14 h 45 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does colonial rule look like when a consul leaves official tables behind and listens to the villagers?
In Report from His Majesty's Consul at Boma, Roger Casement travels up the Congo River and its branches to examine how people are treated. It is 1903. The Irish consul goes far beyond the coast to see what is done in the name of King Leopold II, who holds the territory as his own project rather than for Belgium.
Casement records what he sees and what villagers tell him through interpreters. Rubber quotas draw people deep into the forest, away from their fields and families. Published by the British government in 1904, his plain, careful report gives campaigners the sworn word of an official—and gives readers a direct encounter with evidence of forced labour.
What you’ll discover
- Beyond the official tables Follow Casement upriver as he seeks evidence for himself rather than relying on gossip.
- Villagers speak through interpreters Read accounts that bring the treatment of people under colonial rule into focus.
- The cost of rubber See how set quotas pull villagers away from their fields and families for long periods.
- A territory held personally Examine the Congo as Leopold II's own project, not a possession held for Belgium.
- Plain words carry force Discover how careful observation gives campaigners evidence in an official's sworn account.
Who will love it
For readers of colonial history, human rights and investigative reporting, and anyone who wants to hear the testimony about conditions in the Congo from the people who live there.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A visitor on the Nile sees empty banks
- The Congo State defends its taxes and its land
- Casement returns to a river he once knew
- Weekly food levies press down on the riverside
- Lake Mantumba shows what rubber wars left behind
- Fines and arrests have no legal basis
- Concession companies run armed rubber markets
- Villagers bring mutilated children and their stories
- Brussels fights back and London presses on
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Rapport du consul de Sa Majesté à Boma
by Roger Casement · 1904
Casement steams up the Congo and finds villages emptied, women held hostage and boys without hands.
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In short
What does a consul find when he leaves the river ports and steams into the heart of the Congo Free State? In 1903 Roger Casement, the British consul at Boma, spends two and a half months on the Upper Congo and writes what he sees.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A visitor on the Nile sees empty banks
The volume opens with a short letter from the Earl of Cromer, written on the Nile in January 1903. He has just visited Belgian stations at Kiro and Lado, next to British posts in Uganda and the Sudan.
The Belgian stations look tidy, with sound houses and thriving gardens. Yet Cromer notices something odd. Villages crowd the British riverbank, where people wave to the steamer. On the Belgian side he sees no villages, and no local people at either station.
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What is the Casement Report about?
It records British consul Roger Casement's 1903 journey on the Upper Congo. He describes forced food and rubber levies, hostage taking, fines and mutilation under the Congo Free State, with villagers' statements and attached documents.
Who wrote the report and why did he write it?
Roger Casement, British consul at Boma, wrote it for Lord Lansdowne. Britain had heard accusations about the Congo but lacked firsthand evidence, so the government sent him upriver to see conditions himself.
What does Bula Matadi mean?
It is a local name for the state and its agents, translated in the report as government men. Casement hears villagers use it when they flee at the sight of his steamer.
The author
Roger Casement
1864–1916 · Irish diplomat, nationalist and poet
Irish diplomat, activist, nationalist and poet.
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