Leon Rom

Who was Leon Rom?

Leon Rom was a Belgian soldier who became the district commissioner of Matadi in the Congo Free State, and later head of the Force Publique army.

In King Leopold's Ghost, author Adam Hochschild speculates that Rom was the inspiration for the character of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. Rom was known to keep severed heads of Africans in his flower bed, and kept a gallows permanently in place at his station. Under his leadership, agents were known to kill African subjects for minor offenses.