Basin had been carved up by European colonial powers, into the Congo Free State, the French Congo and the Portuguese Congo.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally built to showcase King Leopold II's Congo Free State in the International Exposition of 1897.

Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo from 1908 to 1960, Ruanda-Urundi from 1922 to 1962, and Lado Enclave from 1884 to 1910. It also had small concessions in Guatemala (1843–1854) and Belgian concession of Tianjin in China (1902–1931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco.

The International Association of the Congo, also known as the International Congo Society, was an association founded on 17 November 1879 by Leopold II of Belgium to further his interests in the Congo. It replaced the Belgian Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo which was part of the International African Association front organisation created for the exploitation of the Congo. The goals of the International Congo Society was to establish control of the Congo Basin and to exploit its economic resources. The Berlin Conference recognised the society as sovereign over the territories it controlled and on August 1, 1885, i.e. four and half months after the closure of the Berlin Conference, King Leopold's Vice-Administrator General in the Congo, announced that the society and the territories it occupied were henceforth called "the Congo Free State".

The Congo Free State propaganda war was a worldwide media propaganda campaign waged by both King Leopold II of Belgium and the critics of the Congo Free State and its atrocities. Leopold was very astute in using the media to support his virtual private control of the Congo. British campaigner Edmund Dene Morel successfully campaigned against Leopold and focused public attention on the violence of Leopold's rule. Morel used newspaper accounts, pamphlets, and books to publish evidence from reports, eye-witness testimony, and pictures from missionaries and others involved directly in the Congo. As Morel gained high-profile supporters, the publicity generated by his campaign eventually forced Leopold to relinquish control of the Congo to the Belgian government.

The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference of 1889-1890 was held from 18 November 1889 to 2 July 1890 in Brussels and concluded with the adoption of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on the prohibition of slave trade and slavery in Africa. The convention favoured colonial policies, justified by the anti-slavery argument. The event and its origins were shaped primarily by a narrow national interest. Governments paid lip-service to humanitarian goals in order to legitimize their imperial aims.

From 1885 to 1908, many atrocities were committed in the Congo Free State under the absolute rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. These atrocities were particularly associated with the labour policies, enforced by colonial administrators, used to collect natural rubber for export. Combined with epidemic disease, famine, and falling birth rates caused by these disruptions, the atrocities contributed to a sharp decline in the Congolese population. The magnitude of the population fall over the period is disputed, with modern estimates ranging from 1.5 million to 13 million.

The Central African Republic–Democratic Republic of the Congo border is 1,747 km in length and runs from the tripoint with the Republic of the Congo in the west to the tripoint with South Sudan in the east.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo–South Sudan border is 714 km in length and runs from the tripoint with the Central African Republic in the west to the tripoint with the Uganda in the east.

Congolese nationality law is the nationality law for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is regulated by the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as amended; the Congolese Nationality Code, and its revisions; the Congolese Civil Code; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Les Belges dans l'Afrique Centrale. Voyages, aventures et découvertes d'après les documents et journaux d'explorateurs is a travel account composed of three volumes about the early years of the colonization of the Congo basin by Léopold II, which was published several times as both books and instalments between 1884 and 1893. The first volume was written by Adolphe Burdo (1849-1891) and subtitled De Zanzibar au Lac Tanganika. The second and third were written by Charles de Martrin-Donos (1857-1904) and subtitled Le Congo et ses affluents. The volumes were written to "popularize and glorify the civilizing African enterprise, and the Belgians who took part in it".

Charles Adolphe Marie Liebrechts was a Belgian soldier, explorer and administrator in the Congo Free State.

Anthony Bannister Swinburne was a British explorer and ivory trader who served as an assistant to Henry Morton Stanley. He is known for developing the Léopoldville station, later to become the city of Kinshasa.

The Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo, or in French the Comité d'études du Haut-Congo, was formed in 1878 on behalf of Leopold II, King of the Belgians, as part of the Scramble for Africa.

References

↑ Hochschild, Adam (1999-09-03). King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 46. ISBN 0547525737. lesseps.
↑ Stengers, Jean. "Sur l'aventure congolaise de Joseph Conrad". In Quaghebeur, M. and Van Balberghe, E. (Eds.), Papier blanc, encre noire: Cent ans de culture francophone en Afrique centrale (Zaïre, Rwanda et Burundi). 2 vols. pp. 15-34. Brussels: Labor. 1.
↑ Wesseling, H. L.; Pomerans, Arnold J. (1996). Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishing. p. 89. ISBN 0-275-95137-5.
↑ Rivero, Michael (February 12, 2003). "From Kongo to Congo: The History Of The Belgian Congo (To 1963)". Heart of Darkness: The Hypertext Annotation. Stockton College. Archived from the original on September 20, 2006.

External links

Cooperativeresearch.org: Timeline for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Archive International African Association, Royal museum for central Africa

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Hochschild, Adam (1999-09-03). King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 46. ISBN 0547525737. lesseps.

[2] Stengers, Jean. "Sur l'aventure congolaise de Joseph Conrad". In Quaghebeur, M. and Van Balberghe, E. (Eds.), Papier blanc, encre noire: Cent ans de culture francophone en Afrique centrale (Zaïre, Rwanda et Burundi). 2 vols. pp. 15-34. Brussels: Labor. 1.

[3] Wesseling, H. L.; Pomerans, Arnold J. (1996). Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishing. p. 89. ISBN 0-275-95137-5.

[4] Rivero, Michael (February 12, 2003). "From Kongo to Congo: The History Of The Belgian Congo (To 1963)". Heart of Darkness: The Hypertext Annotation. Stockton College. Archived from the original on September 20, 2006.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]