From racist humanitarianism to colonial human rights: The British Congo Reform Movement and the complicated history of (anti-)racism

Between 1903 and 1913, more than 400,000 people gathered in public demonstrations across Britain to protest against atrocities in the Congo Free State, ruled by the Belgian King Leopold II since 1885. They supported a campaign led by humanitarians, free traders and evangelicals calling for reforms of the notorious Free State system. The Congo Reform Movement is now widely regarded as the first great human rights campaign of the twentieth century. However, humanitarian empathy and outrage only partly explain its scale. As this chapter argues, the public was unsettled by a perceived corrosion of colonial hegemony and contemporary cultural, national and racial identities. Additionally, critics protested that their rights, privileges and benefits as white imperial subjects were being adversely affected by Léopold's Congo policy. Their prospect of a humane, practical and stable colonial reform policy was a project of self-redemption to resolve this crisis of racist discourse, racist policy and racist societalisation. Drawing on primary sources such as pamphlets, monographs and newspaper articles, the chapter uses this historical example to expose the racist and colonial origins of the international human rights movement and to explore the history of racism and its critique. It concludes that racism is a complex social relationship that can affect all political and social milieus, including those who oppose certain forms of racial discrimination and violence. In order to learn from the past for the anti-racist struggles of today, this social scope, political range and ideological versatility of racism must be acknowledged and researched.