(Signed): PERCY GORDON,
Senior Member of Court.
The British Government alone amongst the Powers in West Africa really dislikes this system and shows some inclination to secure its abolition. The Portuguese like it, and in the main descend to the level of it, manipulating the system to suit, so far as possible, their labour requirements. The Belgians cannot recognize it without violating the Berlin and Brussels Acts, so they leave it alone to bring forth a whole crop of abuses.
A HUNTER’S “LUCKY” FETISH.
The Lieutenant-Governor of French Guinea has recently taken a strong line upon the question of domestic slavery, which other Governments might emulate. He has issued instructions to all his subordinate officials in which he says:—
“We cannot allow the system of captivity to continue any longer; it is a matter of duty as well as of dignity to put an end to the present situation.... You are to profit by every occasion which offers for making the captives understand that it is immoral for one man to possess another.... Whenever you or your colleagues make a journey you are to gather the natives together and explain to them our wish.... In all cases which are brought before you, you are resolutely to refuse to examine those which relate to master and slave; make them understand that for us there are no slaves, and that in justice and law we only admit the relations of employer and employee. You are to follow up with the utmost rigour all crimes committed against human liberty, and to employ all the severity of the laws against barbarous masters or slave-traders who are still too numerous on the frontiers of neighbouring colonies.... Every captive who appeals to your authority is to be welcomed by you and protected against every abuse of force. You will disregard every stipulation which in civil contracts, wills, etc., would postulate the condition of family captivity.... There are no longer any captives in Guinea—such is the formula which must rule your conduct.”
If transfer to French Congo is a promotion, the quicker the French Government promotes this enlightened official to that sphere, the better for French reputation in that unhappy region.
FORCED LABOUR
In Africa forced labour, like contract labour, rests very largely upon domestic slavery. What is generally understood by forced labour is indistinguishable from the corvée of Germany, or from that which obtained in earlier times in Prussia and France. It is simply a communal undertaking upon works of general welfare, mainly roads from town to town, although the word corvée was also applied to all feudal demands, but in those cases some wages were given in return for the labour.
The old African communities exacted, and in many cases still exact, labour from their domestic and agricultural slaves for which they were and are paid, according to the whim or the benevolence of the chief. This labour was, and is, devoted to the clearing of paths, keeping bridges in repair, gathering harvests, porterage, canoeing, boat-building, and indeed any undertaking which involves a considerable labour force. These exactions, however, are always made at a time which avoids interference with agricultural necessities; moreover, in the nature of the case, the labour was never used very far from the village.