Always in search of sensation-creating films which ensure a generous income stream, Hollywood has brought back the theme of abuses committed in the Independent State of Congo.
To do this, the producers acquired the rights to journalist Adam Hochschild’s book King Leopold’s Ghost: A Study of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. The film will tell the stories of three men — a black American missionary, an English investigative reporter, and an Irish spy — who denounced the situation in the Congo.
Not surprisingly, the film retains absolutely none of the true context or scope of the situation. Instead, numerous fantasies were presented, to the total exclusion of the positive aspects of the pioneers and to the important corrective measures implemented following the conclusions of the International Commission of Inquiry set up by King Leopold II.
Together with its member associations, URBA-KBAU sent a memo to the film producers, in which they made the strong point that many of the film’s themes were manipulated and extrapolated without any scientific basis, and whose generalizations were absolutely false, such as the tales of hands being cut off, etc. The memo was further aimed at having the producers take these points into consideration and produce a film that is more objective. Under these conditions the film would allow for the exposure of actual, unjustifiable abuses committed by rogue agents who believed that any and everything was permitted with impunity, given the distance and isolation of their acts.
To date, no response has yet been received from the producers of the film.
