MUTINIES OF THE BATETELA TRIBE
[Sidenote: The Batetela Grievance.]
The hasty and ill-advised trial and execution of the chief, Gongo
Lutete, described in another chapter, proved a source of much
danger and tribulation to the Congo Free State. It was the act of
a misguided and over-zealous officer, without doubt undertaken in
good faith, but none the less disastrous upon that account. The
incident has never been defended, but always deplored, by the Congo
Government, to which it occasioned grievous loss in men, money, and
reputation.
Lutete’s men were loyal to their chief and bitterly resented his
execution. So threatening did their attitude become that it was
decided to remove them to some considerable distance from the scene
of the tragedy. At the moment of their departure, they fired upon
the people and vowed complete vengeance whenever opportunity for it
should occur. Later, at Luluabourg, when they accepted an invitation
to enter the _Force Publique_, all danger from them was thought to
have been averted. But the apparent content of the fierce Batetelas
was simulated; they were merely biding their time.
[Illustration: Regiment of Commissary-General Halfeyt,
Stanleyville.]
[Sidenote: The First Revolt.]
It was during the summer of 1895, at Luluabourg, that the Batetelas
openly revolted. After murdering some of their officers, they
attacked the post at Kabinda. Next, they struck out to the north,
with intent to surprise Lusambo. At Gandu, and on the Lomami, they
murdered more Belgian officers, and for a time it was impossible to
foresee a limit to their depredations.
Though the mutineers were less than four hundred in number, in the
circumstances they were potent for a vast amount of mischief. They
were well armed with modern weapons of precision, were abundantly
furnished with ammunition, and had, besides, some military knowledge,
acquired from their Belgian officers, which rendered them almost
the equal of European troops. To these advantages must be added the
natural valour of the Batetela, and the desperation with which men,
knowing that their treason will be punished by death in the event of
their capture, may be expected to fight.
Commandant Lothaire, on hearing of the misfortune that had befallen
the State, hastened with a small force to intercept the Batetelas,
then marching on Nyangwe. He met the mutineers on the 18th of
October, near Gandu, and, notwithstanding that the force he commanded
was much inferior, at once assumed the offensive. A fierce fight
ensued, in which the mutineers were badly defeated, losing many
killed and prisoners, and having finally to fly. Previous to this
engagement another Belgian officer, Lieutenant Gillain, had been
active to retrieve the fortunes of the State. Having gathered
together such remnants of the State’s forces as remained loyal,
and were to be found scattered about the Lomami district, he
boldly attacked the mutineers. The battle opened greatly to his
disadvantage, but ended in his victory. Lieutenant Gillain then added
his forces to those of Commandant Lothaire, and the combination, as
we have seen, was far less in number than that of the mutineers,
though it proved superior to them.
After their defeat on the 18th of October, in which they lost the
greater part of the spoil taken at Luluabourg, Kabinda, and Gandu,
the Batetelas broke up into small bands, and sought refuge in a
forest, into which it was impracticable for the State’s forces to
pursue them. The latter had now become nearly a thousand strong, and
numbered among its officers the brave Michaux, Svensson, De Besche,
Jürgens, Konings, and Droeven—a force sufficient, it was believed, to
deal with any recrudescence of the trouble.
A few days later an incident occurred which rudely dispelled this
notion. The scattered bands of mutineers again united, to make safe
their retreat, and were probably about to march to the Manyema
country, when they accidentally met a Belgian column. Both were
surprised. The Batetelas, by far the more numerous, at once attacked
the Belgians. At the very opening of the fight, the four Belgian
officers who were leading the Congo force were shot dead. The bands
which had to the present refrained from joining the main body of the
Batetelas now hastened to do so.
Perceiving that their power would continue to grow so long as they
were left unmolested, Commandant Lothaire determined to attack the
Batetelas again with all the force at his command. The battle took
place November 6th, at Gongo Machoffe, and resulted in a complete
victory for the State forces. The Batetelas lost heavily in killed
and prisoners, while such of them as survived fled for protection
to various local chiefs, who soon, however, handed them over to
Commandant Lothaire.
Again, notwithstanding their bitter experience, the Congo State and
its advisers, military and civil, permitted themselves to be lulled
into the confidence of security. Nearly two years of quietude on the
part of the Batetelas led the Belgians to believe that that fierce
race had forgiven, if they had not forgotten, the injury unwittingly
inflicted upon them—that the trouble had been fought out, and the
incident from which it originated relegated to its proper place among
the unfortunate happenings of a bygone period.
[Sidenote: The Second Revolt.]
The awakening from this dream came in 1897. Commandant Chaltin had
driven the Dervishes as far as the Nile, and Baron Dhanis, with a
larger force than Chaltin’s, had been sent to take possession of
the Lado territory to found posts there, and to fortify it against
possible Dervish inroads. With a column of more than three thousand
men, a third of whom were Batetelas, Dhanis set out from Avakubi
towards the Nile.
In the second week of February, 1897, Captain Leroi, with two
thousand men, had just reached Dirfi, when the Batetelas, of which
the force was mainly composed, suddenly mutinied. The mutiny began
with the murder of Captain Leroi and his fellow officers, after
which the mutineers retreated upon the Obi. As soon as news of this
event was brought to Dhanis, he threw his force right across the
path of the mutineers, and a desperate battle ensued (March 18,
1897). The pages of history afford few parallels to this singular
conflict. No sooner had the fight begun, than about five hundred of
the Batetelas commanded by Dhanis deserted, and went over to the
enemy, their kinsmen. The result, as may be imagined, was chaos.
With great difficulty Baron Dhanis effected his retreat. His losses
were grievous. Ten Belgian officers fell, among them a brother of
Baron Dhanis. Among those who specially distinguished themselves by
their gallantry upon this occasion was Lieutenant Delecourt, who,
with a miserably small following, covered the retreat, at the cost of
his own life and the lives of every member of his faithful company.
Having at last succeeded in reaching Avakubi, Dhanis entrenched the
handful of men left to him in the little station there, and, leaving
Commandant Henry in command, hurried to Stanley Falls, to report the
disaster and concert measures for regaining what had been lost.
[Illustration: State Officials at Ponthierville.]
[Illustration: Saddle Ox, Lusambo (Lualaba-Kassai).]
Meanwhile the Batetelas were not inactive. Making straight for
Stanley Falls, they destroyed all the stations on their way; but
just before they reached what was thought to be their objective they
struck out eastward. Baron Dhanis at once concluded that they
were bound for their native country, Manyema. The assurance that
they contemplated no invasion of State property was a relief, but
the possibility that so considerable a number of well-armed men,
flushed with victory, reaching their tribe and reporting to it how
they had defeated the redoubtable Baron Dhanis was very disquieting,
for such an event would infallibly have led to the uprising of all
the Batetelas. Baron Dhanis, having returned from Stanley Falls,
placed a body of picked men at Nyangwe and Kassongo, to intercept
the mutineers if they chanced to pass that way, while troops, with
European officers, were sent from Stanley Pool to pursue them.
At this juncture, the Belgian cause was aided by an outbreak of
smallpox among the mutineers, which compelled them to encamp near
Lindi, not far from the British frontier. At that place Commandant
Henry, fresh from Avakubi (which he had found deserted), with seven
hundred men, came upon them and almost succeeded in driving them into
British territory. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Sannaes had successfully
repelled an attack upon his post at Katué (Semliki), which so enraged
the mutineers that the leader of the attacking party, a man named
Malumba, was murdered by one of his own men who held him responsible
for its failure.
June had arrived before Commandant Henry and Lieutenant Sannaes could
join their forces, and then the regular pursuit of the mutineers
began; but another month elapsed before they could be brought to
battle. The result was a great victory for the Congo State forces.
Over four hundred Batetelas were killed, and they lost, besides, five
hundred rifles and ten thousand cartridges. And then ensued what had
happened in like circumstances before—the surviving mutineers broke
up into small bands and dispersed in various directions. Though
victorious, Commandant Henry was exhausted, and fell back upon his
base. Baron Dhanis, who had been guarding the Lualaba to prevent the
mutineers’ crossing it, now found it safe to pursue their scattered
bands.
At last the Batetela revolt was broken. Thereafter some minor
skirmishes occurred here and there; but they were as the feeble
flickerings of an expiring flame—a flame that had seared the growing
Congo State only to enable it to show to the world an admirable
example of discipline and resisting power in circumstances of
extraordinary difficulty.
[Illustration: Bird’s-eye View of the Station at Basoko, 1893.]