The Tragedy of the Congo-Océan Railroad

The Congo-Océan railroad stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. It was completed in 1934, when Equatorial Africa was a French colony, and it stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. Colonial workers were subjects of an ostensibly democratic nation whose motto read 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity', but liberal ideals were savaged by a cruelly indifferent administrative state. African workers were conscripted at gunpoint, separated from their families and subjected to hellish conditions as they hacked their way through dense tropical foliage; excavated by hand thousand of tonnes of earth in order to lay down track; blasted their way through rock to construct tunnels; or risked their lives building bridges over otherwise impassable rivers. In the process, they suffered disease, malnutrition and rampant physical abuse, likely resulting in at least 20,000 deaths. The Tragedy of the Congo-Océan Railroad captures in vivid detail the experiences of the men, women and children who toiled on the railroad, and forces a reassessment of the moral relationship between modern industrialised empires and what could be called global humanitarian impulses – the desire to improve the lives of people outside of Europe. Drawing on exhaustive research in French and Congolese archives, a chilling documentary record and eye-opening photographic evidence, J. P. Daughton tells the epic story of the Congo-Océan railroad, and in doing so reveals the human costs and contradictions of modern empire. AUTHOR: J. P. Daughton is an award-winning historian of modern Europe and European colonialism and has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. He has provided media commentary for the Atlantic, Newsweek, Time and CNN. He lives in San Francisco. 20 b/w illustrations

About the Author :
J. P. DAUGHTON is an award-winning historian of modern Europe and European colonialism and has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. He has provided media commentary for the Atlantic, Newsweek, Time and CNN. He lives in San Francisco.

Review :
‘If such a shockingly large number of people had been worked to death building a railroad in Europe or the United States, it would be as notorious as the worst deeds of Hitler or Stalin. J. P. Daughton puts this little-known tragedy on the record in a searing, unforgettable and necessary way.’ ‘Masterful ... What makes it so compelling is the divide it exposes between the intentions of colonial bureaucrats, some of whom genuinely seemed to think they were lifting Africans out of poverty, and the grim reality that they enabled. The application of “modern” government to conquered people could be almost as savage as plunder, Mr Daughton shows.’ ‘Meticulously researched, vividly narrated and devastatingly compelling, The Tragedy of the Congo-Océan Railroad provides a significant contribution to the mounting evidence that lays bare the self-deceiving lie at the heart of empire, that of the “civilising mission”. J. P. Daughton details the horrific abuse carried out by the colonial regime upon the African population during the construction of the Congo-Océan railroad, from forced labour to torture and murder, and finds evidence not just of African suffering but also African resistance.’ ‘Daughton tells this awful tale with great authority … As he so convincingly demonstrates, [the Congo-Océan’s] construction was a story of dreadful suffering that dragged on for many years and costs tens of thousands of African lives.’ ‘In this tour de force of historical research, J. P. Daughton tells the horrifying story of the Congo-Océan railroad, a massive, ill-conceived construction project whose French overseers doomed some 20,000 African workers to die. This story, revealing as it does France’s imperial hubris and callous disregard of human suffering, should have been told a long time ago. But it has been buried by bureaucrats, overlooked by historians and made invisible to those who chose not to see. We owe Daughton a great debt for bringing it to light and for masterfully adding a new chapter to the tragic history of Central Africa under European colonial rule.’ ‘Sailing with J. P. Daughton into the French empire’s heart of darkness is a visceral, haunting and memorable experience. The Tragedy of the Congo-Océan Railroad will stand alongside Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost as a chilling testament to the crimes of European “civilisation”.’