SOME HORRORS OF OUR LOT
Our work grows harder—I consult the white man of God—A strange
contrast—My plea unavailing—My rubber short—I am sent to the
prison—The captives—Their work and their punishments—The sick—The
new-born babe—The dead and their burial—The suspected—How they were
tortured—The steamer—The rubber chief—The prison opened—A
procession of spectres—The place of the dead—For a time peace—Work
for the man of God—How we fared—My reward—I wish to go home.
I am afraid that you white people will get tired of listening to a
constant repetition of the same story, but that is just what my life
and the lives of my people have consisted of ever since the coming of
Bokakala—rubber, chicotte, prison, rubber, prison, chicotte; and again
rubber, nothing but rubber. We see no chance of anything else until we
die.
If you are tired of hearing about it, what do you think we must be of
living in it?
The rubber vines were getting worked out in our part of the forest, and
almost every time we had to go further to get any, but at last we found
a way of getting it quicker. It was this: when we found a good vine,
instead of making incisions and waiting for the sap to drip from them,
we cut the vine down, dividing it into short lengths. These we placed
endways in a pot, and left them to drain off all the sap into the pot.
In this way we got quite a lot of rubber from the one vine, and we
rejoiced accordingly.
For a time this way of working rubber helped us over some of our
difficulties; it gave us a sufficient quantity in a short time, and so
we were saved from the anger of the white man. But it was not long
before we began to find a dearth of vines; for those we had cut were
useless for future working, and therefore we had to take longer
journeys into the forest than ever before.
If we went too far in any direction it brought us in contact with the
natives of other villages who were also seeking for rubber, and
regarded us as poaching on their preserves. True, there was some rubber
on the other side of the river, but there we dared not go, because of
the age-long feud between the natives of that part and ourselves—we
feared that if we went we should never return.
After much consideration, I thought there was just one chance of
getting free; so I went to see the white man of God, taking him a
present which I hoped would show him that I really meant what I said,
and asked him to take me on to work for him.
He received the fowl I gave him, but not as a gift; he would insist on
paying for it its full value, and giving me a few spoonfuls of salt
over. (Truly the ways of white men are unaccountable! Some compel one
to supply against one’s will what they want, and pay nothing or next to
nothing for it; and then others refuse to take a thing as a gift, but
insist on paying for it! Of course, we like the latter way, but should
not think of doing so ourselves.)
Then he explained to me that it was impossible; he could not engage any
man who held a “book” for rubber, and as I did hold one and my name was
on the rubber workers’ list, it was out of the question. I pleaded with
him, Bamatafe pleaded for me. We returned again on the following day to
try once more, but it was in vain. I had to go back to my rubber work
in the forest.
Soon after this a day came when my rubber was short weight. I had
failed to find a good vine, and though I soaked the rubber in water to
make it heavier, the white man noticed and refused to pass it. As a
result, I did not return home that night, but spent it and several more
in the white man’s prison.
I had heard much about this place from Bamatafe and others, who had
frequently been in it, and so was not so surprised as I otherwise might
have been. Prison to us who are used to an outdoor life in the forest
has always a horrible aspect; but such a prison as that was is beyond
description. And yet I must tell you something about it.
The building itself was a long, narrow hut with thatched roof, bamboo
walls, and mud floor. That was all; and it was crowded promiscuously
with men and women of all ages and conditions. These were fastened
together with cords or chains round the neck, in groups of about ten
with a fathom of chain or cord between each.
There were old men and women with grey hair and shrivelled skins,
looking more like moving skeletons than living people, with scarcely
enough cloth or leaves for decent covering. Strong, capable women were
there who should have been working happily at home for their husbands;
women with babies only a few days’ or weeks’ old at their breasts;
women in delicate health; young girls; the wives of husbands who had
somehow failed to satisfy the demands made upon them; and young lads
who had tried to shirk paddling the heavily laden rubber boats—all
these were there, crowded together in that one shed without privacy or
sanitary arrangement of any kind from sundown to sunrise, and some of
them for weeks together.
The smell was horrible, the hunger and thirst intense, and the
publicity in some ways worst of all. I myself was not hungry that first
night, and Bamatafe came to and fro with food for me on the following
days; but much of it I never ate. Some of my fellow-prisoners were so
ravenously hungry, that it was impossible to save any scraps, even if I
had wanted to. Many of them, coming from a distance, had no friends to
supply their needs.
Early in the morning we were turned out in charge of sentries to clean
the paths of the compound, carry water, work on houses, cut up and pack
rubber, and carry the filled baskets from the store to the river ready
for transport by canoe or boat to the place of the great rubber chief
down river. If the work done failed to satisfy the sentry, or he had
any old scores to pay off to a prisoner who was in his power, the
chicotte or the butt-end of the gun was always at hand, and proved an
easy means of chastisement for either man or woman, the latter
frequently incurring it for nothing worse than a desire for chastity.
Then at sundown we were marched back to the prison house for another
night of horrors. It was often impossible to sleep.
On one night in particular we were kept awake hour after hour by the
groaning of some of the sick ones, and then towards morning, after a
little sleep, we were aroused again by the puny wail of a new-born
babe. Was it any wonder that its first cries were weak, and that the
little life so recently given seemed on the point of ebbing away? In
the morning the sentries agreed that the mother was not fit for work,
and reported to the white man accordingly; but three days afterwards
the mother was out at work in the hot sun with her baby at her back.
Many prisoners died at the time of which I speak—two, three, five,
sometimes ten in a day—there was so much hunger and thirst and
sickness. When one died, they tied a string round his foot, and dragged
him a little way into the bush, dug a shallow hole, and covered him
with earth. There were so many that the place became a great mound, and
the burials were so carelessly done that one could often see a foot,
hand, or even head left exposed; and the stench became so bad that
people were unable to pass by the road which was near the “grave.”
And yet, bad as all this was, something happened there which made me
glad that I was an ordinary prisoner, and not (what I had thought
impossible) something worse. Four big, strong young men were suspected
of having stolen some rubber from the white man’s store. It may have
been a true accusation; that I do not know—no one knows.
The white man was furious, and said that he would make an example of
them, which he proceeded to do. Four tall poles were procured and
planted in the ground at the back of his own house, and the four men
were brought.
Their heads and beards were shaven, they were stripped of their loin
cloths, and tied to these poles, not only by the lower parts of their
bodies, but by their heads, so that they could not move at all.
This happened in the morning.
The sun climbed up, and stood overhead—they were still there.
The sun slipped down, down, down—they were still there.
No food or water had they tasted all day, so they were parched with
thirst. They pled for water, none was given; for a covering for their
shame, no notice was taken; and at last, in sheer despair, they
entreated that they might be shot—they would rather, far rather, die
than endure the shame of remaining any longer in a public place in such
a condition.
At night they were released from their agony, only to be sent to
prison, and finally exiled up river. The charge was never proved
against them. But the white man of God heard about the affair, and
talked the palaver with the rubber chief, and eventually they were
released and came back to their own villages.
One day we heard a steamer whistle; it was coming to our landing-place.
“Oh, joy! perhaps the white man will let us go,” we thought. He often
did send prisoners off to their homes when a steamer whistled, which
seemed strange to us in those days, but it mattered not to us why he
did it, if only we might get free.
To our disappointment he did not do so on this occasion, and we soon
heard that the big chief of rubber had come. We wondered what he would
do to us, if things might be worse, although we did not see how that
could be.
Afterwards we found that the white men of God had been writing many
letters to him about us and the way in which we were treated, and he
had come to see for himself. He did so, with the result that he opened
the doors of the prison house, and told us to walk out. He commenced to
count us, but gave it up: we were so many. He told us we were free, and
could go to our homes. We could scarcely believe it, it seemed to be
too good to be true; but we immediately set off with hearts full of
joy.
You may think what a merry procession we must have been, perhaps even
that we were singing and dancing with delight, because we were free!
Not so; we must have looked more like a procession of spectres. Some,
too weak to walk, were carried on the backs of others not much stronger
than themselves; women weak and ill, some soon to become mothers, and
others with young babes looking as sickly as themselves; men and women
both so famished with hunger that they had tied strips of plantain
fibre tightly round their stomachs to try and stay the craving for
food!
How eagerly we drank the water and devoured the little food that was
given to us by friendly people as we passed, and how the old men and
women called out blessings on the head of the chief of rubber and the
white man of God who had interceded for us! We noticed that as we
passed through their compound the white men and women of God were
actually crying with tears for our sorrows, and yet how glad they were
to see us free!
Yes, we were free, but many who lived at a distance and were old or
sick never reached their homes again. One died at the place of the
white man of God, two or three in villages a little further on, and
many who entered the forest were never heard of again; they probably
died of hunger, and their bodies must have been devoured by wild
animals.
I was one of the last to leave the prison, and as I did so the great
chief was making inquiries about the prison grave of which he had
heard. He said to me, “Will you show me the place?”
I answered, “Oh, yes, white man, it is not far. Just over in the bush
yonder; but if you come, bring a cloth to hold your nose; for you will
not reach the place without it.”
He said, “Is it as bad as that? Then I think I will not go.” And he did
not.
The end of it was that the bad white man who had been so cruel to us
was sent away to Europe, and a new one came to us who was much kinder
in his treatment of us, and for a time we had peace.
Then came my opportunity; for while there were not so many palavers
going on, there was freer intercourse between the rubber white men and
the white men of God, and so it became possible for the latter to take
a few of us rubber men to work for them.
As I had begged so long for that very chance I was one of the first
chosen; and how can I describe the joy with which I said farewell to
rubber work, and went with my wife and child to reside near the
compound of my new master.
Everything was so different; it was like having a rest, although, of
course, I do not mean that we did not have any work. We had plenty, and
it had to be well done; but there were regular times, and home and food
and a welcome from the wife in the evening when one returned from work
tired, instead of cold, wet, hunger, and fear in the forest. I thought
I had indeed reached a good place, and should never want to leave it,
so I set to work with a will.
By and by I was taught to use the saw, and became one of the staff of
pit sawyers who were cutting up wood for house building. We worked from
sunrise to sunset, with two hours off for rest mid-day; but sometimes
we did piece-work, and then our hours were shorter. We received a
monthly wage, and a weekly allowance for rations; and as our wives kept
their own gardens, and sometimes went fishing, we were well supplied
with food and soon got strong and well.
Each morning before we commenced work there was a service in the chapel
which we all had to attend, and later on there was school for the boys
and domestic servants of the white people and for our children and any
who liked to attend from the villages. Some evenings there were
preaching services or classes for inquirers, and occasionally the white
man showed us pictures with a lamp.
The pictures appeared on a large cloth which was hung from above, and
we liked seeing them very much. But we were also somewhat afraid of
them, especially when we saw some of our own people who were dead—we
thought it must be their spirits! And when we went round to the other
side to see their backs, behold, they had none, but only another front,
so we thought there must be something strange about them; for we have
never seen people with two fronts and no backs!
Every first day of the week we did no work, but went with our wives and
other people to hear the teaching. Before this time I knew but very
little of it: I knew that it was about one Jesus, but who or what He
was, or why they talked so much about Him I could not understand. Now I
began to learn that He was the Son of God, and came to earth for us. I
heard about His birth, life and death, and how He died for us—instead
of us—just as the peace-offering is killed in our country to save the
whole village. We kill a slave; but God sent His Son, and Jesus came
willingly and gave His life for us. Truly, He must have loved us!
After a time I joined the inquirers’ class, for I wanted to learn more
about Him, and to belong to His company.
The time passed very quickly, it seemed but a little until my book,
which was for twelve moons, was finished. I received my payment—brass
rods, cloth, salt, &c.—and felt quite a rich man. Never had I possessed
so much before; and I wanted to go to Ekaka and show off my riches.
When my master asked what I purposed doing I said that I was tired and
would like to go home for a while to rest.
I went, and soon after that my master went to Europe for his rest also.