Frank Richardson Cana

“ Belief in a Supreme Being is vague but universal, but as this Being is good, or at least neutral, he is disregarded, and the native applies himself to the propitiation and coercion, by magical means, of the countless malignant spirits with which he imagines himself to be surrounded, and which are constantly on the watch to catch him tripping. ”

“ The villages of the tribes of the lower Congo are usually surrounded by a palisade; the houses or huts are rectangular and about 7 ft. high, fetishes are usually found over the entry. The Bateke build their houses in circular groups opening on a sort of courtyard; the houses in Bangala villages are built in parallel rows about 200 ft. apart; plantations of manioc usually surround the villages. Two varieties of culture exist among the tribes inhabiting the state: that extending over the western and central area, and that of the Welle district and eastern fringe. ”

“ In general the physical development of these people is scarcely so great as that of the average northern European, but the majority are well formed. The most savage and truculent of the tribes are those who live in the forest regions; the most advanced in culture, the dwellers in the plains. Nearly all the tribes have tattoo markings on the face and body; to this rule the Ba-Kongo tribes are an exception. Save where the tribes have come under Arab or European influence, the clothing is extremely scanty, but absolute nudity is not known. ”

“ The Ruwe gold mine is in the Katanga district in the south of the colony. It lies west of the Lualaba on the Mitumba range, in about 11° S., 25° 45′ E. Iron is widely distributed, and worked in a primitive fashion. It has been found in the Manyanga country, the Manyema country on the upper Congo, in the Urua country, in the basins of the Kasai and the Lualaba, and in Katanga. Ironstone hills, estimated to contain millions of tons of ironstone of superior quality, have been reported in the south-eastern region. ”

“ Each tribe speaks a different language or dialect of Bantu, the chief groups being described in the article Bantu Languages. Swahili, a Bantu tongue with an admixture of Arabic, &c., is understood by many tribes besides those which have been under the direct influence of the Zanzibar Arabs, and it is the most general means of communication. The religion of the Congo tribes is difficult to define. ”

“ The Banza and Mogwandi are large tribes living in the region between the Congo and the Ubangi.
These Bantu races may be further divided into plain, forest and riverine tribes. With the exception of a few riverine tribes, such as the Wagenia who are fishers only, all are agriculturists and the majority keen traders, going long distances to buy and sell goods, but there are marked differences among them corresponding to their environment. The riverine tribes build excellent canoes and large “fighting” boats, and are almost uniformly expert boatmen and fishermen and live much on the water ”

“ The idea is that the dead man shall enter the spirit world in a manner befitting his earthly rank, or he would be despised by the other spirits, and also that if proper respect were not shown to his remains, he might bring supernatural punishment on his relations. The point to be recognized is the extremely close connexion in the mind of the native between life in this world and the next, and between the mundane and the supernatural.
The European population, before 1880, consisted of a few traders, Dutch, English, French and Portuguese, having factories in the Congo estuary. ”

“ In Katanga the companies holding concessions and the state are jointly represented by the Comité spécial du Katanga. In 1906 four new companies were formed in which British, American and French capital was largely invested. Of these companies the Union minière du Haut Katanga had for object the development of the mineral wealth of the district named, while the Chemin de fer du Bas Congo undertook to build a railway from Leopoldville to Katanga. The American Congo Company was granted a rubber concession in the Kasai basin. ”

“ Practical instruction is given in various subjects, but the main object is to provide recruits for the armed force of the state, and only such lads as are unfitted to be soldiers are drafted into other occupations. Missionaries have displayed great activity on the Congo. In 1907 there were about 500 missionaries in the colony, divided in about equal proportion between Protestants and Roman Catholics. They maintain over 100 stations. The missionaries do not confine themselves to religious instruction, but have schools for ordinary and technical training. ”

“ The neighbouring Portuguese possessions are the next best customers of the colony. Holland and Great Britain take most of the remainder of the trade. The principal imports are textiles and clothing, foods and drinks, machinery and metals, steamers and arms and ammunition. Two-thirds of the imports are from Belgium; the remainder came from Germany, Great Britain (chiefly cottons) , France and Holland. It should be noted that the importation of alcohol, for the use of the natives, is prohibited. Exports greatly exceed the imports in value. ”

“ Industries and Trade.—The principal industry is the collection of caoutchouc (see Rubber) from the rubber vines, which exist in seemingly inexhaustible quantities. The value of the rubber exported, which in 1886 was only £6000, had risen in 1900 to £1,158,000. In 1907 the value was £1,758,000. When the state was founded elephant and hippopotamus ivory formed for some years the most important article of export. When Europeans first entered the Congo basin the natives were found to have large stores of “dead ivory” in their possession. ”

“ Numerous expeditions were organized by King Leopold in the Congo basin, and the activity of the International Association and its agents began seriously to engage the attention of the European powers interested in Africa. On behalf of Portugal, claims were advanced to the Congo, based on the discovery of its mouth by Portuguese navigators centuries before. ”

“ The climbing plants, from the size of a whipcord to that of a man-of-war’s hawser, are so numerous, that the ancient path is the only passage. When one of the giant trees falls across the road, it forms a wall breast high to be climbed over, and the mass of tangled ropes brought down makes cutting a path round it a work of time which travellers never undertake.” This description is equally applicable to the forest region extending eastward from the mouth of the Aruwimi almost to Albert Nyanza. This forest covers an area of some 25,000 sq. ”

“ Nor can it be said that under their white masters the natives have become great agriculturists, though plantations have been established both by the state and private companies, and coffee, cocoa, tobacco, rice and maize are grown for export. Of domestic animals, sheep and goats are common. Oxen have been introduced from Europe. Horses, asses and mules are comparatively rare.
Minerals.—Gold mines are worked at Kilo in the upper basin of the Ituri river, and some 30 m. W. of the Mboga district, Albert Nyanza, where gold has also been found (in British territory) . ”

“ Some tribes, notably the Ba-Luba, possess considerable skill in working in wood, ivory and metals (chiefly iron and copper) . The knives, spears and shields of native workmanship frequently show both ingenuity and skill, alike in design and execution. Musical instruments of crude design are common. Over a great part of the country the natives manufacture cloth from vegetable fibre. ”

“ In this region, watered by the Lualaba, Lufira and other head-streams of the Congo, immense copper ore deposits are found in hills and spurs of rising ground extending over 150 m. east to west. Tin is found on the western edge of the Katanga copper belt and extends north along the banks of the Lualaba. Copper is also reported in other districts, such as Mpala and Uvira on Lake Tanganyika. Lead ore, tin (Ubangi basin) , sulphur and mercury have been discovered. ”

“ Vigorous protests by the private trading companies were also made against this violation of the freedom of trade secured by the Berlin Act, and eventually an arrangement was made by which certain areas were reserved to the state and certain areas to private traders, but the restrictions imposed on the natives were maintained. Large areas of the state domain were leased to companies invested with very extensive powers, including the exclusive right to exploit the produce of the soil. ”

“ The fears excited by this letter that King Leopold desired to restrict Belgium’s liberty of action in the Congo State when the latter should become a Belgian colony were not diminished by the announcement in November 1906 of four new concessions, conferring very extensive rights on railway, mining and rubber companies in which foreign capital was largely interested. ”

“ They grew bananas, manioc, the sweet potato, the sugarcane, maize, sorghum, rice, millet, eleusine and other fruits and vegetables, as well as tobacco, but the constant state of fear in which they lived, either of their neighbours or of the Arabs, offered small inducement to industry. ”

“ Hippopotami and crocodiles abound in the rivers, which are well stocked with many kinds of fish, including varieties resembling perch and bream; and otters make their home in the river banks. The manati is confined to the lower Congo. Bird and insect life is abundant. ”

“ But, though those who opposed annexation formed a numerous body, all political parties were agreed that in case of annexation the excesses which had stained the record of the Free State should cease.
On the 15th of April 1908 the chamber began a general debate on the Congo question. The debate made it clear that while the Belgian people did not desire colonial possessions, annexation was the only means of escape from a situation Completion of Act. the country found intolerable. ”

“ Even in the rainy season on the lower river the rain does not fall continuously for a long period, the storms rarely lasting more than a few hours, but frequently attaining great violence. The greatest fall registered as occurring during a single tornado was 6 in. ”

“ It varies in altitude from 5000 to 10,000 ft. The eastern escarpment is precipitous, but on its western face it slopes more gently into the Congo basin. North of the Lukuga river the main chain throws out into the central zone, in a north-westerly direction, a secondary range known as the Bambara Mountains, which forms one of the boundaries of the Manyema country. The interior or lake zone is a high plateau with an average elevation of 3000 ft. ”

“ They form, both from the point of view of the physical geography and the commercial development of the colony, its most important feature; but next in importance are the forests. The wooded savannas are mostly situated on the higher lands of the central zone, where the land dips down from the Mitumba Mountains to the Congo.
The part of the colony within the Nile basin is geographically of great interest. It includes some of the volcanic peaks which, north of Lake Kivu, stretch across the rift-valley and attain heights of 13,000 and 14,000 ft. ”

“ In accepting this frontier King Leopold had to sacrifice all claims to the valley of the Niadi Kwilu, in which he had founded fourteen stations, and to the right bank of the Ubangi. With Portugal the Association concluded an agreement on the 14th of February 1885, by which the northern bank of the Congo was recognized as belonging to the Association, while Portugal retained the southern bank of the river as far as Noki. ”

“ The net result of the above agreements was to leave the Congo Free State with France, Portugal and Great Britain as her neighbours on the north, with Great Britain and Germany as her neighbours on the east, and with Great Britain and Portugal on her southern frontier. The main object of King Leopold’s ambition was to obtain an outlet on the Nile, and for the history of the incidents connected with the two important agreements made in 1894 with Great Britain and France, and their sequel in the agreement made with Great Britain in 1906, reference must be made to the article Africa, § 5. ”

“ In anticipation of the consent of the Belgian parliament to this treaty, a Franco-Belgian convention was signed on the 5th of February 1895, by which the Belgian government recognized “the right of preference possessed by France over its Congolese possessions in case of their compulsory alienation, wholly or in part.” ”

“ From Matadi a railway, completed in 1898 at a cost of £2,720,000, and 260 m. long, goes past the cataract region and ends at Stanley Pool, whence the Congo is navigable to Stanley Falls, a distance of 980 m. From Stanley Falls a railway runs towards the Nile. An agreement with Great Britain, concluded in May 1906, provided for the continuation of this line from the Congo State frontier through the Lado Enclave to the navigable channel of the Nile near the station of Lado, a steamboat and railway service across Africa from the Congo mouth to the Red Sea being thus arranged. ”

“ Professor Cattier in a later work, Étude sur la situation de l’état indépendant du Congo (Brussels, 1906) , severely criticized the Congo administration. Other indictments of Congo State methods are contained in La Question congolaise, by A. Vermeersch (Brussels, 1906) ; Il Congo (Rome, 1908) , by Captain Baccari; Civilization in Congoland, by H. R. Fox Bourne (London, 1903) ; and King Leopold’s Rule in Africa (London, 1904) ; Red Rubber (London, 1906) ”

“ Of the tonnage entered 193,202 was Belgian, 85,934 British, 74,536 French, and 67,400 German. In addition about 500 smaller vessels engaged in the coasting trade enter and clear from Boma and Banana every year.
Constitution.—The Free State, under King Leopold of Belgium, was organized as an absolute monarchy. Civil and criminal codes were promulgated by decrees, and in both cases the laws of Belgium were adopted as the basis of legislation, and “modified to suit the special requirements” of the state; e.g. forced labour (prestations) was legalized (law of the 18th of November 1903) . ”