Omer Bodson
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Omer Bodson was the Belgian officer who shot and killed Msiri, King of Garanganze (Katanga) on 20 December 1891. Bodson was then killed by one of Msiri's men.[1]
Bodson was a lieutenant and second-in-command of the Congo Free State's Stairs Expedition sent by King Leopold II of Belgium to take possession of Katanga, now a province in DR Congo. The leader of the expedition, Canadian mercenary Captain William Stairs sent Bodson to arrest Msiri after negotiations broke down for Msiri's acceptance of Leopold's sovereignty, but a fracas ensued in which Bodson shot Msiri and was himself mortally wounded.[2] For further details and references see the article on Msiri.
The last words of Omer Bodson were reported by the Stairs Expedition’s doctor, Moloney, to be:
"I don't mind dying now that I've killed Msiri. Thank God my death will not be in vain. I've delivered Africa from one of her most detestable tyrants."[3]
Moloney wrote up his account on his return to London in 1892.[4] King Leopold was engaged in a campaign to legitimise his Congo Free State. A justification of the killing of Msiri was required, and European written accounts of Msiri’s death emphasised self-defence as the motive, claiming Msiri was a bloodthirsty tyrant.[5] Leopold was successful and the 1894-5 Berlin Conference recognised his ownership of the Congo, which then suffered through one of most notorious periods of colonial exploitation in African history.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ David Gordon: “Decentralized Despots or Contingent Chiefs: Comparing Colonial Chiefs in Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo.” KwaZulu-Natal History and African Studies Seminar, University of Natal, Durban, 2000. (Note that many 'This Day in History' websites give the date as 17th December 1891, and list for that date "Belgian Captain Omer Bodson died in battle [sic]").
- ^ Dr. J. Keir Howard: "Arnot, Frederick Stanley", in Dictionary of African Christian Biography, website accessed 9 February 2007.
- ^ Eigen's Political & Historical Quotations: Omer Bodson, dying words to Military Doctor Moloney, 1892. (The website describes Bodson as a ‘British officer’). Accessed 10 February 2007.
- ^ Joseph A. Moloney: "The Stairs Expedition to Katangaland", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Sep., 1893)
- ^ E. G. Ravenstein: "Recent Explorations in the South-Eastern Congo Basin", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Mar., 1893)
- ^ Adam Hochschild: "King Leopold's Ghost". Pan Macmillan, London, 1999.
