Omer Bodson - Stairs Expedition and The Killing of Msiri

Stairs Expedition and The Killing of Msiri

Bodson was appointed as second-in-command of the Congo Free State's Stairs Expedition sent by to take possession of Katanga, now a province in DR Congo. The leader of the expedition, Canadian mercenary Captain William Stairs, sent Bodson to arrest Msiri after negotiations broke down for Msiri's acceptance of Leopold's sovereignty, but Msiri and his men stood their ground and cocked their guns. Msiri drew a sword (a gift from Stairs), so Bodson shot him dead and was in turn mortally wounded by one of Msiri's men, his "favourite slave".

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