Alice Seeley Harris | |
|---|---|
.png) on visit to the Belgian Congo. | |
| Born | Alice Seeley (1870-05-24)24 May 1870 |
| Died | 24 November 1970(1970-11-24) (aged 100) Guildford, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupations | Missionary, photographer, activist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Alfred, Margaret, Katharine, Noel |
| Parent(s) | Alfred and Caroline Seeley |
Alice, Lady Harris (néeSeeley; 24 May 1870 – 24 November 1970)[1][2] was an Englishmissionary and an earlydocumentary photographer. Her photography helped to expose thehuman rights abuses in theCongo Free State under the regime ofKing Leopold II of the Belgians.
Alice Seeley was born inMalmesbury to Aldred and Caroline Seeley.[3] Her sister, Caroline Alfreda Seeley, was a school teacher.
In 1894, she was training for the Civil Service in London and attending missionary classes where she met her future husbandJohn Harris.[3] Finally in 1897, after seven years of trying, Alice was accepted to go out to theCongo Free State. Shortly afterwards, Alice and John got married on 6 May 1898 at aregistry office in London.
They had four children,[4] Alfred John, Margaret Theodora, Katherine Emmerline (known as “Bay”) and Noel Lawrence.
Alice spent many years inFrome in Somerset and died at the age of 100 in 1970 at Lockner Holt in Guildford, Surrey.
In 1889, aged 19, Alice entered theCivil Service and was later appointed to the Accountant General's office inGeneral Post Office, London. Alice gave her spare time toFrederick Brotherton Meyer's mission work at Regent's Park Chapel and laterChrist Church, Lambeth.
Alice left the Civil Service to enter Doric Lodge, the training college of theRegions Beyond Missionary Union. Four days later, as herhoneymoon, Alice sailed with John on theSSCameroon to theCongo Free State as missionaries with theCongo-Balolo Mission.[3] They arrived in the Congo three months later, on 4 August 1898, and then travelled to the Mission Station Ikau nearBasankusu. She was appalled and saddened at what she witnessed there and began campaigning for the human rights of the Congolese natives to be recognised.[5]
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Alice was stationed with her husband John from 1898 to 1901 at the Mission Station at Ikau, near theLulonga River, which is a tributary of the River Congo in theBalolo Tribal region. Later, from 1901 to 1905, they were stationed at the Mission Station atBaringa, a village inTshuapa District,Befale Territory, in what is now theDemocratic Republic of the Congo. It stands on the banks of theMaringa River, approximately 100 km upriver from Basankusu.
During her time in the Congo, Alice taught literacy and Bible stories to the local children, but her most important contribution was to photograph the injuries that were sustained by the Congolese locals at the hands of the agents and soldiers ofKing Leopold II of Belgium.[6][7] Leopold was partly exploiting the local population so fiercely to profit from increasedrubber demand after the invention of the pneumatic or inflatabletyre byJohn Boyd Dunlop inBelfast in 1887. Methods of coercion includedwhipping,hostage-taking,rape, murder and burning of villages.[7]
The most famous and shocking atrocity, whose aftermath Harris captured in her photography, was thesevering of hands. In 1904, two men arrived at their mission from a village attacked by 'sentries' of theAbir Congo Company (ABIR) after failing to provide sufficient rubber. One of the men, Nsala, was holding a small bundle of leaves which when opened revealed the severed hand and foot of a child.[7] Sentries had killed and mutilated Nsala's wife and daughter. Appalled, Alice persuaded Nsala to pose with his child's remains on the veranda of her home for a picture.[6]
Initially, Alice's photographs were used inRegions Beyond, the magazine of the Congo Balolo Mission. In 1902, the Harrises returned to Britain temporarily.[3] In 1904, Alice's photographs reached wider distribution includingCongo Slavery, a pamphlet prepared by Mrs. H. Grattan-Guinness, wife of the editor ofRegions Beyond, and inKing Leopold's rule in Africa[8] byE. D. Morel. The same year saw the founding of theCongo Reform Association by Morel.
In 1906, Alice and John Harris began working for Morel's Congo Reform Association. In early 1906, they toured the United States. John wrote that they had presented her images at 200 meetings in 49 cities viamagic lantern screenings. In December 1906, the daily paperNew York American used Harris's photographs to illustrate articles on atrocities in the Congo for an entire week.
In 1908, the couple became joint organizing secretaries of the Congo Reform Association and, in April 1910, they became joint organizing secretaries of theAnti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society. She soon relinquished her official position, but assisted John at the Society until his death in 1940. She continued her active speaking career and was listed with Christy's Lecture Service alongsideWinston Churchill andErnest Shackleton.
In November 1908, Leopold II ceded administration of the Congo Free State to the Belgian government, thus creating theBelgian Congo.[6][7] The Harrises returned to the Congo from 1911 to 1912, following the handover of the Congo to Belgium. They noted improved conditions in the treatment of natives and later produced a book,Present Conditions in the Congo, illustrated with Alice's photographs. Soon thereafter, hundreds of Alice's African documentary photographs were displayed at an exhibition at theColonial Institution.
In 1933, she became Lady Harris when her husband was knighted, but was known for saying, "don't call me Lady!"[2][9]
In 1970, she reached 100 years old and was interviewed byBBC Radio 4 on a programme calledWomen of Our Time.[10]
She was the firstcentenarian to be a member of the Frome Society for Local Study, which has placed a plaque near where she lived in Frome.[3]
She would have been only 27 when she went out there, I believe she was also pregnant
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