Congo Reform Association

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The Congo Reform Association exposed gross and rampant abuses of labor and by public servants in King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State, leading to the annexation of Congo by Belgium in 1908. In March 1904 Dr. Henry Guinness (1861-1915), Edmund Dene Morel and Roger Casement founded the Congo Reform Association. The movement was formed to aid the impoverished workforce of the Congo by drawing attention to their plight.

In the background, a Swedish missionary Mr. Sjoblom and Revd. J. Murphy of the American Baptist Mission had reported on the abuses to Dr Guinness in 1895, and they sent out the 'Congo and Balolo Mission' to assist and gather information and photographs. Of 35 missionaries, by 1900 only six had survived the climate.

Casement, as British consul, was ordered in 1903 to prepare the Casement Report, and was knighted for it. Morel (a journalist) reported weekly in the West Africa Mail, and Guinness (a missionary doctor) gave lectures around Britain before mentioning the realities to President Theodore Roosevelt of the USA in 1907. Branches of the association were established as far away as the United States. Its aim was accomplished by 1912 and it dissolved itself. In 1924 Morel was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in large part for his work with the association.

The association gained the support of several famous writers such as Joseph Conrad, Anatole France, Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain who contributed with their literary production to the cause. The novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was inspired by his journey as a ships captain on the Congo River. Mark Twain wrote a political satire named King Leopold's Soliloquy, and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the The Crime of the Congo.