SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE, CIVILISING MEASURES
[Sidenote: A Marvellous Transformation.]
Within the lifetime of men who may still be accounted young, the
words that stand at the head of this chapter had no application to
any part of Central Africa. Science, in all its forms, was utterly
unknown there; agriculture can hardly be said to have existed, though
a few of the tribes raised scanty crops of a nature that needed
little or no attention; while of civilising measures there were
absolutely none. These concomitants of long-established civilisation
followed naturally the advent of the Belgians; and they have ever
since, year by year, taken root, and spread until there are no two
countries in the world more dissimilar than the Central Africa of
thirty years ago and the Central Africa of to-day.
[Sidenote: The Gospel of Thoroughness.]
Realising to the full that complete success in any undertaking is
only possible where all the conditions affecting it are thoroughly
understood, the Congo State, early in its career, established
nineteen scientific stations, at various points throughout its
territories, for the collection of data relating to anthropology,
botany, ethnography, geology, philology, pisciculture, mineralogy,
zoölogy, etc., and for trigonometrical and astronomical surveys. Each
of these stations is in charge of an expert, with properly qualified
assistants. They have transmitted to Europe a whole literature of
monographs, of great interest and value, upon all sorts of subjects,
and their field of work is still far from being exhausted. The
study of the Congo climate by these _savants_ has proved especially
valuable, their recommendations as to regimen, dress, habitation,
etc., for travellers and settlers, having reduced the death rate
of the whites to six per cent., thus dispelling for ever the old
notion of the deadliness of Central Africa, and showing it to be at
least as healthful as India, and healthier than either German East
Africa, the Cameroons, the Niger Territory, or Cochin China. A small,
but continual and increasing, influx of Europeans and Americans
demonstrates the gradual abandonment of fear of the Congo climate,
and faith in the hygienic system inaugurated by the Belgians,—a
system which maintains sixteen State doctors to watch over and report
upon the health of the various stations, and a permanent Hygienic
Commission, which sits at Boma.
[Sidenote: Museum at Tervueren.]
At the royal palace of Tervueren, near Brussels, now used as a public
museum, are exhibited nearly eight thousand objects illustrating
industry and art among the primitive peoples of Central Africa,
such as costumes, dwellings, musical instruments, and implements
of hunting, fishing, agriculture, river navigation, and war. The
museum also contains several thousand geological, mineralogical,
and zoölogical specimens, and a very comprehensive herbarium, all
collected within the borders of the Congo Free State. The latter
is of particular interest, containing specimens of more than four
hundred new species.
From the first it has been the unswerving policy of the Congo Free
State to promote, by every means at its disposal, the advancement
of science as it affects, and as it is affected by, conditions
prevailing within its territories. Until the Belgians came among
them, smallpox from time to time decimated the natives, and was as
great an evil as the slave trade or their own internecine wars.
They had no conception of its prevention or cure, and submitted to
its ravages with unintelligent dumb passivity as a providential
visitation impossible to resist. The white man with his vaccine was
a revelation to them; and though they at first refused to believe in
its efficacy, and would not accept vaccination, they soon perceived
the error of their disbelief; and now they voluntarily come to the
Belgian medical officers asking to be vaccinated. Both Boma and New
Antwerp have vaccine producing institutions, and vaccine is also
distributed from Coquilhatville and Stanleyville. The results are
most gratifying; for although, unfortunately, smallpox is by no means
stamped out of the Congo State it is far less prevalent and less
virulent than formerly, so that it is not unreasonable to look for
its practical extinction in the near future.
[Sidenote: The Sleeping Sickness.]
To the present, Science has proved powerless to cope with that
strange malady, the sleeping-sickness. The ablest physicians, not
only of Belgium, but of England, France, and Germany, have studied
the disease exhaustively. Though much valuable data relating to
its cause and effect have been collected, the discovery of its
antidote seems as far off to-day as ever. The prevalence of this
fatal sickness among its people makes it a subject of vital concern
to the Congo Government, which is unceasingly vigilant in seeking
to discover the means for its extinction or alleviation. In its
pursuit of this object, all possible facilities have been afforded to
foreign doctors visiting the Congo State. By request of the English
medical faculty, three Congolese patients, suffering from sleeping
sickness, were recently sent to the School of Tropical Medicine at
Liverpool. On another occasion two others were sent to the Charing
Cross Hospital in London. Animals have been infected with the germs
of the disease, and its every symptom, from inception to climax,
noted with minute accuracy. The disease, which is invariably fatal,
appears to be on the increase, and there have been many victims of
it on the Gold Coast as well as in the Congo State. For some obscure
reason this dreadful malady has been strictly confined to individuals
of the black race. Notwithstanding its want of success in combating
the evil, the Congo Government may congratulate itself that it has
neglected no precaution, and spared no expense, in its effort to
mitigate what may conceivably develop into a veritable plague.[25]
In numerous ways has the Congo Government applied modern science
to the uplifting and general betterment of the people over whom it
rules, without distinction of colour or creed. Twenty-seven medical
men, holders of European diplomas, twenty Health Committees scattered
throughout the country, a Bacteriological Institute, and a Hospital
for Natives at Boma not only labour for the cure of disease, but
disseminate as widely as possible among the natives knowledge of
the laws of health. On the whole, the work has been marvellously
productive of good results, and the native is now incomparably
more healthful, cleaner, better fed, and better housed than at any
previous period of his history.
[Sidenote: Progress of Agriculture.]
[Sidenote: Horses and Cattle.]
Thirty years ago what is now the Congo Free State was a wild tangle
of luxuriant tropical growth through which hordes of black savages
roamed, fought, and practised their unspeakable barbarities, living
almost entirely upon the spontaneous products of Nature. The white
magician has waved his wand and the scene is transformed. In, and
far around, each of the numerous governmental stations or posts,
life and property are as secure now as in any part of Europe or
America. The spade and the hoe have displaced the throwing-spear and
poisoned arrow in the hands of the native. Where the shy antelope
or spring-bok browsed, remote from human intrusion, the soil is now
turned up by the plough, and devoted to the growing of coffee, cocoa,
tea (of the Assam variety) and various condiments, cinnamon, pepper,
ginger, nutmegs, cloves, vanilla, etc. The establishments for the
breeding of cattle, horses, and donkeys, particularly in the Enclave
of Lado, in Ruzizi-Kivu, Equateur, Bangala, and Lualaba-Kassai, are
numerous and increasing. Latest accounts to hand state that they
exceed seventy. Many of the natives display considerable aptitude in
learning how to tend herds of cattle. Great expense has been incurred
by the State and by various companies in the purchase and importation
of pedigree horses and cattle. The animals have been selected from
the best European stocks by experts, and assigned to various breeding
establishments throughout the country. The enterprise has proved
extremely successful, the number of cattle of European origin now in
the State being no fewer than 4500, with sixty horses, and nearly as
many donkeys.
In following agricultural employments the natives receive liberal
encouragement from the Government. The State offers rewards for
the cultivation of coffee and cocoa. At all suitable stations is a
coffee and cocoa nursery, established by the State; that is to say,
the State has supplied the necessary seeds, and contracts to allow
an indemnity for each shrub on its attaining two feet in height, and
to pay the native half the value of its produce less the cost of
transport to Europe.
[Sidenote: Coffee.]
Coffee has been found to flourish most in the districts of Equateur
and Aruwimi, and in the zone of Stanley Falls. Liberica, Arabian, and
Guadaloupe are the varieties which have been selected as suited to
the Congo soil and climate. The number of coffee plants has increased
from 61,517 in 1894, to 1,996,200 in 1902. Cocoa plants numbered no
fewer than 298,003 in 1902, an increase of 284,136 in ten years!
In 1899 the State erected a factory for the preparation of coffee
at Kinshassa, and adopted several new methods, improvements upon
the practice in vogue in countries where coffee has been cultivated
for generations. After being dried at the plantations, the coffee
is placed in sacks and sent in State steamers to Stanley Pool, and
thence to the Kinshassa factory. So good is the quality of Congo
coffee that in 1894 it realised no less than 100 francs per 100
kilogrammes in the open market at Antwerp.
Caoutchouc (rubber), for countless ages wholly a spontaneous product
of the forests, every year becomes more and more an object of
cultivation. By a decree dated January 5, 1899, it is provided that
in all the forests of the domain caoutchouc trees shall be planted in
the proportion of 150 feet to the ton of caoutchouc collected during
the same period. By a subsequent decree, dated six months later, the
number of caoutchouc trees to be planted for each ton of caoutchouc
collected was raised from 150 feet to 500 feet. The enforcement of
these decrees is attended to by a staff of foresters, consisting of
eight controllers and twelve sub-controllers, working under a chief
inspector.
[Illustration: Shelling Coffee, Stanleyville.]
[Sidenote: Collecting Rubber.]
Until prohibited by State decree, the method of collecting caoutchouc
practised by the natives was to make an incision in the plant
(_liana_), and allow the fluid to run into a jar. Sometimes they
allowed it to run into their hands, and afterwards smeared it over
their bodies, and in that manner it was conveyed to market, where it
was rubbed off with sand. It was an exceedingly wasteful method, or
rather want of method, for the plant thus drawn from was necessarily
killed. Only the prodigious quantity of plants existing on the
Upper Congo and its tributaries has saved it from extinction. Now
caoutchouc is harvested by extracting the fluid from the stem of
the plant in a way that does it no injury, a scientific yet simple
operation easily performed by women and children. The industry has
assumed enormous proportions. The number of caoutchouc plants put
into the ground by companies and by the State are valued at five
million francs. The rubber annually produced in the world amounts at
present to something over 30,000 tons, of which the Congo Free State
exports 5000 tons.
[Sidenote: The Rubber Plant.]
In the African forests the caoutchouc or rubber-bearing plant grows
to a great height, often exceeding 100 feet. It is commonly about
six inches in diameter at its base, and shoots upward to the light
through a dense mass of tropical growth until, failing to find
further support, it falls upon the branches of the tallest trees, and
spreads itself over them. There are numerous other plants of the same
genus which closely resemble it, but their sap lacks the qualities
of true rubber. For several years past the State has experimented
with these plants, and has sent specimens of them to the authorities
at the Botanical Gardens at Brussels, Kew, Berlin, and Paris, for
investigation. The ever-increasing demand for rubber for use in the
industries stimulates the inquiry as to whether or not it is possible
to so treat what is now regarded as “false rubber” that it shall
serve all the purposes of “true rubber.”
Amongst the true rubber lianas in which the Congo Basin abounds
are the following: _Ficus altissima_, _ficus Eetveldeana_, _ficus
elastica_, _ficus nekbuda_, _ficus religiosa_, _manihot glaziovii_
(French name, _ceara_), _clitandra Arnoldiana_ (native name,
_mondongo_), _funtumia elastica_ (French name, _Ireh_), _landolphia
gentillii_, and the _landolphia owariensis_ (native name, _matofe
mengo_).
Constant experiments are being made, privately and by the State, in
the production of copal, sugar, tobacco, and cotton, with results
that justify the confident expectation that at no distant date they
will be profitably exported. The cultivation of the vine, and of
numerous fruits and grasses, receives also much attention, and is
full of promise.
[Illustration: Making Baskets for Transportation of Rubber (Kassai).]
[Sidenote: Elephants and Ivory.]
African ivory is everywhere esteemed for its superiority in colour
and hardness to the Indian variety. The large herds of elephants
inhabiting the forests of the Congo State provide, at present, an
enormous supply; but the Government wisely takes into account the
possibility of its exhaustion, and has prohibited the shooting of
elephants. Wise laws also regulate the cutting and export of lumber;
and the folly of denuding vast regions of trees, such as we have
been guilty of in America, will not be repeated on the Congo.
[Sidenote: Civilising Influences.]
In every way the State has exerted its utmost influence to effect
the moral improvement of the native races, and its efforts have met
with much success. Their liberty and property are very carefully
guarded. Polygamy is not only discountenanced, it is penalised, no
polygamist being eligible for employment, whether military or civil,
by the State. Christian marriages between natives, which ten years
ago numbered eighty-four, now take place by thousands every year.
Alcohol is prohibited over 2,337,500 square kilometres of Congo
territory, the zone within which its sale is tolerated extending to
only 12,500 square kilometres, where its abuse is guarded against
by carefully devised restrictions, rigidly enforced. The sale of
absinthe is absolutely forbidden in every part of the Congo Free
State.
It thus appears that, as the guardian of the welfare of its people,
the Congo Free State has nothing to learn, either in theory or
practice, from the most enlightened governments of the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] In the opinion of scientists, sleeping sickness is due to a
trypanomous microbe, the propagating agent of which is the tsetse fly.