thoughtfulness of good men in behalf of Africa is not in vain may
be found in the vast army of carriers now employed in the transport
of European goods to Stanley Pool, past the cataract region. Ocean
steamers ascend the Lower Congo for over a hundred miles, and
discharge their miscellaneous cargoes at Mataddi. The loads for
transport overland are of sixty and seventy pounds weight. As they are
discharged by the ships, they are stacked in warehouses until the human
burden-bearers demand their freight. These apply in companies from ten
to two hundred strong, under their respective headmen. The price for
carrying a man’s load from Mataddi to the Pool is a sovereign’s worth
of barter stuffs, according to each carrier’s personal selection. The
distance of portage between the two points is about 230 miles, and is
performed in between fifteen and twenty days. Though a trying work for
natives unaccustomed to it, the Bakongo, who have been carriers for
generations, handle their burdens with ease. Travellers passing up
and down the road might expect to see a track travelled by so many
thousands marked by skeletons and littered with human bones. I have
never seen any such sinister objects along the route, nor have I ever
heard of any having been met with by later travellers. The way-bill,
with lists of the loads intrusted with the caravan, is given to the
headman, and all further care of them on the part of the consigners and
consignees ceases, until the loads arrive at their destination, and are
checked by the receiving officer, who then hands the signed receipt
which entitles the caravan to the stipulated payment. Frequently
there are burdens of baggage, ivory, rubber, etc., awaiting transport
down river, in which case they are re-engaged at the same rates for
Mataddi, and both checks are cashed at the main depot. Within less
than six weeks each carrier has gained two sovereign’s worth of trade
goods, which he conveys to his home for the benefit of his family,
or to store up until he possesses sufficient means to engage in trade
independently, or purchase some property he has long desired.
[Illustration: A SLAVER]
In 1884, when I left the Congo, the total number of carriers thus
employed did not exceed 300. But such has been the rapid progress
of events, and the favor with which the carrier profession has been
regarded by the natives, that the total number of carriers furnished by
an area of not more than 30,000 square miles is now about 75,000. Yet
this immense army is wholly insufficient to transport the vast quantity
of material discharged every month from the ships.
It was calculated by the promoters of the Congo Railway, now in process
of construction, that one train a week would be sufficient for some
years for the necessities of the upper Congo, but the crowded magazines
of Mataddi and the increasing demands for transport prove that a daily
train will scarcely suffice. I have lately received a large supply of
photographs of the railway cuttings and bridge-work, and one glance at
them shows the serious nature of the undertaking. The engineers are
still engaged in the rocky defiles, slowly laboring up the slopes to
gain the altitude of the ancient plateau. Fifteen miles of the track,
I have been told, are in running order, and the embankments extend
for twenty-five miles farther. When the rails have been laid thus
far, the progress will be much more rapid, and the engineers will be
able to state with precision how long a time must elapse before its
completion. It is scarcely necessary to add that the arrival of the
railway at Stanley Pool will insure the salvation of two-thirds of the
Congo basin. After that, attention will have to be drawn to Stanley
Falls, 1100 miles higher, and a railway of thirty-two miles in length
will enable us to pass the series of cataracts in that region, and to
command the river for about 1700 miles of its course.[1]
[1] Last December (1891) the foreign population of the Congo State was
as follows:
Belgians, 338; British, 72; Italians, 63; Portuguese, 56; Dutch, 47;
Swedes, 35; Danes, 32; French, 18; other nationalities, 83. Total, 744.
Their professions are as follows:
State officials, 271; merchants and clerks, 175; consuls, 2; doctors,
4; missionaries, 80; captains and sailors, 43; engineers, 12; artisans,
157. Total, 744.
We must not omit to mention that while Livingstone was making his
terrible disclosures respecting the havoc wrought by the slave-trader
in east central Africa, Sir Samuel Baker was striving to effect in
north central Africa what has been so successfully accomplished in
the Congo State. During his expedition for the discovery of the
Albert Nyanza, his explorations led him through one of the principal
man-hunting regions, wherein murder and spoliation were the constant
occupations of powerful bands from Egypt and Nubia. These revelations
were followed by diplomatic pressure upon the Khedive Ismail, and
through the personal influence of an august personage he was finally
induced to delegate to Sir Samuel the task of arresting the destructive
careers of the slavers in the region of the upper Nile. In his book
_Ismailïa_ we have the record of his operations by himself. The firman
issued to him was to the effect that he “was to subdue to the Khedive’s
authority the countries to the south of Gondokoro, to suppress the
slave trade, to introduce a system of regular commerce, to open to
navigation the great lakes of the equator, and to establish a chain of
military stations and commercial depots throughout central Africa.”
This mission began in 1869, and continued until 1874.
On Baker’s retirement from the command of the equatorial Soudan the
work was intrusted to Colonel C. G. Gordon--commonly known as Chinese
Gordon. Where Baker had broken ground, Gordon was to build; what his
predecessor had commenced, Gordon was to perfect and to complete. If
energy, determination, and self-sacrifice received their due, then had
Gordon surely won for the Soudan that peace and security which it was
his dear object to obtain for it. But slaving was an old institution
in this part of the world. Every habit and custom of the people had
some connection with it. They had always been divided from prehistoric
time into enslavers and enslaved. How could two Englishmen, accompanied
by only a handful of officers, removed 2000 miles from their base of
supplies, change the nature of a race within a few years? Though much
wrong had been avenged, many thousands of slaves released, many a
slaver’s camp scattered, and many striking examples made to terrify the
evil-doers, the region was wide and long; and though within reach of
the Nile waters there was a faint promise of improvement, elsewhere,
at Kordofan, Darfoor, and Sennaar, the trade flourished. After three
years of wonderful work, Gordon resigned. A short time afterwards,
however, he resumed his task, with the powers of a dictator, over a
region covering 1,100,000 square miles. But the personal courage,
energy, and devotion of one man opposed to a race can effect but
little. His peculiar qualities shone forth conspicuously. He underwent
the same trials as formerly. He signalized his detestation of the
slavers by severe punishments, by summary dismissals of implicated
pashas and mudirs, by disbandment of the suspected soldiery; but the
land still suffered from waste, the roads in the interior were still
being strewn with bones, and after another period of three years he
again resigned.
Then followed a revulsion. The Khedivial government reverted to the
old order of things, Gordon’s decrees were rescinded, the dismissed
officers were reinstated, venality and oppression and demoralization
replaced justice and equity and righteousness, until the sum of the
enormities was so great that it provoked the great revolution in the
Soudan. Then ended the attempt to suppress slavery in north central
Africa. All traces of the work of Baker and Gordon have long ago been
completely obliterated.
Attention has been given of late to Morocco. This near neighbor of
England is just twenty years behind Zanzibar. The sentiments which the
English people expressed at the Mansion House and Stafford House in
regard to the slave trade at Zanzibar in 1873-4 are remarkably like
those which are uttered to-day respecting Morocco. But it will require
something more than diplomatic missions to the court of the Sultan to
suppress the Moorish slave trade. Sir John D. Hay, who during his long
stay in that country won the titles of the “Mussulman’s Friend” and
“Counsellor of the Throne,” was accustomed to make periodical journeys
to the Moorish court, and the Sultan used to meet his representations
with promises of reform and amendment, but as soon as he set out on
his return to Tangier, the native officials would set themselves to
undo the good caused by Sir John’s visit. Sir William Kirby Green, his
successor, was also successful in eliciting assurances that the trade
would be stopped, and now Sir Charles Euan-Smith lately paid a visit,
but unfortunately the results have been _nil_. It is doubtful whether
England alone can induce the Sultan and his ministers to press the
needed reforms in the face of national opposition, or that anything
less than the concerted action of England, France, Germany, and Spain
can succeed. A demonstration by England alone, without the cordial
assent of the other powers, would doubtless be regarded as a step
towards annexation rather than as an expression of the hostility of
the British nation to the slave trade. But meantime the importation
of negroes from the Nigritian basin and southwestern Soudan into the
public slave markets of Morocco will continue until for very shame
it will irritate Europe into taking more decided steps in the name
of humanity to force the ever-maundering authorities to decree the
abolition of the slave trade, and to carry the decree into immediate
effect. It is surely high time that the “China of the West,” as it has
been called, should be made to feel that its present condition is a
standing reproach to Europe. While the heart of Africa responds to the
civilizing influences moving from the east and the west and the south,
Morocco remains stupidly indifferent and inert, a pitiful example of
senility and decay.
The remaining portion of North Africa which still fosters slavery is
Tripoli. The occupation of Tunis by France has diverted such traffic
in slaves as it maintained to its neighbor. Though the watchfulness
of the Mediterranean cruisers renders the trade a precarious one, the
small lateen boats are frequently able to sail from such ports as
Benghazi, Derna, Solum, etc., with living freight, along the coast to
Asia Minor. In the interior, which is inaccessible to travellers, owing
to the fanaticism of the Senoussi sect, caravans from Darfoor and Wadai
bring large numbers of slaves for the supply of Tripolitan families
and Senouissian sanctuaries. The country is of course under Turkish
authority, and vizirial letters and firmans have been frequently issued
since 1848 forbidding the importation of slaves and all traffic in
them, but we might as well expect the Bedouins of Arabia to cease their
nomadic life at the bidding of the Pasha of Haleb as the fanatical
Mussulmans of the Fezzan to abstain from slavery at the mere command of
the Governor of Tripoli.
The descent of the Congo to the Atlantic in 1877 suggested to King
Leopold the foundation of a state. The Berlin Conference was a
consequence of the success attained by the King. The partition of
Southwest Africa among France, Portugal and Belgium inspired the
Germans to seek territorial possessions in the Dark Continent, and the
movement of Germany excited Great Britain to action, and thus public
attention was once more diverted to eastern Africa.
[Illustration: BOY SLAVE]
From the Abyssinian frontier as far as the Portuguese possessions, and
stretching inland to a line which may roughly be said to be about east
longitude 30°, was an area covering about 1,500,000 square miles which
belonged to no power. It was agreed that it should be divided into
three spheres of influence. The Germans fixed upon the southernmost,
the Italians upon the most northern; the British chose the central.
Each power contracted to confine its operations within its own sphere,
and to proceed to organize and administer it as opportunity offered
upon a civilized basis. There was no intention to launch out into any
enterprise of conquest, but each power proposed to make its title good
by renting or leasing tracts within its sphere from the native princes
or tribal chiefs, by making treaties with them for the sovereignty
of their lands, in return for annual subsidies and protection from
violence, meanwhile being certain of immunity from all interference or
opposition from its neighbor.
The Germans were the earliest to commence work. Through the agency of
a company they made a treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar for his long
strip of coast land, undertaking to pay him a certain sum per annum for
the right of collecting the customs. But the imprudent conduct of the
officers, their imperious and peremptory manner of proceeding, impelled
the Arabs to attempt to drive them from the coast. At Kilwa, Dar
Salaam, Bagamoyo, and Saadani the officers of the German company were
attacked; some had to fly, others were massacred, and innocent British
missionaries returning home after a long residence in the interior were
waylaid and murdered by the excited natives; and the first attempts
of German colonization ended disastrously. Naturally the imperial
German government could not brook this humiliation, and Major Wissmann,
a well-known explorer, was appointed with full powers to suppress
the revolt. Within two years the Arabs were crushed, but the German
position in East Africa became completely changed in consequence. It
had been originally proposed to hold the East African coast by lease
from the Sultan, with the view of including the Hinterland as far as
Lake Tanganika within the sphere of their colonizing operations when
results would permit; but the Germans now claimed nearly the whole
of the east coast and east central Africa. This led in 1890 to the
Anglo-German Convention, by which the German frontier was drawn south
of latitude 1° S., across the Victoria Nyanza, thence east to the
Indian Ocean, skirting the northern base of Kilima-Njaro to Wanga, a
few miles south of the port of Mombasa. The British territory extended
north from Wanga on the sea as far as the mouth of the Juba River, a
distance of about 450 miles, thence inland as far as the Congo State.
These two great divisions of Africa, now converted into British and
German territory, included the major part of the area wherein the slave
trade of the east central part of the continent so long flourished.
The countries west of Lake Nyassa, extending westward to Portuguese
territory and south to the Zambezi, conceded to the great South African
Company, absorbed the remainder of the slavery area. These last are
under the control of a British commissioner, Mr. H. H. Johnston, to
whom is granted an annual subsidy of £10,000 from the South African
Company, and who, with the aid of two British gunboats now on their way
to Lake Nyassa, must shortly succeed in closing the interior of Africa
in that direction to all slave caravans.
Since the Anglo-German Convention the Germans have shown themselves
ready and willing to do their part towards the suppression of the
slave trade in the same thorough manner that they met the rising
of the Arabs. The coast towns are fortified and garrisoned; they
are marking their advance towards Lake Tanganika by the erection of
military stations; severe regulations have been issued against the
importation of arms and gunpowder; the Reichstag has been unstinted
in its supplies of money; an experienced administrator, Baron von
Soden, has been appointed an imperial commissioner, and scores of
qualified subordinates assist him. The Belgian Antislavery Society is
sending a steamer, _viâ_ the Congo, Kasai, Sankuru, and Lumami, to
Lake Tanganika as a cruiser for that lake; the German Catholic African
Society is sending another steamer, in charge of Major von Wissman,
_viâ_ the Zambezi, Shiré, Lake Nyassa, and Stevenson Road to Tanganika.
These two steamers will effectually prevent slaves being transported
across the lake from the eastern part of the Congo State. In German
East Africa itself slave hunts have ceased for many years; but it is
traversed in several places by slave caravans, principally from the
southwest and west. These routes will now be closed by the cruisers
on Lakes Nyassa and Tanganika, and the stations along the Stevenson
Road. Henceforward we need have no concern about that part of Africa.
The northern boundaries, a thousand miles in length, are not so well
guarded, though the Germans are engaged in the transport of a steamer
to Lake Victoria, and possess three stations along the southwestern
shores; but between Lakes Tanganika and Victoria is a broad tract of
country which will no doubt have to be watched, lest the slavers,
finding this unguarded, may unite in making this a pathway to the coast.
These strategic efforts to the west and southwest of German East
Africa, and the continuous upward advance of the stations and
flotillas of King Leopold towards the east, limit the operations
of the slave-traders to that narrowing and untravelled area lying
between Stanley Falls and Lake Tanganika, and will have the effect of
determining the Arabs to seek outlets eastward through British East
Africa, which, in its present state, is most backward in fulfilling
the objects of united Europe. Were it not for the condition that
British East Africa is in to-day we could say that the slave trade in
equatorial Africa was completely extinguished, and we could almost
point to the period wherein even slavery would be extirpated.
The partition of Africa among the European powers, as will have been
seen, was the first effective blow dealt to the slave trade in inner
Africa. The east coast, whence a few years ago the slavers marched
in battalions to scatter over the wide interior of the continent for
pillage and devastation, is to-day guarded by garrisons of German
and British troops. The island of Zanzibar, where they were equipped
for their murderous enterprises, is under the British flag. Trading
steamers run up and down the coast; the Tana and Juba rivers are
being navigated by British steamers; two lines of stations secure
communications inland for 300 miles from the sea. Major von Wissman
is advancing upon Lake Tanganika; Herr Boorchert is marching upon
Lake Victoria; Captain Williams is holding Uganda. These results have
followed very rapidly the political partition of the continent.
The final blow has been given by the act of the Brussels Antislavery
Conference, lately ratified by the powers, wherein modern civilization
has fully declared its opinions upon the question of slavery, and no
single power will dare remain indifferent to them, under penalty of
obloquy and shame.
The first article of the Brussels act is as follows:
“The powers declare that the most effective means for counteracting
the slave trade in the interior of Africa are the following:
“1. Progressive organization of the administration; judicial,
religious, and military services in the African territories placed
under the sovereignty or protectorate of civilized nations.
“2. The gradual establishment in the interior by the responsible power
in each territory of strongly occupied stations in such a way as to
make their protective or repressive action effectively felt in the
territories devastated by man-hunters.
“3. The construction of roads, and, in particular, of railways
connecting the advanced stations with the coast, and presenting easy
access to the inland waters and to the upper reaches of streams and
rivers which are broken by rapids and cataracts, so as to substitute
economical and speedy means of transport for the present means of
portage by men.
“4. Establishment of steamboats on the inland navigable waters and on
the lakes, supported by fortified posts established on the banks.
“5. Establishment of telegraphic lines, assuring the communication of
the posts and stations with the coast and with administrative centres.
“6. Organization of expeditious and flying columns to keep up the
communication of the stations with each other and with the coast, to
support repressive action, and to assume the security of roadways.
“7. Restriction of the importation of fire-arms.”
The above articles concern three powers especially, Great Britain,
Germany, and the Congo State, so far as regards the efficient
counteraction of the slave trade. In examining them one by one, we find
that Great Britain, which in the past was foremost in the cause of the
slave, has done and is doing least to carry out the measures suggested
by the great Antislavery Conference. We must also admit that as regards
furthering the good cause, France is a long way ahead of England.
The Congo State devotes her annual subsidies of £120,000 and the export
tax of £30,000 wholly to the task of securing her territory against the
malign influences of the slave trade, and elevating it to the rank of
self-protecting states.
The German government undertakes the sure guardianship of its vast
African territory as an imperial possession, so as to render it
inaccessible to the slave-hunter, and free from the terrors, the
disturbances, the internecinal wars, and the distractions arising from
the presence or visits of slavers. It has spent already large sums of
money, and finds no difficulty in obtaining from Parliament the sums
requisite for the defence and the thorough control and management of
the territory as a colonial possession. So far the expenses, I think,
have averaged over £100,000 annually.
The French government devotes £60,000 annually for the protection and
administration of its Gaboon and Congo territory. These two objects
include in brief all that the Antislavery Conference deemed necessary,
for with due protection and efficient administration there can be no
room for slave hunting or trading.
Now the question comes, what has England done in the extensive and
valuable territory in East Africa which fell to her share as per
Anglo-German agreement signed July 1, 1890? The answer must be that she
has done less than the least of all those concerned in the extirpation
of the slave trade.
The Germans have crushed the slave-traders, have built fortified
stations in the interior, have supplied their portion of the east coast
with a powerful flotilla of steamers, are engaged in transporting
cruisers to the three great lakes on their borders, have surveyed and
are extending surveys for several railways in the interior, have not
lost time in discovering ways of evading the territorial wants, but
have set about to supply these wants as indicated by the International
Conference of Brussels; and were we able to obtain an instantaneous
photograph of the present movements of the Germans throughout their
territory, we should know how to fully appreciate the hearty spirit
with which they are performing their duties.
And were we able to glance in the same way as to what is occurring on
British soil, we should be struck by the earnestness of the Germans as
compared with the British.
[Illustration: AN ARAB]
Both governments started with delegating their authority to chartered
companies. On the part of the Germans, however, the imprudence of their
agents imperilled their possessions, and the imperial government set
itself the task of reducing malcontentism to order, and settling the
difficulties in its own masterful manner, and is engaged in providing
against their recurrence before surrendering the territory again to the
influences of the company.
The British East African Company, on the other hand, has been
comparatively free to commence its commercial operations, undisturbed
by armed opposition of aborigines or of Arab and Swahili residents.
The welcome given to it has been almost universally cordial. The
susceptibilities of the Arabs were not wounded, and the aborigines
gratefully recognized that the new-comers were not hostile to them.
Concessions were obtained at a fair price, and on payment of the
stipulated value the company entered into possession, and became, with
the consent of all concerned, masters of the British East African
territory--a territory far more ample than what the founders of the
company had hoped for at first.
Had the British East African Company confined its transactions and
operations to the coast, it is well known that the returns would have
been most lucrative, for over and above the expenditure we see by their
reports that there would have been a yearly net gain of over £6000
available for dividend, which by this time would have been trebled.