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ABSTRACT
Sexual violence in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is predominantly understood and represented as a “native” phenomenon – a direct consequence of the economic civil war – unrelated to colonial violence. This article offers a historicized perspective on Congo’s enduring conflict in which sexual violence continues to ruin lives. I argue that sexual violence does not follow but structures colonialism as part of a continuum of violence. Drawing on extensive archival research, I analyze patterns of everyday gender-based violence in the Congo Free State (1885–1908) and identify the fusion of terror and pleasure as key aspects of a capitalist and patriarchal gender order. Staging an encounter between historical and contemporary dynamics of sexual violence in Congo, this article addresses and reconceptualizes contemporary sexual violence in relation to past colonial violence.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank David Mwambari, Stephanie Perazzone, Roxani Krystalli, and Robert Burroughs for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article; Melissa Johnson and Jenna Sapiano for organizing the “Gender, Peace and Security” webinar at Monash University during which I presented this article; and Ben Woolhead, Elisabeth Prügl, and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Archival sources
Belgium
Africa Archives, Brussels
AE 523–529 (349–350)
A25
GG
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren
Papiers Hennebert Georges (1899–1910)
Papiers Francis Dhanis
United Kingdom
London School of Economics and Political Science, London
E. D. Morel Papers
Notes
1 In using the word “native,” I draw on Said (Citation1978, 92), who suggested that the “Oriental” or the “native” refers to a category of people, not necessarily contained to a geographical area, but constructed as inferior and belonging to a particular race.
2 Most archival sources are in French and have been translated by the author.
3 Roger Casement, British Consul to the CFS, provided evidence of the widespread abuse and misgovernment. Casement’s Congo Report inspired Edmund Morel to found the Congo Reform Association, the first and one of the largest humanitarian movements of the twentieth century.
4 At the end of the Berlin Conference, which ran from November 15, 1884 to February 26, 1885, the King’s International African Association/International Association of Congo was formally proclaimed as the owner of the new Congo state. On May 29, 1885, the King named his new privately controlled country the État Indépendent du Congo or the Congo Free State, of which he would be the “King-Sovereign” (Hochschild Citation1998, 87).
5 Colonial officials employed auxiliaries or sentries (also called sentinels). These were usually allied chiefs or “freed slaves,” called libérés.
6 For further reading, see Loffman (Citation2023).
7 The single most influential book promoting Leopoldian exceptionalism is King Leopold’s Ghost (Hochschild Citation1998). Before this, the Congo Reform Association disseminated a similar narrative. In attributing exceptionality to the Congo atrocities, the Congo Reform Association and scholarship based on its publications obscured the brutal violence committed by other nations’ imperial ventures and fed the idea of Leopoldian exceptionalism, which led to discussions of good versus bad imperialists.
8 On August 17, 1886, Leon Rouget was named Commandant of the Force Publique. It was not until the decrees of August 5 and November 17, 1888 that the Force Publique gained official status (Samarin Citation1989, 46).
9 These archival citations refer to the depositions made to the Commission of Inquiry.
10 Both Governor-General Wahis and Secretary-General Van Eetvelde supported the practice of hostage taking.
11 See also the testimonies of Ervolo (Dep. 313, January 9, 1905), who states that his wife was taken by the white man, and of Bonyonoto (Dep. 254, December 29, 1904), who was made mistress to the white man.
12 Jema’s husband, Isamba de N’Ingo (Dep. 231, December 27, 1904), similarly recounts how sentries imprisoned her and then brought her to the white man, who made her his mistress.
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Charlotte Mertens
Charlotte Mertens teaches in Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on how and with what effects conflict-related sexual violence is understood and addressed through socio-political, legal, and humanitarian means in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she has conducted extensive fieldwork since 2012. Drawing on archival research, she also works on histories of sexual violence in the Congo Free State, the private domain of Belgian King Leopold II (1885–1908), and the Belgian Congo (1908–1960).