The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

I have entered into these few details in order to show the occasionally inconsiderate character of the attacks directed against our Administration.

Intrigues against the State.

And I owe it to truth to make another reproach, not less grave, with regard to certain foreign elements which do not seem to have an exact view of their duty in inculcating the natives by their example and teachings with the respect due to the authority of the State and to its representatives. It is impossible not to be struck by the strange rumours in the vicinity of the Protestant missions, which for some time have been announcing to the population a change in the established order, and predicting the end of the State. There natives have been seen to offer insults to the European agents; officers of the Companies have lodged complaints as to the arrogant attitude of part of the population subject to certain influences; a tendency to shake off the duty due to the State, and to repudiate respect for our laws, has manifested itself among them. It is not doubtful that here we see the result of the underhand intrigues sapping, more or less intentionally, the legal authority. The remark inevitably follows that this position reveals itself solely in the neighbourhood of some evangelical posts, and it assumes a more significant character when it is known that the tendency of these establishments is to exercise over the surrounding population a sort of sovereign power, in opposition to “Boula Matari,”[20] thereby creating a state of antagonism between the influence of the mission houses and the authority of the State agents. I have pointed out for the attention of the Government this grave position, and the measures that it ought to take if it continues. Already local agents have been obliged to act on their own initiative to safeguard the State’s authority, and if it becomes necessary the Governor-General will consider the occasion for making use of the means placed at his disposal, by the decree of 15th September, 1889, for dealing with foreigners who should employ against the State their influence over the natives.

It would be desirable that an appropriation be provided to carry out the plan at present under examination, of establishing on the Upper Congo a number of civil courts and a second Court of Appeal.

In my opinion the Government ought to go farther in the way of developing our judicial machinery. A point which has not ceased to attract attention is, in the first place, the recruiting of the staff. Whatever may be the goodwill of the judicial agents, it is beyond doubt that some newcomers have not always possessed, before their entrance into our judiciary, a sufficiently long experience of judicial practice. I here renew the wish, already expressed, to hear that judges of Belgian courts and parquets be authorised to obtain leave of absence to occupy judicial posts in the Congo.

The spirit in which this recommendation by the Vice-Governor-General was received in Belgium is clearly indicated in the following announcement on behalf of the Minister of Justice at Brussels:

The Minister of Justice has just authorised Belgian magistrates who may be desirous to do so, and be accepted by the Congo Free State, to undertake, by a limited engagement, to serve as judges in the Congo,—and for that purpose, to obtain leave of absence without pay, save that their rights of seniority in the Belgian magistracy are to be reserved....

The Congo has been for us a field of heroism. It has enabled numerous Belgians, who were smothering within their frontiers, to prove their value in a much broader sphere, where territorial, political, and diplomatic conditions permitted some display of their inborn qualities, and to reveal themselves first-class pioneers, soldiers, and administrators.

If considered only from an ideal point of view, this advantage is well worth something. And those of our officers who out there have put down slavery, pacified the native tribes, opened the ways of navigation, commerce, and industry, created agricultural stations, depots, railways, forest exploitations, and roads will surely from this point of view alone have rendered our little country as much service as they could have rendered it in the service of our garrisons.

It has often been said that narrow frontiers mean narrow ideas. To broaden our horizon, is to broaden our ideas. It seems to us that without going beyond these considerations, this decision taken by our Department of Justice deserves to be commended.