London. Faced with the facts, the representatives of the Free State in
Brussels--that is, the agents of the King--were compelled to admit the
complete illegality of the whole incident, and could only fall back upon
the excuse that Lothaire's action was _bona-fide_, and free from personal
motive. This is by no means certain, for as Baron von Marschall pointed
out to the acting British Ambassador at Berlin, Stokes was known to be a
successful trader in ivory, exporting it by the east route, and so
depriving the officers of the Congo Government of a ten per cent.
commission, which would be received by them if it were exported by the
west route. "This was the reason," the report continued, quoting the
German Statesman's words, "that he had been done away with, and not on
account of an alleged sale of arms to Arabs, his death being, in fact, not
an act of justice, but one of commercial protection, neither more nor
less."
This was one reading of the situation. Whether it was a true one or not,
there could be no two opinions as to the illegality of the proceedings.
Under pressure from England, Lothaire was tried at Boma and acquitted. He
was again, under the same pressure, tried at Brussels, when the
Prosecuting Counsel thought it consistent with his duty to plead for an
acquittal and the proceedings became a fiasco. There the matter was
allowed to remain. A Blue Book of 188 pages is the last monument to
Charles Henry Stokes, and his executioner returned to high office in the
Congo Free State, where his name soon recurred in the accounts of the
violent and high-handed proceedings which make up the history of that
country. He was appointed Director of the Antwerp Society for the Commerce
of the Congo--an appointment for which King Leopold must have been
responsible--and he managed the affairs of that company until he was
implicated in the Mongalla massacres, of which more will be said
hereafter.
It has been necessary to describe the case of Stokes, because it is
historical, but nothing is further from my intention than to address
national _amour propre_ in the matter. It was a mere accident that Stokes
was an Englishman, and the outrage remains the same had he been a citizen
of any State. The cause I plead is too broad, and also too lofty, to be
supported by any narrower appeals than those which may be addressed to all
humanity. I will proceed to describe a case which occurred a few years
later to show that men of other nationalities suffered as well as the
English. Stokes, the Englishman, was killed, and his death, it was said by
some Congolese apologists, was due to his not having, after his summary
trial, announced that he would lodge an immediate appeal to the higher
court at Boma. Rabinck, the Austrian, the victim of similar proceedings,
did appeal to the higher court at Boma, and it is interesting to see what
advantage he gained by doing so.
Rabinck was, as I have said, an Austrian from Olmutz, a man of a gentle
and lovable nature, popular with all who knew him, and remarkable, as
several have testified, for his just and kindly treatment of the natives.
He had, for some years, traded with the people of Katanga, which is the
southeastern portion of the Congo State where it abuts upon British
Central Africa. The natives were at the time in arms against the Belgians,
but Rabinck had acquired such influence among them that he was still able
to carry on his trade in ivory and rubber for which he held a permit from
the Katanga Company.
Shortly after receiving this permit, for which he had paid a considerable
sum, certain changes were made in the company by which the State secured a
controlling influence in it. A new manager, Major Weyns, appeared, who
represented the new regime, superseding M. Leveque, who had sold the
permits in the name of the original company. Major Weyns was zealous that
the whole trade of the country should belong to the Concessionnaire
Company, which was practically the Government, according to the usual, but
internationally illegal, habit of the State. To secure this trade, the
first step was evidently to destroy so well-known and successful a private
trader as M. Rabinck. In spite of his permits, therefore, a charge was
trumped up against him of having traded illegally in rubber--an offence
which, even if he had no permit, was an impossibility in the face of that
complete freedom of trade which was guaranteed by the Treaty of Berlin.
The young Austrian could not bring himself to believe that the matter was
serious. His letters are extant, showing that he regarded the matter as so
preposterous that he could not feel any fears upon the subject. He was
soon to be undeceived, and his eyes were opened too late to the character
of the men and the organization with which he was dealing. Major Weyns sat
in court-martial upon him. The offence with which he was charged, dealing
illegally in rubber, was one which could only be punished by a maximum
imprisonment of a month. This would not serve the purpose in view. Major
Weyns within forty minutes tried the case, condemned the prisoner, and
sentenced him to a year's imprisonment. There was an attempt to excuse
this monstrous sentence afterward by the assertion that the crime
punished was that of selling guns to the natives, but as a matter of fact
there was at the time no mention of anything of the sort, as is proved by
the existing minutes of the trial. Rabinck naturally appealed against such
a sentence. He would have been wiser had he submitted to it in the nearest
guard-house. In that case he might possibly have escaped with his life. In
the other, he was doomed. "He will go," said Major Weyns, "on such a nice
little voyage that he will act like this no more, and others will take
example from it." The voyage in question was the two thousand miles which
separated Katanga from the Appeal Court at Boma. He was to travel all this
way under the sole escort of black soldiers, who had their own
instructions. The unfortunate man felt that he could never reach his
destination alive. "Rumours have it," he wrote to his relatives, "that
Europeans who have been taken are poisoned, so if I disappear without
further news you may guess what has become of me." Nothing more was heard
from him save two agonized letters, begging officials to speed him on his
way. He died, as he had foreseen, on the trip down the Congo, and was
hurriedly buried in a wayside station when two hours more would have
brought the body to Leopoldville. If it is possible to add a darker shadow
to the black business it lies in the fact that the apologists of the State
endeavoured to make the world believe that their victim's death was due to
his own habit of taking morphia. The fact is denied by four creditable
witnesses, who knew him well, but most of all is it denied by the activity
and energy which had made him one of the leading traders of Central
Africa--too good a trader to be allowed open competition with King
Leopold's huge commercial monopoly. As a last and almost inconceivable
touch, the whole of the dead man's caravans and outfits, amounting to some
L15,000, were seized by those who had driven him to his death, and by the
last reports neither his relatives nor his creditors have received any
portion of this large sum. Consider the whole story and say if it is
exaggeration to state that Gustav Maria Rabinck was robbed and murdered by
the Congo Free State.
Having shown in these two examples the way in which the Congo Free State
has dared to treat the citizens of European States who have traded within
her borders, I will now proceed to detail, in chronological order, some
account of the dark story of that State's relations to the subject races,
for whose moral and material advantage we and other European Powers have
answered. For every case I chronicle there are a hundred which are known,
but which cannot here be dealt with. For every one known, there are ten
thousand, the story of which never came to Europe. Consider how vast is
the country, and how few the missionaries or consuls who alone would
report such matters. Consider also that every official of the Congo State
is sworn neither at the time nor _afterward_ to reveal any matter that may
have come to his knowledge. Consider, lastly, that the missionary or
consul acts as a deterrent, and that it is in the huge stretch of country
where neither are to be found that the agent has his own unfettered way.
With all these considerations, is it not clear that all the terrible facts
which we know are but the mere margin of that welter of violence and
injustice which the Jesuit, Father Vermeersch, has summed up in the two
words, "Immeasurable Misery!"
III
THE WORKING OF THE SYSTEM
Having claimed, as I have shown, the whole of the land, and therefore the
whole of its products, the State--that is, the King--proceeded to
construct a system by which these products could be gathered most rapidly
and at least cost. The essence of this system was that the people who had
been dispossessed (ironically called "citizens") were to be forced to
gather, for the profit of the State, those very products which had been
taken from them. This was to be effected by two means; the one, taxation,
by which an arbitrary amount, ever growing larger until it consumed almost
their whole lives in the gathering, should be claimed for nothing. The
other, so-called barter by which the natives were paid for the stuff
exactly what the State chose to give, and in the form the State chose to
give it, there being no competition allowed from any other purchaser. This
remuneration, ridiculous in value, took the most absurd shape, the natives
being compelled to take it, whatever the amount, and however little they
might desire it. Consul Thesiger, in 1908, describing their so-called
barter, says: "The goods he proceeds to distribute, giving a hat to one
man, or an iron hoe-head to another, and so on. Each recipient is then at
the end of a month responsible for so many balls of rubber. No choice of
the objects is given, no refusal is allowed. If any one makes any
objection, the stuff is thrown down at his door, and whether it is taken
or left, the man is responsible for so many balls at the end of the month.
The total amounts are fixed by the agents at the maximum which the
inhabitants are capable of producing."
But is it not clear that no natives, especially tribes who, as Stanley has
recorded, had remarkable aptitude for trade, would do business at all upon
such terms? That is just where the system came in.
By this system some two thousand white agents were scattered over the Free
State to collect the produce. These whites were placed in ones and twos
in the more central points, and each was given a tract of country
containing a certain number of villages. By the help of the inmates he was
to gather the rubber, which was the most valuable asset. These whites,
many of whom were men of low _morale_ before they left Europe, were
wretchedly paid, the scale running from 150 to 300 francs a month. This
pay they might supplement by a commission or bonus on the amount of rubber
collected. If their returns were large it meant increased pay, official
praise, a more speedy return to Europe, and a better chance of promotion.
If, on the other hand, the returns were small, it meant poverty, harsh
reproof and degradation. No system could be devised by which a body of men
could be so driven to attain results at any cost. It is not to the
absolute discredit of Belgians that such an existence should have
demoralized them, and, indeed, there were other nationalities besides
Belgians in the ranks of the agents. I doubt if Englishmen, Americans, or
Germans could have escaped the same result had they been exposed in a
tropical country to similar temptations.
And now, the two thousand agents being in place, and eager to enforce the
collection of rubber upon very unwilling natives, how did the system
intend that they should set about it? The method was as efficient as it
was absolutely diabolical. Each agent was given control over a certain
number of savages, drawn from the wild tribes, but armed with firearms.
One or more of these was placed in each village to ensure that the
villagers should do their task. These are the men who are called
"capitas," or head-men in the accounts, and who are the actual, though not
the moral, perpetrators of so many horrible deeds. Imagine the nightmare
which lay upon each village while this barbarian squatted in the midst of
it. Day or night they could never get away from him. He called for palm
wine. He called for women. He beat them, mutilated them, and shot them
down at his pleasure. He enforced public incest in order to amuse himself
by the sight. Sometimes they plucked up spirit and killed him. The Belgian
Commission records that 142 capitas had been killed in seven months in a
single district. Then came the punitive expedition, and the destruction of
the whole community. The more terror the capita inspired, the more useful
he was, the more eagerly the villagers obeyed him, and the more rubber
yielded its commission to the agent. When the amount fell off, then the
capita was himself made to feel some of those physical pains which he had
inflicted upon others. Often the white agent far exceeded in cruelty the
barbarian who carried out his commissions. Often, too, the white man
pushed the black aside, and acted himself as torturer and executioner. As
a rule, however, the relationship was as I have stated, the outrages being
actually committed by the capitas, but with the approval of, and often in
the presence of, their white employers.
It would be absurd to suppose that the agents were all equally merciless,
and that there were not some who were torn in two by the desire for wealth
and promotion on the one side and the horror of their daily task upon the
other. Here are two illustrative extracts from the letters of Lieutenant
Tilkens, as quoted by Mr. Vandervelde in the debate in the Belgian
Chamber: "The steamer _v. d. Kerkhove_ is coming up the Nile. It will
require the colossal number of fifteen hundred porters--unhappy blacks! I
cannot think of them. I ask myself how I shall find such a number. If the
roads were passable it would make some difference, but they are hardly
cleared of morasses where many will meet their death. Hunger and weariness
will make an end of many more in the eight days' march. How much blood
will the transport make to flow? Already I have had to make war three
times against the chieftains who will not take part in this work. The
people prefer to die in the forest instead of doing this work. If a
chieftain refuses, it is war, and this horrible war--perfect firearms
against spear and lance. A chieftain has just left me with the complaint:
'My village is in ruins, my women are killed.' But what can I do? I am
often compelled to put these unhappy chieftains into chains until they
collect one or two hundred porters. Very often my soldiers find the
villages empty, then they seize the women and children."
To his mother he writes:
"Com. Verstraeten visited my station and highly congratulated me. He
said the attitude of his report hung upon the quantity of rubber I
would bring. My quantity rose from 360 kilos in September to 1,500 in
October, and from January it will be 4,000 per month, which gives me
500 francs over my pay. Am I not a lucky fellow? And if I continue, in
two years I shall have reached an additional 12,000 francs."
But a year later he writes in a different tone to Major Leussens:
"I look forward to a general rising. I warned you before, I think,
already in my last letter. The cause is always the same. The natives
are weary of the hitherto _regime_--transport labour, collection of
rubber, preparation of food stores for blacks and whites. Again for
three months I have had to fight with only ten days' rest. I have 152
prisoners. For two years now I have been carrying on war in this
neighbourhood. But I cannot say I have subjected the people. They
prefer to die. What can I do? I am paid to do my work, I am a tool in
the hands of my superiors, and I follow orders as discipline
requires."
Let us consider now for an instant the chain of events which render such a
situation not only possible, but inevitable. The State is run with the one
object of producing revenue. For this end all land and its produce are
appropriated. How, then, is this produce to be gathered? It can only be by
the natives. But if the natives gather it they must be paid their price,
which will diminish profits, or else they will refuse to work. Then they
must be made to work. But the agents are too few to make them work. Then
they must employ such sub-agents as will strike most terror into the
people. But if these sub-agents are to make the people work all the time,
then they must themselves reside in the villages. So a capita must be sent
as a constant terror to each village. Is it not clear that these steps are
not accidental, but are absolutely essential to the original idea? Given
the confiscation of the land, all the rest must logically follow. It is
utterly futile, therefore, to imagine that any reform can set matters
right. Such a thing is impossible. Until unfettered trade is
unconditionally restored, as it now exists in every German and English
colony, it is absolutely out of the question that any specious promises or
written decrees can modify the situation. But, on the other hand, if trade
be put upon this natural basis, then for many years the present owners of
the Congo land, instead of sharing dividends, must pay out at least a
million a year to administer the country, exactly as England pays half a
million a year to administer the neighbouring land of Nigeria. To grasp
that fact is to understand the root of the whole question.
And one more point before we proceed to the dark catalogue of the facts.
Where did the responsibility for these deeds of blood, these thousands of
cold-blooded murders lie? Was it with the capita?
He was a cannibal and a ruffian, but if he did not inspire terror in the
village he was himself punished by the agent. Was it, then, with the
agent? He was a degraded man, and yet, as I have already said, no men
could serve on such terms in a tropical country without degradation. He
was goaded and driven to crime by the constant clamour from those above
him. Was it, then, with the District Commissary? He had reached a
responsible and well-paid post, which he would lose if his particular
district fell behind in the race of production. Was it, then, with the
Governor-General at Boma? He was a man of a hardened conscience, but for
him also there was mitigation. He was there for a purpose with definite
orders from home which it was his duty to carry through. It would take a
man of exceptional character to throw up his high position, sacrifice his
career, and refuse to carry out the evil system which had been planned
before he was allotted a place in it. Where, then, was the guilt? There
were half a dozen officials in Brussels who were, as shown already, so
many bailiffs paid to manage a property upon lines laid down for them.
Trace back the chain from the red-handed savage, through the worried,
bilious agent, the pompous Commissary, the dignified Governor-General, the
smooth diplomatist, and you come finally, without a break, and without a
possibility of mitigation or excuse, up the cold, scheming brain which
framed and drove the whole machine. It is upon the King, always the King,
that the guilt must lie. He planned it, knowing the results which must
follow. They did follow. He was well informed of it. Again and again, and
yet again, his attention was drawn to it. A word from him would have
altered the system. The word was never said. There is no possible
subterfuge by which the moral guilt can be deflected from the head of the
State, the man who went to Africa for the freedom of commerce and the
regeneration of the native.
IV
FIRST FRUITS OF THE SYSTEM
The first testimony which I shall cite is that of Mr. Glave, which covers
the years 1893 up to his death in 1895. Mr. Glave was a young Englishman,
who had been for six years in the employ of the State, and whose character
and work were highly commended by Stanley. Four years after the expiration
of his engagement he travelled as an independent man right across the
whole country, from Tanganyika in the east to Matadi near the mouth of the
river, a distance of 2,000 miles. The agent and rubber systems were still
in their infancy, but already he remarked on every side that violence and
disregard of human life which were so soon to grow to such proportions.
Remember that he was himself a Stanleyman, a pioneer and a native trader,
by no means easy to shock. Here are some of his remarks as taken from his
diary.
Dealing with the release of slaves by the Belgians, for which so much
credit has been claimed, he says (_Cent. Mag._, Vol. 53):
"They are supposed to be taken out of slavery and freed, but I fail to
see how this can be argued out. They are taken from their villages and
shipped south, to be soldiers, workers, etc., on the State stations,
and what were peaceful families have been broken up, and the different
members spread about the place. They have to be made fast and guarded
for transportation, or they would all run away. This does not look as
though the freedom promised had any seductive prospects. The young
children thus 'liberated' are handed over to the French mission
stations, where they receive the kindest care, but nothing justifies
this form of serfdom. I can understand the State compelling natives to
do a certain amount of work for a certain time; but to take people
forcibly from their homes, and despatch them here and there, breaking
up families, is not right. I shall learn more about this on the way
and at Kabambare. If these conditions are to exist, I fail to see how
the anti-slavery movement is to benefit the native."
With regard to the use of barbarous soldiers he says:
"State soldiers are also employed without white officers. This should
not be allowed, for the black soldiers do not understand the reason of
the fighting, and instead of submission being sought, often the
natives are massacred or driven away into the hill.... But the black
soldiers are bent on fighting and raiding; they want no peaceful
settlement. They have good rifles and ammunition, realize their
superiority over the natives with their bows and arrows, and they want
to shoot and kill and rob. Black delights to kill black, whether the
victim be man, woman, or child, and no matter how defenceless. This is
no reasonable way of settling the land; it is merely persecution.
Blacks cannot be employed on such an errand unless under the
leadership of whites."
He met and describes one Lieutenant Hambursin, who seems to have been a
capable officer:
"Yesterday the natives in a neighbouring village came to complain that
one of Hambursin's soldiers had killed a villager; they brought in the
offender's gun. To-day at roll-call the soldier appeared without his
gun; his guilt was proved, and without more to do, he was hanged on a
tree. Hambursin has hanged several for the crime of murder."
Had there been more Hambursins there might have been fewer scandals. Glave
proceeds to comment on treatment of prisoners:
"In stations in charge of white men, Government officers, one sees
strings of poor emaciated old women, some of them mere skeletons,
working from six in the morning till noon, and from half-past two till
six, carrying clay water-jars, tramping about in gangs, with a rope
round the neck, and connected by a rope one and a half yards apart.
They are prisoners of war. In war the old women are always caught, but
should receive a little humanity. They are naked, except for a
miserable patch of cloth of several parts, held in place by a string
round the waist. They are not loosened from the rope for any purpose.
They live in the guard-house under the charge of black native
sentries, who delight in slapping and ill-using them, for pity is not
in the heart of the native. Some of the women have babies, but they go
to work just the same. They form, indeed, a miserable spectacle, and
one wonders that old women, although prisoners of war, should not
receive a little more consideration; at least, their nakedness might
be hidden. The men prisoners are treated in a far better way."
Describing the natives he says: