All acts or agreements which might tend to expel the natives from the territories occupied by them or to deprive them directly or indirectly of their freedom or means of subsistence, are forbidden.
Where natives occupy, or have moved upon, lands which it is sought to lease from the State, provision has been made by the decree of April 9, 1893, that:
When native villages are enclosed in the land acquired or let, the natives may, as long as the official measurements have not been made, carry on agricultural pursuits without the consent of landlord or tenant, on the vacant lands surrounding their villages.
All disputes which may arise in the matter between the natives and the grantee or tenant, shall be finally settled by the Governor-General or his delegate.
A decree of February 2, 1898, appointed a Land Commission charged to consider whether certain lands, as to which claims may have been made, “shall be reserved either on grounds of public utility or with a view of promoting their cultivation by the natives.” Reference has already been made to the bounty paid by the State to natives who cultivate coffee and cocoa plants. Even in the mining laws of the Congo the State has continued its solicitude for the native and decreed that he shall not be disturbed in the pursuit of those rude industries which tend to elevate his moral nature and provide him with means of self-support. By a decree dated June 8, 1888, the native is exempted from the prohibition, under a previous decree (July 1, 1885), of working a mine without a concession from the State. Under this exemption natives are expressly authorized to “continue to work mines for their own account on lands occupied by them.” Indeed in all cases where local tribal customs do not directly conflict with civilising tendencies, the rule of the State has been to observe them in all their integrity. To facilitate this policy in its intercourse with natives, the State has dealt with the aboriginal population largely through the chiefs of the native tribes. This means of linking the black man to the State which is striving to civilise him by the gradual substitution of the white man’s methods for those of the savage, has been attended with much success and inspired confidence where instinctive distrust might have long prevailed. Amongst the local customs which are safeguarded by the State are what are known as coutumes de rations, a form of royalty to which the natives are entitled on the produce of certain land. So far has the State concerned itself in perpetuating this form of support to the tribes where the custom prevails that, by an order of the Governor-General dated November 8, 1886, it has provided that:
The issue of registration certificates does not exempt the interested parties from observing, in their dealings with the natives, existing local customs, especially those relative to royalties known as coutumes de rations, although these royalties may not be mentioned in the certificates, among the encumbrances affecting the property.
If, in consequence of the non-payment of the rations or coutumes, usual in such cases, disputes occur between the landed proprietor and the natives, the certificate of registration may be cancelled by the Courts on the application of the curator of land titles.
The Mission, Moanda.
From the foregoing and many similar decrees intended to secure the property and other rights of the natives, it will be observed that the administrators of the State consistently undertook to carry out all that was implied in King Leopold’s early declaration of his aims in Central Africa. If in the execution of the Congo State laws there has sometimes been laxity, error, and perhaps individual cases of perversion, the fact remains that the law is sound and the land system in respect of native possessions an equitable scheme devised in the interest of their general welfare and protection. The administration of the Congo Free State should be judged with due regard to the nature of its savage population, its unexplored territory of a million square miles, its early lack of organised governmental forces, the necessary newness and the rudeness of its civil institutions, and the thousand and one uncatalogued difficulties which must have beset such ambitious pioneers as that little band of Belgians which dared venture into an abyss from the safe walls of which Europe smiled derisively and shouted orders to the men below.