The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

FOOTNOTES:

[21] About 22 lbs.

[22] A kilometre is .621 of a mile.

[23] A metre is 39.37 inches.

CHAPTER XXIV
NAVIGATION, RAILWAYS, ROADS

The Strenuous Life.

The Sovereign of the Congo Free State adheres to a gospel of labour of which he is personally the greatest exemplar in Europe. His Majesty’s industry is in motion at five o’clock every morning. It gathers force as the sun rises, and subsides only when his ministers and attendants have retired. In this respect much might be written to attract the world’s admiration to a monarch who has the false reputation in America of toying with time and its tintinnabulation.

Tremendous are the energies which the King’s example inspires, not only in the Belgium which his rule has beautified, and which he has made the least-taxed country in Europe, but also in the heart of blackest Africa. There are, in that vast territory, manifold monuments to the infectious spirit of endeavour which prevails in the palace at Laeken, at Brussels, and in the lofty châlet at Ostend. These monuments, by their nature, appear to confirm Belgian intention to occupy the future of the Congo State with structures of enduring substance, whether they be material, political, ethical, or social. The charge, sometimes uttered against King Leopold, that his interest in the Congo is merely what it can be made to yield him during his lifetime, dissolves into the mist of the slander it becomes in the presence of the physical improvement going on, with mighty strides, in Congoland.

Benefits of State Rule.

When the Congo Free State was founded, communication by water with Europe was infrequent and uncomfortable. Liverpool and Lisbon sent a few ships at irregular intervals. Later Germany and Holland followed their example at a time when Fuka-Fuka was the farthermost settlement on the Congo coast. No means of transport into the interior existed except by canoes, or by native carriers. To-day all this has been altered by Belgian capital, skill, and industry.

The maritime development of the Congo began in 1891, when the State, joining the commercial companies of the region, concluded an agreement with certain German and English steamship lines to establish a monthly service between Antwerp and Matadi. These ships left Antwerp on the 6th of each month and arrived at Matadi in about fifteen days.

In 1895, under the auspices of a syndicate composed of the masters of these ships, there was incorporated at Antwerp La Compagnie Belge Maritime du Congo, which provided a monthly service of steamers sailing under the Belgian flag. The success of this enterprise induced other companies to engage in the Congo trade, among them being L’Empresa Nacional de Navigaçao, of Lisbon; Les Chargeurs Réunis, of Bordeaux, related to Fraissinet et Cie., of Marseilles; The Woerman Line, of Hamburg; The African Steamship Company, combined with the British and African Steam Navigation Company.

Extensive harbour works have been erected at Banana, Boma, and Matadi, and several signal lights have been placed at the mouth of the Congo to indicate the entrance to the channel. The Lower Congo, from Banana to Matadi, has been charted by buoys, and a pilot service has been organised at Banana. The river channel is being constantly improved by dredging, and Matebe, which in the dry season was inaccessible except to small craft, is now on the line of general navigation. A regular service of steamers plies the Lower Congo, and the State boats go regularly to Landana to meet the Portugese mail.

In 1890 the shipping in the ports of Banana and Boma amounted to only 166,028 entries, and 163,716 departures. The present tonnage into and out of these ports is over 500,000.

On the Upper Congo a large flotilla carries on an excellent service. The State operates thirty-two of these vessels and the companies about forty-five, besides which there is a considerable number of smaller craft belonging to private individuals and to missions. The tonnage of the Upper Congo flotilla is 1675 tons. The marine service numbers 166 whites and 1300 blacks.

Zappo-Zapp Musicians, Luluabourg.

The first steamers launched on the Upper Congo were of only five tons, their component parts having been carried on men’s backs along caravan routes long before the construction of the railway of the Cataracts. Even before the completion of the railway from Matadi to Stanley Pool the State had launched twelve five-ton boats on the Upper Congo, each of which had a capacity of nearly 50,000 pounds. Besides these, the Government launched one steamer of twenty-three tons and four of forty tons burden.

With the completion of the railway, the necessity for considering the weight of the loads ceased, and a new type of craft, the stern-wheel, was chosen. Its system of propulsion offered greater advantages against the variable conditions of navigability with which the vessels had to contend. The ports and landings are in a state of complete organisation at numerous points on the river, and cargoes are now moved with great facility. At regular intervals along the watercourse, posts at which Government workmen gather wood, supply the steamers with this form of fuel. In order that the forests along the banks may not be denuded, a State law enforces the replanting of trees as fast as they are cut down.

In 1896 the Government established a regular fortnightly steamship service between Leopoldville and Stanley Falls. The three steamers, Brabant, Hainaut, and Flandre, have been assigned to this service. The dates of their departure from Stanley Pool have been fixed to correspond with the dates of arrival of European ships. In order to ensure service on the navigable stretches beyond the Falls, steamers have been launched on the rivers Lualaba, Itimbiri, and Ubanghi. A sailing vessel has been launched on Lake Tanganyika and a steamer on the Nile. Native rowing crews have been organised in many regions, and their services are often of great value. All in all, the 102 steamers plying the Congo River in the governmental and private service, the efficient port facilities, the means of transport up the navigable affluents, and the hydrographic surveys constantly going on constitute a condition of colonial development which truly merits the commendation of Herr Von Puttkamer, Governor of the Cameroons, in which, amongst other things, he says: “The energy and practical sense displayed here deserve the greatest admiration.”

As the Congo steamboat largely abolished the laborious native carrier system through the riverain districts of the State, so has the Congo Railway, popularly known as the Cataracts Railway, largely contributed to relieve the black man, under Belgian rule, from lugging fifty-six pounds dead weight through the African jungle. The iron horse in Central Africa has given great momentum to the industries of a fertile region. In constructing the railway from Matadi, near the mouth of the Congo River, to Stanley Pool, traversing a distance of 260 miles over as tortuous and steep a route as ever daring engineers ventured to follow; climbing the Pallaballa Mountains at gradients of 150 feet in the mile, and finally steaming over a summit 17,000 feet above the sea, Belgian skill has again manifested its extraordinary quality, a quality observed in all that it has accomplished in the Congo Basin.

To connect the navigable regions of the Lower and the Upper Congo by a line over the route just indicated seemed at first to be beyond the possibility of achievement. On July 6, 1898, after nine years of unremitting toil and the expenditure of sixty million francs, the line was in complete and regular operation through a region which, on account of its picturesque scenery, may be likened to the Simplon Pass in Switzerland.

Without a railway running round the thirty-two great cataracts which tumble furiously in their descent of eighty miles to the sea, the Congo River, in the opinion of Stanley, would not have much value in the development of the Basin.

The first estimate of the cost of constructing the line was twenty-five million francs. This was based on the surveys of Major Cambier for the Compagnie du Congo pour la Commerce et l’Industrie, which, as early as the year 1887, had been granted certain rights and privileges if it would undertake to build the railway. On July 29, 1889, the Belgian Chamber agreed to provide ten million francs of the Company’s first capital, the remaining fifteen million francs having been subscribed chiefly by Belgian investors. The work so enthusiastically undertaken met with one setback after another, owing mainly to the engineering difficulties encountered in the rocky side of the mountain of Pallaballa, forming a spur of the great Crystal range, the western rampart of the Central African plateau. It required four years and indomitable perseverance to construct the section of the line from Matadi over the summit of Pallaballa, a distance of only twenty-six miles. In December, 1893, Colonel Wahis opened this part of the line with appropriate ceremonies, which many Europeans interested in Congo affairs attended. In the Mouvement Géographique appeared the following interesting description of this unique engineering triumph:

The train, on leaving the station of Matadi, passes in front of the works of the State and the Belgian and Portuguese commercial establishments, and debouches immediately by the Neck of the Guinea Fowls (Col des Pintades) into the Leopold Ravine, which it crosses by a bridge of sixty-five feet. It follows for a few minutes the right bank of the ravine, and is then on the bank of the Congo, whose magnificent panorama is suddenly exposed. Here commences the sensational part of the journey. For four miles, first alongside the Congo and then alongside the Mpozo, the way is hooked on to the side of the strong rock of Matadi. It mounts by a gentle incline, having on its right a perpendicular rocky wall, in some places seven hundred feet high, and on its left, in the foreground, the river rolling in rapids; and in the background the grand landscape of the right bank, with Vivi and Mount Leopold. At the sixth kilometre, where the Mpozo flows into the Congo, and before entering the valley of the former river, the view is exceedingly grand. At this point the railway is two hundred feet above the river—the Congo, enclosed in a gorge, rolls its tumultuous waters with extreme rapidity, as they have just made the descent from the Falls of Yellalla. On the left, to the north-east, the scenery is quite wild. It is equally so to the south-east, while the water is closed in in the narrow valley of the Mpozo. It was in these parts, at the very commencement of the work, that the difficulties were the greatest. From the Leopold Ravine to the bridge of the Mpozo, or for over four miles, the platform of the line had to be cut in terraces on the side of an immense rock of hard stone, through the thick equatorial vegetation which encumbered every ravine. Beyond Sleepy Hollow (Ravin du Sommeil), and after passing the ancient camp of Matadi-Mapembe, commences the famous ascent of Pallaballa. At the tenth kilometre the line attains a height of three hundred feet, or a rise of six hundred feet in four and a half miles. Beyond this the line traverses the Devil’s Ravine to reach the summit of the mountain, one thousand seven hundred feet, and in the course of this part of the work several bridges have had to be thrown across the intervening chasms or ravines. The whole of this part of the journey is really inspiring. The scenery is grand, works of skill succeed each other every minute, the perspective modifies itself to each of the numerous curves the road makes at every passage across the ravines. The railway ever ascends, hanging on to the mountain, suspended in places from three hundred to five hundred feet above the bottom of the Devil’s Ravine. The engine blows with force to the very moment of reaching the station of Pallaballa. Here the most interesting portion of the journey is over. The great difficulties, the long slopes of ascent at a maximum incline, recur no more.

It had now become apparent that the railway would cost more than double the sum originally estimated. Additional powers having been granted to the Company and a tripartite convention having provided the Congo Free State and the Belgian Government with power to buy the road, capital was raised to bring the total up to sixty million francs. By an extension of the time when the Congo State and Belgium may buy the line, the railway Company has possession until 1908.

A Unique Railroad.

The Cataracts Railway has some unique characteristics. It maintains a first- and a second-class car on each train. Trains leave Matadi every other day. Persons returning from the Congo refer to it as the strangest as well as the most profitable railway line in the world. It runs the distance between Matadi and Stanley Pool in twenty-four hours. First-class passage costs 500 francs, the second-class 50 francs. The former is, therefore, at the rate of 40 cents a mile. This, it is to be hoped, is at least some compensation for the great difficulties encountered in the construction of the line. For the final accomplishment of what is regarded in Europe as one of the great engineering feats in Africa, the energy and skill of Lieutenant Thys, the original surveys of Major Cambier, and the support of the King and the Belgian Parliament are largely to be credited. Outside assistance was almost entirely lacking.

The Mayumbe Railway is the second which was undertaken in the development of the Congo Free State. It connects Boma with Lukula, eighty kilometres (about fifty-four miles) distant, and has been in operation since 1901. It is narrow gauge (0.60 metre), while the Cataracts Railway is 0.70 metre.

Band of Government Technical School, Boma.

On the completion of the Mayumbe Railway, the State inspired the construction of three lines of one-metre gauge, with a total length of 1600 kilometres (1080 miles). These lines are being undertaken by the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Congo Supérieur aux Grands Lacs Africains under an agreement made with the State on January 4, 1902. The latest report of the Vice-Governor-General (July, 1904) indicates the present stage to which these lines and others have attained:

A route for a railroad from Stanleyville to the Great Lakes has been surveyed. This survey comprehends a principal trunk line, Stanleyville-Bafwaboli-Mawambi-Irumu, 762 kilometres in length. Near Irumu the track branches off in two directions, one, Irumu-Mahagi, of 358 kilometres, the other, Irumu-Beni, of 135 kilometres. At present the surveys are being made for a track from Beni to Lake Tanganyika.

In addition, the track has been completely surveyed for a railway from Dufile to Redjaf, following the left bank of the Nile, which would be 157 kilometres in length.

This railway would turn the unnavigable part of the river.

At this moment a line is being constructed between Stanleyville (left bank) and Ponthierville. This line will be 140 kilometres in length. The rails have been placed over ten kilometres, and the embankment finished for fifty kilometres. This line will permit of transports being made on the river above Ponthierville. As soon as this first line is finished, others will be constructed along the unnavigable parts of the river.

At the present moment surveys are also being made for a railway connecting a point on the southern frontier of the Congo Independent State (Katanga) with a point situated on the Lualaba, south of the junction of that river with the Lufila.

The approximate length of this line, the survey of which commenced as far back as 25th April, 1903, will be about 500 kilometres.

Having regard to those articles of the Berlin General Act which relate to the free navigation of the Congo and its affluents, the legal status of railways within the Conventional Basin of the Congo becomes a matter of considerable importance, especially in view of the growing controversy as to the proper construction of the Act.

Baron Descamps has ably treated this subject in his New Africa, a volume of exceptional interest at this time. After pointing out that the “freedom of navigation” declared by the Berlin Act must not be confounded with freedom of railway traffic, inasmuch as the latter admits of grants of monopoly and the former does not, this eminent writer on questions of general and special law says:

The idea of considering railways as continuations of water-courses, or as junctions between water-courses, was quite a new one, as was pointed out at the Berlin Conference. The Conference realised the necessity of providing for the logical consequences of such an idea, and therefore it drew up special regulations which are worthy of careful examination.

The general legal standing of railways in the Congo, the essential rights of the authorities as to their construction, their concession, their running powers, their charges, their position as public highways, their administrative and judicial policy are the same as those of railways in other countries.

The Berlin Act, as regards railways destined to provide transport where the Congo and the Niger become unnavigable, made special provision in clauses 16 and 23 on the one hand, and 29 and 33 on the other—the only clauses which are concerned with railways—for certain details of these communications. After declaring that these railways, as means of communication, are considered as auxiliaries of the rivers, the Act dwells on the legal consequences attaching to the introduction of this new idea, this conventional innovation in international relations. The consequences are as follows:

1. The obligation of opening the railways to the traffic of all nations (Art. 16, § 1), and the inviolability at all times of the lines thus opened to the trade of all nations (Art. 25, § 1).

2. The obligation to refrain from any excessive railway rates, that is to say, “not calculated on the cost of construction, maintenance and management, and on the profits due to the promoters.” The Berlin Act states but these general principles, its object being to give the basis of calculation rather than a detailed solution of the problem, since it does not draw up a schedule of rates with respect to the nature of goods or the scale of the charges.

3. The obligation to observe, in fixing a tariff within these broad limits, “equality of treatment for the strangers and the subjects of the respective territories.”

Coffee Plantation at Yalicombe (Oriental Province).

Thus, equality is sure to be observed as regards the tariff, both in the case of subjects and foreigners, and especially so in business which may be called the sphere of private activity, i. e., commerce. Thus also the power of the State to allow exclusive access to the railways, to impose extra or unfair charges, is minimised. The Berlin Act goes so far, but does not pass these limits. Beyond this, it does not affect the sovereign prerogatives of the State as regards its territory.

According to the usual right of the Powers in all that regards railways, the State can order the establishment of the same, can have them constructed, run them itself, and fix their tariff. It can also, if deemed preferable, authorise a concessionaire to collect the charges on the contemplated line, on condition that he shall undertake the construction and maintain the established tariff.

The Berlin Act respects these fundamental rights. It offers no opposition against whatever arrangements the State makes with its concessionaire as regards a schedule of rates with respect to the nature of goods or the scale of the charges. It does not intrude upon the internal organisation of the rates, except so far as it circumscribes them within the following limitations: 1, all are free to use the railways; 2, no distinction can be based on the nationality of individuals; 3, and no excessive rates are to be imposed.

Circumstances may render changes in the tariff advisable, and the State may modify the rates periodically.[24] It may also exercise the right of ordering its concessionaire to make certain modifications and reductions.

This was the course adopted by the Free State in relation to the Congo Railway in its initial estimates. It also reserved the right of repurchase. This latter reservation, however, it abandoned for a time by Act dated November 12, 1901, which also stipulated in what manner its optional power of reducing rates was to be exercised. That power it exercised by imposing a comprehensive system of reduction, and without at the time committing itself to any declaration as to the specific classes of goods on which the rates were to be reduced. It does not concern strangers whether it be exercised in one act or in two, and whether the concessionaire acts by special agreement with the State or under general powers. The main consideration is whether the procedure followed for the attainment of the reductions aimed at is in accordance with the Berlin Act. In the present case, the procedure certainly was in accordance with that Act.

From a legal point of view, nothing can be said against the State’s reducing railway rates, inasmuch as it was invested with the right of primarily drawing up those rates.

By the same Act of November 12, 1901, the State enjoys certain special conditions of transport for carrying out works of public utility. That right is quite legitimate for the Government, and does not entitle private citizens to demand its application for their own purposes. The State could have enjoyed these advantages if it had itself built and worked the line. The mere fact of a concession by no means robs the State of all its rights in this respect. These advantages are justified, for the State has made real sacrifices in ceding a part of its territory and in abandoning the repurchase clauses. The advantages accruing to the State do not in any way interfere with the equal treatment of individuals stipulated for in Article 16, which says: “As regards the rate of these tolls, foreigners and subjects of the respective territories shall be treated on a footing of perfect equality.”

No distinction is made on account of nationalities; the only difference made rests on a service of public utility, regardless of nationality. Neither subjects nor foreigners can say that their civil or commercial liberties are endangered.

There are certain authoritative interpretations of the Berlin Act which confirm our view of this question. The German Government, for example, considers no breach of equality the exemption of all dues granted to a German railway concessionaire. Below are two clauses of the Imperial German decree, dated December 1, 1891, and relating to the railway in German East Africa (Usambara line).

“Clause 1.—The Imperial Government shall grant to no other contractor, either individual or corporation, the right of constructing or working a railway line joining the said localities or liable to compete with the line ceded by the present decree or any parts of same.”

“Clause 9.—The Imperial Government guarantees to the German East African Railway Company, subject to compliance with the prescribed formalities, an exemption from all taxes on materials, engines, working tools, and all other implements and articles which may be imported into German East Africa for the construction, repair, renewal, and running of the railway.”

In drawing up special tariffs with its concessionaire, it may be asked whether the State can base these rates on the actual working expenses—that is to say, with neither profit nor loss for the concessionaire. From an economic point of view, such a tariff is perfectly justifiable. Transporting operations, per se, cannot be separated from the transactions to which they are related. These transactions must be considered in view of all the surrounding circumstances. In negotiating transport operations, which of themselves entail neither profit nor loss, a contractor is quite justified in calculating on present or probable advantages which may result from the whole of the operation; as, for instance, the opening of new markets and the renunciation to the right of immediate repurchase of the concern. To forbid him to do this would be to spoil his chances and deprive him in many cases of a part of the profit to which he is justly entitled.

Neither can it be argued, in the case of a railway like that of the Congo, that the contractor should require rates superior to his actual expenses, in order to realise an immediate profit. Clause 16 states “that there shall be collected only tolls calculated on the cost of construction, maintenance, and management, and on the profits due to the promoters.” To argue in the sense indicated would be against the purport of the clause which aims at forbidding excessive rates, but which in no way interferes with a gradual realisation of average profits by the contractors. To arbitrarily forbid the contractor to make such profits would be to fly in the face of Clause 16, inasmuch as it refers to the profits due to the contractor. It is equally fallacious to imagine that because certain merchandise is carried for a time without profit, the rates for certain other merchandise must needs be increased. Finally, it would still have to be shown that the Berlin Act forbids a proper and reasonable equalisation of contractors’ charges. But the Berlin Act does not meddle with such arrangements; it does not establish a detailed and proportional schedule of rates. It only says that such charges must not be excessive—that is to say, they must not exceed the comprehensive amount of the necessary expenses and due profits. The Act, moreover, fixes no maximum for such profits, neither does it fix any maximum rates on produce. Its intentions in this respect are shown by its refusal to define, even by means of a maximum scale, the extent of compensatory rates.

Africa Unknown to Africans.

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. He moved about to regions of easy access where the land afforded his indolence the greatest pleasure for the least responsibility. Explorers and the early builders of the Congo Free State often experienced great difficulty in preventing the desertion of their native carriers over a trackless course, such, for instance, as Stanley, Wissmann, De Brazza, cut out on their several expeditions. In short, the African Negro regarded his feet with such solicitude that he waited for the white man to show him the thickets and the fastnesses which contained those natural resources—rubber, oil, gum, ivory, nuts—which certain library philosophers and untravelled colonisers assert were the conscious property of the savage who neither knew of, nor cared for, their existence. Industry was not worth while to him who could supply his wants in idleness.

The State, on the other hand, has not only taught the native Congolese the enlightening influence of honest labour, it has set him an example of colonial industry the like of which can not be found in the possessions of any other European Power. It built its railways where the engineering skill of its more powerful neighbours predicted failure; it sought the hidden treasure of a vast domain with routes and transport services which, in part, account for prosperity which others observe with manifest envy. Not content with these, it has lately penetrated the forests with wide avenues, hundreds of miles long, upon which to operate an automobile service. On this subject Vice-Governor-General Fuchs says:

The Government has also given attention to the construction of routes for motor cars; two chief routes of this kind are being constructed.

The first in the Uelle between Redjaf and Ibembo. It will be about 1250 kilometres in length, of which, according to the latest information furnished, 400 kilometres are now open to use. Experiments are being made there by means of three steam waggons.

The second starts from Songololo, a station on the railway from Matadi to the Pool, and proceeds to Popokabaka on the river Kwango.

Routes destined for transport by waggons are, besides, in course of construction, and in some parts of the territory are sufficiently advanced to permit of transport by oxen, particularly in the Uelle, Katanga, and Manyema. The Mahagi-Irumu route is working for a length of 165 kilometres; eleven large villages are now established along this route, at distances of from 13 to 16 kilometres from each other.