Victorian Wales was both enchanted and enraged by William Hughes’ controversial scheme for the importation of black boys and girls from ‘Darkest Africa’ to Congo House in Colwyn Bay. Following practical training and education Hughes claimed almost a hundred of his students returned to Africa to labour for the enlightenment of that ‘Dark Continent’. Yet despite Hughes’ ambitious aims and extravagant claims there was talk that all was not well at Congo House; scurrilous rumours of sex, money and race circulated and were seized upon by a national press relishing revelations of a SCANDAL AT CONGO HOUSE!
Details reproduced by kind permission of Gwasg Carreg Gwalch.
This book is available for loan from Colwyn Bay Library.
Christopher Draper and John Lawson-Reay: Scandal at Congo House: William Hughes and the African Institute, Colwyn Bay: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch: November 2012: 9781845274009.
