E.D. Morel

(1873 - 1924)

While working as a clerk at a British shipping firm, E.D. Morel noticed that ships arriving from the Congo with rubber and ivory were departing again with virtually no commercial goods, leading him to suspect the use of slave labor. He began writing a series of articles campaigning against the atrocities wreaked on the Congolese by Leopold II of Belgium, launching a paper, the West African Mail, in 1903. Photographs of mutilated women and children appeared in the paper, prompting international condemnation. In 1908 Leopold was forced to relinquish control of the Congo to the Belgian government.