Congo Reform Association
The
Congo Reform Association (
CRA) was a political and
humanitarian activist group that sought to promote reform of the
Congo Free State, a private territory in
Central Africa under the
absolute sovereignty of
King Leopold II. Active from 1904 to 1913, the association formed in opposition to the institutionalised practices of Congo Free State's 'rubber policy', which encouraged the need to minimise expenditure and maximise profit with no political constraints – fostering a system of
coercion and terror unparalleled in contemporary
colonial Africa. The group carried out a global publicity campaign across the
Western world, using a range of strategies including displays of atrocity photographs; public seminars; mass rallies; celebrity endorsements; and extensive press coverage to lobby the
Great Powers into pressuring reform in the Congo. The association partially achieved its aims in 1908 with the Belgian government's annexation of the Congo Free State and continued to promote reform until disbanding in 1913.
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