Congolese people

“ The Congo Free State has indeed, without breaking any Treaty, solved the problem which has baffled the combined wisdom of all the ancient great colonial Powers. It exists on its own resources without poisoning the natives with alcohol; it extracts much wealth from the soil without fear of ever exhausting it; it opens up great tracts of land without running heavily into debt, and—noblest of all—it daily converts naked cannibal savages into self-respecting responsible people. ”

“ The Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.
Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country. I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence. ”

“ Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood. ”

“ Were the Congo properly managed, it would be one of the richest territories on the surface of the earth. As it is, through ignorance and cupidity, it is being despoiled and its people are the most wretched of human beings. ”

“ Time was when the native Congolese, lazily living out his torpid life in a land where Nature in her luxuriance yielded him subsistence without the ennobling concomitant of his labour, avoided the great forests, the jungles, and the marshes of Equatorial Africa. ”

“ To me, the fact of greatest interest about the Congo is that it is owned, and the twenty millions of people who inhabit it are owned by one man. The land and its people are his private property. I am not trying to say that he governs the Congo. He does govern it, but that in itself would not be of interest. His claim is that he owns it. Though backed by all the mailed fists in the German Empire, and all the Dreadnoughts of the seas, no other modern monarch would make such a claim. ”

“ In commenting upon the criticism which British merchants and their allies have uttered against the entire land system of the Congo Free State, an eminent Belgian closely identified with those who support the Congolese policy has said:
It is an easy matter to point out, in an undertaking such as the Congolese enterprise, the inherent imperfections and difficulties of the task, and the accidental defects in the instruments which the State is called upon to employ. ”

“ Of course you must understand that for the moment I am in the service of the Congo Free State, and a great many people might consider anything I should say in favour of the Congo as being biased; but I can assure you that, in my opinion, it would be impossible for any one to give other than a favourable report on the work of the Free State in the Eastern province. The administration is excellent. The country is quite quiet from the Falls to Tanganyika. The native tribes seem contented and happy, and are paid by the Government for every stroke of work they do. ”

“ An increasing number of qualified workers in agriculture, industry, crafts, commerce, administration, are beginning to introduce into all walks of life the individual emancipation that is the real basis of every civilization. We are pleased that in this way we have given Congo — despite its greatest difficulties — the indispensable resources that lie at the foundation of a country on the road to development. ”

“ The Congolese law protects the natives in the enjoyment of the lands that they occupy, and in fact not only are they not disturbed in that enjoyment, but it even extends their cultivation and their plantations in proportion with their necessities. Manifold are the measures taken by the Congo State in order to safeguard the natives against all spoliation:
“‘No one has the right to dispossess the natives of the lands which they occupy.’ (Order of 1st July, 1885, Article 2.) ”

“ Orphans, deserted children, half-castes, all are received and trained for some useful purpose, some entering the army, some engaging on the plantations, some becoming servants to the officials.
It is impossible to form any idea of the Congo native in Boma, for the blacks are of very different nationalities. Natives from Lagos, Sierra-Leone, Portuguese and French territory, all are attracted by the high wages to be earned in the town. Indeed at present most of the positions of responsibility, requiring a fair education, are held by foreign blacks, for very few true Congolese can be trusted. ”

“ But to attain our goal without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can. I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad. ”

“ Portugal of any African territory at the mouth of the Congo dangerous to all the tribes of the interior, and cannot be sanctioned by the treaty powers while it is attended with such incidents without an abandonment of all treaty obligations and duties relating to the slave trade.
The importance of the Congo River to the continent of Africa as a channel through which civilisation and all its attendant advantages will be introduced into a region inhabited by 50,000,000 of people cannot be too highly estimated. ”

“ The golden star of the banner of the International Association represents hospitality to the people and commerce of all nations in the Free States of the Congo; civilisation, order, peace, and security to the persons and property of those who visit the Congo country, as well as to its inhabitants ”

“ The Congo-negroes, called the Frenchmen of Africa, are a vivacious, gay, but vain people; they have depressed noses, wide mouths, thick lips, splendid teeth, and high cheek-bones; they are strong and broad built, but not tall of stature. The Gangas-negroes are kindred to the Congos. The Luccomées and Mandingos, on the contrary, the noblest of these coast-tribes, are tall of stature, with handsome and often remarkably regular, and even noble features, the expression of which is grave. ”

“ The Belgians have gone on the principle, to begin with, that the native must be a participating element in the development and civilisation of the country—that is, that he must work with and for the white man, and thereby benefit not only the white man but himself. I was immensely impressed with the state of government and the advancement and general opening-up of the Congo, the more so as I can compare it with other districts under British control in which I have been. We do not attempt to make the native work, with the result that we do not get the benefit we should from our Protectorates. ”

“ The Congo valley became, therefore, the center of the making of what we know to-day as the Bantu nations. They are not a unified people, but a congeries of tribes of considerable physical diversity, united by the compelling bond of language and other customs imposed on the conquered by invading conquerors. ”

“ The people of Congo are—probably on account of the enervating climate—a very indolent and lethargic race, the women being made to do all the work, while the men lie in the shade and smoke their pipes and drink their palm wine, which they make remarkably well, though not so well as the Bubé tribe of Fernando Po. Their houses are merely huts of the simplest description; a few posts with a roof over them, and twigs woven between them in wicker-work fashion by way of walls, are all that a Congo man cares for in a house. ”

“ They have placed the Negro in the midst of the uncovered wealth of a vast and fertile country; of waterways teeming with traffic; of a magnificent forest stored with rubber; timber of great variety, ivory, oil, and fruit; of promising fields of coffee, cotton, cocoa, tea, and sugar; deposits of gold, copper, coal, and iron. This short era of civilisation has created in the Congo over four hundred commercial houses doing a thriving business with Europe; built railways over mountain routes where only Belgian engineers and Belgian capital had the courage and the skill to venture. ”

“ My expedition when we started from the coast numbered three hundred colored people and fourteen Europeans. We returned with three thousand trained black men and three hundred Europeans. The first sum allowed to me was $50,000 per year, but it has ended at something like $700,000 a year. Thus you see the progress of civilization. We found the Congo having only canoes. To-day there are eight steamers. It was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. He dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa into a confederacy and call it a free state ”

“ A civil community was to be created of savage hordes; to maintain itself by its own people led on to civilisation by a few Europeans with a courage and zeal the equatorial sun should not subdue. The vast field it occupied and the untamed characteristics of its large population, the early philanthropic aims of its royal patron, and a general desire to carry out the principles enunciated at the Berlin Conference, all contributed to invest the Congo State Government with a special character, and to saddle it with original duties supposedly beyond its powers to perform. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They are a very low class of native indeed. That is the territory which the Belgians have so successfully opened up for the rubber trade. In that opening-up process they have had, as I say, [Pg 432] to contend with absolutely the lowest class of natives in Africa at the present day. As you travel through the Congo you cannot help feeling—at all events any one like myself, who has been through the British tropical colonies—that the amount of general advancement and civilisation in the Congo Free State is far ahead as compared with our own. ”

“ From the start, Congo has opened its borders to international trade, without Belgium ever exercising an exclusive right focused solely on its own interests. Congo has been given railways, all kinds of sea and air lines, which, by connecting your populations with each other, have promoted their unity and expanded the countries to the world. A medical service, which was set up several decades early, has been patiently organized and has delivered you from many devastating illnesses. Numerous and remarkably well-equipped hospitals have been built. Agriculture has been improved and modernized. ”

“ Will she prove strong enough, wise enough, great enough to bring order out of the chaotic state of affairs into which her late ruler plunged the Congo territories? It would require a bold man to give an unqualified affirmative to this question. Cover several thousand miles of that territory, live for months with the aboriginal tribes, discuss administrative problems with Congo officials, watch the operations, and listen to the conversations of the German and Portuguese merchants—and a permanent Belgian control of the Congo becomes a matter of considerable doubt. ”

“ This is but one of many difficulties with which the Congo Free State has had to contend, and those who sit in judgment upon that State should bear in mind that the Central African black is not by nature predisposed to civilisation. Not all the cannibal tribes are so repulsive and cruel as the Bangalas. Most of them eat no other human flesh but that of their enemies slain in battle. ”

“ The superstitions of the people, their customs and habits, a season of drouth, a failure of crops, in fact anything, even the least trivial happenings, were all factors giving Congo’s king excuse for the selling of his subjects to securing wealth; wealth represented by many wives, granaries filled to bursting with manioc, and wooded hills and fertile valleys stocked to overrunning with flocks of sheep and droves of lowing kine ”

“ Indeed, the King of Congo is the only chief who maintains his style and title; the others have become extinct during this century. We find then the whole country in a state of disintegration; every town a separate state, and its chief, to all practical purposes, independent. ”

“ The principles of the Congo Government are that the soil shall maintain those who develop its resources for the betterment of the sower and the reaper. The civilisation of the native by industry and other forms of instruction in the attributes of order, civic life, and all that he may be capable of absorbing of enlightened freedom. For the privilege of residing within the sphere of a State so governed, the white man is the most taxed member of society in the world. Shall savages alone be exempt from labour and just contribution to organised government? ”

“ Spontaneously, generously, she called on the Congo to have independence in the near future. She faithfully carries out her promise according to methods advised by experience and in the interests of all.
Far from imposing preconceived solutions, she would like the Congo to recommend institutions adapted to local customs and preferences and meeting the needs of the country. Such profound changes pose serious problems. Success requires order, good faith, the desire to make strong and lasting covers. ”