Roger Casement combined striking personal charm and moral conviction with investigative work exposing severe abuses in the Congo. He joined the African International Association at age twenty, an organization created by Leopold II that claimed to "civilize the Congo" while exploiting its people and resources. Rubber extraction made the territory highly profitable and was enforced through a reign of terror including deprivation, starvation, murder, and mutilation for missed quotas. Millions died. Casement attracted allies who supported efforts to abolish systematic inhumanity, and friends praised his nobility, honesty, and dedication to justice.
Imagine a tall, handsome man, of fine bearing; thin, mere muscle and bone, a sun-tanned face, blue eyes, and black curly hair. A pure Irishman he is, with a captivating voice and singular charm of manner. A man of distinction and great refinement, high-minded and courteous, impulsive and poetical. Quixotic, perhaps some would say, and with a certain truth, for few men have shown themselves so regardless of personal advancement.
In 1884, barely 20 years old, Casement became an employee of the African International Association, founded by Leopold II of Belgium to explore and "to civilize the Congo," which was neither unexplored nor uncivilized. The organization's stated goal "to free its inhabitants from slavery, paganism, and other barbarities" was simply a hypocritical fig leaf used to hide a naked economic truth: the land and its people were being ruthlessly exploited for the enrichment of a king who claimed he personally owned both.
It was rubber that made the Congo the most profitable colony in Africa. To gather and transport it, Leopold condoned a reign of terror that controlled and abused its people through deprivation, starvation, and murder; many workers who failed to meet their assigned quotas were punished by having a hand or arm chopped off. Millions died. Dear Daisy may have looked sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for
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