DISPLACEMENT OF THE POPULATION
The instinct of the nomad largely prevails in all savage races, but
in none does it prevail to a greater extent than among the black
tribes of Central Africa. It is one of their marked characteristics,
and a fruitful source of trouble.
[Sidenote: Victims of Superstition.]
Central African tribes are greatly influenced by their superstitions.
Like the North American Indians, they have their medicine men who
conjure up all sorts of occult prognostications of imminent and
mysterious phenomena. With them the fetish doctor is little less
than a god. If this wise man asserts that a village has suffered
ill-luck because the new moon dips to the left or right, his deluded
followers collect their effects, devastate the village, and move into
some region which he may indicate is free from that curse. If rain
has not fallen in sufficient quantity, and the crops surrounding the
village have withered, or if the rain has been too abundant, the
fetish doctor may forthwith present an explanation based upon some
new superstition. Indeed, there are thousands of tribal beliefs in
the Congo Free State which are for ever disturbing the settlement
of the population. Implacable enemies of the Congo Free State, not
wholly ignorant of these tribal beliefs and customs, pretend to
regard the migratory nature of the Central African savage as evidence
of his fear of the State’s government, arising from a feeling of
insecurity. Such persons point to the native’s incorrigible habit
of moving his abode as an unmistakable sign of his desire to escape
from the barbarities practised upon him by officers and soldiers of
the Congo Government. In this way it is sought to deceive those who
are unacquainted with the habits of the black man—the man who, a few
years ago, ate his brother with a relish which civilised white men
can hardly conceive.
The State, however, fully cognisant of the natural habits of its
black subjects, has often considered the question of how to deal
effectually with these displacements of the population. There are
times when neither superstition nor tribal custom causes a large
exodus from a well-established village. Sometimes the fertility and
luxuriant grass of another region attracts the more enterprising
black, who has learned to cultivate his own land. Allured by glowing
accounts of such a nature he gathers about him his friends and
family, and makes off to what he considers to be a new Eldorado. In a
short time, the _diablerie_ of the fetish doctor has again unsettled
him.
Then, again, there have been occasions when the natives have migrated
to avoid payment of the taxes imposed upon them by their own chief
on behalf of the State, taxes which are infinitesimal in value as
compared with the benefits of civilisation which the State confers.
To deal generally with the displacement of the population of the
Congo Free State has been a matter of much concern to the Government.
A case of sleeping-sickness or smallpox has occurred, and away goes
the whole village pell-mell into another region. The movements of
the native tribes are often inscrutable, and afford the State no
clue as to how they may be prevented. Like some species of wild
animals which instinctively avoid certain districts of the forest
at particular seasons, or on account of some unusual phenomena, the
black man will sometimes quit his residence for no apparent reason
at all. Nine times out of ten, however, he migrates on account of
things entirely unconnected with any administrative act of the State.
Entire villages have been removed because a death has occurred there
the cause of which was inexplicable to the black man. Occasionally
the fetish doctor, inspired by some unexplained caprice, will
decree that the tribe shall move—he knows not where. Ignorance and
superstition invariably follow a leader whose pretence is some occult
power. The tribe moves; and another tribe, moving from a similar or
other impulse, may occupy the very village which the first tribe had
abandoned a few weeks before.
These removals along the banks of the river have sometimes created
the impression on a superficial observer that the population of
the Congo Free State has diminished or disappeared. Regardless of
the impression these deserted villages have made upon those who
seek to find opportunity for vilifying the Congo Government, the
inconvenience resulting from the constant removals has been very
great. There is often at one point an aggregation of people too
numerous for their subsistence, and public order and tranquillity are
disturbed, with disastrous results. More strife between village and
village and tribe and tribe has been occasioned by this migratory
habit than by any bloodthirsty instinct inherent in the Congolese
black. This is notoriously true; and it has had a gravely adverse
effect, too, upon the population of the Soudan, with regard to which
the statements in Lord Cromer’s report of 1893 are conclusive.
[Sidenote: Possible Remedies.]
Vice-Governor-General Fuchs, always seeking to improve the
governmental machinery of the Congo Free State, has recently made
the following suggestions, which, if adopted, he believes would tend
to control the migratory nature of the subjects over whom he so
intelligently rules:
I think that it would be opportune to pass the necessary
legislative measures, so that an end may be put to this collective
kind of vagabondage. The administrative authority finds itself at
present unarmed, the Congo courts having declared the absolute
right of the native to move about and to dwell where he likes. But
it appears to me that public order is directly interested in having
these emigrations in a mass, from region to region in the interior
of the country, regulated by law. This regulation would also result
in assured stability for a fair distribution of native taxes. It
would also facilitate the establishment of definite and permanent
means of communication throughout the country.
[Illustration: Dutch House, Banana.]
There is, however, still a special case to be taken into
consideration. Some natives on removing in this way are ready to
establish themselves on the territory of one or other of those
Sultans whose native authority extends beyond, as well as within,
the political frontiers of the State. The determination of the
sovereign power such individuals may wield might, owing to the
silence of our laws, not be without future difficulty, when, for
instance, Sultans, established on foreign territory and dependent
themselves for it on foreign power, are concerned. It would be
well if all doubtful elements were removed by a decree which in
a general manner might establish the principle that every native
of Congolese origin who, by naturalisation or otherwise, shall
endeavour to modify his national status, will still be considered
as a subject of the Congo State, and remain amenable to Congolese
law, so long as he shall reside, in fact, within the limits of the
State territory.
From this it will be observed that in addition to the numerous other
difficulties with which the new State has to contend, it is now
called upon to legislate for the solution of a problem which the
State’s detractors have distorted and misrepresented as a result of
the State’s cruel system of government.
The importance of this question cannot be overstated, as it forms a
great hindrance to the proper organisation of so vast a territory
as the Congo Basin. That the potentialities of King Leopold’s
beneficent rule in Central Africa will eventually legislate wisely,
and permanently abolish this native inconsistency, no one who has
observed the intelligent governmental genius of the State can doubt.