Edmund Dene Morel

Edmund Dene Morel (1873 - 1924) is a writer and Journaliste Britannique of French origin , it is known for its fight against the maltreatment makes with Congolese by the king Léopold II.

Engaged by the maritime company Elder Dempster of Sir Alfred Jones which ensured the connection Antwerp - Boma, it was quickly in contact with Western Africa. Set on this area on the world and defender, initially of the work of the king Léopold II, it was challenged by the humane situation of the State independent of Congo (EIC). Put at the current by several Protestant missionaries (the Swede Sjöblom, the Americans Morrisson and Sheppard and the British Henry Guinness) and by the activities of Henry R.Fox Bourne and Charles Indigenous Dilke of the Protection Society which became allied of Morel, it launched out in a denunciation campaign of the made exactions to Congo.

According to Morel, the EIC was by no means a “civilizing” State and “philanthropist” as he claimed it, but a vast private company which reduced in slavery the Congolese people to economic ends. Indeed, according to Morel, the King had in particular benefitted from the expansion of auto industry to make profitable his colony while making work the Africans who saw themselves harshly treating if they did not bring sufficient quantities of rubber (cut hands, removal of women,…) These exactions would have, according to Morel, more than decimated the country. Going until affirming that between 1885 and 1908, Congo had lost 40% of its population, he saw as causes single this deplorable situation, the activities of the King. Moreover, Morel criticized the EIC which despized clauses envisaged in the Acte of Berlin (February 26th, 1885) which envisaged in particular the freedom of trade in the Bassin of Congo. Moreover, the nature even of the EIC, a State created of all parts, directed by only one man, without the least possibility of control, was unbearable in Morel.

Concretely, our man launched one of the most important public awareness campaigns than knew England at the XIXe century. He founded West African Mail, a newspaper which was devoted of close with the Congolese question, then, at the instigation of Sir Roger Casement, the Congo Reform Association on March 23rd, 1904. This Association affirmed to have for single goal to make the light on the Congolese business and to be able to repair the evils inflicted with the races autochtones of Congo, i.e. to undertake political reforms in this area of the world, to put an end to the atrocities and to restore the freedom of trade. It establishes its activities in many areas of England and flowered also abroad: in France, in Germany and especially in the United States. Certain Belgian personalities of the time were in contact with Morel like Félicien Cattier of the Universit3e libre de Bruxelles or the Socialist Emile Vandervelde. Morel had a considerable activity being addressed to a few thousands of people at the time of meeting, but its most important means of pressure lay in its activities of journalist, his participation in West African Mail or newspapers like the Pall Badly Gazette, the Speaker, etc, and with its activities of writer. He is the author of several works of which King Leopold' S Rule in Africa , 1904, Red Rubber , the story off rubber Slavic trade flourishing one the Congo in the year off Grace 1907 ( history of the flourishing trade of the slaves of rubber in Congo in the year of grace 1907 ), 1907). He thus managed to create a movement mobilizing whole England all political tendencies or denominational confused (put aside Catholics). Authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or the American Mark Twain took an active part in the countryside.

Initially distant with respect to the question, the British government was interested more in the question, in particular the secretary of Foreign Office, Sir Edward Grey. This last, privileging a resumption of Congo by Belgium, was followed by Morel which was outdistanced of Grey thereafter affirming that an annexation would not change of anything the situation country insofar as the criminal contractors of the EIC would become Belgian civils servant. Nevertheless, privileging this solution with the crisis, the British government made pressure on the EIC, but the King Léopold II refused to yield to the pressures. A long time hesitant vis-a-vis the question, the US government of the president Theodore Roosevelt united finally with the British making yield the Sovereign of the EIC. In 1908, Congo became a Belgian colony then. The activities of the British government decreased and Congo Reform Association was dissolved in 1913, but not the dissension of Morel with respect to this colonial company which remained. Nevertheless, a few years before its death, he recognized the being said cogency of the reforms undertaken by Belgium trustful in the future of Congo.

Edmund Dene Morel was also interested in the Moroccan question and visited the Nigeria. It is also famous for its pacifist positions during the First World War while becoming cofounder of the Union off the democratic Control (UDC) and its opposition to the participation of Great Britain in the conflict. After being carried to naked, it was haï for its political positions and even thrown in prison to have tried to violate the law which prohibited to send without authorization of printed in neutral countries. He became liberal member of the British Parliament in 1922 and the cofounders of the UDC proposed it like candidate with the Nobel Prize of peace.

Through all the colonial period, Morel was abundantly criticized by a majority of Belgians. He was seen in turn like the propagandist of an interested campaign, bringing to the British the pretext of an annexation of Congo, then British commercial interests, finally of the German interests to central Africa. The personality of Morel has, and continuous to make run much ink in Belgium and abroad through many works.

References

Of Blood on the lianas , delivers of Daniel Vangroenweghe, 1986
the phantoms of the King Léopold II , Adam Hochschild, 1998
the film of Peter Bate, White King, Red Rubber, Black Death , 2004.
Moreover, Edmund Dene Morel was the author of an autobiography, unfortunately unfinished, but supplemented in a valid way by Jean Stengers and William R. Louis : E.D. Morel' S History off the Congo Reform Movement , 1968.
Let us quote also imposing volumes of Jules Marchal, E.D. Morel against Léoplod II, 1900-1910 , 1996 and the complete biography of the life of Morel by F. Seymour Cocks, E.D. Morel, the man and his work , 1920.

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