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Title: The Congo
a report of the Commission of enquiry appointed by the Congo Free State government
Author: Commission to Investigate the State Territories
Release date: October 22, 2026 [eBook #79841]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1906
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79841
Credits: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONGO ***
The Congo
THE CONGO
A REPORT OF
THE COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY
APPOINTED BY
THE CONGO FREE STATE GOVERNMENT
_A TRANSLATION_
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1906
COPYRIGHT, 1906
BY
JAMES H. GORE
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 1
I—THE LAND RÉGIME AND THE FREEDOM OF TRADE 17
II—TAXATION 26
III—MILITARY EXPEDITIONS 87
IV—THE CONCESSIONS 104
V—DEPOPULATION 115
VI—THE ABANDONED INFANTS 120
VII—RECRUITING OF SOLDIERS AND WORKMEN 130
VIII—JUSTICE 146
INSTITUTION OF A COMMITTEE 169
SIRE,
We have the honour to lay before Your Majesty the Report which the
Commission appointed to investigate the State territories, submitted to
the Government on the 30th of October, 1905.
This Report is also referred to the Governor General for examination.
We have, in addition, the honour to suggest that Your Majesty name a
Commission to study the various suggestions made by the Commission of
Enquiry. If Your Majesty accepts our proposition, we beg that you will
affix your signature to the accompanying Decree naming the members of
the Commission.
We are, with the most profound respect,
Sire,
Your Majesty’s
Most humble, obedient and faithful
Servants and Subjects
CHEVALIER DE CUVELIER,
H. DROOGMANS,
LIEBRECHTS.
BRUSSELS, October the 31st, 1905.
REPORT OF THE ENQUIRY COMMISSION
INTRODUCTORY
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
OF THE CONGO FREE STATE.
_Mr. Secretary of State_:
In obedience to the instructions contained in Article 5 of the Decree
of July 23, 1904, we have the honour to submit to you a Report upon the
results of the enquiry that we conducted in the Congo.
We had for our mission to “See if, in certain parts of the territory,
the natives were subjected to ill treatment either by private
individuals or by State Agents, to point out practical means of
betterment and to formulate, in case the enquiry reveals such abuses,
suggestions as to the best means of putting an end to the same, having
in view the welfare of the inhabitants and the good government of the
territories.”
To aid in accomplishing this, the powers bestowed upon the State
Attorney were conferred upon us. In accordance with the first Article
of the Decree referred to above, we were to conduct this enquiry in
conformity with the instructions of the Secretary of State. In your
dispatch of Sept. 5, 1904, you informed us that “The Government had
no other instructions to give the Commission than to devote all its
efforts to the complete and entire discovery of the truth. It intends
to leave the Commission, with this in view, its complete liberty, its
individuality, and its initiative. The Government will depart from this
principle of non-intervention in one respect only, that is, to give to
its officials and agents of all rank formal and explicit orders to give
to the Commission assistance and co-operation without reserve in order
to help it in the accomplishment of its task.” You added: “The Decree
of July 23, 1904, in conferring upon the members of the Commission the
powers attributed by law to the State Attorney, gave to it without
limit the authority to receive testimony of all sorts; the Government
ascribes to the Commission no limit at all, neither as to the fields of
its investigation, nor as to the duration of its appointment, and the
legislative provisions have been made to ensure sincerity and security
to all witnesses who may appear before the Commission.”
You made allusion to the Decree of July 15, 1904, which allowed the
State Attorney to compel unwilling witnesses to appear before the
Commission and made applicable the penalties prescribed by Articles 50
and 51 of the Code to any case where the witnesses might be persecuted
because of their testimony.
The Commission left Antwerp the 15th day of September, 1904, and
arrived at Boma on October 5th, 1904.
On the following morning the Governor General addressed to all the
chiefs of service, territorial governors, commandants and other
officials as well as State Agents a copy of your dispatch of September
5th, adding a circular from which we make the following extracts:
“Obedient to the assurances which have been given to this Commission,
I command our officials and agents, to whatever service they may
belong and whatever may be their rank, to give to the Commission
without reserve all possible assistance, not only in regard to
material things, but also to afford it their most efficient
co-operation in everything connected with the task which has been
confided to it.
“The Government, in its great desire to see the Commission test the
accuracy of the charges which have been made in regard to acts of
ill-treatment to which the natives have been subjected, has given to
the Commission the widest authority for investigation and research.
Not only will all the officials and all the State Agents whom the
Commission may judge necessary to hear be expected to appear and
testify before it, but they must respond to all requisitions which it
may make in the matter of the submission of all administrative and
judicial documents concerning the object of its mission and which it
may think useful for its information. They have the authority which
the law grants, in general, to the State Attorney: right of visiting,
of search, of seizure, of demands for interpreters, translators,
physicians and experts, of calls upon the constabulatory, of arrest
and detention, without being molested or hindered, and all of our
officials and agents shall accord to it the most energetic and
efficient assistance.”
Again, the Prosecuting Attorney, upon the request of the Governor
General, addressed to his deputies a circular in which he gave them
instructions to see to it that all acts of subornation or attempts at
suborning of witnesses be immediately suppressed, also that no damage
be permitted to their person or their property.
We hasten to say that these instructions were literally followed.
During our entire stay in the Congo, we received at the hands of all
officials and State Agents, as well as from commercial agents and
missionaries of all creeds, the fullest co-operation. All the documents
which the Commission deemed necessary to consult in order to arrive
at the discovery of truth, such as reports of a political character,
administrative or judicial reports, copies of letters, and private
correspondence, were upon our request immediately furnished and in many
instances volunteered without it being necessary in a single instance
to resort to the use of the authority conferred upon us.
The Commission remained in Boma from the 5th until the 23rd of
October. While there it heard many witnesses, judges, officials,
missionaries, residing in Boma or during their passage through that
locality.
It made many demands upon the local government for information; it
addressed to all the deputies of the Prosecuting Attorney a series of
questions in regard to such ill treatment of the natives as had come
to their knowledge, and the results of such persecutions, the tax in
kind, the amount of enforced labour demanded of each native and the
means employed for enforcing the demand, the application of the decree
of November the 18th, 1903, in regard to levies, the remuneration paid
to the natives, military expeditions, the system of forest guards,
the obedience to the law in the matter of firearms, the employment
of soldiers and labourers. We also asked, in a general way, that the
deputies point out to us any facts that could be of service to us in
the accomplishment of our mission.
We visited the school colony, the prison, the hospital for the blacks,
the soldier camps and the village of workmen.
The Commission went at once to Matadi where sessions were held on
October 24th; on the 26th it visited the mission of Kisantu and
from the afternoon of the 26th to October the 31st it remained in
Leopoldville where it sat daily.
On the first of November the members embarked, and ascending the river,
stopped at Tshumbiri, at Nopolenge-Bolobo, where they remained from
the 7th to the 12th of November to hear the natives who had come from
Lake Leopold II, at Lukolela Mission, Lukolela plantation, and at
Irebu. The Commission then visited Bikoro, sitting November 20th, and
Ikoko where it remained in session on the 18th, 19th, 21st and 22nd of
November.
After that the Commission went to Coquilhatville, remaining six
days, from the 25th to the 30th of November. During the sojourn at
Coquilhatville, the members visited the missions of Bamania and of
Bolengi. On December 1st, it left for Lulonga and Abir, sailed up
the Lulonga river and its tributaries the Lopori and the Mirangi. In
this vicinity sessions were held at Lulonga, Baringa, Bongandanga,
Basankusu, Ikau, Bonginda, and Mampoko.
Likewise an investigation was made in the village of Wala near Lulonga
and in the towns of Boieka and Bokotola in the Bonginda region. Upon
leaving Lulonga, January the 5th, the Commission visited in succession
Monsembe, New Antwerp, Upoto, Lisala, Basaka, La Romée, Yakusu and
Stanleyville.
Leaving the last named place on January 26th, Boma was reached on
February 13th where various matters occupied the attention of the
Commission up to the 21st of February, the date of departure for Europe.
The Commission received while in Congo the statements of judges,
officials, directors and agents of companies, of missionaries, both
Protestant and Catholic, and especially of natives.
In general, it held two sessions a day, in the morning from eight
o’clock until noon, and in the afternoon from three o’clock until seven
o’clock. In this way during the course of its stay it was able to hear
and record the testimony of several hundred witnesses. It heard all who
presented themselves to make complaints or to furnish information; it
likewise summoned all people who were thought able to furnish light.
In all the posts and in all the villages where the necessities of the
journey, the need of food or wood compelled them to stop, the salaried
workmen, and the natives of the villages were questioned and a record
was made of all statements of interest.
Whenever it was possible, the adjoining villages were visited, where
audiences were held and at each of these visits, made without escort,
the population were permitted to freely speak to the members of the
Commission, who were always accompanied by their interpreters.
The Commission visited the hospitals, the prisons, the schools,
colonies, the missions and their schools, the dormitories, plantations,
etc.
The Commission desires to state that from the 1st of November, the
date of its departure for the Upper Congo, all of the sessions were
public. This decision was reached after having carefully balanced
the advantages and inconveniences of public sittings. If, on the one
hand, this publicity could have the effect of hindering, in certain
cases, the investigation or the revealment of truth, on the other hand
there is no doubt but that it gave credence to the statements of the
Commission.
The testimony of the natives was translated by black interpreters
who knew, in addition to their own dialect, the principal commercial
language of the country.[1] During our long enquiry in the Equatorial
district we had the good fortune, somewhat rare it seems, to have at
our disposal a young black who spoke French and the peculiar language
of the country, the Mongo. The accuracy of the translation made by
these interpreters could be controlled by the missionaries and the
agents of the companies or of the State who happened to be present.
The statements of the Protestant missionaries, with three exceptions,
were made in English. They were dictated by the President, after the
translation made of them by the Secretary. This made it possible for
each witness to read in written form his own testimony. In addition,
the minutes were given, as far as possible, to those immediately
interested to make sure that their thoughts were accurately stated.
In every instance the witness before signing his testimony saw the
corrections made which he desired should be introduced. Whenever it was
deemed desirable the testimony given in French was translated into
English to enable those present to make such observations as they might
desire.
The visitors were invited to address to the President of the Commission
such questions as they wished asked, or to make of their own accord any
remarks regarding the subject under investigation.
Only in exceptional cases, when the questions or observations seemed
irrelevant, were they omitted from the record. The enquiry, therefore
offers every possible guarantee since it was not only public but, as
far as possible, permitted cross-examination.
Although we had as our mission the investigation of the ill-treatment
by the agents of which the natives might complain, and to verify the
evils, still we did not think we would be prohibited from pointing
out, in passing, the good which attracted our attention. Let us say
at once, while on the voyage to the Congo, the comparison between the
former conditions, known by the reports of explorers, and the present
conditions created an impression of surprise and admiration.
In these regions which twenty years ago were still plunged in the most
frightful barbarism and which had been crossed by only a few whites
at the cost of superhuman efforts, met at every moment by the arrows
of hostile people; in these districts where the tribes decimated by
the raids of Arabian slave dealers fought each other without cessation
and without mercy, where one encountered at every step the markets of
human flesh where the buyers designated on the body of the victim the
part which they coveted; where the funerals of the village chiefs were
celebrated by the hecatomb of slaves whom they strangled and the wives
and women who were buried alive—in this dark and mysterious continent
the State has been constituted and organised with marvellous rapidity,
introducing into the heart of Africa the benefits of civilisation.
Today security reigns in this territory. Most everywhere the white who
has not intimated hostile intentions can journey without escort and
without arms. The slave trade has disappeared, cannibalism has been
practically suppressed, pushed back, or is in hiding and sacrifices of
human beings are rare. The villages, which call to mind our attractive
sea-side towns, are numerous along the banks of the great river,
and the two terminals of the Lower Congo Railway, Matadi, where the
ocean steamers arrive, and Leopoldville, the great river-port with
its activity and its warehouses, remind one of the industrial cities
of Europe. The rural lines of Mayumbe, the railway of the Cataracts
built in the most hilly regions, that of the Great Lakes, carried to
the heart of the equatorial belt, the 24 steamers which float upon
the Congo and its tributaries, the regular service of the postal
communication, the telegraph lines that amount to 1200 kilometres, the
hospitals established in the principal places, all of these things
born of yesterday, give travellers the impression that they are in a
country which has long enjoyed the blessings of European civilisation,
and not in one which but a quarter of a century ago was totally unknown
and savage. It makes one wonder what magic power or firm will, aided by
heroic efforts, was able to so change a country in such a short time.
This impression became still more marked when one saw the operations
of the government of the young State. With a limited number of
officials, the State has solved the difficult problem of occupying
and administering in an effective manner its vast territory. Thanks
to the judicious distribution of its posts, it has been able to come
into contact with practically the entire native population, and rare
indeed are the villages which fail to recognise today the authority of
“Boula Matari.” With all of these posts, distant as well as near, the
Government at Boma is in constant and regular communication. It is the
centre to which information comes from all parts of the country and
from which they emanate. The periodic reports thus received enable it
to profit at once from the experience of its two thousand agents. On
its part, it lets its directing force be felt. Through the instructions
which it continually sends out to territorial governors, it, profiting
by the ensemble of ideas received, announces a programme to be followed
by all officials of all ranks. This unity of direction one sees
everywhere. The central machinery of Congolese organisation moves with
rapidity and precision, without cessation and without shock.
The administration of justice is deserving of praise. Its finest title
to glory is the popularity which the magistracy enjoys amongst the
coloured people.
Neither should one forget the considerable work accomplished at the
same time by the missionaries of all creeds. With their comfortable
quarters, their chapels, schools, cultivated fields, and shops they
have made in many localities an important step towards civilisation.
But this striking impression did not cause the Commission to lose sight
of the special purpose of its mission.
As we have said, it received all complaints, it even invited them and
most carefully investigated all the evils of which the natives could
suffer. Witnesses were not lacking. The rumour of the arrival of the
Commission was spread amongst the blacks with surprising rapidity.
They had complete confidence in the “Great Judges come from Europe” to
hear their troubles. Entire villages came to us to make known their
complaints or their hopes and some witnesses made long journeys to
appear before us.
We saw, it is true, only a part of the immense territory of the State.
But one must not imagine that our field of enquiry was limited to the
regions through which we passed. The information received by the
Commission regarding the districts not visited was sufficient to enable
it to form a definite opinion as to conditions in all parts of the
State, even if it could not investigate all the details. For, however
widely extended might be the sources of testimony, it could not, in the
estimation of the Commission, be either the most important or the most
reliable sort of information. In fact, the legal briefs of cases, the
political reports, official correspondence, reports of judges, copies
of letters of the commercial companies and administrative reports
furnished the Commission material of greater value in reaching a
conclusion than the testimony of many witnesses.
One entire class of witnesses, the blacks, in spite of our efforts to
convince them to the contrary, was positive that the suppression of
certain taxes, especially the rubber tax, rested upon the results of
our enquiry and, consequently, upon their testimony. We should add that
the black of the Congo has not the same notion of truth that we have—we
do not mean to say that he is a liar, that would be a gratuitous insult
to him. Truth in the eyes of a native is not what is or has been, but
what ought to be, what he wishes, what he thinks one wishes or what is
expected of him. More than that, he has only a very vague notion of
time and is totally incapable of localising the events of the past.
He has no exact conception of number and commits the most astonishing
errors each time that one asks of him a precise figure. After a
certain time, in the best of faith, he confounds the deeds of which
he was a witness with those of which he has heard others speak. Great
caution and unceasing patience are necessary in extracting from his
testimony the exact truth.
We cannot think of transcribing in this report the hundreds of
depositions that we have collected, or even make an abstract of them.
Without speaking of the development which our work would assume,
considerations of the greatest importance prevented the adoption of
that mode of procedure. In fact the most painstaking investigation did
not enable the Commission to throw light upon some facts to which our
attention was called. Many of these were of ancient origin so that it
was impossible to verify them. In other cases the persons said to be
responsible were dead or had left the country for Europe.
The publicity which might some day be given to our Report might be
the cause of an irreparable prejudice in the case of some persons
specifically accused, for they could not present themselves to explain
the charges or defend themselves.
Moreover, the commission did not consider that the purpose of its
enquiry was to fix personal responsibility, but it thought it was its
duty to examine the condition of the natives rather than individual
facts, and therefore it restricted its examination to those abuses
which were general in their character. In such instances it
investigated the causes and, when possible, the remedies.
Consequently when, in the course of its enquiry, it discovered facts
which constituted infraction of the law and might lead to judicial
condemnation, it investigated them chiefly for the purpose of forming
a general opinion. Certain facts of this sort which demanded prompt
repression were reported to the local authorities, who with the
assistance thus given will fix the personal responsibility and bring to
trial those who were culpable.
It is easily seen that we could not enter into details that concern the
department of justice which alone is competent to pronounce a final
judgment.
Furthermore the Commission states that in conformity with the decree
that called it into existence, it has limited its enquiry to the
interests of the natives and that it disregarded and will disregard
everything that concerns the Europeans residing in the State.
Under these conditions we think we have followed in the outline of the
results of our investigation the only method that was possible. Without
stopping too long with individual facts, we have grouped the abuses
discovered or pointed out to us under as many headings, attaching in
this way to each effect the cause, real or supposed. We can say that we
have included all of the important elements that our enquiry furnished.
This logical classification of the topics to be discussed will permit
us to study in succession the different criticisms which have been
formulated and, in the case of abuses which we have confirmed, to
indicate the remedy.
The criticisms relate principally to:
1. Legislation in regard to land and the freedom of trade.
2. The system of imposed labour and the abuse which results from the
exercise of compulsion.
3. Military expeditions, holding of hostages, ill treatment,
mutilation, etc.
4. The system of concessions.
5. Depopulation, its causes.
6. Guardianship assumed by the State or by Catholic missions over
abandoned children.
7. The recruiting of soldiers and labourers.
8. The administration of justice.
CHAPTER I
THE LAND RÉGIME AND THE FREEDOM OF TRADE
At the time of the formation of the Free State, with the exception of a
few acres belonging to commercial houses at the mouths of the river or
at Boma, there existed in the Congo no private property in the sense in
which the term is used in European jurisprudence and the present Civil
Code of the State. The many communities, under the authority of their
chiefs, lived upon a vast territory belonging to the State without
having cultivated more than a very small part of the same, but they
made use of, in a certain measure, the surrounding lands.
One of the first cares of the State, a most natural care, was to
fix at least in its essential lines, the question of land tenure.
It validated, with due regard to certain formalities, the rights of
private property acquired by some commercial houses and declared by
statute that the vacant lands belonged to the State, while the land
occupied by the natives should continue to be subject to local customs
and usages.
Article 2 of the Ordinance of July 1, 1885, was in fact: “No one has
the right to occupy without title the vacant lands, nor dispossess
the natives of the land which they occupy; the vacant lands are to be
regarded as belonging to the State.”
And Article 2 of the Decree of September 17, 1886, says: “The lands
occupied by the native population, under the authority of their
chiefs, shall continue to be governed by the local customs and usages.
Contracts made with the natives for the acquisition or leasing of land
will not be recognised by the State nor admitted to record until after
having been approved by the General Administrator of the Congo.”
The Commission does not intend to dispute the legality of the
appropriation of vacant lands by the State. The principle according
to which vacant lands belong to a State is, in fact, admitted by
all codes and, in the region recognised as the Congo basin, it is
observed by other governments than the Free State. But the effect of
the application of the land laws upon the native population depends
altogether on the meaning that should be attached to the words
_occupied lands_, and _vacant lands_, and if the State wishes that
the principle of state appropriation of vacant lands be not abused,
it ought to warn its officials and agents against a too strict
interpretation of the definition as well as an excessively rigorous
application of the principle.
The law of the Free State has never defined what should be understood
as “land occupied by the natives” and the courts of the State have
never had occasion to pass upon this question. In the absence of a
legal definition, it seems to have been generally admitted in the Congo
that one should consider as occupied by the natives only those parts of
the territory that are included within their villages or under their
cultivation.
It has also been asserted that on the lands thus occupied, the natives
must make the same use of the ground that they made of it before the
organisation of the State.
This interpretation rests upon the Decrees of December 5, 1892,
and August 9, 1893, and also upon the discussion of the system of
landholding which appeared in _Bulletin Officiel_ of 1893, page 208.[2]
As the greater part of the land in the Congo has never been under
cultivation, this interpretation gives to the State a proprietary
right absolute and exclusive, to almost all of the lands, and as a
consequence, it can grant to itself all the products of the soil and
prosecute as robbers those who gather the smallest fruit, and as
accomplices those who buy the same. It could prohibit any one from
locating upon any portion of the greater part of the State; restrict
the activities of the natives to a limited space; and hamper their
economic condition. This principle applied abusively would oppose all
evolution in the life of the native.
It thus happens, sometimes, that not only have the natives been
prohibited from moving their villages, but they have been refused
permission to go, even for a time, to a neighboring village without a
special permit. The native, moving to another village without being
provided with the requisite authority, makes himself liable to arrest,
and occasionally is subjected to punishment.
Certain agents have thought they found justification for this
prohibition in the property rights: can not ownership of lands,
whenever it pleases, give the right to forbid a third party to cross
them or settle upon them?
We hasten to add that in reality no one has shown himself so rigid.
Practically everywhere the enjoyment of the public domain has been
given to the natives for the gathering of certain products, notably the
palm nut, one of the most important articles of export in the Lower
Congo.[3]
But this is only a simple sufferance, revocable at any time, so that
the natives, so to speak, are at the mercy of the local authorities or
the companies holding the concessions who can, whenever they wish, by a
strict application of the incontrovertible law, create a crying abuse.
It follows from the statement which precedes that the State could
perform a wise and useful service in developing the system of
landholding by giving to the laws of July 1, 1885, and of September 17,
1886, which insure to the natives the enjoyment of the lands held under
the authority of their chiefs, a broad and liberal interpretation,
conformable, undoubtedly, with the spirit which dictated them.
The Commission takes note of the considerable work made necessary by
the delimitation, throughout the entire country, of the vast tracts
occupied, under this system, by the natives.
While waiting for the completion of this work, the Commission feels
itself able to suggest a provisional solution which will be, in its
opinion, just and practicable.
It would be sufficient to abandon to the natives the enjoyment of the
land surrounding their huts and of their fields and to allow them to
freely dispose of the products of their lands, selling such as could be
marketed.
It is, in a word, the system adopted by the French Government, which
reserves to the natives “besides the villages occupied by them, the
fields, pasture lands or forests, the boundaries of which have been
established by the Governor.”[4]
The Commission does not think that the concessions granted by the State
or the leases made by it which, in any case, could be made only with a
reservation of the rights of the natives, could constitute an obstacle
to a just delimitation of the lands belonging to them, for we only ask,
in a word, for the interpretation and equitable application of the laws
which confirmed to the natives the enjoyment of the lands occupied by
them under the authority of their chiefs, laws which were anterior to
all concessions and all leases.
The provisional solution which we propose will work no appreciable
hardship upon the concessions and, on the other hand, the State
is sufficiently strong to make them accept the rule which it will
establish in its domain, for, as we shall see later, these companies
can exist only under the favours granted by the State, independently of
the rights bestowed in the act of concession itself.
FREEDOM OF TRADE
We will not examine the question of the freedom of trade in its
relation to the Act of Berlin. Such a study would cause us to go beyond
the boundaries which were established for us, and besides it is the
subject of treatise and memorandum, the work of distinguished jurists,
well known to all who are interested in this question.
Before the constitution of the State, the commercial activity of the
natives of the Congo was restricted to the traffic in ivory and in
slaves. These two trades no longer exist. The interdiction of the slave
trade on the one part, the exhaustion of the supply of ivory and the
law against the hunting of the elephant on the other hand, gave them
their mortal blow.
Let us add that there is no native industry capable of supporting a
trade of any importance. One finds in most of the villages forgers,
potters, and basket-makers. But the artisans work only to order
and never make of the products an object of genuine traffic. There
remains the product of the soil. Now we have just seen that the lands
reserved to the natives have not been surveyed; besides the crude
methods of cultivation barely meet the needs of the natives and the
supplies of the stations, and all of the natural products of the land
are considered as being the property of the State or of the companies
holding the concessions.
Thus, although by law, freedom of trade is formally recognised, the
merchantable products in many districts are lacking to the natives.
The multiplication of land laws which we have mentioned before, the
further regulations which we shall formulate in the following are of a
nature to change this state of affairs.
Trade would be considerably facilitated by the introduction throughout
the State of money which is at present brought only partly into use in
the Lower Congo. This is demanded by the State Agents, the merchants,
the missionaries, and even by the blacks who have become acquainted
with money. At present in the Upper Congo all payments made to the
natives consist of merchandise whose value is fixed by the commercial
companies. These objects (brass rods called _Mitakos_, goods, pearls,
etc.) represent values widely different in different regions. More than
that, they are greatly depreciated in most of the native markets so
that the black, compelled to accept this sort of money at its nominal
value in exchange for all of the products which he brings to the State
or the companies, is often injured.
On the other hand, the traders have no interest in giving their
European goods in return for articles of a value which is variable and
altogether fictitious, and which likewise could not be exported without
great loss.
We are not ignorant of the difficulty which could result from a change
in the methods to which we have referred, but we can not refrain from
advising the Government to extend gradually the payment in cash.
CHAPTER II
TAXATION
The greater part of the criticisms directed against the State is
connected more or less directly with the question of taxation, and
especially a tax payable in labour, the only one which affects the
native.
This is without doubt the most important and the most complex question
and upon the solution of this problem depends the solution of the most
of the others.
It is necessary, therefore, to examine first of all the principle of
labour taxation and afterward its application.
JUSTIFICATION OF LABOUR TAXATION
All production, all commerce, all life in the Congo is only possible
and will only endure by the aid of native labour. The white man, if
he can become acclimated, can only with difficulty become able to
endure the hard labour of the farmer and of the workman, and that
too in a few favourable localities. On the other hand, the native
by atavism and because of the conditions of the country has, in
general, no predilection for work. He does only what is absolutely
necessary for his subsistence. The fertility of the soil, the breadth
of territory, the small amount of labour which cultivation demands,
the clemency of the climate, all reduce to a minimum the sum total of
necessary efforts; a few branches and some leaves suffice to shelter
him; he wears no clothing, or practically none; fishing, hunting,
and some crude farming give him easily the little nourishment which
he needs; his energy is only stimulated by the desire to procure
weapons, ornaments, or a wife; but, the desire once satisfied, there
is nothing to be done but to exist. He is happy in his idleness. One
finds exceptions amongst the most advanced races, like those of Kasai
who have more extensive wants to satisfy, and amongst peoples formerly
under Arab rule. These have been during many generations obliged to
work and have acquired that habit; but as a general rule the natives
desire nothing more than to be left with their ancient existence; no
desire can attract them to a labour of any consequence, or of a fixed
duration.
From the beginning the Europeans who were installed in the Congo found
themselves faced by the necessity to call upon the help of the natives
and by the impossibility of obtaining it, at least in a constant or
permanent way, through the regular course of supply and demand. It was
only with the assistance of the crew of the Zanzibarites, continually
renewed, that Stanley was able to trace the first path between Vivi
and the pool and launch the first boat on the Upper Congo. All his
efforts to obtain assistance of the natives were vain. It is only
through the labour of the natives of Senegal and of Sierra Leone,
paid in gold, that it was possible to build the railway around the
Cataracts. But it is found that this system of relying upon foreign
labour can only be exceptional; it is the country itself which ought
to furnish manual labour necessary for its life and development. It
is only, therefore, in making of labour a duty that one can educate
the native to furnish regular service and obtain the aid necessary to
give value to the country, exploit its natural wealth, to profit, in a
word, from its resources. It is at this price only that one can cause
the Congo to enter upon the movement towards modern civilisation, and
snatch its population from the condition of bondage and barbarism in
which they have rested until the present. This condition is, without
doubt, the ideal of the present native, but it must be conceded that it
can not be that of civilised people nor can it produce a hopeful future
for the human race.
Now the only means at the disposal of the State by which the native
can be made to work is the imposition of a tax in labour; and it
is precisely in view of the necessity of assuring to the State
the indispensable labour of native hands that a tax in labour is
justifiable in the Congo. This tax, besides, takes the place with
the population of those restraining influences which, in civilised
countries, are imposed by the conditions of life.
The principle by virtue of which the State demands of its citizens, in
the public interests, not only a contribution in the shape of money
or products, but also personal service—individual labour, is admitted
by European codes. The obligation of military service weighs heavily
upon almost the entire male population of Continental Europe, and the
laws clearly recognise in certain cases that the State and even the
communes have the right to call upon their citizens for personal labour
on works of public interest. For still greater reasons, this tax should
be regarded as legitimate in a young state where everything is to be
created, in a new country without other resources than those which can
be drawn from the native population.
Moreover, the labour tax is the only tax that is possible at the
present time in the Congo, for the native, as a rule, has nothing
beyond his hut, his weapons and the few plantations absolutely
necessary for his subsistence. A tax implying a capital from which
to pay it is impossible here. If therefore one grants to the Congo
the same right to demand of its subjects such resources as are needed
for its maintenance and development—a right enjoyed by all other
countries—one must recognise its right to claim the one thing which its
people can give, namely, a certain amount of labour.
It is true that a labour tax, as in the case of all taxes, should
absorb only a small portion of the activities of the individual; it
ought to supply simply the needs of the government, be in relation
to the benefits which the contributors receive therefrom; it ought
finally, as we propose, be in harmony as far as possible with the
principle of individual liberty, and we believe that within these
limits it cannot be criticised.
On the other hand, the obligation to work, if not excessive, and if
it is imposed in an equitable and paternal manner, avoiding as far as
possible, as we shall explain later, the use of force, will have the
great merit of being the most efficient agency for civilisation and for
the transformation of the native population.
In fact, the native left to himself, in spite of all the efforts to
instruct him and improve his condition, will continue to live in the
primitive state in which he existed for many centuries and from which
he has no desire to part. One has an evident proof of this, even within
the radius of influence of the missions both Catholic and Protestant;
how many efforts, how many acts of devotion have been expended in
vain![5]
Precept and example do not suffice. It is in spite of himself that
the native in the beginning must be induced to throw off his natural
indolence and improve his condition. A law, therefore, which imposes
upon the native light and regular work is the only means of giving him
the incentive to work; while it is an economic law, it is at the same
time a humanitarian law. It does not lose the last named character
because it imposes some compulsion upon the native. To civilise a race
means to modify its economic and social condition, its intellectual
and moral status; it is to extirpate its ideas, customs and habits and
substitute in the place of those of which we disapprove the ideas,
habits and customs which are akin to ours; it is, in a word, to assume
the education of a people. All education which concerns a child or an
inferior race necessarily inflicts a curtailment of liberty.
We do not deny that it will be very easy to abuse the principle in
an intention purely economic and that the application of restraint
in order to obtain the labour may result in excess. But this must be
the task of wise laws that will avoid abuse by fixing clearly and
definitely the limits of the tax and the means to be employed in
obtaining it and in seeing to it rigidly and loyally that these limits
are not exceeded.
THE SYSTEM PRIOR TO THE LAW OF NOVEMBER 18, 1903
It must be conceded that legislation in regard to taxes was a difficult
matter, one which called for a profound study of the conditions of
the country. It was impossible that the State, in the first attempt,
could solve the problem, and we do not think that it should be blamed
for having at the beginning of its occupation and in regions as yet
unexplored, allowed its agents, often isolated and surrounded by
savages, to draw at their discretion from the surrounding country the
supplies necessary for their maintenance and for the development of the
first stations.
The Decree of October 6, 1891, clearly provided the prestation to be
furnished by the chiefs who were commissioned by the State; a Decree
of November 28, 1893, authorised the commandant of the forces in
the Manyema to levy, by means of prestation, a part of the supplies
necessary to cover the expenses occasioned by the suppression of the
revolt of the Arabs, and to determine the character and value of the
prestations to be furnished by each locality or native chief. The
Decree of October 30, 1892 (Art. 7), obliged the natives or workmen
gathering rubber in the territories above Stanley Pool where the
gathering is authorised, to supply the State, as rent or tax, a
quantity of products to be determined by the Governor General, but
which should not in any case exceed the fifth of the harvest. But
these provisions are found in only special cases.
A Decree of the King-Sovereign under date of December 5, 1892 (not
published in the _Bulletin Officiel_), instructs the Secretary of State
“to take whatever steps he may deem necessary or practical to assure
the exploitation of the private domain.”
For a long time the administration thought it could draw upon its right
to make prestations and also to delegate this right to companies,
without in any way specifying the nature of the tax or the amount of
the prestation nor even the means that could be employed to procure
them; but from the day when the Court of Appeals at Boma incidentally,
in pronouncing a decision in regard to repressive measures, expressed
the opinion that, in the state of legislation, nothing could compel the
natives to labour, the Government realised the necessity to adjust the
matter. The Decree of November 18, 1903, was promulgated.[6]
In a general way, it should be said, all that concerned the
prescriptions and prestation in relation to the natives, was until
recent years left to the discretion of the agents.
Each chief of a post or factory demanded of the natives, without asking
himself by what right, prestations of various sorts in the shape of
labour and the products whether to meet his own needs or those of the
post or aid in adding to the wealth of the State.
In recent times the amount of prestation was fixed by the District
Commissioners to whom the greatest latitude was given in such a way
that the amount of tax varied greatly according to circumstances and
localities. Thus the quantity of rubber for each gatherer varied,
being 9 kilos in Mongalla, 6 kilos in Abir, 2 to 4 kilos in different
sections, while in the Lower Congo no tax was demanded. More than this,
no control was exercised over the way in which agents conformed their
demands to the official requirements.
This system had the advantage of adapting itself easily to the local
conditions. But its value depended upon the character of the man
who applied it, and when the agent was reasonable and thoughtful he
endeavoured to harmonise the interest of the State or of the company
with those of the natives and sometimes he could obtain a great deal
without violent means, but a large number of the agents thought only
of obtaining the most possible in the shortest time and their demands
were often excessive. This was not astonishing, for in the case of the
products of the domain the agents who fixed the taxes and collected
them had a direct interest in increasing the amount, since they
received premiums[7] in proportion to the importance of the products
gathered.
The work furnished by the natives was paid for. But the amount of
this payment was, as the fixing of the taxes, left to the judgment of
the agents. To tell the truth, for the exploitation of the domain,
the instructions of the Government which appeared in the _Bulletin
Officiel_, 1896, prescribed that the remunerations to the natives
should never be below the price of the manual labour necessary for the
gathering of the products; that it ought to be fixed by a schedule
prepared by the Commissioner of the District and approved by the
Governor General. These instructions required a state inspector to
verify the justice of these schedules and to see to their execution.
But they have been only imperfectly carried out. The only schedule
approved by the Governor General fixes the maximum amount which the
commissioners of districts were authorised to pay, but did not indicate
a minimum; moreover, no report of the state inspectors exists on this
subject.
It happened, consequently, that very often the remuneration given to
the natives was insufficient; sometimes even, they were paid in goods
which had no value in that locality. The same uncertainty existed in
regard to the means of compulsion when there was a necessity to use
it in cases of non-payment of taxes. Agents on this point as on many
others followed no rule. We shall point out in the course of this
Report acts of violence more or less severe committed either towards
individuals or against a people, where the use of force was the cause.
The agents, it should be said, were never sufficiently warned against
these excesses. The local government did not fail from time to time to
send instructions and circulars to remind the district commissioners
and their agents of their duty to treat the blacks with justice and
humanity. But only in rare cases were more efficient means employed.
The offences committed on the occasion of the use of the exercise
of force have rarely been referred to the courts. All courts, and
especially the inferior court and the Court of Appeals of Boma, when
they have been invoked punished every act not in accordance with law,
every ill-treatment, every abuse, of which the blacks were victims.
Even if they took into account the extenuating circumstances as the
necessities of the country and the influence of their surroundings they
did not see any excuse for arbitrary acts in the absence of legislation.
THE LAW OF NOVEMBER 18, 1903
As we have said, a Decree of the King-Sovereign under date of November
18, 1903, fixed a uniform law concerning taxes for the entire State.
The substance of this law, so far as concerns the natives, is the
following: Every adult native in good health is subject to prestation
which consists in labour for the State. This work is to be remunerated;
the total amount cannot exceed during any one month forty hours of
actual labour. The compensation must not be less than the wages paid
in the neighbourhood (Art. 2). A census of all the natives shall be
made under the direction of the Commissioners of Districts, said census
to serve as the basis in making the levies and shall indicate by name
those who are subject to the tax in each village. These lists shall be
approved by the Governor General.
The District Commissioners shall indicate on the lists prepared by
them the quantities of products of various sorts which correspond to
the number of hours imposed, keeping in mind as far as possible the
circumstances which surround the natives, such as the richness of
the forests, their distance from the villages, the kind of produce
demanded, the method of securing it, etc.; they will have the power
to require in lieu of compulsory labour, the corresponding quantity
of produce either for each individual or for a group of natives or an
entire village (Art. 31).
The agents charged with the procuring of the prestations can, upon the
demand of a native chief and with the approval of the Governor, unite
the natives into groups or villages, under authority of their chiefs,
for the payment of the prestation. In such a case they are warned to
see to it that the amounts specified in the lists are forthcoming and
to prosecute according to Article 55, which follows, the chiefs who do
not observe the lists made out for the levying of the prestations (Art.
33).
The natives may be permitted to acquit themselves of the prestations
by furnishing to the State a fixed quantity of produce of their
cultivation or fabrication. For this purpose, the District
Commissioners each year establish a schedule indicating the value of
the various products of the natives in terms of hours of work for the
different regions of their districts. This schedule is to be approved
by the Governor General at the same time with the lists of prestations
(Art. 34).
The Governor General may appoint in such localities as he elects
delegates to collect the prestation produce under such conditions as
he may fix (Art. 35).
In case of the refusal to pay the prestation in kind, the natives, in
the absence of real or personal property, may be compelled to pay the
tax by the authority whose duty it is to collect the same. To this end,
forced labour can be imposed (Art. 54).
Up to the time of the visit of the Commission, this law had been put in
force in only some of the districts.
The Decree fixes at forty hours a month the labour that each native
owes the State. The time, considered as the maximum, cannot surely be
regarded as too much, especially if one keeps in mind the fact that the
labour is to be paid for; however, as in the great majority of cases,
by the application of Articles 31 and 34, it is not the labour that
is demanded of the native, but a quantity of produce equivalent to
forty hours of work, the standard of time disappears and is replaced
by an equivalent fixed by the Commissioners of Districts according to
different methods. Sometimes an attempt has been made to calculate the
amount of time necessary to gather certain products, as a kilogram
of rubber or chikwangue, for example; sometimes one is compelled to
estimate the value of an hour’s work from the scale of wages in the
neighbourhood, this multiplied by forty, and the native is called upon
to pay a quantity of produce worth the amount thus obtained.
The first of these calculations rests upon arbitrary estimates; the
second gives results which may vary greatly according to the valuation
placed upon the produce or upon the manual labour.
A circular of the Governor General of the date of February 29, 1904,
informs the District Commissioners that the enforcement of the new
law regarding prestations should have as its effect, not merely the
maintenance of results achieved during the previous years, but to show
also a constant increase in the contributions to the treasury.
Does the Government mean by that that the agents ought to add to the
lists of contributors by the inscription, as the territory becomes more
and more accessible under pacific occupancy, of natives, who until now
had avoided taxation?
This is probable for according to the same circular it is intended to
extend the prestations to as large a number of natives as possible in
order to obtain the maximum of resources with the minimum of burden to
each individual. It is, however, none the less true that, presented
in the general terms which we have given, these instructions would in
the majority of cases prevent the District Commissioners, in making up
their new rolls, from lessening excessive burdens.
And in fact, many of them are satisfied to continue the former schedule
of prestations.[8]
As to the compensation for the labour which the native furnishes under
the name of tax, the law prescribes that it shall not be less than the
local wages.
The principle of remuneration, while not harmonising with the idea of
taxation, can have in the Congo the great advantage of causing the
native to comprehend the value of labour.
On the other hand, it is just that the compensation be limited to the
value of the actual labour furnished by the native and that he should
not be paid the value of the produce created by his labour; for, in
general, the produce does not belong to him—he merely supplies the work
of collecting it.[9]
The law fixes the local scale of wages as the minimum, but the
instructions of the circular dated February 29, 1904, seem to regard
that as the maximum and they recommend to the District Commissioners
not to give a remuneration above what was accepted before.
Finally, the law of November 18, 1903, does not solve satisfactorily
the question of compulsion. We shall mention merely in passing the
Articles 46, 47, 48 and 49, authorising the seizure of the property of
the delinquent, a means of compulsion which, for good reasons, is not
applicable in the Congo. Article 54 says that in default of available
property, forced labour can be imposed. But how shall it be imposed?
Can one arrest a native, put him in chains, submit him to corporal
punishment? How long shall he be detained? At what labour shall he be
compelled to work? It is true there are circulars fixing the maximum of
compulsion at one month, but it is seen that the matter has not been
removed from the decision of the individual agent.
We shall have occasion to point out later other matters regarding which
the law needs amplification. But before all, if it is desired that
this law be productive of good results such as one would wish, it is
necessary that care be taken that it is observed in the letter and the
spirit.
It ought to be possible for the native, in the forty hours of labour
a month, to completely discharge all of his obligations to the State
and that he be free for the rest of the time; it is important that the
compensation be what the law requires so as to effectually serve as an
incentive to labour.
The rolls ought, consequently, to be revised so as to be in accord with
the legal prescriptions and the checks provided by the decree of 1903
should secure a strict compliance with the prescriptions demanded.
EXAMINATION OF THE DIFFERENT IMPOSTS
The imposts may be arranged in several groups:
A. Ground Nuts.
B. Food Supplies: chikwangue, fish, game, domestic animals.
C. Obligatory Labour: for cutting wood, work around the posts, rowing,
carrying.
D. Harvesting the Products of the Domain: copal and rubber.
_A. Ground Nuts_
We have made a separate category of the ground nut because this product
is an article of cultivation and can not consequently be regarded
as a fruit of the domain like copal and rubber; more than that, as
it is intended for export we could not include it under the list of
prestations of food supplies. The natives of the Cataract district are
the only ones who are required to furnish ground nuts.
Prior to the enforcement of the decree of 1903 the contributors from
the Cataract District, especially those of the less fertile region,
complained of being too heavily taxed; but this decree having reduced
this impost to one-fourth, the complaints ceased. However, from
information furnished, it seems that if one adds to the cost of the
labour the expense of transportation this prestation yields nothing to
the State, estimating the price which the ground nut would bring in
the Antwerp market. One could give satisfaction to the natives and at
the same time increase the resources by changing this tax in kind into
another tax as light as possible. The ground nuts might thus become an
article of commerce, quite important, without prejudice.
_B. The Imposts of Food Stuffs_
The chikwangue (kwanga) is nothing else than the maniock bread, which
forms the principal article of food for the natives of the Congo State.
The preparation of this article requires a variety of operations:
clearing of the forests, planting of the maniock, digging the roots
and transforming them into chikwangue, which includes the operations
of retting, barking, grinding, washing, making into loaves and baking.
All of these operations, with the exception of clearing the forests,
fall upon the women. The chikwangues thus prepared are carried to
the neighbouring villages by the natives and serve as rations for
the personnel of the State, soldiers and labourers. This prestation
is, like all others, paid for. The impost of chikwangue is, in a
general way, the kind that the natives can discharge with the greatest
ease. It requires, in fact, labour to which the negro is accustomed.
Moreover, as we have seen, this labour falls principally upon the
women, a condition which is in harmony with the customs of the natives.
Therefore, when the personnel of the post to be supplied is not great,
and when, on the other hand, the impost is distributed equably through
a population of sufficient density, the additional labour imposed upon
industrious wives of blacks does not call forth any complaint.
It is quite otherwise in the neighbourhood of the important stations
where the natives are obliged to furnish the subsistence to a large
number of workmen and soldiers. Around the important places of the
district and the military camps the furnishing of chikwangue becomes a
relatively burdensome impost. The villages situated in the immediate
neighbourhood of the posts are not sufficient to furnish the rations,
so that there is added the burden of compulsory transportation.
By way of example we give the condition which exists at Leopoldville.
This post, whose importance is increasing daily, has about 3,000
workmen and soldiers. The region upon which rests the task of
supporting this personnel is far from being very populous. The villages
there are scattered and by an examination of the census taken in the
last few years it appears that their population shows a tendency to
decrease.
One has therefore been obliged to extend to an unusual range the region
from which the inhabitants are called upon to furnish chikwangue to the
personnel of Leopoldville. The village, situated 75 kilometres to the
south of this station, is obliged to supply 350 chikwangues.
In order to equalise as far as possible the burden of this impost, the
region has been divided into three zones, practically concentric. The
most distant villages of the first zone are 30 kilometres distant, of
the second 43 kilometres and of the third 79 kilometres.
The people in the zone nearest bring in their chikwangues every four
days; those in the next, every eight days; those from the outside
zone, every twelve days. As the preparation of the chikwangue falls
upon the women, the amount of this impost is reckoned for each village
according to the number of women it contains. This, we are told, is so
calculated that each woman must prepare as a maximum, ten chikwangues
for the period—four, eight or twelve days. In fact, the quantity to be
furnished often falls below this figure; but it may happen that it is
exceeded and it may happen that the amount assessed does not vary with
the fluctuations in the population.
Such is the system. The difficulties are easily seen. All of the
witnesses who were heard by the Commission on this subject were
unanimous in criticising the large amount that was imposed upon the
women of certain villages, the continuity of the imposition and the
long journeys that had to be made.
According to the calculations made by the officials of the State,
the total amount of time required, taking into consideration all the
various operations, to make one kilogram of chikwangue is about one
hour, of which four-fifths is contributed by the women. Admitting
that a ration of chikwangue weighs one and two-thirds kilograms, on
the average, one sees that the women of the first zone who make ten
chikwangues in the four-day period, give to the State during the month
about one hundred hours of labour, those in the second, fifty hours,
those in the third, thirty-three. The amount of work devolving upon the
women in the first zone ought to be considerably reduced.
The worst feature of this imposition is its continuity. As the
chikwangue can be preserved only a few days, the native, even by
doubling his activities, cannot at one time discharge his obligations
extending over a long period. The imposition, even if it does not
demand his entire time, loses a part of its real character as a tax
and becomes a sort of obligatory labour since there is ever before the
native the thought of delivery that must soon be made.
The gravest defect of the system lies in the obligation that the
native, in bringing in his prestations from the three zones referred
to above, must make long journeys. It is true that the adage “Time is
money” cannot be applied to the native of the Congo who, outside of the
time spent in working for the State, passes the greater part of it in
idleness; still it is inadmissible that he should be obliged to travel
150 kilometres to bring to the place of delivery a tax which represents
a value of about one franc and a half. This remark is equally just
even if it is granted that the compensation given to the native
represents the exact value of the article furnished.
It is quite true that each contributor, as a rule, does not bring
to the post the prestation which falls upon him. Following the
rule that we have observed in vogue, the labour is thrown upon the
weaker members of the family, so that it is the women, children and
domestic slaves who are forced to be the agencies of transport. This
peculiarity instead of attenuating the bad features of the system,
rather increases them. For it is these who form the industrious
element of the village, and if a great part of their time is taken up
by the exigencies of the impost and procuring the means for their own
subsistence, they have not, however great may be their desire, a chance
to perform other labour; hence, the abandonment of native industries
and the impoverishment of the villages. The missionaries, Catholic and
Protestant, whom we heard at Leopoldville were unanimous in reporting
the general misery which exists in that region. One of them thought he
could say: “If this system, which obliges the natives to support the
3,000 labourers at Leopoldville, continues for five years, that will be
the condition of the population of the district.”
Without sharing these pessimistic views, one must admit that they
contain some truth. In any event, it should be borne in mind that it
is dangerous for the State to rely upon the natives to supply such an
important post as this. Any circumstance that could arrest for a time
the prestations of food supplies would threaten a famine.
This remark is general. It applies to all large posts of which we have
taken Leopoldville as a type.
This was the case at Coquilhatville where the Commission can attest
the quantity of chikwangues furnished is often insufficient, because
of certain delinquencies, to supply the large personnel. It happens
that part of the workmen, soldiers or prisoners are deprived of rations
for twenty-four hours. A high State official states that it is often
difficult to provision at Coquilhatville the black crew of the steamers
which pass this post.
The remedy for these troubles seems apparent. There should be
established at once, in the neighbourhood of the large centres of
population, plantations for the production of food stuffs, the size of
which should be proportional to the necessities of the people to be
supplied. The wives of the soldiers, could be, in a measure, as the law
permits, employed for this work for which they have a special aptitude.
For, as a Protestant missionary and a high official remarked, it is not
right that by their excessive labour “the native women furnish the food
to others who do nothing and spend their time in gossip and disputes.”
In the meantime, it would be well if the State should provision
partially the workmen at certain posts with rice and dried fish, as the
railroad company is now doing with its employees in the Lower Congo.
In any case, if the impossibility of reforming the system at a single
stroke should oblige the State to rely, for a time, upon the natives
for food, it ought to lighten the burden of transportation in the case
of those who live at a great distance. This ought to be, to as great
an extent as possible, supplanted by other forms of transportation,
either by animals or motors. Thus it seems desirable that in the
neighbourhood of Leopoldville, traversed by the railroad, the State
could make such an arrangement with the road as would secure rates
that would not be excessive on the chikwangues coming from the extreme
southern portions of the district. If the experiment made during the
past year at Leopoldville with camels proves successful, this means of
transportation ought to be made general.
In addition to chikwangue, dried fish plays an important rôle in
supplying the wants of the negro. Besides the few kilograms of fresh
fish, obtained without difficulty by the whites, practically the entire
catch is dried for the black employees of the State.
The prestation of this sort of food supplies causes instances such as
we have pointed out in the cases of the chikwangues. In many places the
quantity required has caused complaints, especially from the chiefs of
villages whose population has diminished and who are taxed to an extent
out of proportion to the present number of inhabitants.
We have observed that certain places on the river not very populous,
like that of New Antwerp, have for example, found themselves compelled
to lay tribute upon fishermen at a distance. The natives living near
Lulonga were compelled to go in canoes to New Antwerp, a distance of
from 70 to 80 kilometres, every 15 days to carry their fish and the
contributors have been subjected to arrest for delays for which perhaps
they were not to blame if one considers the distance to be travelled
periodically in order to satisfy the demands of the impost.
These great journeys are, as can be seen, analogous to the onerous
transportation of chikwangues. Another criticism, especially in regard
to this impost, was made by several witnesses who pointed out to us
the difficulty which the natives experienced in furnishing regularly
their quota of fish at times when the floods make fishing unsafe and
unprofitable.
The remark is just, but the work of fishing in high water might be
considerably lightened if the native could use the best appliances.
And this leads us to make a general observation which appears to us
to be of the greatest importance in the solution of the problem of
provisioning of posts.
We have been surprised to notice how little the contact with the
whites has changed the ways of the natives. The Europeans have until
now limited themselves to teaching blacks certain industries of their
own, such as printing, ropemaking, etc.; but they have not attempted
to improve the native industries which are of vital importance to the
negro. Thus the chikwangue is prepared today in exactly the same way
as it was 25 years ago, with methods incredibly crude and defective.
It is impossible not to notice and be astonished at the disproportion
which exists between the amount of labour expended and the results
obtained. It is evident that modern industries would easily furnish the
means of realising in the fabrication of chikwangue, progress equal to
that which has been achieved in Europe in the grinding of wheat and the
preparation of bread.
We also think that in a short time one could cause the native fishermen
to make use of the improved appliances, which would, without doubt, be
for them a real revelation. In that way the fishermen would achieve far
better results than at the present time, and could not only meet their
obligations in a shorter time, but derive a personal profit from their
catch, for dried fish, of which the negro is very fond, always finds
buyers amongst the employees of the State.
We, therefore, express the wish to see the State and the Missions
which have assumed the task of teaching the blacks, diligently apply
themselves in this direction, that is, the practical education of the
natives in which, so far as we know, nothing has as yet been done.
There now remains for us to examine in order to exhaust the list of
food assessments the furnishing of fresh food, intended exclusively for
the white officials. The native is called upon for game, small animals,
and poultry. The requirements of game have not occasioned any criticism
worthy of mention. Still, we may remark that complaints have been made
against the law which declares the closed season during 7 months of the
year. This long interdiction, we have been told, can deprive the native
of the food to which he is accustomed and which brings him certain
profits. The law against hunting elephants has also been criticised,
since it prevents the black from protecting his plantation against the
damages caused by the animals.
Upon this last point it should be remarked that the terms of Article 12
of the Decree of October 5, 1889, state: “Any person may, in order to
protect his property threatened by one or more elephants, make use of
weapons to drive them away. If this necessitates the capture or death
of an elephant, the elephant should be turned over to the District
Commissioners.”
As to sheep, goats, chickens and ducks the Commission is able to
confirm by its own observation their growing scarcity and their
consequent high price.
What is the cause of this impoverishment? It is caused by the fact
that these animals, instead of being articles of commerce, are demanded
under the name of imposts, sometimes without reason and in an arbitrary
fashion. The native who receives a compensation which is insufficient
in his eyes and in every case quite inferior to the real value, does
not feel encouraged to raise domestic animals and fowls.
On the other hand, it is a unanimous opinion that the health of the
white man in Africa requires that he subsist, at least partly, upon
fresh food. As it is quite probable that for a long time the State
post will have to depend for supply of farm products upon the natives,
raising of these ought to be encouraged by every possible means, and
the State, if need be, should make sacrifices in order to achieve this
result. As a general rule, the small animals and the fowls ought,
according to our opinion, to be articles of personal transactions
between the white man and the negro.
_C. Imposed Labour_
Besides the levy of food supplies, the natives are called upon to
furnish to the State contributions of labour: for cutting wood, work
around the posts, rowers and porters.
_a. Cutting wood._ The impost relative to wood cutting has given rise
to many criticisms. Everyone knows that the steamers which navigate the
Congo and its tributaries use nothing but wood. The great proportions
which the navigation has assumed (80 steamers), and the necessity of
rewooding every day, have called into existence along these rivers wood
stations. Sometimes the furnishing of wood imposes a heavy tax upon the
natives; sometimes the work is done by men who receive wages. There
also exists a composite system which consists in part of men who have
been requisitioned and men who are paid.
We have been told that this impost is excessive in certain cases.
It is also claimed that it is occasionally irregularly distributed
amongst the villages. Thus, the groups near Lulonga where there are
respectively 7, 8, 17, 20, 19, 39, and 99 men are subject to the same
tax—25 armloads per village. The presence at the post of paid cutters
who have to assist the contributory cutters in preparing the wood,
instead of being a help is a new source of trouble. Those under pay
endeavour to throw their tasks upon the others. Thus, the choppers
at Lulonga are a plague in that region and the bosses, or black
superintendents, very often become real despots and cause serious
difficulties.
Our attention was also called to an annoying feature which results from
unexpected requisitions. But this criticism has but little foundation
because the natives, having the privilege to work ahead (which we are
sure is not often done on the Congo), can easily have a reserve so that
they can work at such times as they may choose.
Nevertheless, the inconveniences of the system are sufficiently serious
to cause us to conclude that it would be well to suppress all imposts
of wood for steaming purposes and to replace it with the plan of having
all wood supplied by paid choppers.
In paying the choppers a fixed amount not above the remuneration
allowed the natives at the present time for wood furnished upon the
river bank, excellent results, it seems, have been obtained. The
experiment was tried at Bolombo, near New Antwerp. The wooding of
steamers would in this way be assured more completely than by following
the system now in vogue.
_b. Labour._ When the black personnel at a post is not sufficient for
certain work of construction, clearing, or farming, it frequently
happens that demands are made upon the natives under the form of
imposed labour with remuneration. They are also called upon to repair
the roads, keep in order the telegraph lines, etc. Sometimes they must
supply construction material, such as logs, leaves, and bamboos. This
imposed labour is generally looked upon by the natives with disfavour.
It obliges, in certain cases, the natives near a post to be continually
at work. On the other hand, the demands are for work of an emergency
character, depending solely upon the necessities of the post. If
a storm destroys the roof of one of the post buildings, the chief
immediately requisitions a certain number of natives of the nearest
village to repair the damage. In case there is lacking the necessary
men for the clearing of a forest for the enlargement of the plantation,
the chief of that department calls upon the natives to lend a hand. One
can understand the perturbation which such demands can provoke in the
minds of people as indolent as these blacks.
In the region of Lake Tumba, the Commission of enquiry heard the
echoes of the complaint awakened by the requisition at Bikoro of women
from the villages of Ikoko who had to work for fifteen days on the
plantations. This line of action seems to have greatly displeased the
natives who look upon the deprivation of their wives for this length of
time as a serious grievance.
Similar requisitions appear to have caused the removal of an entire
village (Bokatola, near Mampoko on the Lulonga). We add, however, to
be just, that in most of the cases, if the women are requisitioned for
work, it is because when the chiefs of the post call for labour, the
men seek to free themselves from the burden and send their wives.
_c. Rowers._ The matter of impressed labour for rowing did not call
forth any criticisms beyond those which resulted from the unexpected
calling for men and sometimes the excessive duration of the service.
Under present conditions it cannot be suppressed. Whenever possible, it
is better to establish a regular service of paid rowers.
_d. Porters._ Without doubt the form of impressed labour that weighs
most heavily upon the natives is the service as porters. Thanks to
the marvellous net of streams with which central Africa is blessed,
the greatest part of the transportation can be made by water. But in
those regions which are not intersected by streams and owing to all
efforts to acclimatise animals to the country having thus far failed,
the only agency of transportation that remains is man. The traveller in
crossing the country; the merchant in introducing his wares; the State
in supplying its officials with food, transporting material or bringing
out the products of its domain, have no other means available than a
corps of porters.
The most celebrated of these routes of caravan travel in Africa belongs
to history. For a dozen years it was necessary to rely upon this system
in order to insure regular communication between the Upper and the
Lower Congo. In the regions known as the Cataracts, between Matadi
and Leopoldville, where the great river, intersected by cataracts, is
not navigable, caravans of native porters could be seen in a constant
stream carrying upon their heads innumerable articles that were
impatiently awaited by the whites on the upper reaches of the Congo.
Truly the labour of these Cataract people was of a rude sort but it was
necessary for carrying on the civilisation of the country. There was
the necessity to place upon its banks, piece by piece, the steamboats
to sail the upper river at the earliest possible moment. Any delay in
the carrying of these parts and in launching the steamer endangered
the existence of the posts beyond. Finally the railroad was finished
and at what price! and the locomotive reached the Pool.
The caravan route where black and white, united in the same effort,
had paid such a heavy tribute to fatigue and fever, the dark pathway
holding in its keeping so many lifeless bodies, has been invaded by
the plants and the trees of the forest. In two days the trains now
go from Matadi to Leopoldville and from the Pool to the lower river;
the natives are born again to a new life; those who had fled from the
destructive enforced labour now approach the iron road where they
regard with admiration the elegant and powerful engines created by the
“magic of the white man” (_mayele ma mondele_) doing without effort the
labour that had decimated their ancestors.
But for every route which has disappeared, many others have been called
into existence as the new regions have been opened up by the State. The
complete occupation of frontier districts, notably the Lado country,
the zones of Kivu and of Tanganika, the territories of Katanga and of
Southern Kasai (Lake Dilolo), has necessitated the sending to these
distant regions a large amount of material.
The Commission was not able to study on the spot the porterage problem.
But it received on two of these routes, that of Kasongo-Kabambare-Kivu
and that of Lusambo-Kabinda-Kisenga, considerable light. In the two
regions of the Eastern Province and Kasai-Katanga the quantity of
loads to be carried is enormous and on the contrary the population
is relatively sparse. Moreover, the occupation is not sufficiently
complete to permit the drafting from new tribes so that it happens that
it is practically the same people who are repeatedly drafted. Let us
add that the food supplies are hardly sufficient to always furnish the
carriers with rations.
Some judges called our attention to the fact that the system of drafted
labour exhausts the natives and threatens them with partial destruction.
There is a way to remedy, without delay, this state of affairs. The
building of railroads in these regions can be foreseen only for the
distant future. However, there is reason to hope for good results from
the experiments already tried in the direction of trained elephants,
zebras and camels. But, in the meantime, it is important to diminish
as far as one can the hurtful character of the drafted carrier service
by utilising the waterways whenever possible, even if the distance be
greater and the cost of transportation more.
If roads suitable for automobiles could be built in this part of the
territory, the State should hasten to begin the work and omit nothing
in this direction. Intensive porterage can be justified only under the
twofold condition of being essential and temporary.
In so far as concerns the transportation for the eastern frontier
(Kivu), it seems that the route from the eastern coast of Africa could
be used more cheaply.
To obviate the scarcity of food supplies along the routes, there should
be created at intervals fixed by the State, villages whose inhabitants
should be wholly occupied with farming.
The Government has already issued orders looking towards this.
It is likewise desirable that the tasks be distributed so widely that
the draft for labour may not fall too frequently upon the same village
or upon the same persons. To bring this about, the chief of the post
should himself supervise the recruiting and it should not be left to
the foremen who are too easily bribed.
The sick, infirm and the children ought to be exempt as prescribed by
law.
Above all things, before undertaking in distant regions a work of any
consequence, a careful study should be made of the routes and the means
of transportation, and every effort should be made to ascertain if the
object in view can be attained without imposing too heavy burdens upon
the natives.
_D. Products of the Domain_
_a. Copal._ The gathering of copal presents no difficulty; even the
children can take part in this whether one collects the “fossil” copal
which the rivers and lakes cast upon their shores or the resin from
the trees themselves or that which falls from the trees and is found on
the ground around the foot of the tree. The copal gum is abundant in
certain forests.
The Commission did not hear any complaints regarding this impost.
The compensation paid per kilogram is, as a rule, sufficient to enable
a native who desires to exert himself a little to make good wages.
Those who have criticised the small pay allowed have had in mind the
intrinsic value of the copal in the European market. This criticism
contains the germ of false reasoning. In considering the products
gathered from public domain attention should be paid to the amount of
labour required to gather them and not to the value of the articles. It
is surely true in Europe as well as elsewhere, that the wages paid the
miners of the precious metals, for example, are far below the actual
value of the minerals produced.
_b. Rubber._ Every one knows that the usual way of obtaining rubber is
by making incisions in the bark of certain trees (especially in certain
vines), and gathering the milk, or sap, that comes therefrom. After a
few hours the receptacle is emptied, the milk is coagulated and the
rubber is carried to the post under forms that vary in the different
regions. Of all the milky plants, the vines which furnish the greater
part of the rubber coming from the Congo are the _Landolphia_ and the
_Clitandra_.
In spite of the regulations made for the preservation of the vines the
natives, instead of simply making incisions, will cut them completely
off so that the milk will flow more freely.
Of course, the Commission could not form any estimate of the wealth in
rubber vines of the forests it saw. Here, as elsewhere, the question
of quantity in a matter of such importance receives widely divergent
answers. Optimism and pessimism give the estimate and reflect the
desires entertained or the purpose in view in the minds of those
expressing the opinion. Still it appears to be undoubtedly true that an
exploitation which has continued a certain number of years will lead
to a complete exhaustion in those regions contiguous to the native
villages.
This explains the dislike on the part of the negroes for rubber
gathering, which in itself is not at all severe. In the majority of
cases, he must make a journey every fortnight which takes two or
three days, sometimes more, in order to reach that part of the forest
where he can find in sufficient quantity the rubber vines. There for
a certain number of days he leads an uncomfortable existence. He must
construct for himself a temporary shelter, which certainly can not
take the place of his hut; he does not have the food to which he is
accustomed, he is deprived of his wife, exposed to the inclemency of
the weather and to the attacks of wild beasts. He must carry what he
has gathered to the State post or to the company and not until then
does he return to his village where he can tarry only two or three days
before the time for the next delivery is close at hand. It therefore
appears that, whatever be his activity in the rubber forests, the
native, because of the number of moves which he must make, sees the
greater part of his time taken up in the gathering of rubber.
It is hardly necessary to remark that this state of affairs is a
flagrant violation of the law of “forty hours.” According to our
opinion, the only way to harmonise the text and the spirit of this law
will be to make the times of delivery further apart. In this way the
time of the native taken up by the necessary trips to go to the forests
and return would be lessened in proportion and the decree which fixes
at forty hours a month the labour demanded of the contributor could
receive a just application if the quantity of rubber demanded is wisely
fixed. It would cease to be as now, a maximum rarely reached and which
may be thought too great.[10]
Attention has been called to the improvidence which is at the bottom of
the character of the native and which will always tempt him to put off
the moment when he should discharge his obligations. However, we think
that without great inconvenience, the contributor could discharge his
duties every three months, for example, and that whenever necessary the
white should remind him of the neglect of his duty. The stay in the
forest would become longer but less frequent, the gatherer would then
think it best, without doubt, to build for himself a better shelter and
would have with him his wife who could prepare for him his customary
food.
More than that, in the opinion of the Commission, the impost ought to
be collective because of the difficulty in making the proper lists; the
inconveniences resulting from placing the times of collection further
apart will be diminished; and consideration should be given, to a
greater degree, to the personal convenience of the contributors.
It follows that if, in certain cases, the collective imposts having
as corollary the placing of collections further apart is not wise, it
would be desirable in calculating the hours of labour to have regard
for the time which the native would consume for the necessary journeys
in gathering the rubber.
COERCION
The dislike of the negro for all kinds of work; his especial aversion
to the rubber gathering, because of the circumstances indicated, and
differing from the labour discussed in the preceding chapters because
the native has not been prepared for it by the customs of previous
generations; finally the contact with the white, which, having existed
for only a short time, has not created in him new wants which make
him almost indifferent to the proffered remuneration; all of these
circumstances have made compulsion necessary to induce the native to
gather rubber.
Until recent years this coercion has been exercised in different ways,
such as, the taking of hostages, the detention of chiefs and the
institution of sentinels or bosses and the sending of armed expeditions.
_1. Coercion, Properly so Called, Exercised by the Whites_
In the absence of a specific law and precise instruction upon the
subject, the agents charged with the exercise of coercion, applying
the principle of solidarity which exists amongst those who are the
subjects of the same chief, often trouble themselves but little to
seek out the real culprit. The prestations were due from the village
as a whole; when they were not forthcoming the chiefs were arrested
and some of the inhabitants taken at random, often the women were held
as hostages. This system had for its purpose the moral compulsion upon
the delinquents to stimulate their efforts in order to liberate their
chief or their wives. This proved efficacious and, perhaps, as we were
often told, did not appear in the eyes of the natives, imbued with the
idea of solidarity, so reprehensible as it would to us. But whatever
one may think of the ideas of the natives, any procedure, such as the
detention of the women as hostages, outrages our notion of justice too
violently to be tolerated. The State has, for a long time, forbidden
this practice, but has been unable to suppress it. Likewise the arrest
of the chiefs, who are not always personally to blame, has the effect
of diminishing their authority or even completely destroying it;
especially when they are seen forced to servile labour.
The same may be said of the system by which the agents fix the length
of the detention. From the statements of witnesses and the official
documents that we saw, we found that this detention may have been
continued, in certain cases, for several months.
Some have told us, it is true, that those under detention at the post
are not badly treated nor compelled to perform excessive labour. They
have also asserted that the lot of the women is less oppressive here
than under the animal-like existence to which they are subjected in
their own villages. Nevertheless, it is beyond question that the
detention is often aggravated by conditions which attend it. We have
been told that the places in which the prisoners were kept were
sometimes in a bad condition, that they often lacked the necessities
and that the mortality amongst them was very great.
Some chiefs of posts, assuming a right that never belonged to them
administer the lash to those who fail to furnish the complete imposts.
Some have carried this to excess, as is shown by the record of their
punishment by the courts.[11]
These abuses are certainly not unknown in the private domain. From a
study of the documents placed at the disposal of the Commission or
demanded by it, we became acquainted with the majority of the facts
testified to by the Reverends Whitehead (Lukolela), Weeks (Monsembe),
and Gilchrist (Lulonga).
Acts of violence have been committed in the region of Lake Leopold
II, Bangala, Lake Tumba, in Uele and Aruwini. But all witnesses
confess that great improvements have taken place in recent times. Two
Evangelical missionaries from the district of Lake Leopold II (the
Crown Domain exploited by State agents), where the rule had been the
object of very severe criticism by one of them, said to us: “according
to what we have been told, everything is now going well in this
region”; and the other said, that he had observed during a recent visit
to this district, that the situation was good in comparison with what
it had been before.
Unfortunately, the same does not seem to be true in those regions
exploited by private companies. From an examination of documents
regarding Mongala,[12] and a careful enquiry made by the Commission in
regard to the Abir concession it appears that acts of the sort of which
we are speaking, were very frequent in the territory controlled by
these companies. At the different posts in the Abir which we visited,
it was never denied that the imprisonment of women as hostages, the
imposition of servile work on chiefs, the administration of the lash to
delinquents and the abuse of authority by the black overseers were, as
a rule, habitual.
Similar conditions have been reported to the Commission from Lulonga.
Most of these facts were unknown to the officials until a recent
enquiry of a deputy revealed them, so that it is likely that the
freedom from punishment was accountable for their continuance.
In case of the non-payment of prestations and also under the name of
punishment for a revolt, it has happened that the civil officials or
military officer imposed upon the villages fines, sometimes very
heavy. This has been suppressed. A circular from the Governor General
forbids the “administrative fines.”
_2. The Sentries_
One means by sentries (_sentili_, native word, taken from the English)
the black overseers, armed with a muzzle-loading gun, who have the
official duty of directing the work of the natives in the forest
and of preventing the devastation of the same by the cutting of the
rubber vines, but whose labours for the greater part of their time,
are limited to calling to the minds of the natives their obligations,
seeing to it that they go to the forest and accompany the gatherers
when they come to the post.
Two kinds of sentries can be distinguished.
Amongst the overseers, some, who belong to the personnel of the post
and who are nearly always strangers to the region, patrol the villages
at the time when the natives should be at work, and report to the
whites those who instead of being at work are staying at home. Very
often, in order to exercise a more complete control, they are detailed
to a special village where they permanently establish themselves. These
are the _sentilis_, strictly speaking. They are by far the worst sort.
In their quality as strangers, they are not interested in the blacks
with whom they deal.
Other intermediaries—called _capitas_—are chosen by the whites from the
village they have to oversee. Over against the chief designated by
native customs, they represent in the eyes of the negro the State or
the company.
This institution of having black overseers has given rise to much
criticism, even from State officials. The Protestant missionaries
heard at Bolobo, Ikoko (Lake Tumba), Lulonga, Bonginda, Ikau, Baringa,
Bongandanga, made very sweeping charges against the conduct of these
overseers. They brought before the Commission a number of witnesses
who disclosed many crimes or excesses committed by the sentries.
According to these witnesses, these auxiliaries, especially those who
are detailed to the villages, abuse the authority committed to them,
transform themselves into despots, demanding wives, food not only
for themselves but also for a retinue of parasites and vagrants who,
drawn by a love for rapine, become their associates and form a sort of
body-guard; they kill without pity those who make the least show of
resistance to complying with their demands or caprice.
The Commission could not, of course, verify in every case the
correctness of these charges, many of which date back several years.
However, the essential features of the accusations made against the
sentries seem to be established from the combined testimony and the
official reports. The Commission has transmitted to the appropriate
authorities the minutes of its enquiry in Abir, Lulonga, and Bolobo in
so far as they refer to punishable offences and crimes not barred by
the statute of limitation.
It is not possible for us to say, even approximately, how many abuses
these sentries have committed. Several chiefs in the Baringa region
brought to us a bunch of sticks, each one of which was said to
represent a subject killed by the _capitas_. One of them declared that
in his village one hundred and twenty had been killed during the past
years. Whatever one may think of the amount of confidence that should
be placed in a record of this sort, a document placed in the hands of
the Commission by the Director of the Abir in Africa does not permit of
any doubt as to the baneful character of this institution. It consists
of a table showing that from the first of January, 1905, to the first
of August of the same year, that is, a period of seven months, one
hundred and forty-two sentries of the company had been killed or
wounded by the natives. Now, it can be supposed that in many cases
these attacks were in the nature of reprisals. This enables a judgment
to be formed of the number of sanguinary conflicts occasioned by the
presence of the sentries. None of the agents who testified before the
Commission, or were present at the sessions, made any attempt to refute
the charges made against the sentries.
The least unfavourable opinion expressed in regard to the sentries
was made by the Director of the Abir who said: “The sentry system is
an evil, but it is a necessary evil.” We do not share this view.
According to our opinion, the institution of _capitas_ and sentries, as
we have seen it operate in Abir and Lulonga, ought to be suppressed.
The State, whose high officials have, in their reports, pointed out
the abuses which this system calls forth, has taken a step in this
direction by absolutely prohibiting the detachment in the villages of
the members of the constabulary and the sending, in general, of black
soldiers unless accompanied by a white man. The auxiliaries have been
dispensed with in the Eastern Province. But, let us repeat, it is
absolutely necessary to go still further and put an end once and for
all to the sentry system as we have seen it work. The intermediary
between the white man and the natives ought to be, as far as possible,
the village chief. The authority of the legal chiefs, which has been
eclipsed because of the sentry system, would be restored by its
disappearance.
In order to effectually apply the propositions which we have just made,
the State should withdraw the permission granted to the _capitas_ to
carry arms and should require the companies to return all the guns
with the exception of the flint-lock guns, the albini rifles issued
regularly for the protection of the factories and the whites, and also
the personal arms of the latter.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON IMPOSTS
We have, in studying the different imposts, pointed out especial
difficulties in the way of the collection of each and indicated some
practical remedies intended to eliminate certain abuses that were
reported. It now remains for us to enunciate the general principle
which, according to us, ought to guide the State in this delicate
matter of native imposts.
First of all, we ought to give an answer to the important question:
Should imposts be collective or individual?
Article II of the law of November 18, 1893, declares that the imposts
are fixed according to lists made out by the District Commissioners
indicating by name all of the contributors.
It is true, as a practical proposition, that a personal tax is more
logical and more just than a contribution made as a collectivity.
This principle ought to rest in the law as an ideal towards which
there should be a tendency and which should be attained wherever
circumstances could permit. But at the present, in many cases,
insurmountable obstacles exist which prevent its application.
It is hardly necessary to remark that, very often, the preparation of
the lists provided by the law is, if not impossible, at least very
difficult.
The natives, in fact, are not, with rare exceptions, registered. Many
of them are Nomads or change their residences with great facility.
Their names are not fixed and could serve only incompletely for the
identification of the contributors. They are repeated and changed very
frequently. With the Mongo, for example, the native who has a son is
known only as the father of his son.[13]
Even though this list might be made with great care and absolutely
exact today, it would be of no value in a few months.
The making of these lists, to be of any value at all, would require
amongst other things a larger amount of work than could be assigned to
the agents now on duty, for they, already overburdened with duties, are
scarcely sufficient to meet the demands of the service.
Finally the collection of the prestation due from each native would
impose upon the agents a complicated system of accounts.
The collective imposts, on the contrary, being fixed by the villages
would simplify very much the labour of preparing the lists and making
the collection.
This system besides, even if it does appear contrary to our ideas, is
in perfect accordance with the habits of the natives. We have shown to
what extent in the Congo the individual is lost in the collectivity.
Not only the ownership of land and plantations but also, in the
majority of cases, the responsibilities are, according to custom,
collective.
We think it best to return to the method of collective imposts, though
we are far from ignoring its imperfections, especially in as much as
regards the just division of labour.
Each year the amount of impost should be fixed for a village according
to the approximate number of the inhabitants. The chiefs would see,
under the control of the authorities, to the distribution and to the
collection of the impost. They would be in return for this exempted
from the present services and would receive the support and protection
of the State. They would report the delinquents to a white man. He
would require the chief to turn such over to him, and in case of
necessity would arrest those who, because of their repeated refusal
to pay their impost, should make themselves liable to the coercive
measures.
In this system which we propose it can be seen that the chiefs will
be called upon to play an important rôle. In order that they may be
equipped for the successful discharge of their duties, the State ought
to begin by confirming and exalting their authority over their tribes.
Their rights and their powers over their subjects should, in so far as
they are compatible with the general laws of the State, be recognised
and endorsed.
The local government has, especially in this latter day, given
instructions of this sort; but, as we have said above, there is no
doubt but that many of the officials, especially the chiefs of posts
and subagents, have often followed the opposite principle.
Up to the present time the chiefs have been used for obtaining work
and prestations from the natives, making them personally responsible
for all of the delinquencies and all sorts of faults of their people
without recognising any authority or any rights on their part.
Therefore many of them have deserted or hidden themselves; others
steadfastly refused to come into contact with the white men. These
chiefs ought to realise that they would find assistance and protection
with the State agents.[14] And so supported by the State, the chiefs
would form in the entire Congo an extremely useful class, interested in
the maintenance of order to which they would devote their prestige and
their authority. This institution would become an important feature in
the administration and also the basis for the organisation of the State.
Everywhere the greatest prudence should be exercised in the choice of
the chiefs to be thus recognised. If it is desired that their authority
be real and at the same time that they should not abuse it, it would
be necessary so far as possible to grant the official investiture
only to the natural chiefs designated by custom or tradition. These,
in fact, govern frequently in a paternal manner; in every case their
authority is accepted by the people; the natives show for them great
respect and affection and it is very rare that they find fault with
them.[15]
It has been seen, on the contrary, that the complaints against the
black strangers in the village who were clothed with some authority,
were continual and in great number. It would, therefore, be necessary
to be careful not to choose chiefs outside of the village. If for any
good reason, the State should think it necessary to depose a natural
chief it would be well to appoint a successor from his family, or at
least from amongst the important men. It is impossible to repeat too
often that a foreign chief would only utilise the authority of the
State to the profit of his people: there is no tyrant more terrible
than a black placed over other blacks unless he is restricted by the
ties of race, of family or of tradition.
It must be remembered that through the assistance of the chiefs the
excessive demands can not be entirely eliminated. Chiefs themselves
should be kept within traditional limits; if they attempt too much they
will lose their authority and their people will leave them.
The duties with which we propose to invest the chief could never be,
according to our opinion, conferred upon the whites, for, without
mentioning the great expenses which such a system would entail, there
is no doubt but that subordinate agents—whose services would be
difficult to obtain—would find themselves exposed to continual dangers
and would be obliged to protect themselves by being accompanied by
armed negroes.
In addition, let us say in passing, it is desirable whenever possible
that the State make use of the service of the blacks in giving them
employment in proportion to their aptitude, without confiding to them
weapons except in special cases. It should exercise care to enlist
useful auxiliaries who would be, let us repeat, zealous in maintaining
the authority which they will have shared. To do otherwise in a country
where the European can not establish a permanent footing would be to
proclaim the sure destruction of the negro race by creating a class
of pariahs, contrary to the purpose which the State proposes for its
emancipation and civilisation.
The obligation to pay the impost in labour means necessarily the
restriction of the individual liberty of the native. The strict and
rigorous application of the system because of the continuity of the
impost would have in a certain degree the effect of restricting the
contributor to his village or to the post to which he is to furnish his
prestation. It could also, in many cases, impose upon him a work having
no relation to his special aptitude.
It would be just if the law should permit every native to discharge his
obligation of work by the payment annually or quarterly of a sum of
money or a definite quantity of produce. This tax could be calculated
by taking as a basis the value of the manual labour which the native
had to furnish as an impost. It could even be superior to this so that
the payer might not too easily exempt himself from the law of work.
This privilege would be of great value to those negroes who have
acquired a certain degree of instruction or who have a practical
education and do not enjoy the exemption granted by law to those who
are in the State service or who are working for private individuals.
In all such cases the native would be obliged to register in the
locality where he intended to reside.
We have acknowledged the necessity, in the Congo, of an impost of
work. The amount, fixed at forty hours a month, seems to us equitable.
Likewise we do not intend to question the justice of the principle of
coercion included in the law.
Still we think that in the application of this law, the agents ought to
show the greatest toleration.
One should never lose sight of the nature of the Congo native.
Without doubt, he ought to yield to the inflexible law of labour which
civilisation imposes upon him. The more he advances on the highway
of progress the more he will be obliged to work and, if some day his
condition should approach our social status, he will have, like the
Europeans, to work not only to pay his taxes but also to live.
With us, the great majority of the entire population must gain their
livelihood by labour, and those who refuse to submit to this law have
no other refuge than starvation, the prison or the poorhouse.
In a future, still quite remote, it may be the same with the black in
the Congo. But, let us repeat, the nature of a race cannot be changed
between today and tomorrow. It is only by steps, and slowly at that,
that one teaches the negro to become accustomed to labour.
Some demands which seem to us moderate could, under certain given
conditions, appear to them annoying and excessive. On the other hand,
if each negligence, each delinquency, however slight, called forth
coercion by a strict application of the law, no regulations could
prevent a recurrence of the acts which have been regrettable.
It should not be forgotten, in fact, that in the present condition of
the Congo population, the employment of force, even to insure respect
for the law, often has results out of proportion with the objects
sought. In the case of an individual delinquency, it is true, the
intervention of the chief, especially if his authority is re-enforced
as we have proposed, will sensibly diminish the difficulties inherent
in the application of coercive measures. But when it should arise that
there is a refusal to pay a collective impost—the case which up to
the present time has occurred with the greatest frequency—the chiefs,
however great might be their desire, would find themselves impotent.
The intervention of the army would then be necessary and frequently
this might provoke conflicts.
In fact, the natives in default would not respond to a simple
requisition. If they sought to escape, it would be necessary to follow
them into the forest; if they resisted, there would be some wounded
and probably killed; sometimes, even, one might see a recurrence of
the acts of savagery and barbarism which unfortunately attend the
combat between blacks. These events would not have in the eyes of the
Congo peoples, accustomed to the horrors of intertribal conflicts, the
same importance they have in ours, but it is easy to understand that
they would arouse public opinion amongst people who do not know the
condition of the country.
There would be produced, let us repeat, in spite of the instructions
and orders, however wise, in spite even of the prudence and
watchfulness which the agents would employ, the recurrence of the
savage instincts when one group of blacks should be sent against a
recalcitrant group, for in pursuit or in conflict their barbarous
natures quickly come to the surface.
It would undoubtedly be wrong to deduce from these considerations the
idea that all coercion should be abolished. The native can understand
and respect nothing but might and with this he confounds right. The
State ought to assure the triumph of law and, consequently, compel the
black to work. But if it wishes to avoid the regrettable consequences
which we have pointed out, it should, according to our ideas, make use
of this authority only in the last extremity—that is, to be specific,
we would suggest, only in the case of grave and repeated delinquencies
showing evil intentions.
In many regions, some force would have to be added to the bait of
remuneration. The native who is convinced that the white is stronger
and can, if he wishes, force him, readily yields if too much is not
demanded.
This method of procedure is also the only one which can lead to
permanent benefits, for the repeated employment of force, even if it
has the immediate advantage, ends by creating a void about the post.
The people leave, disappear or revolt. The physical resistance of the
natives is astonishingly feeble. They support with difficulty a sort of
life that causes them to depart from their customary habits.
It is hardly necessary to remark that any system of injurious violence
to the blacks would weaken the State or the company in its material
interests, for it would have the fatal consequence of diminishing or
destroying the production.
It can be seen, then, that it is a wise and prudent policy to demand
only what can be accepted by the native easily and secured without too
much coercion. In maintaining the principle of forty hours of labour a
month, it should never be forgotten that the law states implicitly that
this is a maximum which should only be attained by degrees.
This line of action ought to be followed, above all things, in the case
of tribes recently subjugated and who, consequently, are not used to
labour.
The impost then would be adjusted to the varying conditions of the
peoples, the State bearing in mind their aptitude for work and resting
content with but little when it is realised that more could not be
obtained except by the use of force.
This system, based on toleration and gentleness, would have the double
effect of making the conflicts less frequent and of inspiring the
natives little by little to acquire a taste for labour.
These ideas, however, are those which have already been expressed by
the Secretaries General in the report addressed to the King-Sovereign
under the date of July 15, 1900: “The plan which the Government
follows,” we read there, “is to exploit the Private Domain exclusively
by voluntary contributions on the part of the natives, inducing them to
work by the offer of a just and adequate remuneration.”
Besides, the application of this principle would not be prejudicial
to the Treasury as one might have reason to fear, for the State could
extend it to a greater number of contributors who would become better
able to pay as the demands decreased. It is not overbold to assert
that at the present time the great majority of the natives escape all
imposts, either because of the imperfect occupation of the territory
or the migration of the population who became frightened at the first
demands made upon them or by the actions of some of the agents.
The agents of all ranks should grasp this idea. They should realise
that their first duty is to safeguard the well-being of the people
whose affairs they are to administer, and that there is no merit to be
acquired in the use of force—a means convenient enough for obtaining an
immediate result, but which the lowest savage knows how to employ much
better than the civilised man. The State, on its part, ought to reserve
its favours for the agents who by their tact, their patience and their
moderation have succeeded in winning the love and confidence of their
charges and who know how to obtain in this way results which others
secure by violent methods.
As to commercial companies, from which, as will be seen later, we
propose to withdraw the right to exercise coercion, they should
know that if it is expected that the State will come to their aid
by stimulating the apathy of the natives by the impost of labour,
they, on their part, ought to endeavour to know better the needs of
the natives, and, in their interest as well as to the profit of the
natives, should follow those principles which prevail in all commercial
operations.
CHAPTER III
MILITARY EXPEDITIONS
_I. State Expeditions_
We shall not speak of the expeditions which had for their purpose the
subjugation of the natives or the suppression of their revolutions.
These operations were, in reality, acts of war with which we have
nothing to do, the rights of the State here coalescing with its duties.
Outside of this category there are military expeditions which are
right and necessary to insure the maintenance of order or the respect
for law, but such expeditions should not assume the character of war
in which martial law takes the place of civil law; they are police
operations in which the members, in doing everything that is requisite
for the restoration of order, must act within legal bounds and respect
the rights of the people.
It is the abusive military operations having a warlike nature, which
we feel ought to be mentioned. They are frequently occasioned by the
collection of imposts and the repression of offences.
The instructions of the Government fix the rules to be followed in all
police operations and consequently those that should serve as a guide
in those expeditions which have for their purpose the compelling of
natives to acquit themselves of the imposts.[16]
Often expeditions of this sort consist simply of a reconnoissance,
a peaceful trip, during which the white officer, obedient to the
instructions quoted, does nothing more than lead his troop into the
refractory or delinquent village. He places himself in touch with the
chiefs, showing the blacks, who respect nothing but force, the power of
the State and thus proving to them the folly of an obstinate attitude
that would bring them into conflict with the State. This method of
procedure has often had excellent results.
It is perfectly right that in the course of this expedition the troops
should arrest the delinquents in order to coerce them in accordance
with the law.
Unfortunately the expedition did not at all times have this specific
character and its good effect. Sometimes it has been deemed necessary
to act more energetically.
In these cases the order issued by the superior officer to the
commanding officer of the expedition usually instructed him to “remind
the natives of their duties.”
The vague generalities of such orders, and in certain cases, the
thoughtlessness of the one to whom is charged their execution have
frequently had as a consequence unjustifiable loss of life.
However, it should be understood that the task of the officers to whom
such missions are confided is the most delicate and most difficult.
It most frequently happens that the natives flee at the approach of
the troops without offering any resistance. The tactics generally
followed consisted then in the occupation of the abandoned village or
the plantations which are near by. Driven by hunger the natives return
either singly or in small groups. They are arrested and compelled to
surrender the chiefs or the important men who, nearly always, submit,
promising never again to fail in their obligations, and sometimes in
addition are required to pay a fine. But it sometimes happens that the
natives return slowly. One of the plans usually followed in such cases
is to send out search parties and beat the bush, with instructions to
bring such natives as they may find. The dangers of this system are
easily seen. The armed black left to himself feels the recurrence of
the sanguinary instinct which the strictest discipline is scarcely able
to restrain. It is during this service that most of the murders are
committed which are ascribed to the State. This has been pointed out in
the case of the expedition in the neighbourhood of Monsembe which was
the subject of a complaint made by the Rev. M. Weeks.
The Government recognises the abuses inherent in this plan and has
positively forbidden the search parties not commanded by a white man,
but these orders have often been violated in spite of the punishment
upon the guilty agent.
The form of operation which presents still greater difficulties is the
expedition sent out to capture the fugitives.
It often happens that the natives in order to avoid the payment of the
imposts, especially the rubber tax, migrate either singly or as a mass
and establish themselves in another region or even in another district.
The detachment of troops is then sent to bring back the fugitives
either by persuasion or after a combat.
The laws of the State guarantee in a most complete manner personal
liberty to the natives, who enjoy the same right as the white to go and
come throughout the entire territory. Such at least the courts have
decided, but in the recent circulars the local government seems to have
contested this right, in so far as regards the permanent migration of
the natives. These circulars, starting from the principle that land
actually occupied belongs to the State, conclude as a consequence that
the native can not locate elsewhere than in the village of his birth
without obtaining beforehand the authorisation of the State.
After what we have said regarding the land system, it is easily seen
that we can not accept this form of reasoning.
Since it is almost always for the purpose of avoiding the imposts that
the natives move about, the State can be expected to bring them back to
their homes and villages and to impose upon them work, using only its
right of coercion, and after having brought the contributors back to
their homes it could subject them to imprisonment and enforced labour.
But this reasoning is not sufficient to justify the use of arms against
a population whose rebellion, if this term may be employed here, has
been purely passive.
The military expedition sometimes takes on a character still more
repressive. We shall now speak of those operations which have been
called “punitive expeditions,” whose purpose is to inflict an exemplary
punishment upon a village or a group of natives who have been guilty of
some crime or serious resistance against the authority of the State.
The order given to the commanding officer of a detachment was
generally expressed in the following way: “N—— is instructed to
punish or chastise such and such a village.” The Commission knows of
several expeditions of this type the results of which were frequently
murderous. One can not be astonished at it. For in the course of
delicate operations which have for their purpose the taking of hostages
and the intimidating of natives a supervision is not always possible to
hold in check the sanguinary instinct of the black, for when the order
of punishment comes from a superior authority it is very hard to keep
the expedition from assuming the character of a massacre accompanied by
pillage and the destruction of property.
Military action of this character always exceeds its purpose, the
punishment being out of proportion to the fault. It involves in the
same repression the guilty and the innocent.
The ties of solidarity which, we do not hesitate to recognise it,
unite, in general, the inhabitants of the same village or all the
natives who depend upon a single chief; the necessity for the white
man, often isolated in regions where the regular operations of justice
are not assured, to protect himself or his auxiliaries against the
aggressions of the savage population which is only held in check by
the show of a superior force: this can explain the expeditions of
this sort, in general, in the African colonies; but, according to our
opinion, it can only justify them in exceptional cases and to the
extent that they do coincide with, the sacred right which we call
personal safety.
Although we were compelled to classify by categories the different
kinds of military expeditions it is easily understood that the
character of these operations can not always be distinguished with
such precision as our statement may cause one to think. Personal
dispositions, greater or less coolness of the officers, the greater or
less familiarity with the African affairs, and the important factors
which influence in a great degree the issue of the expedition they
command. A military march which at the beginning was intended to be
peaceful may, during its course, take on a form both violent and
regrettable.
The responsibility for these abuses should not always fall wholly upon
the officer in command; one must keep in mind the deplorable confusion
which still exists in the Upper Congo between the state of war and the
state of peace, between administration and repression, and between
those whom one should regard as enemies and those who ought to be
regarded as citizens of the State and treated accordingly.
The Commission was struck by the general tone of the reports relative
to the operations we have just been describing. Often the leaders
of these expeditions, although stating that the expedition had been
occasioned by the delinquency on the part of the natives in making
the prestation, and without even referring to an attack or the
resistance on the part of the natives which alone should justify the
use of arms, speak in their reports of “surprise of villages,” of
“desperate pursuits,” of “number of enemies killed or wounded,” of
“booty,” of “prisoners of war,” of “conditions of peace.” Evidently
these soldiers were thinking of war; they acted as if at war. This
is certainly not otherwise than what their chiefs intended. In
transmitting these reports to the superior authority what, in general,
did the District Commissioners mean by the caption “information
and consideration”?—Observations of military tactics, of praise in
regard to the order followed in the march or the disposition which
preceded the attack. Very rarely did they see if the use of arms was
justifiable. Under these conditions we are tempted to excuse the
subordinates who did not take too literally the pacific character of
their commission.
This condition can not be prolonged. In the interest of the population
and in that of the agents of the State it is important that the natives
should not find themselves treated all at once as enemies beyond the
law, and on the other hand such measures ought to be taken that will
prevent officers who conduct in good faith operations of war from being
compelled to answer for these operations to the courts as a violation
of the common law.
The Decree of Dec. 18, 1888, provided that a region could be subjected
to especial military rule, but the results of this measure are simply
to extend the competency of the court-martial to include certain crimes
as punishable by death and to withdraw the right of appeal from the
natives and from the soldiers; but no other change is made by the
Decree as to the rights of the people. This Decree can not have as its
object the substitution of military procedure for judicial action.
A law ought to specify clearly what authorities can declare the
“operations of war,” also determine the conditions under which they
are to be undertaken and what form they should assume. Then it would be
definitely known when one is under martial law and when under the civil
law of the State. Then too, an officer in leading a simple expedition
with police functions for the purpose of compelling the natives to pay
their imposts would realise that he was not marching in a “hostile”
country; that his mission was to remind the natives of their obligation
to the State in accordance with the law; that only in cases of
serious attack are arms to be used; and that, if in the course of the
operations there should be any wounded or killed, a court of enquiry
should be convened to consider the legality of the defence, establish
the responsibility and prosecute, in case of necessity, the guilty
whoever they may be.
Orders relative to such operations should be so explicit that neither
the superior nor the subaltern, in case abuses resulted, could claim
vagueness or interpret the order in such a way as to permit of escape
from responsibility.
In any event it ought to be well understood that the mere act of delay
or negligence in the payment of imposts, in case it should call for the
application of coercive measures, does not justify the characterisation
of such operations as warlike.
We hasten to say, however, that military expeditions of this kind have
become, in most of the districts, rare.
_II. Expeditions Sent out by the Companies_
The companies can never send out armed expeditions. They are permitted
to have at each of their factories twenty-five Albini rifles, of which
twenty are for the exclusive purpose of repelling attacks to which
they may be subjected by the natives. The other five can be assigned,
under special permission, to men detailed to escort the whites in the
trips which they must make throughout the territory included within
the concession. In addition to these improved weapons, muzzle-loading
(flint-lock) guns can be entrusted to the black _capitas_ at isolated
stations, who must be supplied with a permit to have arms. “These
guns,” says a circular of the Governor General, “can be taken out
from the factories only singly. They cannot pass out of the hands
of the commercial companies into the hands of groups more or less
important nor be used by an offensive force.” In spite of this formal
interdiction, it has happened on several occasions that the commercial
agents have made visits escorted by a number of men armed with Albini
rifles in excess of the number permitted by the instructions. It has
also happened that these visits have assumed the character of real
military expeditions. In some cases armed bands have been sent into
villages of natives without being accompanied by any whites. During
these irregular operations the greatest abuses have been committed;
men have been killed as well as women and children, often even when
they were fleeing; others have been made prisoners and the wives taken
as hostages. From the documents and judicial reports that have been
examined by the Commission it appears that acts of this sort have
taken place, notably in Mongala. In the Abir concession visited by
the Commission, similar abuses were denounced by the missionaries of
the Congo Balolo Mission as well as by the deputies and many native
witnesses appeared to confirm these declarations. The deputies likewise
reported armed expeditions undertaken by agents of the Lomami and the
Kassai companies. More than that, the reports of the commercial agents
as well as the many sentences passed by the courts prove beyond a doubt
the existence of these reprehensible acts. The greater part of the
whites now in prison in Boma are under punishment for crimes of this
sort.
Many times the agents of the companies, who take part in these
expeditions or who order them, thought they had the right to claim
the “police authority” which is conferred upon them. But this error
of interpretation is no longer admissible since the circular of the
Governor General dated October 20, 1900, reminding the companies that
the police authority is “never the right to carry on offensive military
operations, to make war against the natives, but simply gives the
authority to requisition, for the purpose of maintaining order or
establishing it, the armed force that is in the concession or outside
actually under the command of State officers.”
The Government has, in fact, placed upon certain concessions a police
force charged with the protection and supervision of the territory
which is directly under the authority of the District Commissioner. The
directors of the companies may summons them directly in case of extreme
need. From what we could see it seems that these troops are devoted to
the directors and agents, who call upon them every time the pecuniary
interests of the company are involved.
_The Mutilations_
It is chiefly in the course of the armed expeditions that the acts of
mutilation took place to which several witnesses, and especially the
Protestant missionaries, called the attention of the Commission.
At Lake Tumba, at Ikoko, the missionaries and several blacks told us
that they saw, about 1895, in a canoe occupied by soldiers, a basket
containing a dozen or twenty hands. Reverend Mr. Clark declared that
at about the same time he saw in a canoe some hands fastened to a
stick; they seemed to have been smoked. Both canoes were turned towards
Bikoro. A native stated that these hands were shown to the chief of the
Bikoro post and Mr. Clark reports that this same agent, now deceased,
pointing to his dog said of him: “There is a cannibal dog, he eats
hands that have been cut off.”
The same missionary, Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Whitman told us that on
several occasions they saw natives killed in the course of expeditions
made by the State, from whom the right hand had been cut off. Mr. and
Mrs. Clark, also a black witness, testified to having seen a little
girl whose right hand had been cut off during an expedition and who
died at the end of six months, notwithstanding the best medical care,
and also a woman whose hand had been similarly amputated. These
missionaries finally told us of a native named Mola who had lost both
hands as the results of the brutalities inflicted by a soldier. This
was confirmed by an investigation.[17]
Some black witnesses, coming from the district of Lake Leopold II.,
presented by Mr. Scrivener at Bolobo, declared that five or six years
ago, their village being occupied by State troops after a battle, they
saw seven genital organs taken from natives killed during the fight,
and hung from a vine fastened to two sticks in front of the cabin
occupied by the white.
The Commission also saw several mutilated persons.
At Coquilhatville we questioned the persons named Epondo and Ikabo.
Epondo had his left hand cut off and Ikabo his right.
Mr. Clark at Ikobo brought before us Mputila from Yembe (Lake Tumba)
who had lost his right hand.
Reverend Mr. Lower at Ikau brought before us Imponge from N’Songo, a
boy apparently about fifteen years old, who had lost his right hand and
left foot.
Reverend Mr. Harris at Baringa showed to us a person named Isekosu
and the woman Boali, the former without his right hand and the latter
without her right foot.
Epondo, repeating the story which he had told before, declared that he
had lost his left hand as the result of a bite from a wild boar one day
when he was hunting with his master.[18]
Imponge declares that, in his infancy, some sentries having attacked
his village, his father fled carrying him in his arms. After a time his
father dropped him in the brush so that he could run faster. A sentry
saw him and cut off his right hand and left foot so as to take off the
copper rings which he wore. This was confirmed by the father.
The woman Boali said that a _capita_, whose advances she had repulsed,
shot her and thinking her dead, cut off her foot so as to be able to
remove her anklet.
The three other mutilated persons said about as follows: “The soldiers
(or sentries) came to make war in our village. I had been wounded and
had fallen unconscious upon the ground. A soldier (or sentry) thinking
me dead, cut off my hand.” Mr. Monney, chief of the post at Bikoro,
said that he saw besides Mola, three other natives with their right
hands cut off; all had made the same statements.
From all of the cases verified by the Commission, it seems that the
mutilation of the dead body is an ancient custom which does not have,
in the eyes of the natives, the horrible character which it does in
ours. The cutting off of certain parts of the body fills the native’s
desire for procuring either a trophy or simply a piece of evidence.
Mutilation of enemies who were killed in the wars between natives of
certain regions, is frequent. Even at the present time the black who
wishes to show tangible proof of the death of another and can not show
the dead body usually shows the hands and the feet of the same. Thus
quite recently, a native of Wala (near Baringa) brought to the Baringa
Mission a foot and a hand of a child which he had cut off. He came to
complain that the child had been murdered by a sentry. Some time after
the natives of N’Songo brought to Mrs. Harris two hands which they had
cut off, saying that they were those of two men killed by the sentries.
In 1902 a native came to the judge of Coquilhatville to denounce the
killing of a relative in a quarrel. As a proof of what he said he
produced the hand of the dead man which he had cut off and smoked.
One ought not to be astonished if the blacks enlisted in the
constabulary have not been able to give up at once this ancient custom
and if in order to furnish to their chiefs a proof of their bravery in
war have occasionally carried home the trophy taken from the bodies
of their enemies. It is more than likely that at the beginning of the
occupation certain white agents have tolerated this barbarous custom
or at least did not do all that was in their power to eradicate it.
There result from this the regrettable acts pointed out to us and which
we have confirmed: the mutilation of living persons whom the soldiers
of the sentry had thought dead. As to the mutilation of Imponge and
the woman Boali, work of avaricious sentries, they had theft as a
motive. Beyond these cases it then seems that the mutilations have
never had the character of torture inflicted voluntarily and knowingly.
However that may be, one point is beyond doubt, the white man has
never inflicted or intended to inflict as a punishment for failure to
make the prestation or for other causes, such mutilations upon living
natives. Acts of this sort have not been reported by a single witness,
nor have we discovered any, notwithstanding all our investigations.
CHAPTER IV
THE CONCESSIONS
As we have just seen, it is upon portions of the territory exploited
by the companies holding concessions that the greatest abuses are
committed.
A concession means the right granted in return for a money
consideration to commercial companies that permits them to gather for
their sole profit certain products of the State Domain. The principal
companies of this sort are: _Société Anversoise du Commerce au Congo_
(S. C. A., Mongala basin); the _Abir_ (Lopori and Maringa basins,
formerly the _Anglo-Belge_); _Isangi_, recently leased by the Abir;
_Comptoir Commercial Congolais_ (C. C. C., established in the Kwango
basin).
Other companies, such as the _Lomami, Société anonyme belge, pour le
Commerce du Haut-Congo_ (S. A. B., in the Busira) and the _Comité
spécial du Katanga_, exploit territory of which they are owners. In
exchange for the right of exploitation which it concedes, the State
receives a considerable part (often the half) of the stock of the
company.
The thought is far from us to contest the right of the State to concede
the exploitation privilege of certain parts of its domains. It can even
be said that at present this plan is imposed by conditions, for the
State did not have at its disposal either the necessary men or money
to develop such a vast area; it found itself compelled to rely upon
the initiative of private parties and it accepted with gratitude the
assistance that was offered by the bold financiers who were willing to
risk their capital in enterprises that at first seemed hazardous.
But, considering the dislike of the native for work and his few wants,
the exploitation of the forests of the domain under the operations of
the law of supply and demand could not have continued very long. After
having exhausted the immediate neighbourhood of the villages, the work
of the gatherers became more difficult and the use of coercion was
necessary to arouse the blacks from their apathy. In order to permit
the companies to make use of this, the State, claiming the right to
a certain amount of work as a prestation, delegated a portion of
its powers to the concessions; in other words, it authorised these
companies to require of the blacks work in the rubber forests as well
as other forms of prestation and to exercise the power of coercion to
obtain them. This authorisation, at first tacit, was formulated in the
Decree of November 18, 1903, which imposed upon the natives of all
territories the impost of forty hours’ work each month and allowed
the Governor General to empower the commercial agents to collect this
impost. Even before this administrative act, these companies compelled
the native to gather for their benefit the fruits of the domain,
observing always the principle of remuneration.
It is the way in which the companies make use of the right to coerce
that is the source of the greater part of the complaints coming from
their regions.
The concessions, being commercial, have in view profits and not
civilisation or humanitarian ends. The inconveniences that result from
their double functions can be easily seen. They are, at one and the
same time, commercial agents stimulated by the hope of great gain and,
in a certain measure, officials, since they are entrusted with the
collection of imposts. It should also not be forgotten that for many
years the amount of impost was not fixed by law, the agents themselves
determining this. The vagueness in the matter of imposts in kind exists
even under the Decree of November 18, 1903. In fact, as we have said,
a maximum is demanded of each native, which is never reached, leaving
a considerable margin within which the agent can exercise his demands
at his discretion. Since the higher officials and directors derive
a greater profit from the rubber than do the subalterns, it can be
seen that they carefully watch the actions of the latter. Finally,
the field from which the companies can select their agents is limited
and those who present themselves do not always possess a guarantee of
intelligence, morality and needful tact.
We should add that the State supervision over these territories ought
to be made more effective. Let us take for example, the Abir company,
whose territory comprises the Lopori basin and the Maringa and now
extends as far as the Congo River (Isangi).
There is in this immense concession only one State agent, the
commandant of the police force stationed at Basankusu. Although he has
judicial functions, he has never reported to the superior authorities
any illegalities that have been committed in his district. His tasks
have been limited to suppressing the revolts of the natives, or calling
the refractory villages to their work, and we are forced to think that
he has no other duty to perform since his instructions, which we have
seen, were always in relation to these matters.
Some of the Commissioners in the Equator District have made visits in
their regions, but they have usually gone for the purpose of fixing the
imposts, as appears from their reports.
Only three times have the magistrates gone into the concession to
investigate matters that have been reported to them; they were
compelled to make the trip in the boats belonging to the company—the
State not having any service in this region—and thus found themselves
forced to accept the hospitality of the agents upon whom they were to
report.
It is easily seen that the company on which the State has imposed no
guardianship, thinks itself absolute mistress in its own domain and
one must not be surprised if the general laws of the State are openly
disregarded.
What are the remedies that could put an end to such a condition?
The ideal plan would be that the State, confining itself to the
proper rôle, should not relinquish, in any part of its territory,
the slightest particle of its sovereign rights; that it discharge
everywhere the duty incumbent upon it to civilise the land and to see
to its moral and material development; to limit the imposition of taxes
to articles harvested or exported, leaving to traders the exploitation
of the natural resources of the country. But the difficulties of
exploiting under the operations of the law of supply and demand,
especially when it is necessary to rely upon the manual labour of the
native, are so great that, as said before, we do not think the plan
feasible at the present time.
The ideal which we have pointed out can not be achieved immediately.
We do not think that there is any occasion for the State to extend the
concessions now existing nor to grant new ones. The present companies
will continue to exploit the territory which has been granted to them;
their agents can in certain cases be delegated to receive from the
natives the products of the forty hours’ labour which the State imposes
upon them; but it is well understood that the Government can not confer
upon them the right of coercion which has caused much abuse and which
in the hands of the commercial agents would continue to do so. For
it is evident that the conferring of this power implies the authority
to make use of armed force and prisons, the privilege of sending out
expeditions to arrest the delinquents and to make use of arms in case
of resistance. This authority could only perpetuate the unfortunate
occurrences which we have pointed out.
No one but State officials, absolutely independent of the companies and
entirely indifferent to their interests, should be authorised to impose
coercion. It should be their duty to examine in every case the reason
and occasion for the imposition of enforced labour.
The State should, moreover, maintain the most rigid supervision over
the companies, establish, in the concession, courts composed of
trained judges, and organise public service, postal routes, means of
transportation, medical assistance and hospitals. It ought also to
remind the different companies that in receiving the right to collect
the impost for their profit, they assumed towards the State and
towards the natives, its subjects, obligations which seem to have been
ignored. If after the withdrawal of coercion the abuses referred to
recur, the line of action of the State would clearly be: in virtue of
their charter the companies should continue the right of exploiting
certain products of the domain for a definite period; it is a right
which can not be taken from them without indemnity; but the concession
holders can, at the option of the State, be or not be commissioned
to receive the prestations of the natives. The commission granted
by the Government is essentially temporary and revocable. Now, as we
have seen, the withdrawal of the commission could as an immediate
consequence make the concession void. It is well to say it and to
repeat it. We have reason to suppose that the fear of such action
would be sufficient to stimulate the vigilance of the companies and
remind them of a strict discharge of their duties. If they should do
otherwise, we are convinced that the State would know its duty.
At the present time the total amount of impost from the territory under
the concession is for the benefit of the company, and the State derives
only the benefit that comes from the dividend on the stock it holds.
These companies have done nothing in the interests of the natives nor
improved the conditions in the regions occupied. It would be right and
proper for the State, when it grants the privilege of collecting the
prestations for their profit, to impose in proportion to the favours
bestowed, the obligation to contribute from their profits funds for the
organisation of public improvements.
In certain regions that have not been under a concession, the native
gathers the products of the domain in the interests of the companies
and under the operations of an indirect coercion.
These regions are those in which the State, by the Decree of October
30, 1892, turned over to private companies the exploitation of rubber.
In the greater part of the Kassai basin, under this plan, there are
several companies which form a trust so as to eliminate competition,
constituting the Kassai company (C. K.). This trust was organised under
the laws of the Congo, but it did not receive a concession, properly so
called, like the Abir or the S. C. A. Its representatives do not enjoy
the privilege of levying an impost. It cannot collect the rubber and
other forest products except by treating directly with the native.
But if, in principle, the native is completely free to gather or not
gather, to sell or not sell, he finds himself in fact, at least in the
Sankuru basin, indirectly forced to devote himself to the work. In
reality he is subjected to a State tax. Now this tax must be paid in a
local currency called _croisette_, and this can be obtained only from
the traders who demand rubber in exchange for it.
In addition to this coercion other abuses resulting from this system
have been pointed out to us.
The quantity of rubber which the company requires in exchange for the
croisette is left more or less arbitrary. More than that, the person
who is in charge of the factory and knows a native will not work after
he has secured the number of croisettes necessary to pay his impost, is
careful most of the time to pay the native in some sort of merchandise
other than croisette.
From information collected by the Commission it seems certain that
the payment made the native in return for his rubber is less than the
remuneration allowed by the State under similar conditions and on the
other hand the quantity demanded is greater.
In other Districts, especially Lulonga, the district lying between the
mouth of Lomami and the station of Stanleyville which we visited, the
factories buy directly from the native the rubber collected by him. The
native is not compelled to pay any impost, Article VIII, of the Decree
of October 30, 1892, being observed there. All the same, he considers
himself obliged to gather rubber for the factories. The following
fact shows that the relations between factories and the natives are
not considered by the latter as having a commercial character: in the
region of the station of Stanleyville the blacks offered to an agent of
a Dutch firm to surrender completely the remuneration which had been
allowed them on condition that the company would reduce to one-half the
quantity of rubber demanded.
It is easily understood that the evils of the system are less in the
territories where competition between companies keeps the remuneration
at a reasonable figure than in those regions where there is but one
company. Thus the Commission received no complaint from the zone of the
Falls where four companies established their officers and where the
Rev. Messrs. Stapleton and Millman, missionaries of the B. M. S. at
Yakasu, express their complete satisfaction relative to the material
and moral condition of the country.
These people, said Mr. Stapleton, afford a means of comparison between
the present condition and that of the time of Arab domination and the
result of the comparison is altogether in favor of the present.
In the Lulonga, on the contrary, abuses were pointed out to us for
which the concessions were held responsible; methods of illegal
coercion were employed and the sentry system was in force. The lash was
in common use, as the Commission of enquiry found and as the agents in
charge of factories themselves confessed.
From what precedes one can conclude, we think, that everywhere in the
Congo, and notwithstanding appearances to the contrary, the native
gathers rubber only under coercion, either direct or indirect.
We do not think that at the present time, except perhaps in Kasai and
certain parts of the Eastern Province, it would be possible under
the operations of the law of supply and demand, to collect rubber by
means of the native, if left to himself, at least in such a way as to
constitute a regular business. However, as the contrary is asserted and
as a trial alone can show what there is of truth in our fears or in
the hopes of the merchants, we think it would be well for the State,
as an experiment, to renounce in one or more of the rubber districts
its claim upon the products of the domain. The traders who should come
there would treat directly with the natives; they would be relieved
from all imposts and would be induced to work by the desire for the
remuneration offered. It would be, in effect, to try the experiment
which could have been made by the application of the Decree of October
30, 1892. The result of this attempt, if tried, could furnish some
information that would be useful in the future. In order that this
experience might not be false in its essentials, the State, it is
hardly necessary to say, should carefully see to it that no coercion,
even moral, is imposed upon the native. It should, in addition,
facilitate as far as possible the installation in the region of a
large number of traders by selling to them at a low figure the ground
necessary for the installation of the factories.
CHAPTER V
DEPOPULATION
Several missionaries heard by the Commission reported the depopulation
which they had verified in certain regions with which they were
particularly familiar. It is evident that the Commission was not able
itself to form a definite opinion regarding this statement. However, if
the word of Stanley is accepted, it is certain that a large part of the
population has disappeared, for going from Stanley Pool to New Antwerp
and even further up, the banks of the river are almost deserted. It is
easily realised that it was the river population which, being first
reached by the requirements of the whites, had sought to avoid these
prestations and fled to the French bank or to those parts of the
territory where they thought the impost could not reach them. Sometimes
the population was drained by the frequent enrollment of soldiers or of
workmen; such has been the fate of the villages immediately below New
Antwerp. Their inhabitants have been scattered rather than destroyed.
It is known how the Bangalas, who at the time of occupation formed a
large part of the native portion of the constabulary and made up the
entire crew of the marine, were scattered along the entire river and
throughout a large part of the Congo territory as is shown by the fact
that the commercial vernacular comes from their language.
The missionaries also express the opinion that in certain regions where
the military expeditions had been numerous and where the imposts, badly
distributed, weighed too heavily on certain villages, the anxiety
and the depression resulting from this state of affairs had caused
the depopulation; the natives lacking confidence constructed only
temporary shelters which protected them poorly from the inclemencies
of the weather; at the slightest alarm they fled into the forests and
the islands in the river; hence the considerable mortality. Messrs.
Weeks and Gilchrist see in this condition the explanation of the
great diminution which has come to the population of the banks of the
river and the mouth of the Lulonga. Mr. Clark also explained that the
numerous wars with the State had caused the depopulation reported in
the region of Lake Tumba. We ourselves have noticed the disastrous
effects of porterage and showed that the excessive labour imposed upon
the natives in the neighbourhood of certain large posts had the effect
of depopulating the country.
But another feature of the question must not be neglected, perhaps
the most important, at least so far as concerns the river population.
We wish to speak of the suppression of the slave trade which was
flourishing along the entire river and whose most active centre was at
the junction of the Lulonga and the Congo. The State, in putting an
end to this traffic, gave a mortal blow to the prosperity of the slave
dealers, the greater part of whom have disappeared from the river banks
together with the commerce which they had fostered.
All of these causes of depopulation are secondary in importance. The
effect of all these factors united fades away in comparison with
the ravages committed during the past few years by smallpox and
the sleeping sickness. Great smallpox epidemics have decimated the
population of certain districts, especially the eastern part of Lake
Leopold. These epidemics have been made still more fatal by the habit
which the natives have of abandoning in the forest those who are
attacked by the disease. The patient left, most of the time, without
care and nourishment, soon dies.
The sleeping sickness, this terrible scourge, for which science has as
yet found no remedy, has followed in its devastating march the banks of
the great river and is now penetrating the interior.
The Congo State is forced to battle against this double scourge.
It has urged its physicians to vaccinate everywhere the personnel
of the stations and to render immune even the inhabitants of the
native villages. It has built in the principal places of the district
hospitals for the black patients. The Commission visited several. That
at Boma, a superb edifice built of brick, surrounded by subsidiary
buildings, reserved for blacks with contagious diseases, deserves all
possible praise.[19]
The old hospital at Leopoldville, which gave occasion to well-founded
criticisms, has disappeared and been replaced by an installation which,
without having the importance and comfort of that of Boma, completely
meets the actual needs.
The State supports the Bacteriological Institute at Leopoldville where
the scientists are investigating the causes of the mysterious sleeping
sickness. Certain Catholic and Protestant missions are endeavouring to
diminish, as far as possible, the ravages of this disease by isolating
the blacks, who are attacked, in sanitaria constructed for this purpose
on the river islands or in out-of-the-way places. Dr. Royal Dye of the
Bolengi Mission is making interesting experiments which promise good
results.
Finally, the entire world has followed with interest the expedition
organised by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. One of the
members, Dr. Dutton, has just succumbed in this task.
We shall have mentioned all of the causes of depopulation when we
have referred to the frequency with which the native women resort to
abortive practices.
Some of the Protestant missionaries have told us that the women avoid
having children so that they may always be in better condition to flee
in case of the coming of a military expedition. Abortion exists, that
is certain, but it is attributable to a superstitious idea, encouraged
by the sorcerers, against which the missionaries of all denominations
are compelled to struggle; according to this both the husband and the
wife are condemned to death in case continence is not observed during
the suckling of an infant. Now as this period sometimes lasts two or
three years, this firmly rooted belief explains at once the relatively
small number of infants one sees in certain sections and at the same
time, the persistence of polygamy.
From what has gone before, it must not be believed that the population
is everywhere on the decrease or that the union is always sterile. We
have observed that in the Lopori and the Maringa basins, as well as
upon the banks of the Congo River from Mobeka to the Falls, there are
numerous villages and a considerable number of infants.
CHAPTER VI
THE ABANDONED INFANTS
The Decree of July 12, 1890, has conferred upon the State the
guardianship “of the infants obtained as the result of the arrest or
the dispersion of a slave convoy, of those of fugitive slaves who claim
its protection, of infants forsaken, abandoned or who are orphans, and
of others towards whom the parents do not discharge their duty in the
way of support and education.”
_I. Colonies of the State_
Article II of the Decree says that there shall be created for this
purpose “agricultural and training colonies where there shall be
admitted other children belonging to the category named in Article I
and as far as may be possible those who should request admission.”
Some colonies, called educational colonies, have been founded at Boma
and at New Antwerp. Here the first important step has been taken by the
State for the establishment in the Congo of public instruction and the
beneficial effect of these measures can not be questioned. Moreover,
it will be at once seen how useful to the State it will be to have
these black pupils relatively instructed from which to draw excellent
servants, good soldiers, and workmen of all sorts. The children remain
under the guardianship of the State until the age of 25 years.
The program of study outlined in general by the order of April 23,
1898, is well planned. The day is divided between study, military
exercise under the instruction of a non-commissioned officer, and
manual labour.
The young natives can be admitted to the colony up to the age of 12.
They pursue three courses, or three years of study. Those who show
especial aptitude are, at the end of the first or second year, relieved
from military exercises. At the end of the third year a separation is
made. One part of the pupils is turned into the public constabulary and
the other part enters the State administration.
The Commission, while recognising the great interest aroused by this
educational initiative taken by the State, examined with especial care
the questions raised by the Decree of July 12, 1890. Though fully
approving, as a whole, the principle of the institution, the Commission
does not ignore the fact that certain serious criticisms can be urged
against some features of the system as it is now conducted.
As a consequence of the forceful abolition of slavery, the only class
of infants that can now supply the colonies is that of abandoned
infants, or orphans; but how are the expressions contained in the
decree to be interpreted? It has been said that the infants of this
class, according to the native classification, are rare. Although
orphaned by the loss of both father and mother, the young black is
hardly ever forsaken by his relatives. It is not infrequent to hear
a black speak of his fathers and his mothers. By that he means his
uncles and his aunts, and in case of a lack of those to whom he owes
his life, those towards whom he must discharge filial duties have a
claim upon him. These parents, in the native meaning of the term, feel
themselves injured when a child which they had nourished and reared
up to the present time, is taken from them, and even torn from its
village, in order to become a pupil of the State, separated from its
natural protectors whom it could not distinguish from its real father
and mother. There is, then, a certain injustice when one interprets
literally the provisions of the first article of the decree.
Now it appears that this is the interpretation that has prevailed up to
the present time. The State has been forced to endure the reproach of
“recruiting,” under the guise of assistance, but against the wishes of
those interested, the young people destined to fill the ranks of its
constabulary.
The second criticism that we shall formulate is not of a general
character and applies to the special condition that existed in the Boma
school colony at the time of the Commission’s visit. Enjoying only a
limited grant, this establishment, though founded ten years ago, has
not been able to properly develop its installation. The dormitories are
built of bamboo. The cold wind of the night penetrates and the children
thus exposed contract pulmonary diseases which the natives only feebly
resist; for this reason there is a large death-rate amongst the pupils
of the State.
The present Director of the colony realising that such a condition was
intolerable, undertook to replace these dormitories by solid brick
buildings. But lacking necessary funds he was obliged to employ the
young pupils themselves to do the work. Children of from six to twelve
years of age had to dry and carry bricks. To do this their studies
were completely interrupted and the children, without benefit to their
intellectual development or even practical development, were changed
into workmen and kept at labour beyond their endurance.
Undoubtedly it will suffice to call attention to this state of affairs
so prejudicial to the pupils of the State to insure a prompt remedy.
There remains for us to call attention to a defect more serious, since
it affects the system itself and will be of a nature to violate the
spirit of the law by making it detract from its humanitarian purpose.
As we have said under Article III of the Decree the children remain
under the guardianship of the State until their 25th year. This period
is excessive. The Decree does not recognise the conditions of the life
of the native. The length of life of the black seldom exceeds 30 or 35
years; the age of the adult is his sixteenth year and the result of the
provisions of the Decree as stated is to keep the pupils of the State
in a semi-perpetual minority.
It is true, as we have said, that according to Article XII of the Order
of the Governor General dated April 23, 1898, the children having
followed the course for three years can, if they are 14 years of age,
be detailed to the constabulary or leave the colony to carry on the
trade or profession which they have learned there. But the guardianship
of the State continues to weigh upon them, and in fact, neither the one
nor the other derives any great advantage from the education and the
instruction which they have received.
The lot of the former colonists, who have become labourers for
the State, or been given some special employment, is still more
unsatisfactory.
In spite of the labour (incomparably harder than that of the soldiers)
which they must perform and notwithstanding the special aptitude
they may show, these young men are treated as in the ranks of the
constabulary and receive the same pay, which in all cases is much less
than is received by a person having equal education or training working
independently.
According to the opinion of the Director of the Colony this is
fatal. The inferior condition of the pupils of the State is known
to their comrades and is the cause of derision to which they are
subject when they leave. The designation _Koloni_ is an epithet of
opprobrium. Instead of furnishing the elements of a conservative
class, one enlightened and helpful to the State as a civilising agency
from which those competent to judge would wish to draw, they become
revolutionists, dissatisfied and a greater source of danger to the
State in proportion as their course of instruction was more complete.
_2. The Children Gathered in the Missions_
We have spoken until now of the children collected and educated by the
State itself. It now remains for us to occupy ourselves with a larger
category, those who are confided to the care of the missions.
According to the terms of the Decree of March 4, 1892, the State
authorised “the legal representatives of philanthropic associations and
religious Orders to receive in the agricultural schools and training
colonies which they direct, native children who, according to law, come
under the guardianship of the State.”
The Catholic missions have been about the only ones to profit by the
Decree of 1892. The Protestants are, as a rule, hostile to the system
of school colonies. The Foreign Christian Missionary Society, which
shelters in its establishment at Bolengi a small number of abandoned
children, forms in this respect an exception amongst the evangelical
missions.
With the exception of the military drill these children are under the
same routine as those who are under immediate control of the State.
And the greater part of the criticisms of which we have spoken are
justified here. However, in point of view of lodgings and the work to
which the children are assigned, the Commission can not repeat, as a
result of the different missions visited, the observations that it
had to make regarding the present situation at the Boma colony. On
the contrary, the Commission can testify to the excellent condition
of the buildings at Kisantu, at Bamanya and at New Antwerp. It was
present at the class exercises, it visited the workshops and is pleased
to recognise the zeal with which the missionaries look after the
instruction and the training of their pupils. The latter, let us say,
had, as a rule, a look of content.
Notwithstanding, it seems certain that the missions do not always show
the necessary care in the selection of the pupils to whom the State
conferred its guardianship. Thus in certain establishments situated
in the south of Stanley Pool District the committee in charge of the
enrollment of children recently admitted reported the following facts:
_First_: Many children had plainly passed the maximum age of twelve
beyond which they can not be taken to the mission against their will.
Certain were married, according to the native custom, and the Fathers,
in placing them in the mission, had forbidden them from that time to
see their wives.
_Second_: Many were not abandoned nor even orphans; many were reclaimed
by their parents. From information received it appears that the Fathers
protecting themselves under the authority of the State followed the
plan which was in reality a recruiting of children. Thus applied, the
Decree of 1890 would become, in the hands of the missionaries, the
means of acquiring easily abundant manual labour and the philanthropic
purpose intended by the law would be seriously compromised.
In the course of a judicial enquiry made in this same region a number
of natives declared that they had been retained at a mission against
their wishes in order to work; several complained that they had brought
upon themselves, by an attempt to run away, punishment, such as being
placed in irons and flogged. The Commissioner of the Cataract District
has often received from escaped children from the Kisantu mission
complaints of the treatment they had had.
Not satisfied to keep in the missions a considerable number of young
people who do not come under the conditions demanded by the decree,
the Fathers establish groups of fifteen or twenty in the hamlets
surrounded by cultivated fields which are scattered about the district
and are known as farm chapels. These farm chapels are actually detached
mission posts. Their occupants are kept by the Fathers under a very
rigid guardianship. They do not possess, strictly speaking, anything;
their produce and the domestic animals they raise belong, in general,
to the mission. They rarely receive the permission to marry or to
return to their native villages. The majority of the natives who reside
here are neither orphans nor workmen engaged by contract. They are
demanded of the chiefs, who dare not refuse, and a coercion, more or
less disguised, is necessary to restrain them. The system pushed to
the extreme, comes very close to illegal procedure which is not even
remotely related to the application of the decree regarding abandoned
children.
We do not conceal the fact that the question raised is difficult.
The introduction of European civilisation into a country such as we
are now occupied with must necessarily call for a curtailment of
personal liberty, and consequently places the native under a sort of
guardianship. Also one can understand that a State, by virtue of the
civilising rôle which it assumes, can regard itself as the guardian
of all the children of a certain age and putting aside the parents
or natural guardian, undertake the education of these children in
accordance with the objects in view and the principles it deems best.
But the present law does not go this far. It is applicable really to
children who are abandoned, that is to say, those in need or those who
do not have in the village any relative able to support them.
The period of State guardianship ought to be considerably diminished.
The pupil having reached the age of sixteen, which elsewhere is that
of legal majority, ought to be completely released from the bonds of
guardianship.
But if we think that the law of 1890 should be reasonably interpreted
and wisely applied we think also that there is room to complete it by a
decree regarding the compulsory education.
In fact, we have observed that except in rare cases where a native
is enrolled as a soldier or engaged as a labourer of the State, he
completely escapes, if he is an adult, the civilising influence of the
State or of the missions either Catholic or Protestant. On the other
hand, if he is the father of a family, unless under some compulsion, he
will not send his child to school.
We, therefore, propose that a law should provide that fathers living
within a certain distance of the mission, send their children who are
within a certain age limit to be determined, and which should not
exceed 14 years, to the mission school and that under the pretext of
practical instruction they can not be employed in work exceeding their
strength.
In every case, upon the express request of the parents, the children
will not be obliged to take religious instruction.
CHAPTER VII
RECRUITING OF SOLDIERS AND WORKMEN
_1. Soldiers_
Criticism has been directed recently against the way in which the Congo
State recruits a constabulary that it is necessary to maintain in the
vast territory. It has been alleged that “the means by which it enrolls
soldiers differ very little from the procedure formerly employed by
those who captured slaves.” This criticism is unjust. This can not in
any event be applied to the present situation.
The regular recruiting of the army takes place through voluntary
enrollments and the annual levy (Article I of the Decree of July 30,
1891). The Governor General determines annually the districts where the
levy is to be made as well as the proportion to be furnished by each
(Article II). The method by which this takes place is determined by the
District Commissioner in consultation with the native chiefs. As far as
possible it is done by means of drawing lots (Article IV).
This decree is followed, with the exception, however, that in the
absence of a census there can be no drawing of lots. As a rule, the
chief, upon the demand of the District Commissioner, designates the men
who are to constitute the contingent.
It is seen that this method cannot be condemned without contesting the
right of the State to require military service of its subjects. Thus
the Congo State applies only the principle which has the sanction of
the majority of the European countries.
However, there have come to the knowledge of the Commission some abuses
that are occasioned by these recruitings. Some chiefs of expeditions
have thought themselves empowered to impose, under the name of fine or
war contribution, the furnishing of a certain number of militia. This
irregularity has been formally forbidden by the Government, and we
think it has disappeared.
The military life has a great charm for the native; it answers to his
nature, to his aptitude and to his tastes; we think we can say that the
conscription which has met with so much opposition with western nations
of Europe is the form of public service to which the native has become
accustomed with the greatest ease.
More than that, the voluntary enlistments are numerous and many of the
militia re-enter the service upon the expiration of their term.
It is also true that the soldiers of the constabulary are, in
general, well treated and well cared for. They have been the object
of solicitude by the State. They receive a daily wage of 21 centimes.
Each soldier has the right to live with his wife and to take her
everywhere with him. Moreover, a recent circular of the Governor
provides that the new conscripts be encouraged to select, before
rejoining their company, a wife from their own country.
The Commission visited many posts and camps of instruction, as well
as the cabins occupied by the soldiers’ families. It was surprised by
the cleanliness and good condition of the same. It can have nothing
but praise for the excellent appearance and martial spirit of the
troop. The complaints which it has received from the members of the
constabulary are few and are upon matters of secondary importance.
On the contrary, many State labourers heard by the Commission,
expressed their regrets that they had not been admitted to the
constabulary, preferring it to their own engagements. It seems wrong
to send a part of the annual recruits to manual labour having no
relation with the army, depriving them of the privilege of wearing
some sort of uniform and putting them to work on fortifications. These
“soldier-labourers” (such is their official title) were dissatisfied
with the change made in their destination without their consent.
A recent Order of the Governor General has suppressed this category of
soldier-labourers, but the recruits, instead of being turned over to
the constabulary or returned to their homes, have been enlisted as
labourers for the remainder of their term. The Commission has called
this irregularity to the attention of the competent authorities.
The Commission is convinced that military training is the most
efficacious influence towards civilisation that has as yet been tried
upon the adult Congolese. The military service, made somewhat long by
the difficulty of transforming a savage into a disciplined soldier, is
sufficient to improve the native who has been under this restraining
influence. This influence remains with the former soldiers. They can
be easily recognised by their more dignified manner, their way of
presenting themselves, their salutations, the care with which they are
dressed and the more comfortable houses that they build. These men seek
the contact with the whites and respect authority.
Certainly, we are far from pretending that a time spent under the flag
is sufficient to eradicate entirely the instincts of the savage or
that discipline will change the nature of all the natives enrolled.
On the contrary, we have had occasion to point out the regrettable
excesses that have been committed during the military expeditions,
especially when the vigilance of the white man was relaxed. But since
the missionaries who spend their energies upon the young blacks see
their efforts fail to civilise the adults, we think that for them the
military state is the only one that can insure good results.
We now touch upon a second criticism: the State has been reproached
with having chosen its soldiers from the savages and cannibals.
It is certain that since the State judged it best to give up the
enlistment of volunteers from the coast, who formed the kernel of its
army, and to recruit its militia from its own territory, it draws its
soldiers chiefly from the vigorous and warlike tribes of the Upper
Congo, who are better suited to military service than the people of the
Lower Congo, brutalised by alcohol and weakened by the slave trade.
Truly, these natives were savage and often cannibals; but this twofold
characterisation is applicable to the majority of the peoples living
above the Stanley Pool. The State had no choice. Now the recruiting is
extended to cover all regions and during the past year a certain number
of militia were drawn from the districts of the Lower Congo.
Still, nothing but a firm discipline and an incessant watch can prevent
absolutely acts of savagery. Therefore, the Government has forbidden,
as we have seen, the sending out of search parties or patrols unless
accompanied by a white man, as well as the establishment of camps made
up wholly of blacks. With the same purpose in view, a high official has
recommended the frequent relief of the small garrisons in the secondary
posts often commanded by subalterns. His suggestion has been followed.
Soldiers thus detached contract bad habits and it is important that
they be not given time to relapse from the strict discipline which is
imposed upon them at company headquarters or camps of instruction.
_2. The Labourers_
The State, like individuals, takes into its service natives whom it
employs for different sorts of work.
The class (of these labourers), at present very large, is exceedingly
interesting. The sojourn at the post produces the best effect upon the
black. It is a first contact with the European civilisation; it works
a gradual transformation, quite perceptible, in the habits and tastes
of the native. The labourers, like the soldiers, form, though in a less
degree, a genuine class of semi-civilised.
The engagements made by the State as well as all that are made between
foreigners and natives, are regulated by the Decree of November 8,
1888, regarding the labour contracts. This law is one that was inspired
by the most praiseworthy motives. Its purpose is evidently to safeguard
in the most efficacious manner the principle of absolute freedom of
labour contract.
The law requires that every contract for services be drawn up at
the charge of the patron or master and presented in writing for the
endorsement of the appropriate authority. (Article 13, Section 1.)
The endorsement cannot be made until it is sure that the workman knows
perfectly the conditions of the engagement and that he accepts them of
his own free will. (Article 13, Section 2.)
The Order of November 1, 1898, designates as authorities competent to
endorse the contracts, the judge of the district, or his deputy (also
a jurist), and it is only in the absence of such officers that this
function is delegated to the officials of the administrative offices.
The period of contract service cannot exceed seven years, and it cannot
be renewed except through the intervention of the authority cited
above. The masters or patrons must show at all times that the blacks
in their service perform their labours voluntarily or under conditions
that are acceptable to them. (Articles 3 and 4.) Severe penalties are
imposed upon the masters or employers who violate these provisions,
as well as upon the employer or blacks who refuse to carry out the
contract to which they gave their approval. These penalties must be
pronounced by the courts. (Article 5 of the Decree of November 8, 1902.)
In the Lower Congo, where this law is generally applied, the engagement
of labourers by the State, by the companies or by private individuals,
has never been the object of criticism in its relations to the blacks.
The foreign employers, on the contrary, complain of being helpless
against the bad will of their labourers.
The judges charged with the endorsement of the contracts have
considered it as a supreme duty, in fact a real point of honor, to
assure themselves that the black enters into the contract willingly and
that he is not the victim of misunderstanding or violence.
On the Upper Congo, on the contrary, it can be said that in no respect
are the intentions or the letter of the law obeyed, and that for two
reasons:
First of all, the number of judges is limited. There are large areas
where there is not a single one. In order to submit his contract to the
deputy for his endorsement, it would often be necessary for the native
to make a journey of several months.
Consequently it often happens that the contract is not drawn up;
still more frequently, the contract is approved by an official of the
local administration without being endorsed by a judge. Sometimes
the contracts show an irregularity; they are signed by the District
Commissioner or the chief of the zone as a contracting party, endorsed
in the absence of a deputy by another official as a substitute for the
deputy.
The Commission saw some contracts bearing two signatures made by the
same hand. The territorial chief, in the name of the State, engaged the
native and he himself ratified the contract as the substitute for the
deputy.
The control which the law intends to exercise becomes in such cases
illusory. In most cases it happens that the natives in these regions
are engaged, in spite of all precautions, without even having the
conditions of their service explained to them. This situation can be
relieved only by having a larger number of judges in the Upper Congo
and that they periodically visit the places within their jurisdiction
for the purpose of seeing that the laws are observed and endorsing at
the same time the labour contracts.
Still, all of the difficulties will not disappear even if the reform
here mentioned should be brought about, as we shall explain later.
It is unfortunately undeniable that in many regions it is almost
impossible to find natives who will willingly engage themselves as
labourers. Exception, however, must be made to the domestic, or _boy_,
for this place being lucrative is sought after. We should also add that
the steamboat captains easily fill up their crews as this employment
gives the natives an excellent opportunity to make trips free of
expenses and affords them a chance to engage in a small trade. But
beyond these two classes, it is seldom that a man offers himself to
the State of his own accord. This fact is not surprising when there is
borne in mind the remarks already made in this Report in regard to the
indolence of the native and the almost complete lack of his wants.
Very often then, in order to procure workmen, it is necessary to have
recourse to coercion and impose upon the chiefs the obligation to
furnish labourers as they furnish soldiers. Sometimes even, the supply
of workmen is demanded as a fine or ransom. The Commission listened to
the complaints of several native Batchuas (Lake Tumba region) who said
they had been imprisoned one day when they went with their impost of
chikwangue to Bikoro and were compelled to work.
The labourers thus obtained are sent to the different stations
furnished with a contract drawn up in the irregular fashion referred
to. These articles state that they are engaged for a term of three or
seven years for a wage which varies, in the regions we visited, from
three to six francs a month and food.
This coercive method of securing workmen has, as a rule, not been in
use as long as it was only a question of meeting the ordinary needs of
the stations, but when a large task, such as the building of a railroad
or fortifications, is under way, this method is resorted to by the
State in order to secure the needful number of labourers.
At the time when the Enquiry Commission was at Stanleyville there were
at work on the construction of the Stanleyville-Ponthierville section
of the Great Lakes railroad three thousand labourers recruited by
order from the Eastern Province, only a few of whom were under formal
contract. It must not be thought that the black, employed against his
will, is restive under these conditions. On the contrary, with his
habitual fatalism, he quickly accommodates himself to the new situation.
But this peculiarity should not encourage the violation of the law. The
situation is unfortunate; it places the State officials, especially
the judges, in an extremely delicate position. A prompt remedy is
required. In view of the urgency of certain great works of public
utility, the State ought to proclaim the obligation of the native to
lend his assistance. In a new country this duty is as imperative as it
is for its citizens to run to the defence of its territory.
If our way of seeing things is adopted, two classes of men will be
included in the conscriptions: some will enter the constabulary and the
others will be employed upon the large works of public utility from
which the natives themselves will derive immediate benefits, such as
railroads or wagon roads. It is well understood that these works must
be specified by law in a clear and precise manner, and it should be
forbidden under the heaviest penalties to give the persons recruited
for this purpose any employment other than that which is stipulated,
notably to employ them for the exploitation of the domain. The number
of labourers should also be fixed by law and should not exceed the
limits made absolutely necessary. The term of service for them should
be shorter than for the soldiers (three years as a maximum), and
the remuneration should be the same that is paid in that region to
volunteer workmen.
The manual labour to execute the important works being thus assured by
conscription, the greatest care should be exercised in seeing that the
law of 1888 is duly observed.
This provision would remove, beyond doubt, the criticisms so easily
made by those who hold theoretical principles without regard for
practical difficulties.
We have confirmed the impossibility of the State securing by voluntary
offers the needful number of workmen for carrying on the construction
of the public utilities. Now these works are those on which the future
of the country depends and they can not be abandoned; at the same time,
it is impossible to expect their completion by the natives as imposed
work, for they demand continuous labour and this is incompatible with
the principle of forty hours’ work a month.
According to our opinion the law ought to face the problem frankly and
adapt itself to the exigencies of the situation so that the agents will
not be required to go beyond its provisions—a procedure so fraught with
danger.
In addition to the method of securing the workmen and the regularity of
the contracts, other matters have been criticised, especially by the
judges.
We mention first of all those regarding the long-term engagements.
The unfortunate features of long engagements are especially noticeable
in the case of children. It happens that the District Commissioners
employ, particularly for the fields, children of seven and eight
years who are bound for a period of several years by a contract whose
provisions they probably did not thoroughly understand. Now according
to the instructions of the Director of Justice, the officials charged
with endorsing the contracts cannot object if the children say they
accept. There may be reasons for permitting a child to engage himself
by contract, which is for him a guarantee, but the judge ought to have
the right to refuse his endorsement if he is convinced that the child
is acting without a full comprehension of what he is doing. In any
event, the contract term of service should never be more than a year or
two.
Of course one should remember the precocity of the native and the fact
that the intelligence of the black reaches its apogee at the age of
thirteen or fourteen.
Nevertheless, even for adults, the maximum term of seven years
permitted by the law is excessive. The black, as we have seen, has a
very vague notion of time. And on the other hand, the average life
of the native is much shorter than that of the white man. So that
the term, which, at the time of making the contract, is not fully
appreciated, will consume the greater part of his life. Let us add that
the wages paid, whether in eatables, merchandise or whatever may take
the place of money, change value so easily in the Congo that it often
happens that after a very short time the intrinsic value of the wage
specified in the contract is not the same.
This leads us to the important question of wages. They are not always
sufficient, especially for those who have a family to support. It has
been pointed out to us that, particularly in the territory of the
Katanga Committee, the average wage paid the workmen is simply what
is necessary for their subsistence. In other important centres, at
first sight the payment seems ample, but it is insufficient because
of the relative dearness of the living expenses. Thus at Boma, the
compensation of six francs a month and food paid to the State workmen
can not, according to general opinion, permit them to meet the needs of
their families.
The examples which we have just given show, in addition, how the
economic conditions can vary from district to district. This is another
cause of complaint. It happens, in fact, that the labourers engaged
in the Upper Congo at the wage customary in that region find, when
sent below, that it is altogether insufficient for their support in
their new residence and is less than is received by the workmen from
the immediate neighbourhood. When this occurs, the judge, the guardian
of the black, ought to demand that the wage of a workman brought from
another locality should be made equal to that of his fellow labourers.
As we have seen, the payment of labourers is made, throughout the Upper
Congo, in merchandise or in brass rods (_mitakos_). Let us remember
that these articles are subject to depreciation, which frequently
causes considerable loss to the workmen, so we have advised the State
to extend as far as possible the payment in cash, which gives such
satisfaction in the Lower Congo.
We shall also point out that the condition of the villages of labourers
of the State grouped around the posts, unlike what we observed in the
case of the soldiers’ villages, is not satisfactory. In the interests
of hygiene and the welfare of the men, a reform is necessary at once.
There remains for us to say a few words regarding disciplinary
punishment. The blacks engaged by the State ought to accept, under the
conditions named in their contract, the disciplinary regulations which
are imposed. They are practically the same as those that apply to the
soldiers. The punishment most frequently used is the lash (_chicotte_).
The regulations fix fifty strokes as the maximum and the convict can
not receive more than twenty-five in any one day. The application must
cease in case of fainting or if a wound results.
We do not think any one familiar with colonial affairs can question the
necessity for corporal punishment. Without it, it would be impossible
to maintain discipline amongst the personnel around the posts. Besides,
the negroes accept it without serious objection.
Private parties and notably the agents of the commercial companies, are
not permitted to use the lash on their black employees.
In spite of the restrictions imposed by law upon the use of the
chicotte, it is often abused, either in resorting too frequently to it
for slight offences or in exceeding the limits prescribed.
The Commission received from the labourers many complaints upon this
subject. Here again, one must make due allowance for the habitual
exaggeration of the black. On more than one occasion the Commission
found it necessary to distrust the fantastic number of lashes which a
witness said he had received in a single day, and very often it was
able to prove conclusively that the complainant was lying.
Still, it is undeniable that the chiefs of stations are led to violate
the provisions by the desire to inflict a punishment that will serve as
an example. It is equally true that these breaches of the law are not
always visited with the punishment deserved, because the administrative
authority, surrounded by difficulties, fears to weaken his influence
with the natives, which in a colony, is a matter of great moment. The
Commission knows from its own observation of two instances where the
indictments of the court against omissions of this sort, which occurred
in the Botanical Garden at Eala, were ignored in accordance with higher
orders.
This procedure, whose purpose we perfectly understand, is none the
less regrettable. If it is desired that abuses cease, the agents must
be convinced that every transgression of the rules shall be pitilessly
reprimanded.
The regulations formally prohibit the whipping of women. Some
violations of this rule have been reported, but they are isolated cases
and exceedingly rare. At all events, the Government has never shown any
toleration towards this abuse.
CHAPTER VIII
JUSTICE
At its very beginning the Free State created its judicial system.
At different times the Government extended and strengthened this
organisation, having in view the new conditions born of the progressive
opening up of the territory.
We shall indicate broadly the present condition.
In civil and commercial causes the court of first instance is the lower
court at Boma and in cases of appeal, to the Court of Appeals which
also holds sessions at Boma.[20]
Criminal offences come before the lower court at Boma, in the first
instance, or the territorial courts or courts-martial.
The court at Boma and the territorial courts can try, each within the
limits fixed by decrees, all violations of law committed by persons not
subject to military law or cases involving civilians and members of the
military.
However, the trial for offences committed by persons of a European
race, even in the military category, is, in every case where the law
punishes the offence with death, referred to the court of first
instance of the Lower Congo.
The courts-martial try the military prisoners. The appeal, in penal
matters, is submitted to the Court of Appeals at Boma in all cases
coming from court of first instance and from territorial courts. Those
that were heard by a court-martial are in case of appeal, sent to a
council of war having appellate functions. It consists of the president
of the Court of Appeals and two members designated by the Governor
General who can not be below the rank of officer.
The decisions rendered in penal matters are not subject to review by
the Court of Appeals.
There are at present territorial courts at Matadi, Leopoldville,
Coquilhatville, New Antwerp, Basoko, Stanleyville, Lusambo, Popkabaka,
Kabinda, Toa, Uvira, Lukafu, Niangara and Lado.
The number of courts-martial is greater than the number of territorial
courts and as a rule they have sessions in the same place as the
latter. The territorial judges, except in a few cases, are members of
the court-martial.
The functions of public prosecutor are discharged in cases before
the court of appeals and the appellate council of war by the State’s
Attorney and before the other courts, civil and military, by the
deputies of this official.
The officers of the public prosecutor’s department not only investigate
the cases and verify the facts in the case of violations of law but
also draw up the indictment (_instruction_).
They combine the functions assigned in Belgium to “magistrats du
Ministère public” with those of “juges d’instruction” (approximately,
district attorney and grand jury). The public prosecutor and his
officers, says the law, exercise their functions “under the high
authority of the Governor General” but they cannot prosecute a person
of any European race except with the consent of the Governor General.
This rule is imposed by formal instructions.
Besides the judges of the bench there are in the Congo a large number
of officers of the judicial police placed under the supervision of the
State’s Attorney. The decrees and statutes fix for each one the limits
of his authority and of his territory.
Some are commissioned to investigate and verify all offences within
their jurisdiction; these are the District Commissioners, chiefs of
zones and chiefs of posts; others are charged with the investigation
and report upon a limited class of offences; these are the treasury
agents, post agents, etc.
Another peculiar feature of the judicial system should be mentioned:
the members of the Court of Appeals, the judge of the inferior court,
the prosecuting attorney and his deputies must be trained judges. They
have no other functions, must be of a certain age and capacity, are
doctors of law and can be appointed only by decree.
There are some territorial judges, members of the courts-martial
and substitutes who do not have to be professional judges and whom
the Governor General can select from amongst the officials of
the administrative department. At present practically all of the
substitutes are doctors of law.
The territorial judges at Matadi and Leopoldville are trained judges.
In all the other courts the functions of judge are confided to other
officials, usually to District Commissioners.
The outline which we have just given shows that the Free State has
seriously considered the organisation of the judiciary. We do not think
that it is perfect or that it meets all of the existing needs, but we
are convinced it will bear comparison with the judiciary organisation
of many colonies more than twenty-five years old.
The Commission has not received any complaints during its long enquiry
and has no criticism to make in regard to the way in which the courts
presided over by trained judges discharge the important and delicate
duties that are confided to them.
The Commission has been able to confirm from personal examination that
the judges are, as a rule, animated by a great zeal and that they fill
their mission with an impartiality that merits all possible praise.
However, three criticisms may be directed against the present
situation, the first in regard to the composition of the courts;
second, that their number is too limited in comparison with the large
territory; third, the dependency of the public prosecutor upon the
administrative authority.
We shall discuss these in succession.
We have said that only the territorial judges of the Lower Congo
are magistrates by training. In general, the District Commissioner
discharges this function.
It is hardly necessary to point out the complications that result from
this added duty.
In spite of their desire to do well, administrative agents charged
with judicial functions, can not, when absorbed with duties already
too numerous, acquire a profound knowledge of the laws of the land.
They also lack the fundamental studies, so valuable in a position of
this character. It has therefore been found desirable to refer the most
important civil and penal cases to the Boma court for trial.
The unsatisfactory features of the judicial centralisation will be seen
at once, for it means the extension of the jurisdiction of the Boma
court over the entire territory. This compels the Europeans who are
cited to appear before this court to make very long journeys at great
loss of time and sometimes at considerable expense.
But these long journeys are especially prejudicial to the blacks. It
is a sad fact, verified by observation, the judges told us, that a
large number of blacks who come down from the Upper Congo as witnesses
never see again their native villages, but die during the trip they are
forced to make. The resisting power of the native to changes of habits
and foods is, so to speak, practically zero.
Even when they are the objects of every possible care, the ranks of
the unhappy creatures can be seen thinned out by homesickness for the
forests of Equatorial Africa. Is it therefore astonishing that the
mortality is still greater when they, during the long journey to give
testimony, are poorly lodged or insufficiently fed?[21]
The number of those who died has created a great impression upon the
natives. The simple word “Boma” frightens them. It is also at the
present time exceedingly difficult to secure the blacks as witnesses,
sometimes it is impossible.
A native of the Upper Congo, summoned as a witness, escapes into the
forest. He must be treated as a prisoner, looked for, and sometimes
when caught he must be chained, or in all cases some coercive measure
must be resorted to to induce him to appear before the court.
It is unnecessary to call attention to the wrong this state of affairs
does to the cause of justice and its operations. It often happens
that a native who has been wronged prefers to let the matter pass
without an attempt to secure justice rather than subject himself to the
fatigues and dangers of the trip to Boma. A great injustice! offences
go unpunished, the abuses multiply, dissatisfaction of the population
increases and sometimes shows itself in revolt—a condition that justice
could have prevented.
Sometimes also, in the neighbourhoods where there are Protestant
mission posts, the black, instead of applying to the judge, his natural
protector, acquires the habit, whenever he has a fancied grievance
against an agent, chief of post or chief of zone, of confiding to the
missionary. The latter listens, assists him as far as lies in his
power, and becomes the organ of all the complaints of the region.
This explains the surprising authority of the missionaries in certain
parts of the country. Their influence is not restricted to the natives
who are under their religious teaching, but it extends to all of the
villages to whose grievances they have listened.
The missionary becomes in the eyes of the native the sole
representative of equity and justice; he adds to the importance
acquired by his religious zeal the prestige which, in the best
interests of the State, ought to belong to the judge.
Another drawback to the exclusive competency of the Lower Congo court
in important affairs, is the inevitable delay necessitated by reason of
the long distances which separate Boma from many places in the State.
Before the documents, the witnesses and the accused can be brought to
the session of the court, many months and sometimes years, must elapse.
In the meantime the whites have returned to Europe, the blacks can no
longer be found, recollection of the events have become dim and many
of the facts have passed into legend. It also happens that the judges,
unable to reach a decision because of a lack of evidence, discharge
the case and, because of the great distance, not finding it possible
to make personal investigation, they are unable to draw up a new
indictment.
We have spoken until now of penal cases. The same difficulties exist in
civil cases.
In the Stanleyville zone, for example, the commercial transactions
are numerous. Can one in case of disagreement go from Stanleyville to
Boma to submit the case to the judge? What a loss of time and what an
expense would this voyage inflict!
The Commission thinks that if the Government of the Free State should
eliminate the greater part of the obstacles to prompt and efficacious
judicial action, if it should substitute trained judges for the
administrative officials who now act as judges in the territorial
courts, such a change would afford proper guarantees; there would no
longer be a reason for withdrawing from them the trial in civil affairs
nor to limit their competency in penal matters. There would remain, it
is true, this inconvenience that the cases in which appeal might be
made would have to be referred to Boma, but the court and the appellate
council of war have, according to law, the right to pass upon the
record and this might become the usual custom when the minutes of the
trial by the lower courts are compiled under the direction of a trained
judge.
The jurisdiction of the existing territorial courts is too large and
it would be desirable to see them increased in number, but this second
reform can only be accomplished by degrees. The essential thing is that
the natives of the territory may easily lay their complaints before
a judge without being obliged to go to the capital of the district.
It is of course permissible for them to appeal to the justice of the
police whose residence is usually nearer than that of the deputy,
but this official is often the administrative agent and performs a
variety of duties; he collects the imposts, enforces coercion and makes
the levy of labourers. It is to him very often that the black will
ascribe, rightly or wrongly, the circumstances of the abuses of which
he wishes to complain. Besides, in the large districts, where the State
is represented only by the commander of a corps of police, would the
native bring to the agents of the company complaints against themselves?
Many judges are of the opinion that great progress would be realised
if the officials of the police would be reminded of their judicial
functions and if they were placed in possession of instructions
sufficiently precise in regard to the way in which they should be
discharged. There are, it seems, some officials who never make a
report; others draw up reports which are absolutely insufficient,
satisfying themselves with indicating the nature of the offence and
the suspected offender without giving either the date, the place, the
chief circumstances concerning the act or the names of the witnesses.
Without denying that the judicial functions of the police official can
be improved we do not think for the reason mentioned above that too
much should be expected of these officials.
It is to the deputy, doctor of laws, to whom the natives should be
allowed to make their complaint. At the present time the deputies, with
a commendable zeal, travel over their territory to hear complaints or
to gather information regarding them. But usually there is at each
court only one prosecuting official; the preparation of cases often
compels this officer to make long trips which sometimes last several
months.
Some judges have pointed out to the Commission that it is difficult or
even impossible to pass judgment upon cases, sometimes important ones,
because of their own travels or of those of the District Commissioners
who discharge almost throughout the Upper Congo the duties of
judges, so that sessions cannot be held, or if held, only with great
difficulty. Because of this, there are inevitable and regrettable
delays.
It would be best to designate in the case of each court, or at least
with those whose district is the most extensive, two judges of the
bench. So that while one could occupy himself with the investigation,
the other could insure regular sessions of the court. The cases would
be quickly prepared, more rapidly tried and the frequent contact of the
judge with the native would increase the confidence of the latter in
justice and consequently in the State.
It would likewise be well, in order to insure a prompt administration
of justice, to give to all trained judges the right to try certain
cases, even without the assistance of the public prosecutor or clerk of
the court.
Would it not be possible to allow every judge while on his circuit to
try on the spot, and even without the right of appeal, minor offences
and civil cases of small importance? With the procedure somewhat
simplified, the indictment could be drawn and the trial take place
during the same session: the complainant, the defendant and witnesses
are all present and if it should be necessary to ask for further
verifications, the judge could easily obtain them.
If the white man, instead of being isolated and beyond all restraint,
sometimes even sure of impunity, always had before him the fear of the
supervision of the judge, many of the abuses and acts of ill-treatment,
now the cause of regret, would no longer exist.
We now arrive at the third criticism mentioned, that which refers to
the independence of the magistracy.
Here a distinction must be made.
The courts, and in general, the judges enjoy absolute independence in
making their decisions and we desire no better proof of this than the
decisions that have been rendered by the Boma court.[22]
The same is not the case with the deputies. Several have drawn the
attention of the Commission to this.
The deputy when making his circuit is under obligations for
transportation, food and escort to the District Commissioner, who can
grant or refuse the canoe, soldiers, police or food supplies.
Measures should be taken that will make it possible for the public
prosecutor’s officers to have these necessities or requisition them in
cases of urgency.
But it is especially important that a judge in the discharge of his
duties be made completely independent of the administrative authority.
From circulars of instruction addressed to the officials of the public
prosecutor it appears that the deputies connected with the territorial
courts can not institute prosecution against a person not a native
without having previously obtained the permission of their chief,
the prosecuting attorney. Now the latter cannot grant this approval
except with the consent of the Governor General, who has the supreme
supervision over the bench.
It is easily realised how, in certain cases, the administrative
authority can rightly intervene in judicial affairs. In the majority of
the countries of western Europe, the machinery of prosecution is placed
under the Minister of Justice who can, in criminal cases, dictate its
line of action. In addition to this principle, one might add other
considerations suggested by the special conditions that surround the
Congolese magistracy, such as, for example, the youth and inexperience
of many of the deputies.
But it cannot be admitted that the intervention of the administrative
authority should make itself felt to the extent of arresting the course
of justice. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that in the
Congo the officers of the public prosecutor unite with their functions
those assigned to the grand jury (_juges d’instruction_) and to
committing magistrates.
Still other reasons argue in favor of the independence of the bench.
We have seen that the greater part of the laws of the State are
enforced partially in the Upper Congo. It is therefore absolutely
necessary that an independent authority see to their execution. In
other words, the deputies ought to be able to freely discharge their
functions as guardians of the law, even over the affairs of the
administrative power.
We do not think that the reform which we propose presents any serious
difficulty. Mere proceedings of inquest can not have irreparable
consequences.
As to the prosecutions, the deputies certainly should not institute
them too easily, and it is well that their action be supervised. We
also consider that the authority to prosecute, given by the Public
Prosecutor, is a guarantee which should not disappear from Congo laws.
But this official, who is always a judge of experience, should have the
power to act upon his own initiative; there is no sufficient reason
to subordinate his decision to the opinion of the Governor General.
He ought to be, with respect to this high official, in the situation
which he would hold in Belgium with respect to the Minister of Justice.
In freeing the prosecuting attorney, in this way, there will be avoided
the suspicion which always exists when a transaction is abandoned by
higher authority.
The Commission has found, in fact, that very often a case begun by
a deputy against a white man for having ill-treated the natives
remained unfinished by administrative decision. As no reasons were
given for these decisions it would be hard to say to what extent they
were justified. In any event, it is necessary that hereafter the
responsibility for such measures be left to the judicial authority.
The Commission can admit only one exception to this rule.
It is understood that the Government, in the Congo as well as in all
other countries, reserves to itself the right to judge when it is
necessary to prosecute political offences. The intervention of the
Governor General should be retained in all cases where there is an
offence committed against the safety of the State.
The Commission noticed the presence in the prisons of a considerable
number of prisoners figuring on the lists as “political prisoners”
(_détenus politiques_). They were incarcerated under a simple
administrative order. The reason of their detention has nothing
political about it. They are, in the majority of cases, natives who
have neglected to furnish their prestations—those who, under the
application of the new law could be subjected to coercion. There are
others who gave asylum to delinquents or those in flight from justice.
We also saw labourers under discipline and women who had lived lives of
prostitution.
All are submitted to the same regulations as the breakers of the common
law, and some have seen their detention extend into months.
The regulations of the prisons mention the category of political
prisoners; but these regulations do not rest upon any law; and on
the other hand nothing defines the authority which can demand their
detention, the cases that are applicable, the formalities to be
observed and the duration of imprisonment.
It is strange that while the law throws around the liberty of the
individual all possible guarantees, while it protects him against
every form of abuse with the provisions borrowed from the Belgian Code
of April 20, 1874, in regard to preventive detention, it leaves the
operations of administrative authority without control and, one might
say, without brakes.
We understand perfectly that in a savage country there must be great
latitude, but it is still necessary in all cases where individual
liberty is involved, that this authority be distinctly regular and
clearly defined.
* * * * *
It has been seen that we have in the course of this Report,
understanding in the widest sense the mission with which we
were charged, passed through the sieve of criticism the entire
administration of the Free State. We have pointed out, without
shielding any, all of the abuses which have come under our observation.
But we are not lulled by the illusion that we shall see those who read
our Report placed in the position to appreciate in a sane and impartial
manner the Congolese work. To reach that result, a proper perspective
is necessary. African affairs can be correctly appreciated only when
they are seen, one might almost say, when they are lived. Examined from
a European point of view a large number of facts which we have seen
will assume a character which they cannot have in the eyes of those who
have been their witnesses.
It is thus that the distinguished judges, from many of whom we have
had the most valuable assistance in our search for truth, told us
that according to their opinion the retention of women as hostages at
the posts was of all the means of coercion, the most gentle, the most
humane, the most efficacious and the most in keeping with the native
customs; although they did not deny that judged at a distance this
measure would have the character of a crying iniquity.
It is evident that the Code, a juridical structure so rapidly built,
which aroused a cry of admiration from a critic impartial and even
severe, and which perhaps has only the fault of being theoretically
too perfect, this Code, let us say, does not always sufficiently regard
the condition of the country and the people which it is called upon to
govern. It should be always borne in mind that in spite of the progress
achieved, the natives of the Congo are still in a large measure
savages. Twenty centuries were necessary to create from Gaul, of the
time of Cæsar, the France and Belgium of today and if our ancestors
were, in the eyes of the conquering Romans, barbarians, one can, we
think, say that they were civilised people in comparison with the
inhabitants of the immense territory of the Free State at the moment of
its constitution.
How should one expect that a code of laws as European as that of the
Congo should not frequently meet in its application insurmountable
obstacles? Hence arises a contradiction between the law and the fact;
hence come those violations which the courts punish while granting to
the offenders the benefits of extenuating circumstances.
The Court of Appeals, notably, has during the past years pronounced
some decisions of remarkable severity, but it has always borne in
mind the difficulties which have surrounded the Europeans. In order
to live, to develop itself, the State found itself face to face with
the necessity to exploit the natural wealth of the soil and the only
available labour at its disposal was the native unused to work; the
agents enervated by a terrible climate, always debilitating and often
fatal, are isolated in the midst of a savage population; and the life
of each day presents to them nothing but demoralising spectacles. They
left Europe filled with respect for human life and they soon see in
the barbarous circle into which they are transplanted, that this has
no value. They were taught from infancy to love one’s neighbour and
they note amongst the savages around them an absolute ignorance of the
sentiment called charity—the negro, in fact, can not realise that a
thing can be done except from fear or hope of personal gain; they are
witnesses in the villages of the miserable plight of the weak and the
infirm upon whom the chiefs and head men always let fall the heaviest
burdens; they see the women degraded to the condition of beasts of
burden, labouring without interruption and performing every task. Those
who have had this spectacle before their eyes understand, but do not
condone, the ill-treatment, even the acts of brutality of the white
man towards the native who leaves the post without food or towards
the recalcitrant delinquent whom he accuses of indolence or ill-will,
though the difficulties of the rubber harvest are seldom appreciated
and the black man’s aversion to labour is rarely understood.
The Free State could have, if it wished, avoided a large part of the
abuses which we have pointed out for almost all had, as their primal
cause, the difficulty of securing work from the negro. It would have
sufficed—imitating the example of many colonising governments—to
authorise the free entry of alcohol into its territory. Alcohol—facts
abundantly prove it—would soon have become for the native an imperative
necessity, and to satisfy it he would have learned how to conquer his
natural indolence. If the remuneration granted to the workmen had been,
instead of goods or other useful articles, “trade alcohol,” one would
soon have seen the chiefs and head men of every village driving to work
with all possible energy all those over whom they had authority.
God forbid that we should think of suggesting the measure which would
have as a fatal consequence the demoralisation of an entire race in a
few years. We think, on the contrary, that the exclusion of alcohol
from the Congo is together with the suppression of slavery the greatest
title of glory to the Free State. Humanity will always be grateful to
it for having refused to use this powerful lever to which others have
had recourse, and thus turned from Africa a scourge more terrible and
more destructive than the slave trade. The Free State, by the wonderful
things it has accomplished in twenty years, gives the public the
opportunity, we might almost say the right, to show itself exacting.
In all events, it owes it to itself to introduce as soon as possible
the reforms which we have cited, many of which are most urgent and
can be accomplished without involving new expense. We have in view
especially the large and liberal interpretation and application of the
laws regarding the holding of real estate, the effective enforcement of
the law limiting to forty hours per month the prestation of work, the
suppression of the system of sentries, the permission for the _capitas_
to carry arms, the revocation from the commercial companies of the
right to exercise coercion, the regulation of military expeditions and
the freedom of the public prosecutor from administrative control.
Other reforms though important, we can even say essential, are, on the
contrary, of a nature to increase the State expenses, the equilibrium
of whose budget is retained with difficulty.
This consideration does not cause the Commission to hesitate, although,
thinking always of the interests of the natives, it could never neglect
to look at the practical side of the suggestion which it found itself
called upon to make.
The Free State was created, with the consent of the entire world,
twenty years ago, by a single will which, as is well-known, allied
to itself the services of Stanley in the object of opening central
Africa to civilisation and which alone, without the aid of any one,
bore the entire expense of its establishment. Its origin came from
the acquiescence of the native chiefs and the personal efforts of its
creator.
The Powers have recognised its sovereign existence, but without
contributing either to the work in view or to its development, and
naturally without any idea of assistance or of guardianship—a notion
incompatible with the title _Independent_ or _Free_ which was given to
the State.
For several years the young State lived solely upon the grants made
by its founder. Then Belgium lent a generous aid, and now that its
organisation has assumed considerable importance, it can rely upon its
own resources.
This is, we think, an exceptional situation which differs essentially
from that of the colonies, properly so called, in Africa or elsewhere,
and one which should be kept in mind.
The State will be able to carry out progressively the reforms we
propose. They will occasion an increase in expenditures; but it would
fail in the discharge of its duty if, from the present moment, it did
not employ every available means to realise the wishes formulated in
this Report and which, we repeat, are inspired by the interests of the
native population.
Please accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurance of our high
consideration.
President of the Commission of Enquiry:
EDMOND JANSSENS.
Commissioners:
GIACOMO NISCO, E. DE SCHUMACHER.
Secretary:
V. DENYN.
Translator:
HENRI GRÉGOIRE.
BRUSSELS, October 30, 1905.
INSTITUTION OF A COMMITTEE
APPOINTMENTS
LEOPOLD II., KING OF THE BELGIANS
Sovereign of the Congo Free State
_To whom these presents may come, greeting_:
Upon the proposition of Our Secretary of State,
We have decreed and do decree:
ARTICLE FIRST
There is constituted a Committee instructed to study the conclusions of
the Report of the Commission of Enquiry, to formulate the suggestions
which they necessitate and to investigate the practical means for
realising the same.
ARTICLE SECOND
The following shall be members of this Committee:
President: VAN MALDEGHEM, A., Vice-President of the Supreme Court of
Belgium.
Members:
ARNOLD, N., Director General in the Department of Finance.
CHENOT, L., District Commissioner.
DAVIGNON, H., Former Senator, Member of the House of Representatives.
DE CUVELIER, Chevalier, A., Secretary General in the Department of
Foreign Affairs.
DE HEMPTINNE, J., President of the Board of Directors of the Kasai
Company.
DROOGMANS, H., Secretary General in the Department of Finance.
FIVÉ, G., Colonel, Commandant 2d Regiment Horse Guards.
GOHR, A., Director in the Department of Justice of the Congo.
JANSSENS, E., Attorney General of the Supreme Court of Belgium.
LIEBRECHTS, CH., Secretary General Department of the Interior.
MOLS, A., Manufacturer.
NYS, E., Member Court of Appeals, Member of the Hague Court of
Arbitration.
TOMBEUR, C., Captain, Commandant General Staff, District Commissioner.
ARTICLE THIRD
Our Secretary of State is charged with the execution of this Decree.
LEOPOLD.
Done at Brussels, October 31, 1905.
_By the King Sovereign_:
In the name of the Secretary of State:
CHEVALIER DE CUVELIER,
H. DROOGMANS,
LIEBRECHTS,
Secretaries General.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Fiotte, Bangala and Kiswaheli.
[2] The Decree of December 5, 1892, provided for an enquiry for the
purpose of determining the rights of the natives in the matter of
exploiting rubber and other forest products in the Upper Congo, rights
that were acquired _prior to the promulgation of the ordinance of July
1, 1885_.
The Decree of August 9, 1893, provides that when native villages are
found established upon territory transferred or leased by the State,
the inhabitants may extend their cultivation so long as the official
survey has not been made.
The statement in the _Bulletin_ of 1893 speaks of the right of
occupation which exists to the profit of the native population of lands
_actually_ occupied or exploited by them.
[3] In certain regions fixed by the Decree of October 30, 1892, the
State granted to private individuals the exclusive right to exploit
rubber, but in the majority of cases, this disposition has not been
utilised by the natives, as we shall show later.
[4] Article 10 of the general charter to all concessions in the French
colonies states: “The company holding a concession can exercise
the right to enjoy and exploit as granted under Article 1 only the
territory outside of the villages occupied by the natives and the land
under cultivation by them, their pastures or forests which are reserved
for them. The boundary of these lands, in case of natives with fixed
habitations, or the movable boundaries in case of the migratory tribes,
will be determined by the Governor of the colony, who will likewise
fix the limits of the land which will be reserved to the natives as
hunting and fishing grounds. Land thus reserved for the natives cannot
be ceded by them, either to a concession or a third party, without the
authorisation of the Governor of the colony.
“In the case where, during the term of a concession, any changes in
the boundaries are deemed necessary by the Governor, either because of
the collective interests of the natives or the public interest of the
colony, modifications can be made under the provisions of Article 8.
“The customs, habits, religion and tribal organisation of the natives
should be rigorously respected. The agents of the concessions will
report to the administration all acts contrary to humanity of which
they may be witnesses.”
[5] We ought to make an exception in the case of the regions in the
Cataract District where the Reverend Mr. Bentley has been located for
the past twenty-five years. It was pointed out to us that here the
natives have made real progress; they have learned trades and built of
their own initiative and at their own expense houses of brick and even
a church.
[6] Decisions of the Court of Appeals of Boma, August 29, 1899: The
State against Kasesa, and September 8, 1903: The State against Moketo
and Olembo. The officials of the local government also called attention
to this gap in the code.
[7] These premiums were suppressed about ten years ago. The bounties
given in the name of “expenses of collecting,” which followed the
premiums, could be considered as not differing materially from the
method abolished. These bounties have been suppressed in their turn
by the articles of December 31, 1896, which constitute “the retiring
fund.” Some have thought they saw in this institution a remnant of
the past errors. It appears from the information gathered and the
examination of the records of “the retiring fund” that for some
years, with the exception of certain classes of agents who enjoy
other advantages (such as physicians and the steamer captains), all
meritorious agents, even those whose positions have no relation with
the gathering of the products of the domain, such as judges, have the
right to this “retiring fund.”
[8] In most of the regions in the Cataract district the tax levy was
reduced to less than one quarter of what it was formerly.
[9] Even in the case of the produce that actually belongs to the native
(chickens, goats, etc.) the Commission thinks that another system of
remuneration should be followed. While waiting for the introduction of
the radical measure proposed by the Commission, the market value of the
articles should be considered.
[10] The quantity of rubber which the native is compelled to procure,
under the name of an impost, varies, usually, according to the
locality. It would be impossible for the Commission to point out,
even approximately, the quantity which the native, after reaching the
forests in which he gathers, can collect in forty hours of labour. The
most widely different opinions have been expressed on this subject.
Everything depends upon the richness of the forest and sometimes upon
chance. But the fact verified in Abir and also pointed out everywhere
that the native after a long stay in the forest often brings a quantity
of rubber far below the amount of the impost, causes us to think that
the amount is, in general, too great.
[11] The blacks who are assigned to guard the prisoners occasionally
overstep their authority and become brutal.
[12] Our information regarding Mongala covers the period during which
this region was exploited by the S. C. A.
[13] For example, the native named Lisambo became the father of a boy
Kaisu. From that time he took the name Isekaisu, father of Kaisu.
[14] However, except in unusual cases, armed men should not be placed
at their disposal, for that would renew the abuses of the sentry
system, and they should be punished only when they were personally at
fault. In every case the punishment should be slightly humiliating as
possible.
[15] We mean here only the chiefs of villages or of small groups of
villages and not the great chiefs whose authority extends over these,
for they are, in general, real tyrants who think only of enriching
themselves and who depend upon one part of the population to exploit
the other.
[16] If these instructions, which appear in the _Recueil
Administratif_, had been literally followed, many of the excesses would
have been avoided.
[17] Mola had been captured by the soldiers. The cord with which he
had been bound was too tight, causing gangrene to set in; he lost both
hands.
[18] Without attaching any importance to the statements of Epondo,
which have greatly varied during the course of the past two years, the
Commission, relying upon its own verifications and upon the medical
examination carefully made at Coquilhatville by Dr. Vedy, is convinced
that Epondo actually lost his hand as the result of the bite of a wild
animal. More than that, Reverend Mr. Weeks informed us that this was
well known at Malele, where Epondo was born, as he had verified during
a visit recently to that village.
[19] It would be desirable that the black nurses of this hospital,
who do not give perfect satisfaction (the black has no sentiment
of charity), be replaced by Sisters. It goes without saying that a
contemplative order would not be suitable for this service. The Sisters
of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul might be chosen.
[20] When the amount in litigation exceeds 25,000 francs the Superior
Council hears the appeal from the Court of Appeals.
[21] A circular which appears in _Recueil Mensuel_ for January, 1905,
goes into minute details in regard to the treatment which must be
accorded the blacks when called to testify before the courts.
[22] The independence and the severity of the courts, especially as
regards the cases resting upon the ill-treatment of the blacks, have
been supported and sustained by the State.
The report of the Secretaries General to the King Sovereign dated July
15, 1900, contains the following:
“The most important task that belongs to the administration of justice
is the protection of the native in his person, property and liberty. We
have repeated elsewhere the instructions that the Government continues
to give to its judicial officers, and it is just to say that they
prosecute without swerving the attempts upon the rights of the natives.
They have even been charged with an excess of zeal in exercising in
too strict a manner their protective functions towards the black by
prosecuting the slightest inroad upon the rights of the native and in
this way belittling the authority of the European in the eyes of the
native. The Government can only continue to issue instructions that
will insure the absolute respect for the law and approve its officers
who prosecute all violations.
“It does not even hesitate to say that in suppressing acts of
ill-treatment towards the natives an excess of zeal will meet with
greater approval than an excess of indulgence. This latter criticism
has been applied to Congolese justice. It is not justifiable. One
would look in vain for a case of violence committed by a white man
upon a native that did not receive its just deserts in case proof was
forthcoming.”
THE STORY OF THE CONGO FREE STATE
Social, Political, and Economic Aspects of the Belgian System of
Government in Central Africa
"/#[6.2] By HENRY WELLINGTON WACK, F.R.G.S. (Member of New York Bar).
Author “Romance of Victor Hugo and Juliette Drouet.” “In Thamesland.”
Royal Octavo. Beautifully bound. With 125 illustrations. 650 pages and
two maps. Net, $3.50 (by mail, $3.75.) #/"
Americans cannot fail to be interested in the true story of the Congo,
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Mr. Wack is an American citizen, an independent man, deeply read and
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evidence of an intimate knowledge of Congolese affairs.
The book is literally packed with matter of interest to the geographer,
ethnologist, trader, politician, and humanitarian. The strange habits
and customs of the various native races—their cannibalism, fetishism,
polygamy, etc.;—the course and tributaries of the magnificent Congo
River; the illimitable Central African forest, with its treasures
of rubber and timber; the possibilities of the country as a field
for the cultivation of coffee, tea, sugar, and cotton; its gold and
diamond deposits; the State laws; the scope for American energy and
capital; the overthrow and repression of slavery and cannibalism, are
all discussed in a calm, judicial manner, refreshing at this epoch of
heated controversy. To the controversy whether the rule of King Leopold
uplifts and protects, or debases and oppresses, the natives of the
Congo State, as is variously asserted, Mr. Wack’s book is by far the
most important contribution yet made.
_Send for illustrated descriptive circular._
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NEW YORK LONDON
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
Added table of #Contents:CONTENTS#.
Renumbered footnotes and moved them all to the end of the final chapter.
Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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