Slavery and the slave trade in Africa

by Henry M. Stanley

A SLAVE MARKET

On February 25, 1885, the powers of Europe and America gave their cordial recognition to the Congo Free State, and sanctioned the employment of all civilized means for the preservation of order, the introduction of civilization and lawful commerce, for the guarantees of the safety of its people and efficient administration. It was markedly stipulated that the new state should watch over the preservation of the native races and the moral and material conditions of their existence, should suppress slavery, and, above all, the slave trade, and punish those engaged in it; that it should protect and encourage without distinction of nationality or creed all institutions and enterprises, religious, scientific, or charitable, organized for this object.

In time to come the regenerated peoples of central Africa will point to the acts of the Berlin Conference as their charters of freedom from the civilized world. For not only did this world-wide recognition hearten the sovereign of the new state and founder of the association which fathered it to continue his benevolent work, but the principles formulated during the sitting of the Conference suggested to ambitious powers the possibilities of immediate expansion of territory, after the example of King Leopold II. The exigencies of diplomacy, even during the Conference, had forced the powers to recognize immense concessions of territory to France and Portugal, so that without the expenditure of a copper French Gaboon was extended to the Congo, and Portuguese Angola was amplified northward until its shores faced the only sea-port of the young state. These political distributions disposed of over one million and a half square miles of African territory.

In February, 1885, when the fate of this section of Africa was being decided by Europe and America in Berlin, there were only three steam-launches and three steel row-boats on the waters of the upper Congo. They had been conveyed in pieces of sixty pounds weight, or hauled on wagons past the cataracts, after an enormous expenditure of money and labor. But now that the new state was fairly launched into existence, it was necessary to increase the flotilla, and provide means commensurate with the long list of duties which it had accepted. The revenue which hitherto had solely been the bounty of King Leopold was increased by an export tax on the commercial shipments from the Congo. King Leopold also guaranteed the continuation of his bounty to the year 1900 of £40,000 annually. Belgium granted the annual subsidy of £80,000. From all sources there was an assured revenue of about £150,000. The government, mission societies, and mercantile companies hastened to provide means for the utilization of the long stretches of navigable water above the cataracts. Steamer after steamer, boat after boat, have been sent up, until now on the waters of the upper river there are over thirty steamers and forty steel boats. The banks of the main river are now free from danger of invasion, even were all the numerous bands and slavers south of the equator united in array against the state. At the mouth of the Aruwimi, 150 miles below Stanley Falls, there is a garrison of 600 soldiers, and attached to the station are steamers and boats of its own to convey immediate reinforcements to the military outpost yet maintained at Stanley Falls. Three hundred miles below is Bangala, which contains a still larger force. This station would be no discredit to any part of the African coast. The establishments are mostly built of brick manufactured on the premises. Strong bastions, on which are mounted Krupp nine-pounders, command the approaches. The military force of the state now numbers 4000 rifle-armed police. It is mostly recruited from the powerful and warlike tribe of Bangala, which in 1877, during our descent of the Congo, poured out in almost overpowering numbers to arrest our descent.

The banks of the great tributaries, Aruwimi, Wellé-Mobangi, Lumami, and Kassai, are equally protected against the incursions of the destroying bands. But though the efforts of the young state, after straining its resources to the utmost, have been marked by signal and unexpected success, a great deal more has to be accomplished before it can proclaim that the slave hunts and ivory raids have altogether ceased.

Wheresoever exploration has revealed a slave-hunter’s route, wherever the pioneer has indicated the objective of the raider, wherever it has been supposed danger might arise from northern or eastern Arab, the state has done its best to put a barrier in the shape of a military station; but there is an extent of country 500 miles in length between the sources of the Aruwimi and the Lukuga affluent, and an area of 200,000 square miles, wholly at the mercy of the Arabs of the east coast, and southwestern Tanganika and Rua are not yet under surveillance.

Meantime every event that is occurring in that part of Africa tends to the early extirpation of slave hunting and trading. Five years ago no one could have anticipated that any measure devised by human wisdom could have checked the destroying advance of the slavers. Yet a more remarkable success has never been achieved before. It has been effected solely by a continuously increasing and silent pressure from civilization. There have been no bloody conflicts and no violence. Tact mainly has guided the advance, and a constant pushing up of men and supplies has obviated the necessity of retreat. Advantageous sites near the camp of the slavers have been quietly occupied. Modest little huts have been put up for temporary shelter; but with every voyage of the river steamers new men and more supplies have been brought up; the surroundings are more cleared; the officers continue their amiable intercourse; there is no overstrenuous insistence, no imperious mandate—until in a few months the camp imperceptibly has become a fort and the little following has become a numerous garrison, and resistance to the pressure is out of the question.

Close upon this progressive and silent governmental opposition to barbarism another important and valuable element comes into operation. I mean the influence of Christianity, as efficacious and necessary in its way as the other. There are now Roman Catholic missions at Boma, Kwamouth, New Antwerp in the Bangala country, and New Bruges at the confluence of the Kwango and Kassai, and at New Ghent, nearly opposite Bangala. The English Baptists are stationed at Ngombe, Ntundwa, Kinshassa, Lukolela, Bolobo, Lutete’s, Lukungu, Bangala, and Upoto, and the Congo Bololo Mission is at Molongo. The American Baptist Missionary Union have their establishments at Palaballa, Banza Manteka, Lukungu, Leopoldville, Chumbiri, Mossembo, Irebu, and Equatorville; Bishop Taylor’s mission is represented by missions at Vivi, Ntombé, and Kimpoko, and the Evangelical Alliance at Ngangelo, while the Swedes are at Mukinbungu. These twenty-eight mission stations represent about a hundred Roman Catholic priests and Protestant clergy, who have volunteered in the good work of Christianizing the natives and improving their moral conditions. In 1887 I saw indisputable proofs of the value of their instruction and example. As a late report from the Congo states, “slowly but surely the negro is being transformed; his intellectual horizon is becoming enlarged, his feelings are being refined.” Many natives now volunteer as readily as the Zanzibari for service at remote posts for a term of years. They are to be found in military uniform in the sea-port of Banana, as well as at the most northern line of the state, waiting in little fortlets for opportunities to prove their mettle against roving Mahdists. Their children attend the mission schools, and are proving their aptitude in acquiring elementary education, and in workmanly skill in various trades. While parents may still fondly remember many an atrocious feast, their sons affect the manners and customs of civilized men, and become attached to honorable and useful employments, as mechanics, warehouse-men, clerks, postmen, brick-makers, boat-builders, navvies, etc.

A wonderfully encouraging evidence to my mind that the labor and 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.