The Black Diaries in Casement's writings, life, and death

Roger Casement (1864–1916) had an incredible life. In August of 2016, Ireland and the world remembered the centenary of his execution by the British government. This eventful and adventurous life was also profoundly enigmatic, and various aspects of the identity of this restless traveler, revolutionary, diplomat, and human rights activist remain to this day partly in the shadows.

Roger Casement, who was Irish, worked for the British Foreign Office between 1892 and 1913. He began traveling to Africa in 1883, initially working with capitalist companies closely linked to King Leopold II of Belgium. In 1903 he was sent to the Congo Free State to investigate the allegations of human abuses committed by the rubber industry in that country, which was then ruled as private property by Leopold II. In Africa, Casement met Joseph Conrad, whose Heart of Darkness (1899) can be seen as the result of a similar African experience to that endured by Casement. Following the revelations of his Congo Report, published in 1904, in 1910 he was sent to the Amazon to investigate similar allegations in the Putumayo region (Casement was sent to Brazil as consul in 1906, and in 1908 he was promoted to consul-General at Rio de Janeiro). He was knighted in 1911, and his Putumayo Report (known as the Blue Book) was published in 1912. Owing to the global impact of this report, Casement was considered worldwide to be a champion of human rights and, specifically, of the anti-slavery movement. After he resigned from the Consular Service in 1913, he became involved in the movement for the independence of Ireland. During the First World War he tried to establish an alliance between Germany and Ireland that would guarantee the latter's independence. He planned and participated in the Easter Rising of 1916, an armed rebellion against the British government in Ireland. After this failed he was taken prisoner by the British authorities and accused of high treason. He was condemned to death, but an international movement of influential intellectuals, politicians, and activists supported him, seeking a reprieve. It was at this precise moment that the so-called Black Diaries began to circulate among those who were seeking the sentence commutation. The description of explicit homosexual activities contained in them caused many of Casement's supporters to hesitate and others to withdraw their support for him altogether.