Morel's Casement Report

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Great Britain consul Roger Casement, who served under Stanley, played perhaps the most important role in the unveiling of the corrupt system in the Congo. In February 1904, he issued the Casement Report, which detailed interviews with many natives explaining the atrocities. His report went beyond his order to investigate the Congo; he studied the hierarchy of chiefs, assistant, local assistants, militia and finally, the laborers. One result of this was Morel’s creation of the Congo Reform Association in 1904, which put into a global perspective the issues of the Congo, and made them easy to understand. One of the horrifying topics that he shed light on was the mutilation of hands in the Congo Free State. Witnesses described in detail what happened.
I ran away...and went with two old people...but we were caught, and the old people were killed, and the soldiers made me carry the baskets with the things these dead people had and the hands they cut off. …show more content…

Another native gave an account, saying of the black soldiers, “...they killed a lot of people, and they cut off their hands...and took them to the white man. He counted out the hands - 200 in all.” Casement’s investigation made it clear that hand mutilation “was not a native custom prior to the coming of the white man; it was not the outcome of the primitive instincts of savages…; it was the deliberate act of the soldiers of a European Administration.” Although many still did not take his report seriously, it was clear that more information needed to be

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