Clément Brasseur was the officer responsible for initiating the colonial occupation of Katanga in the 1890s. Available in English for the first time, these letters reveal the racist and gendered world inhabited by Brasseur and show that the early colonial experience was as violent in Katanga as in other areas.

Reader in African History, University of Kent; Research Fellow, International Studies Group, University of the Free State. Giacomo Macola is a specialist in central African political history. His latest books are Liberal Nationalism in Central Africa: A Biography of Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula (2010), and The Gun in Central Africa: A History of Technology and Politics (2016). His articles have appeared in several specialist journals, including the Journal of African History, the International Journal of African Historical Studies and History in Africa. He is currently working on a history of warlordism in the Congo Basin for a new book series of which he is co-editor: 'War and Militarism in African History'.

• Introduction: Brasseur's Papers and the African Roots of the Congo Free State


• The Collection


• Editorial Matters


• Historical Background


• The Importance of Brasseur's Correspondence


• Part I: Settling In (September 1893 - April 1895)


• Letter 1


• Letter 2


• Letter 3


• Part II: Journeys To the South-West and To Lake Mweru (May - October 1895)


• Letter 4


• Part III: Life at Lofoi I (October 1895 - May 1896)


• Letter 5


• Letter 6


• Letter 7


• Part IV: Journey to the Upemba Depression (June - November 1896)


• Letter 8


• Letter 9


• Part V: Life at Lofoi II (November 1896 - April 1897)


• Letter 10


• Letter 11


• Letter 12


• Letter 13


• Part IV: Journeys to the Lubule and the Upper Lualaba and Luapula Rivers (April - September 1897)


• Letter 14


• Letter 15


• Part VII: Last Act (September - November 1897)


• Letter 16


• Letter 17


• Maps: Katanga in the 1890s


• Glossary


• Onomasticon


• References


• Appendix 1: 'Station du Lofoï (Katanga)', September 1894


• Appendix 2: The new Lofoi station, 1895


• Index