The Fortunes of Africa by Meredith Martin

Author:Meredith, Martin [Meredith, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610394604
Publisher: PublicAffairs

PART X

Africa on the Eve of the Scramble

39

THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE

When Henry Stanley arrived back in London in January 1878 after his epic journey down the Congo River, he was greeted with much admiration but found little interest in his plans to use the river as a ‘great highway of commerce’ into the interior. Neither ministers nor missionaries nor business houses took up his suggestions. In Brussels, however, Stanley’s exploits had been watched closely by King Leopold II of Belgium.

An ambitious, greedy and devious monarch, Leopold had long dreamed of establishing colonies abroad and enriching himself on the proceeds. His attention to central Africa had first been drawn by remarks made by a British naval officer, Lieutenant Verney Cameron, after completing a three-year journey across the belly of Africa from the east coast to the west coast in 1875. As reported in The Times, a newspaper that Leopold read avidly, Cameron’s view was that central Africa was a ‘country of unspeakable riches’ with an abundance of gold, copper, silver and coal, just waiting for an ‘enterprising capitalist’ to ‘take the matter in hand’.

Leopold began his quest for an African empire by inviting a collection of European explorers and geographers, including Cameron, to a conference at his palace in Brussels in September 1876. In welcoming his guests, he spoke of the need for an international crusade to open up central Africa ‘to civilisation’ and extinguish the slave trade. He stressed he was ‘in no way motivated by selfish designs’, but merely wanted to advance the cause of science and philanthropy by establishing bases there. With the approval of delegates, he set up a new international body, the Association Internationale Africaine (AIA), with himself as president, to lead the crusade. But his real purpose, as he made clear in a letter written a few months later to Baron Solvyns, the Belgian ambassador in London, was to gain personal control of African territory and to use it for commercial gain: ‘I do not want to miss the opportunity of obtaining a share of this magnificent African cake.’

Stanley figured prominently in Leopold’s grand scheme, but the king was wary of disclosing his true purpose. He confided to Solvyns in November 1877:

I believe that if I commission Stanley to take possession in my name of any given place in Africa, the English would stop me . . . I am therefore thinking in terms of entrusting Stanley with a purely exploratory mission which will offend no one and will provide us with some posts down in that region, staffed and equipped, and with a high command for them which we can develop when Europe and Africa have got used to our ‘pretensions’ on the Congo.

Failing to find any British interest in the Congo region, Stanley accepted an invitation to meet Leopold in Brussels in June 1878. Leopold, it seemed, was the only person willing to sponsor his return there. In November, Stanley signed a five-year contract with the king. His remit was to set up posts along the Congo River, build roads and pave the way for commercial development.

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