(See p. 33.)
Statement in regard to the Condition of the Natives in Lake Mantumba region during the period of the Rubber Wars which began in 1893.
The disturbance consequent on the attempt to levy a rubber tax in this district, a tax which has since been discontinued, appears to have endured up to 1900.
The population during the continuance of these wars diminished, I estimate, by some 60 per cent., and the remnant of the inhabitants are only now, in many cases, returning to their destroyed or abandoned villages.
During the period 1893-1901 the Congo State commenced the system of compelling the natives to collect rubber, and insisted that the inhabitants of the district should not go out of it to sell their produce to traders.
The population of the country then was not large, but there were numerous villages with an active people—very many children, healthy looking and playful. They had good huts, large plantations of plaintains and manioc, and they were evidently rich, for their women were nearly all ornamented with brass anklets, bracelets, and neck rings, and other ornaments.
The following is a list of towns or villages—giving their approximate population in the year 1893 and at the present time. These figures are very carefully estimated:—
—————+———-+———-+—————————————————-
| 1893. | 1903. | Remarks.
+———-+———-+————————————————
Botunu | 500 | 80 |
Bosende | 600 | —- |
Ngombe | 500 | 40 | These are not in the old village,
| | | but near it.
Irebo | 3,000 | 60 | Now a State camp with hundreds
| | | of soldiers and women.
Bokaka | 500 | 30 |
Lobwaka | 200 | 30 |
Boboko | 300 | 35 |
Mwenge | 150 | 30 |
Boongo | 250 | 50 |
Ituta | 300 | 60 |
Ikenze | 320 | 20 |
Ngero | 2,500 | 300 | In several small clusters of huts.
Mwebe | 700 | 75 |
Ikoko | 2,500 | 800 | Including fishing camps.
—————+———-+———-+—————————————————-
This list can be extended to double this number of villages, and in every case there has been a great decrease in the population. This has been, to a very great extent, caused by the extreme measures resorted to by officers of the State, and the freedom enjoyed by the soldiers to do just as they pleased. There are more people in the district near the villages mentioned, but they are hidden away in the bush like hunted animals, with only a few branches thrown together for shelter, for they have no trust that the present quiet state of things will continue, and they have no heart to build houses or make good gardens. In all the villages mentioned there are very few good huts, and when the natives are urged to make better houses for the sake of their health, the reply is, that there is no advantage to them in building good houses or making extensive gardens, as these would only give the State a greater hold upon them and lead to more exorbitant demands. The decrease has several causes:—
1. O* was deserted because of demands made for rubber by M. N O and several others were similar cases. The natives went to the French territory.