Omer Bodson

Omer Bodson (5 January 1856 – 20 December 1891) was the Belgian officer who shot and killed Msiri, King of Garanganze (Katanga) on 20 December 1891 at Bunkeya in what is now DR Congo. Bodson was then killed by one of Msiri's men.

Omer Bodson was born in Liege. He served in the Belgian military and then joined the military service of King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State in 1887, and was stationed at Mateba then Stanley Falls where he assisted the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He court-martialled the African soldier who shot Major Barttelot, leader of the Rear Column of that expedition.

Bodson returned to Belgium in 1889 as a captain of the Belgian Carbineers and took part in the suppression of riots in Liège, receiving the personal thanks of King Leopold.

Bodson was appointed as second-in-command of the Congo Free State's Stairs Expedition sent 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".

The last words of Omer Bodson have been reported to be:

I don't mind dying now that I've killed Msiri. Thank God my death will not be in vain. I've delivered Africa from one of her most detestable tyrants.

The Stairs Expedition’s doctor, Joseph Moloney, wrote that Bodson's last words to him were the first sentence, and the second two were delivered to Captain Stairs.

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