The Casement Report

At the turn of the 20th century, the anti-slavery and pro-abolition movements in England was well underway. One of its luminaries was Roger Casement who reported and sensationalized the British public with his transparent reporting on the human abuses in the Free Congo, by King Leopold II's government, and on indigenous Peruvians, by the Anglo-Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company. Emerging as a human rights campaigner and critic of imperial commercialism, Casement's investigative journalism is considered a pioneer of anticolonial writing from the Western hemisphere during the modern century. Published originally by the House of Commons and embraced by the British public, it was later revealed that the British Empire used Casement to glorify itself as more sympathetic and sensible against its 'brute' European imperial competitors. His compiled report on abuses in the Congo are reproduced from the original in this edition, which sheds light on Casement's important role in building anticolonial solidarity movements as a worldwide effort rather than being an East vs West division.