The Slave Trade In The Congo Basin: Part 3 of 3

I remember one execution which took place, the details of
which I learned afterwards. It was to celebrate the death of a chief who had
been drowned while on a trading expedition. As soon as the news of his death was
brought to the village, several of his slaves were tied hand and foot and lashed
down into the bottom of a canoe. The canoe was then towed out to the middle of
the river at night; holes were bored in it, and it was allowed to sink with its
human freight. When we are able to prohibit the terrible loss of life which the
children of today are compelled constantly to witness, more humane feelings may
develop themselves, and surrounded by healthy influences they will, unspoiled by
at least open exhibitions of cruelty, grow into a far nobler generation.

Natives suffering at the hands of the slave traders have
repeatedly asked me to help them. At Malinga, where human flesh was offered me
for sale, the assembled chiefs voted me several tusks of ivory if I would live
among them and defend them against the Lufembé, and enable them to resist the
persecutions they were exposed to from the neighboring tribes, who were
continually making raids into their districts, capturing their people. They
said: “We are being starved to death. We can make no plantations, because
when our women visit them they are caught, killed, and eaten by the crafty
Lufembé, who are constantly prowling around and taking away any stragglers they
may see.” One old chief, Isekiaka, told me that already from time to time
twelve of his women had been stolen from him, and several of his children.
Indeed, so wretched is the condition of the people on the upper reaches of the
Malinga that numbers of them have been driven by the Lufembé from their
plantations on the mainland, and are actually compelled to live on the river in
miserable huts, the floors of which are supported on piles. From these dwellings
they suspend their nets, and as the river is full of fish, they subsist almost
entirely on the produce of their hauls. This has given rise to a curious state
of things; for, as the Lufembé grow only manioc, and have more roots than are
sufficient for the tribe, they are only too glad to exchange these for fish
caught by their victims. And so when a market is held an armed truce is
declared, and Lufembé and Malinga mingle together and barter, with their
products held in one hand and a drawn knife ready in the other.

It can be readily imagined that the incessant persecution
which the natives are suffering renders them cruel and remorseless. Throughout
the regions of the Malinga they become so brutalized by hunger that they eat
their own dead, and the appearance of one of their villages always denotes
abject misery and starvation. I have repeatedly seen young children eating the
root of the banana tree, vainly endeavoring to obtain some kind of nourishment
from its succulence. That they are able to exist at all is a mystery. Every
living object they are able to obtain is accepted as food; different kinds of
flies, caterpillars, and crickets are all eaten by these people.

When one has lived for some time in Central Africa, one comes
to understand the little impression that acts of the most atrocious and wanton
cruelty make on the savage mind. Surrounded from childhood by scenes of
bloodshed and torture, their holidays and great ceremonies marked by massacres
of slaves, the mildest and most sensitive nature becomes brutalized and callous;
and if this is so with the free, what must be the effect upon the slave, torn
when a child from its mother, perhaps at the age of two years, and even in its
infancy compelled to suffer privation. If indeed the child runs the gauntlet of
cannibalism and execution ceremonies, it can hardly be expected that he will
sympathize with any suffering.

The people on the lower art of the Upper Congo seldom
practice slave-raiding. It is only when we come to the Bakuté district that we
are brought much in contact with it. The large villages around Stanley Pool,–Chumbiri,
Bolobo, Lukolela, Butunu, Ngombé, Busindi, Irebu,–Lake Mantumba, and the
Ubangi River all rely principally upon the Balolo tribes for their slaves. All
these villages except Stanley Pool are daily making human sacrifices, either in
connection with the death of some chief or for some other ceremonial reason. Any
kind of commerce transacted in this part of Africa only increases the bloodshed,
because the native’s ambition is to get as many slaves as possible around him;
and when he sells a tusk of ivory or any other article he devotes nearly all of
the cloth, brass wire, and beads which he obtains in exchange to the purchase of
fresh slaves. So that he is surrounded by numerous women and warriors during his
lifetime, and has his importance signalized at his death by the execution of
about half the number of his people.

I frequently talked with these people, and explained to them
the iniquity of slavery; but they argued: “We have a great deal of hard
work in our trading expeditions to obtain these slaves; why should we leave them
all behind us for others who have not worked? We have bought them, they are our
slaves, and we have a right to do what we like with them.”

The ceremony of execution, with its attendant brutality,
ought to be, and can be, stopped. The bloodshed is even greater today than when
Stanley first saw these people in 1877; the reason being, as I have before
mentioned, that contact with white men has made them richer, and has enabled
them to obtain more slaves. The great powers of the civilized world are not
discussing the antislavery movement, and if such discussions should result in
some united action directed towards the suppression of the trade in the
interior, there are a few peculiar features which might be turned to advantage.

First , and most important, this traffic is not
complicated by religious fanaticism of any kind.

Second . These people are disunited; every village of
fifty or sixty houses is independent of its neighbor, and small family wars are
continually taking place.

Third . There is nothing so convincing to the African
savage as physical superiority.
Now all these points are in favor of the antislavery movement.

The absence of religious fanaticism, the disunited condition
of the natives, and their acknowledgment of physical superiority ought to be
taken advantage of, and always borne in mind when plans for the suppression of
the slave-trade and its attendant barbarism are projected. In my opinion, it
will be some years before the slave-trade carried on by the Arabs can be
successfully grappled with, but there is no reason why any delay should occur in
striking a blow at the intertribal trade.

The Congo Free State has moved a step in the right direction
by establishing near Stanley Falls an entrenched camp, with the object of
forming a barrier to keep the Arabs, with their Manyema banditti, east of that
position. Every country in the world should support the State to effect this
object,as it will play a most important part in the history of Central Africa.
When Stanley left Wadelai the Mahdists were already there. If these hordes join
with those at Stanley Falls, it will require most strenuous efforts to save the
whole Congo Basin from their devastations. While we are still able to keep the
Arabs east of the Falls, no time should be lost in eradicating the existing
bloodshed west of that point. It is a big work, but it is a duty which the
civilized world owes to the helpless slave. Although black, and a savage, still
he is a human being. It should always be remembered that the suppression of
slavery in Africa does not mean merely striking the fetters from the limbs of
the slave; its end is not only the substitution of paid for forced labor, but
also the relief of enslaved humanity throughout all these regions from a life of
unspeakable horror, from tortures that only the savage African can invent, and
from a certain and violent death.

From Banana Point to Stanley Pool slavery does exist, but of
such a mild character that when operations are actually begun Stanley Pool
should be the starting point. If half a dozen fast boats were placed on the
river at Stanley Pool, each armed with twenty black soldiers, officered by two
or three Europeans who had proved by their past services that they were capable
of dealing with the question, and if such a force had the recognition of the
civilized powers and was allowed to strike a blow at the evil, thousands of
human lives would be saved.

These boats would be continually moving about the river, and
those in command would begin by making a careful study of local politics. They
would have to convince the natives of their determination to stop these
diabolical ceremonies of bloodshed. The natives should be warned that any
villages which in the future were guilty of carrying out such ceremonies would
be most severely punished. Some of the better disposed native chiefs would have
to be brought over to the side of the white man. Spies should be engaged all
over the district, so that a boat on arriving would immediately hear of any
execution that was about to take place or that had taken place; and I would
suggest that any village which still continued these acts of cruelty, after
having been fairly and fully warned, should be attacked, and a severe example
made of the principal offenders. A few such punishments would soon have a most
salutary effect. These operations I should recommend to be carried on between
Stanley Pool and the Falls. Posts should also be established in commanding
positions to control the mouths of the slave-raiding rivers. Each point should
be supplied with a boat such as I have recommended for the lower river. Other
stations should be established in the center of the slave-raiding district.
Slaves at the time in the markets might be redeemed and placed in some
settlement, where they could be trained as soldiers or learn some useful craft.
I have, whenever it was possible, purchased the redemption of slaves, and on the
completion of such purchase have always taken the precaution to place in the
freedman’s hand a paper to the effect that he had been redeemed by me from
slavery, and that the expedition I represented would make a specified payment
per month while he remained in its service.

EFFECT OF LIBERATION

It was curious to observe the different effects that the
announcement of such a redemption had on slaves freed so unexpectedly. As a
rule, the bewildered man would go from one to another of my boat’s crew, asking
all sorts of questions as to the meaning of the ceremony. What was to be his
fate? Was he to be exchanged for ivory? or was he to be eaten? And it would take
some time and patience to explain to him, after his first surprise was over, the
full import of the paper I had placed in his possession. Others, more
intelligent, would immediately understand the good fortune that had befallen
them; and it was strange to see the startling change in the expression of their
countenances, which a moment before betokened nothing but unresisting
acquiescence in their miserable destiny, and to note their inert and weary
bodies, which seemed at once to become erect and vigorous when released from the
degrading fetters.

After having bought all the slaves which were exposed for
sale, warning should be given that any attempt to purchase human beings for
slavery would be the signal for war, and that the purchasers would be severely
punished.

The most important part of the movement is to convince the
slaves of our earnestness and sincerity. I feel confident that should operations
be carried on in the way thus suggested most satisfactory results would ensue.

The reason for the native villages being disunited is, that
there seldom exists a chief strong enough to form a combination. This weakness
should be taken advantage of, and capable white men might, through their
personal influence, unite the tribes under their leadership. Sooner or later the
Arabs at Stanley Falls will have to be battled with. At present they remain
there, not because the white men will not allow them to come lower down, but
because they are in the center of such a rich field, and they know that by
coming down the river they must rely entirely on their canoes, as roads in the
interior are few and far between, owing to the swampy nature of the land. They
would also have the populous and warlike districts of Upoto, Mobeka, and Bangala
to fight against, which would not be so easily overcome as the small scattered
hamlets around Stanley Falls, which at present they are continually persecuting.
All the natives on the Upper Congo, quite up to the limits at
present reached by the Arabs, should be controlled as much a possible by
Europeans. They should be combined together under Europeans, so that when the
time arrives that the Arabs decide to move west they would be met at their
frontiers by a barrier of well-armed and resolute natives.

The slave-trade of today is almost entirely confined to
Africa. The slaves are caught and disposed of in that continent, and the number
of those who are shipped to Turkey and other parts are indeed few compared with
the enormous traffic carried on in the interior. We have the authority of
Stanley and Livingstone and other explorers concerning the iniquity existing in
the eastern portion of Equatorial Africa.

In India we have an example of what determination and
resolution can accomplish; as the inhuman ceremonies of the suttee, car of
Juggernaut, infanticide, and the secret society of the Thugs have all been
suppressed by the British Government. The opportunities for reaching the center
of Africa are yearly improving. Since Stanley first exposed to the world’s gaze,
in 1877, the blood-stained history of the Dark Continent, rapid strides have
been made in opening up that country. The work for Africa’s welfare so
determinedly pursued by Livingstone has been most nobly carried on by Stanley,
and the rapid progress which is at present taking place is due entirely to
Stanley’s efforts. A great obstacle has always existed between the outside world
and Central Africa, in the stretch of unnavigable water between Matadi and
Stanley Pool. The railway now being constructed will overcome this difficulty.

E. J. Glave.

ROOT-ROT Kurt Saxon’s Answer To Alex Haley

ROOTS by Alex Haley, is a slander against all white
Southerners during the days of slavery and has caused humiliation to all their
descendants as well as feelings of guilt among many whites whose ancestors had
nothing to do with slavery. ROOTS is also a disservice to blacks, causing them
resentment of whites and a false pride in their own ancestors as well as a
belief that they are somehow in bondage here, rather than living the good life
in their native homeland. As a descendant of Southern whites, I have written an
answer to Haley’s slanders and compiled eleven articles and stories from the
19th Century on the real slave trade and slave life in the American South. ROOTS
is a fabrication of lies and half-truths. Whites did not capture slaves. Slavery
was a black institution. Haley’s ancestors did not come from Gambia. Kunta Kinte
was a mental defective. American slaves were bought out of a worse bondage than
any they suffered here. Most American slaves lived a better life than free
Africans of their day and even now. There were black owners of slaves in the
American South. It’s all here in ROOT-ROT and the articles are accurate, well
illustrated, entertaining and all published in Yankee magazines which were the
Liberal press of their day. Thus, they are more accurate than any such articles
written now.