King Leopold’s Soliloquy

Description

Mark Twain is well known for his humorous writings. There is a cloak of silence surrounding his political works. This “forgotten” work, written in support of the Congo people, is not to be found in the standard collected works. It is a biting satire fired with the hate of injustice, a historic exposé of imperialism. It roused the world to the horrors of the brutal crimes of colonisation in the Congo in the early 20th century. Mark Twain took seriously the writer’s duty to be the conscience of his time. He travelled widely, “I am an anti-imperialist,” he told the press, in 1900. “I am opposed to having the eagle put his talons on any other land.”