The jungle folk of Africa

by Robert H. Milligan

But is there no relief to the dark picture? No compensation? Yes, there is some compensation. We get cheaper cocoa and plenty of chocolate.

The people of the United States have a deep and practical interest in the question of the principles that ought to regulate the relations of the governing and the governed in those tropical countries that are under the dominion of the various civilized powers. Having come into possession of the Philippine Islands, with their vast and undeveloped resources, the problem is their own and waits for solution. Upon the people of the United States, because of the serious and responsible situation with which they are confronted, may devolve the task of devising and administering a form of government in accord with the higher modern standard of English-speaking people in regard to the national duty involved in the relation of a civilized power to a subject and savage people. No graver problem is likely to arise in the course of the entire century of which we are still on the threshold. And the United States is the better prepared for her task by the fact that she is uncontrolled by precedent and unbiased by tradition.

The Portuguese theory of tropical control is evident enough. The acquired possession is an estate to be worked for the benefit of those in control, whose right is simply “might.” Its native inhabitants, who have the moral right to its possession, are counted among the various resources of the acquired property, and may be exploited accordingly. The practical sequences of this theory are slavery and plunder.

The theory that surrounds the colony with high tariffs for the exclusive benefit of the governing power and which concedes foreign monopolies to the disregard of native interests, is not essentially different from that of Portugal. This latter is the theory that is being worked out in the Congo Français as a result of the example and influence of the Belgian trusts, and the intrigues of King Leopold’s agents in France. We believe that it cannot be permanent as a form of French colonial government because of the humane and generous instincts of the French people. And it is certain that such a policy could not long endure in any territory under the control of the United States. For a policy in order to be permanent must have the support of the moral sentiment of the nation, and such a policy traverses our basal doctrine of the native equality of men.

But there is in the United States a tendency to the other extreme, namely, to insist upon the native right of self-government, holding that the sum of our duty is to set up a civilized form of government and then withdraw from control, leaving the native nation to maintain it. The advocates of such a policy are guilty of a serious oversight in forgetting that “democracy is not simply a form of government, but a state of human evolution.” The native form of government cannot advance far beyond the social life of the people, for they are sustained by the same moral forces. As a matter of fact there is not in the world a single example of a successful native government of a tropical country. Failures are conspicuous on both sides of the Atlantic; for instance, Hayti in the West Indies and Liberia in Africa. The tropical governments of Central and South America are not in any sense native governments, but are administered by a permanently resident foreign community, in their own interest, whose moral standards tend to lower more and more as they mingle with the native populations. A form of native government that would compare with those of civilized nations is by no means possible until the moral forces that have contributed to the highest civilization are operative in their social life.

It is evident that the tropical nations if left to themselves will not develop the resources of their country. But it is equally evident that the civilized world will not, and ought not, to leave these resources undeveloped. For civilization depends upon the tropics for many trade products, including india-rubber, and the dependence increases at such a rate that it is predicted that the main lines of commerce in the future will run north and south instead of east and west, and the prediction is not fanciful.

It would seem therefore that the development of the resources of the tropics will be by the native under the supervision of the white man. The ideal government will be based upon the clear recognition of mutual need and mutual benefit; and the principle that will mould the form of government and be constantly operative in its administration will be the duty of the civilized nation to bring to the uncivilized its best benefits, to their mutual advantage. The interest of the native himself will be always the first consideration; for he has the first right to the resources of his country and to the reward of his labour; and the interest of the foreign nation second, in the greater sources of supply and the enlarged market for her merchandise.

To give actuality and force to such a government three things will be required in its administration, as suggested by Mr. Benjamin Kidd in his book, “The Control of the Tropics”: first, its officers must be only those who represent the highest moral ideals of civilization; second, the most intimate contact must be maintained with the home government; third, the policy and its administration must be constantly subject to the severe scrutiny of public opinion. Public apathy, inconsiderate confidence in our agents in the tropics—the conceit that they cannot go far wrong because they are Americans, will lead to shame and degradation.

Such a moral motive and the conscientious discharge of the duty involved constitute the white man’s right, and his only right, to occupy the black man’s country.

It was with Captain Button of the Volta that I went up the Congo to Boma and Matadi. I owe to several of the captains, and to Captain Harrison in particular, a debt of gratitude for many kindnesses; but I travelled most with Captain Button and from no other did I receive so many kind, and often costly favours. More than once, upon finding me in very bad health when his ship called at Gaboon, he fairly forced me to go for a health-change; and on the occasion of my visit to the Congo I was in such a miserable condition of health that a single attack of fever would probably have been my last, when Captain Button swooped down upon me and carried me off.