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diff --git a/75580-0.txt b/75580-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81ecad4 --- /dev/null +++ b/75580-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14553 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75580 *** + + + + + +AFFAIRS OF WEST AFRICA + +[Illustration: ON FISHING BENT—SOUTHERN NIGERIA] + + + + + AFFAIRS OF + WEST AFRICA + + BY + EDMUND D. MOREL + (E. D. M.) + MEMBER OF THE WEST AFRICAN SECTION OF THE + LIVERPOOL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS + + [Illustration] + + LONDON + WILLIAM HEINEMANN + 1902 + + (_All rights reserved_) + + + + +TO MY WIFE + + + + +PREFACE + + +Whatever its defects—and, no doubt, they are many and various—the Author +claims for this volume that it is, at least, an honest attempt to deal +with the problems, racial, political and commercial, yearly increasing in +magnitude, connected with the administration of Western Africa by Great +Britain and by the other Powers of Western Europe which participated in +the scramble for African territory. As such it is respectfully submitted +to the thinking Public. The Author considers it advisable to state +that he has no commercial interests in West Africa, and is, therefore, +uninfluenced by considerations of a personal nature, in emphasising +the importance of the part played by the merchant on the West African +stage. He also deems it right to say that the West African Section of +the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce is neither responsible nor answerable +for the opinions expressed herein. The Author hereby acknowledges the +courtesy of the Editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, the Editor-Proprietor +of _West Africa_, the Editor of the _Contemporary Review_, and the +Editorial Committee of the _Journal of the African Society_, in +permitting the incorporation of certain matter contributed by himself, +from time to time, to those publications. His sincere thanks are due to +Major Ronald Ross, F.R.C.S., F.R.S., C.B., for the chapter which that +distinguished scientist has specially written at the Author’s request. To +other kind friends and acquaintances who have good-humouredly submitted +to cross-examination, and have allowed themselves to be victimised by the +Author’s importunities generally, grateful appreciation is due, and is +thankfully acknowledged. + + HAWARDEN, 1902. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + FOREWORD—MARY KINGSLEY xiii + + PART I + + I. FIVE YEARS OF BRITISH TRADE WITH WESTERN AFRICA 1 + + II. THE OLD AND THE NEW 7 + + III. THE REAL AND THE IDEAL 11 + + IV. SOME NECESSARY REFORMS 20 + + PART II.—NIGERIA + + V. THE DISCOVERY OF NORTHERN NIGERIA 35 + + VI. THE DISCOVERY OF NORTHERN NIGERIA—(_cont._) 43 + + VII. THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM 52 + + VIII. THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM—(_cont._) 59 + + IX. THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA 74 + + X. THE ADMINISTRATION OF NORTHERN NIGERIA 83 + + XI. THE FINANCES OF NIGERIA 89 + + XII. MOHAMMEDANS, SLAVE-RAIDING AND DOMESTIC SERVITUDE 94 + + XIII. THE PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF NIGERIA 110 + + XIV. RUBBER-COLLECTING IN NIGERIA 119 + + XV. THE FULANI IN NIGERIA 125 + + XVI. THE FULANI IN WEST AFRICAN HISTORY 130 + + XVII. ORIGIN OF THE FULANI 136 + + PART III + + XVIII. SANITARY AFFAIRS IN WEST AFRICA. BY MAJOR RONALD ROSS, C.B. 153 + + XIX. LAND TENURE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA 170 + + XX. A COTTON INDUSTRY FOR WEST AFRICA 188 + + XXI. THE MAHOGANY TRADE 201 + + XXII. ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA 208 + + XXIII. ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA—(_cont._) 224 + + PART IV.—THE FRENCH IN WEST AFRICA + + XXIV. ANGLO-FRENCH RELATIONS IN WEST AFRICA 238 + + XXV. TEN YEARS OF FRENCH ACTION IN WEST AFRICA 249 + + XXVI. THE COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE FRENCH + POSSESSIONS 265 + + XXVII. FRENCH AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT IN WEST AFRICA 276 + + PART V.—MONOPOLY IN WEST AFRICA + + XXVIII. THE CONCESSIONS RÉGIME IN FRENCH CONGO 285 + + XXIX. INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS AND MONOPOLY 297 + + XXX. THE HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 312 + + XXXI. THE DOMAINE PRIVÉ 327 + + XXXII. THE “TRADE” OF THE CONGO STATE 343 + + APPENDIX + + SIERRA LEONE (EXPENDITURE, LOANS, EXPORTS, &C.) 355 + + GOLD COAST (EXPENDITURE, LOANS, EXPORTS, &C.) 356 + + LAGOS (EXPENDITURE, LOANS, EXPORTS, &C.) 359 + + DAHOMEY (COMPARATIVE TABLE OF DUTIES) 360 + + THE DAHOMEY RAILWAY 362 + + FRENCH GUINEA RAILWAY 364 + + WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY TRADE 365 + + THE GOLD COAST MINING INDUSTRY 367 + + BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN WEST AFRICA (POPULATION AND AREA) 370 + + THE RABINEK CASE 371 + + INDEX 373 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + _On Fishing Bent, Southern Nigeria_ _Frontispiece_ + + _Facing page_ + + *_A Pure-bred Kano Man (Hausa)_ 54 + + *_A Hausa from Yola_ 56 + + _Hausa Loom and Spool_ 62 + + _Hausas Drilling_ 68 + + _Making Palm-oil_ 74 + + _Duke-Town, Old Calabar, Southern Nigeria_ 76 + + _Filling Palm-oil Barrels, Southern Nigeria_ 78 + + _A Palm-kernel Market in Southern Nigeria_ 80 + + _A Mohammedan Chief and his Standard-Bearer_ 100 + + _Mandingo Muslims_ 106 + + _A Baobab—The Giant of West African Flora_ 116 + + _Washing Rubber_ 122 + + _Fulani Sword_ 126 + + *_Pure-bred Fulani Girl, Adamawa_ 128 + + _Fulani Chief, Futa-Jallon_ 130 + + _Half-caste Fulani Girl, Futa-Jallon_ 134 + + _Low-caste Fulani, Western Sudan_ 136 + + _Pure-bred Fulani Girl, Futa-Jallon_ 140 + + _Fulani House, Futa-Jallon_ 142 + + _Fulani Cattle-pen_ 146 + + _A Half-caste Fulani Girl and a Susu_ 148 + + _The Idle Native! Market Scene in West Africa_ 176 + + _West African “Young Hopefuls”_ 180 + + _An Ibo Family Group, Southern Nigeria_ 186 + + _Travelling on the Niger in the Dry Season_ 196 + + _Felling a Mahogany-tree_ 202 + + _Squaring the Tree_ 202 + + _Dragging the Squared Log through the Bush_ 204 + + _Sapelli, Southern Nigeria’s principal Timber Port_ 204 + + _A Susu Mallam_ 218 + + _Fulani Mallam_ 228 + + _Susu Chief and Staff_ 278 + + _Ashanti Field Force at Cape Coast ~en route~ for Kumasi_ 280 + + _Return of Ashanti Field Force_ 282 + + _The Victim of a Rubber Raid_ 334 + + MAPS + + _Northern Part of Africa_ 38 + + _Northern Nigeria_ 84 + + _Sketch Map showing Harbour Improvement Scheme, Ivory Coast_ _page_ 273 + +_Photographs marked thus * are reproduced from “Adamawa” by kind +permission of Mr. Ernst Vohsen (Dietrich Reimer). The author is indebted +(through the kindness of a friend) to Dr. Maclaud, of the French Guinea +Administration, for several of the photographs here reproduced._ + + + + +FOREWORD + +MARY KINGSLEY + + “Mary Kingsley—the heir and sustainer of a great name, one of + the ablest of that remarkable band of wandering writers, men + and women, who are the eyes and ears of our nascent Empire, + who are bringing home to England, that weary Titan, her tasks, + her faults, her problems—Mary Kingsley has gone from us.”—Mrs. + HUMPHRY WARD. + + +Those who had the honour of knowing Mary Kingsley, and corresponding +with her on West African affairs, who have studied her writings and +her speeches, who realise all that this “good woman with a gigantic +intellect” might have done for the Empire in West Africa had she lived, +can with difficulty reconcile themselves to the inscrutable decree of +Providence which robbed us of her presence. One of her greatest admirers +to whom I was expressing the other day much the same feeling, expressed +a different view. “Miss Kingsley’s work was done”—he said in effect—“she +was the pioneer, she showed the way. That was her allotted task: the +fruit of her labours will come in due season.” It may be so. Indeed, +when we think of what Mary Kingsley accomplished in the few short years +which she devoted to West Africa, the thought arises whether there is +not an element of unconscious selfishness in the desire that she might +have been spared. The nature of the work she had undertaken, the intense +fervour with which she devoted herself body and soul to preaching the +morals it was given her to inculcate, the utter brain weariness which at +times she was fain to admit—no mortal being could have endured for very +long so perpetual a mental and physical strain. It was a passing heavy +load for a weak woman of indifferent health to bear, and in death Mary +Kingsley has perhaps achieved a greater triumph, a success more striking +and profound, than living on she would have attained. Death has had the +effect of rapidly fertilising the seeds she sowed, and from her ashes +have sprung forces gathering daily in power which, united in a common +aim, are taking up her burden and carrying it along the path she pointed +out, assured that every year will bring fresh helpers, be the obstacles +ever so great. _La verité est en marche_, and although the spirit of +the hour is not precisely favourable to that patient investigation of +West African problems which affords the only guarantee of political and +administrative success, the phase is but a fleeting one, and when the +present fashionable policy of force and hurry is found by practical tests +to be even more sterile in useful results than the apathy which preceded +it, the main truths Mary Kingsley taught will appeal to thinking men with +an eloquence all the greater for having been temporarily obscured. + +On the personal aspect of Mary Kingsley’s character one would fain dwell +at length. Few women, I believe, have inspired all sorts and conditions +of men with so intense a respect, so wondering an admiration. Few women +are able, as Mary Kingsley was able, to draw forth, by the magic of +her earnest personality, the best in a man. She was so unassuming, so +unaffected, such a womanly woman in every sense of the word, that it +appeared almost incredible she should have grasped the essentialities +of West African politics with such comprehensiveness and scientific +perception; mastered, as no one had done before—in the sense, at any +rate, of being able to impart the knowledge to the world—the intricacies +of native custom and native law, or have affronted the physical +perils she made so light of. Eminent politicians and administrators, +distinguished men of letters, world-renowned scientists, commercial +magnates, were regular visitors at her modest residence, and one and +all drew from her inexhaustible store. The least of those to whom she +extended the privilege of her friendship were always welcome, and +never failed to leave her presence without feeling that her words of +sympathy and encouragement were a fresh incentive to push onward, never +losing hope and fortified against disappointment. The truest, kindest, +staunchest friend that ever breathed—such was Mary Kingsley; and we who +knew her, and have lost her, know also that something has gone out of our +lives which can never be replaced. In a passage of singular beauty, Mrs. +Alice Stopford Green thus closes a tribute[1] to the dead friend whose +work she herself is doing so much to carry on: “She laid her armour down +when she asked to be carried out to the unfathomable Ocean, alone in +death as she had been alone in life, going out with her last wish from +the bitter strife of men to the immensities where she sought the will of +God.” + + + + +PART I + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FIVE YEARS OF BRITISH TRADE WITH WESTERN AFRICA + + “West Africa, that great feeding-ground for British + manufactures.”—MARY KINGSLEY. + + +One still—but too often, alas!—meets with people who wonder why England +should bother about West Africa at all, and pooh-pooh the idea that we +have interests there at the present time worth looking after, while as +for the future possibilities of that huge country as a field for British +enterprise, they simply will not trouble themselves to give the matter a +moment’s consideration. + +Now figures are very uninteresting things, no doubt, to the average +reader; but they possess a practical significance superior to any number +of the most glowing dissertations, and I trust my readers will forgive me +if I make, as a basis of justification for inflicting this volume upon +them, a few sets of figures which I would respectfully suggest as worthy +of their attentive consideration. The statistics are compiled from the +Custom House returns, and they show the extent, nature and distribution +of British trade in Western Africa during the last few years. In perusing +them, three facts should be borne in mind: first, that, although +Europeans have been engaged in commercial transactions on the West +Coast for upwards of five hundred and fifty years, those transactions +were, prior to the abolition of the over-sea slave trade, confined, +with very few exceptions[2]—so far as the exports from West Africa were +concerned—to the human cargo, and to gold dust and ivory: that the trade +in palm oil and kernels, which are now the staple articles of export +from West Africa, is therefore of comparatively recent growth, and that +the mahogany trade and the rubber trade have only come into existence—to +any appreciable extent—within the last few years, a fair indication +of the fertility and producing power and almost boundless resources +of West Africa. Secondly, that the extensive business relationship +which has been built up between Great Britain and West Africa, in the +shape of a legitimate commerce, has grown to its present proportions +under circumstances absolutely disadvantageous to development, without +railways, with but few roads, with intertribal wars often preventing +the circulation of trade for months at a time, by merely scratching the +surface of the most prolific region in the world. Thirdly, that the +figures given below do but show the actual volume of Britain’s trade with +West Africa and the wages earned by thousands of English men and women +who directly and indirectly benefit by that trade; the British capital +invested in West Africa in factories, machinery, craft for navigating the +rivers, coaling depôts, surf-boats and lighters, stores and the like, to +which must now be added railway material, dredging apparatus, batteries +and soon, we may hope, cotton gins, not to mention a fleet of some sixty +steamers employed in the carrying trade and passenger traffic—all these +things have to be taken into account in estimating West Africa’s worth to +Great Britain. + +The total values of British produce and manufactures[3] shipped to the +_British possessions in West Africa_ in the five years 1896-1900 were +respectively as follows: + + 1896 £1,828,395 + 1897 1,763,461 + 1898 1,999,505 + 1899 2,116,080 + 1900 2,148,149 + ---------- + Gross total £9,855,590 + +Percentage of increase in five years, 17½ per cent. + +The total values of British produce and manufactures shipped to the +_possessions of Foreign Powers_ in West Africa in the five years +1896-1900 were respectively as follows: + + 1896 £970,080 + 1897 1,002,318 + 1898 1,247,994 + 1899 1,490,603 + 1900 2,145,349 + ---------- + Gross total £6,856,344 + +Percentage of increase in five years, 121 per cent. + +If we add these two totals together, we find that the value of British +produce and manufactures shipped to _West Africa_ in the period mentioned +was £16,711,934, which is a percentage of increase of 138 per cent. + +From the British export trade we turn to the British import trade with +West Africa. + +The total values of raw produce imported by Great Britain _from British +West Africa_ in the five years 1896-1900 were respectively as follows: + + 1896 £2,223,925 + 1897 2,153,412 + 1898 2,352,285 + 1899 2,427,946 + 1900 2,137,023 + ----------- + Gross total £11,294,591 + +The total values of raw produce imported by Great Britain from the +_possessions of Foreign Powers_ in West Africa in the five years +1896-1900 were respectively as follows: + + 1896 £333,803 + 1897 553,130 + 1898 622,287 + 1899 651,043 + 1900 806,077 + ---------- + Gross total £2,966,340 + +These two totals added together show that Great Britain imported West +African produce in the period under review to the amount of £14,260,931. + +The value of Great Britain’s direct commerce with West Africa in the five +years 1896-1900 was, therefore, £30,972,865. To this might be added a +further sum of £1,750,888, representing foreign and colonial merchandise +shipped to West Africa from British ports in the years mentioned.[4] + +It is interesting, and valuable, to see which, among the possessions of +Foreign Powers in West Africa, were the chief absorbers of British goods +and the chief exporters of raw produce to Great Britain. Examination +yields the following knowledge: + +Principal possessions of Foreign Powers which absorbed in five years +£6,856,344 of British goods:[5] + + French. Portuguese. German. Others. + £ £ £ £ + 1896 348,258 402,445 68,355 151,022 + 1897 401,224 360,121 91,320 149,653 + 1898 531,848 438,320 109,580 178,246 + 1899 693,255 503,788 126,047 167,513 + 1900 709,900 1,084,072[6] 120,910 212,175 + +Principal possessions of Foreign Powers which exported to Great Britain +in five years £2,966,340 of raw produce: + + French. Portuguese. German. Others. + £ £ £ £ + 1896 203,442 33,937 42,001 54,423 + 1897 312,430 116,554 68,194 55,952 + 1898 431,192 85,544 35,165 70,186 + 1899 461,267 68,021 48,736 73,019 + 1900 534,727 75,037 94,681 101,632 + +The French possessions are, it will be observed, far and away our +principal markets and our principal suppliers among the possessions of +Foreign Powers. Our exports to and imports from the French possessions +amounted together to £4,627,543, or just under 50 per cent. of our total +export and import trade with the possessions of Foreign Powers together. +The increasing importance of the French possessions in West Africa as a +market for the sale of British goods and as suppliers of British home +markets is a fact which it is of the utmost consequence for British +statesmen to lay to heart. The subject is one which I shall refer to +later on. It is already one of the dominant factors of West African +politics affecting Great Britain, and is destined to become so more +and more as the years go on, for France is in a territorial sense the +mistress of West Africa, and may become so in a commercial sense as well. + +The general conclusions to be drawn from a study of these figures are +various. First and foremost there is the clearly established fact +that British trade with West Africa is expanding enormously and has +almost unlimited prospects before it, now that serious and concentrated +efforts are being made on all sides to open up the untapped wealth of +the interior by the means of roads and railways and by the improvement +of navigable waterways, while the cessation of intertribal warfare in +many districts must entail a large increase in the population, and +therefore, in the native capacity for production and purchase. It is +also demonstrated that every year West Africa absorbs a larger quantity +of British manufactured goods: that the exports of British manufactured +goods are steadily increasing to British West Africa and increasing to an +extraordinary degree to the possessions of Foreign Powers in West Africa, +especially to the French possessions: that Great Britain is consolidating +her hold upon the carrying trade of West Africa as testified by the +increased quantity of foreign and colonial manufactures shipped to West +Africa from British ports: that the Continent—Germany[7] chiefly—is +receiving a greater amount of raw produce from the British possessions in +West Africa, a deduction which can be fairly drawn from the stationary +aspect of the importation by Great Britain of such produce from her own +West African possessions. And the final conclusion is this, that, in +view of the restricted extent of the British possessions in West Africa, +compared with the possessions of Foreign Powers in that part of the +world, the latter offer a very much vaster field for the sale of British +goods. Consequently, it is the bounden duty of the British Government +and the British Chambers of Commerce, while in no way neglecting the +brilliant possibilities which the British West African possessions offer +under wise administration for the enterprise of Englishmen, to be ever +on the alert to look to the future and to protect British trade with the +possessions of the Foreign Powers in West Africa against legislation +tending to close the door of those possessions against it; and to insist +that, whenever international treaties guaranteeing freedom of trade to +the subjects of all nations exist in West Africa, they shall be rigidly +adhered to by the signatories. In this respect British diplomacy has +shown itself singularly lax. But the mischief already committed may +even yet be remedied, and further dangers which loom ahead averted, if +the British public will only realise before it is too late the enormous +issues at stake. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OLD AND THE NEW + + “The past has gone with its follies and its waste.... Let us + then face the present and contemplate the future.” + + +In the previous chapter we discussed in practical fashion the grounds +upon which the British public is called upon to devote more attention +to the affairs of West Africa than it does at present, and an attempt—I +hope a successful attempt—was made to show how very short-sighted and +singularly misinformed is the opinion which would disinterest itself from +a part of the world where the possibilities of commercial development +are so strikingly manifest. There has never been such urgent need for +an intelligent appreciation, on the part of the British public, of the +problems which confront this country in West Africa. In a few short years +the policy of Great Britain in West Africa has undergone a complete +change. Events have followed one another with bewildering rapidity. +Official indifference has been galvanised into life by French activity, +and after a brief but dangerous period of international rivalry, British +political rights have been established over a considerable extent of +territory, not, however, nearly so considerable as a pacific, consistent, +well-thought-out programme adopted some years previously would have +brought, had our merchant-pioneers been listened to, and had successive +Governments been able to throw off the paralysing influence of the +resolution of 1865. There is a story told of a certain Minister in charge +of the Foreign Office—it was related to me by one of those present at the +interview—which illustrates very forcibly the feeling which prevailed in +Government circles in those days. A deputation of merchants waited upon +his Excellency with the request that he would permit the hoisting of the +Union Jack on certain parts of the West African littoral where British +merchants had long been trading, and where the rulers of the country +were genuinely desirous of receiving a British protectorate. _Pro-formâ_ +treaties were produced by the deputation between these rulers and the +resident merchants. The merchants asked for no reward. There was no +question of expenditure involved. All that the Government was required +to do was to meet the wishes of the chiefs. The deputation pointed out +that, so far as the relations between the natives and the commercial +representatives of Great Britain were concerned, the acceptance of the +Government would in no wise alter them, but would simply have the effect +of cementing a friendly understanding which already existed. But, urged +the deputation, the treaties, if agreed to by the Government, would prove +an invaluable diplomatic instrument if the time came, as it seemed likely +to do, when England might find herself faced in West Africa by foreign +competition. The Minister flung the treaties across the table. + +It was a time of wasted opportunities, when a little political foresight +would have conferred upon this country great future benefit, and it seems +extraordinary, but is unhappily true, that the same failure to look ahead +as regards West Africa appears to afflict our Foreign Office to-day +despite the lessons of the past. Of this, more anon. + +But if successive Governments showed unpardonable negligence in +safeguarding British interests in West Africa, for decade after decade, +down to the very time when the French had worked their way so far +southward into the natural _hinterlands_ of our old Colonies that action +became imperative if anything was to be saved from the wreck, the British +press and public were greatly to blame also. I well remember that at the +very height of the recent Anglo-French controversy which culminated in +the Convention of 1898, when rival English and French expeditions were +rushing hither and thither through the territories west of the Niger, +and when British and French efforts were concentrated upon wringing +out of the unfortunate Borgu Chiefs all sorts, kinds, and conditions +of agreements, sowing Union Jacks and Tricolors by the wayside, the +well-known editor of an equally well-known newspaper to which I then +contributed, asked me to show him Nikki[8] on the map, as he had not the +least idea where it was. + +Mr. Chamberlain came into power just at the moment when French enterprise +in the West African uplands had reached its maximum of threatening +intensity, and he set himself to vigorously counteract it as far as he +could. The invertebrate policy had, however, compromised the situation +almost beyond remedy, and had it not been for Mr. Joseph Thomson’s +success in obtaining treaty rights with the Emirs of Sokoto and Bornu in +1884 on behalf of the National African Company of Merchants—subsequently +the Royal Niger Company—and, it may be added, for the loyal adherence +of those native States to the treaties passed with the Company, the +magnificent possession of Northern Nigeria would have gone the way of +Futa Jallon, of Mossi, and of so many other countries lying at the back +of our Colonies; that is to say, would have fallen into French hands. +The man who deserves the most credit for saving Northern Nigeria to the +Empire is Sir George Taubman Goldie, and however one may deplore some +of the uses to which he put his Charter—things we are paying for now +in the French Congo and elsewhere—it is but common fairness to assert +that, if it had not been for Sir George Goldie, the possessions of Great +Britain in West Africa would have been reduced by about one half. It is +a matter for some surprise that the Government should not have succeeded +in securing the continuation of Sir George Goldie’s co-operation in West +Africa after the Royal Niger Company’s Charter was cancelled. An old +opponent has lately said of him that “there is no one more competent +to guide our West African Administration on practical, humanitarian, +economical, prudent, and statesmanlike lines, no one more fitted to take +a high position in West African affairs political and commercial,” a +statement which will meet with wide acceptance. + +But this, after all, is ancient history, and what we are chiefly +concerned with now, is the present. What we are called upon to seriously +consider is the general trend of England’s policy in West Africa, +administrative, financial, political and commercial. Internationally, +we are secure in the possession of our territories. The only rivalry we +have to fear is the peaceful rivalry of commerce, but commerce is the +explanation of our presence in West Africa: it constitutes the sinews of +our administration, and its requirements demand the constant vigilance, +the most careful attention of the official world. + +It is the bounden duty of those who, believing in the immense importance +of West Africa to Great Britain, and similarly believing that the present +policy which is being pursued by Great Britain in West Africa is open on +several grounds to grave objection, to say so, and to give their reasons +for saying so, with the assured conviction that, however unpopular their +arguments may be, the general interest demands that they should be put +forward. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE REAL AND THE IDEAL + + “The nature of the natives, the climate, everything is against + precipitate and hasty action. To advance slowly, leaving no + bad or unfinished work behind, to gain the respect and liking + of the natives, and only to use force when compelled as a last + resource to do so, are the means which in my humble opinion + lead to success in West Africa. To quote from the words of a + celebrated French traveller: ‘Do not let us dream of a hasty + transformation of Africa. Let us employ a method, slow but + sure. Let us try and teach the natives what knowledge we have + acquired, and not try and make them learn in a few years + what it has taken us twenty centuries to learn.’”—SIR CLAUDE + MACDONALD in Liverpool, 1892. + + “These figures are surprising. One would naturally have + expected that as the trade increased the proportion of + expenditure would have decreased.... From that date, however, + the expenditure has advanced by leaps and bounds, and in 1900 + amounted to 28 per cent. of the exports. In other words, the + expenditure has increased more rapidly than the trade.... + If, however, the expenditure had been on the basis of former + years ... we could have given over £1,000,000 worth additional + European goods in exchange for the same amount of produce. In + other words, the heavier the expenditure the higher price must + the merchant ask for his European goods, or the less he is able + to give for native produce. This must have the double effect + of reducing the demand for manufactures and diminishing the + energy of the natives in gathering produce. There is another + possibility which should not be lost sight of: our colonies + are hemmed in by our French and German neighbours. If in + consequence of increased expenditure and the resulting heavier + taxes we are unable to offer the natives as large a quantity of + manufactures and as good a price as our competitors are enabled + to do, produce which is grown on the borders of our Colonies + may be diverted to foreign territory with a consequent loss of + trade to this country.”—Mr. ARTHUR HUTTON, President African + Section, Manchester Chamber of Commerce.[9] + + +A wise man has said that there is no way of conveying a rebuke so +efficiently as upon the back of a compliment, and as a preliminary +to criticism of certain phases of British administration in West +Africa, a measure of praise is both just and needful. To avoid +personalities—whether in the sense of praise or otherwise—should be +the constant endeavour of any critic in approaching the subject under +discussion, because it is primarily the system, and not the agents of +the system, which is in question. Unfortunately the Crown Colony system +being what it is, a despotism—though by no means necessarily a tyrannical +despotism—there is great difficulty, if not actual impossibility, in +altogether avoiding the personal equation. + +The revolution in British West African policy is indelibly associated +with the advent to power of the present Colonial Secretary, the +Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain. His entry upon the scene was +contemporaneous with the culmination of certain events which must +infallibly have modified our previous attitude in relation to West Africa +whoever the statesmen responsible at the time might have been. The point +need not be laboured, but it is often overlooked. Be that as it may, +it is an undoubted fact—a fact redounding greatly to Mr. Chamberlain’s +credit—that no Colonial Secretary before him has displayed so lively and +personal an interest, both publicly and privately, in the affairs of +British West Africa, an interest which has continued unabated during the +entire period of his administration. In specific directions the result +has been all to the good. Railways, the preliminary surveys of which had +been made by direction of Mr. Chamberlain’s predecessor, the Marquis +of Ripon, before he quitted office, have been constructed; others are +commenced; the routes of more have been surveyed. The study of malaria +has received the right honourable gentleman’s warmest support. A general +publicity has been given to British West Africa by its identification +with so powerful a politician as Mr. Chamberlain, which has materially +contributed to remove it from the rut of oblivion and popular ignorance. +It may also be added that the Colonial Secretary’s confident public +declarations in respect to the future of the gold-mining industry in the +Gold Coast has done much to attract capital to that Colony, and that +the damper which he recently felt it wise to apply to the introduction +of the more undesirable elements connected with the revival, under +modern conditions, of gold-mining enterprise in a part of the coast +celebrated for its former export of the precious metal, was entirely +to his honour, although it would perhaps have been more useful had it +come somewhat earlier in the day; while the memorandum he caused to be +drawn up in September 1901 embodying the principle of treating native +labourers on the Gold Coast, is perhaps the most admirable document +ever issued from the Colonial Office.[10] In like manner, it can be +taken for granted that all officials in West Africa are animated by +the best of intentions, and however profoundly one may differ, from +time to time, from certain of their actions, it is always essential to +bear in mind that the system under which they work—the inconvenience of +which not a few of them in private conversation readily admit—leaves +the door wide open to the commitment of errors for which the system is +in the first place responsible, while the climate is most trying to +the constitutions and temper of Europeans. But it is unreasonable, and +subversive of the true interests of the Empire, that the tendency should +be encouraged to denounce honest criticism of a specific act of policy +in West Africa with which this or that official must in the nature of +things be associated, although he need not be, and often is not, the +originator of it, as a personal attack upon an absent man, to be resented +as an outrage and stigmatised almost as a crime, as an offence at any +rate against common decency and fairness. The contention is absurd, and +mischievous and unfair. The autocratic power which the Crown Colony +system confers upon West African Governors, District Commissioners, and +military commandants makes it absolutely essential that independent +criticism, so long as it is legitimate, should be exercised by the public +at home, whether or no full sanction has been obtained by a particular +official from the Colonial Office for the application of measures +giving rise to criticism, or whether the measures have been initiated +by the Colonial Office itself. By public criticism alone can we hope +to avoid the repetition of such deplorable mistakes as led to the Hut +Tax war in Sierra Leone and the last Ashanti outbreak; the framing of +legislation far in advance of the needs of the country and antagonistic +to native feeling, which interest and duty alike imperatively demand, +should be taken into consideration; the constant recurrence of punitive +expeditions, which in another portion of our Tropical African Empire have +worked such incalculable injury; and financial embarrassments, outcome of +mismanagement, extravagance, and errors of policy. + +There is always danger in reaction, as in the body physical, so in the +body politic; and it is not altogether astonishing, perhaps, that the +long spell of official apathy in West Africa, being suddenly changed +to precipitate action, should have given rise to some objectionable +features. But it cannot be admitted that the latter, instead of being +a passing phenomenon, should take permanent root, and become part +and parcel of the new order of things. If this be the case, we shall +presently be witnessing yet another reaction in West Africa, and with +embarrassed finances, a yearly expenditure far in excess of any visible +increase in producing power, increased taxation, a native population +alienated and disorganised, and energetic rivals forging ahead while +we continue to struggle painfully in a quagmire of self-imposed +difficulties, the public will lapse once more into its old attitude of +indifference tinged with dislike, until some brilliant gentleman at the +Foreign Office, deeming the moment opportune, hands over a further slice +of British West Africa to a Foreign Power, in exchange for cod-fisheries, +or something equally vital to the Empire’s prosperity.[11] The forward +policy in West Africa has had its uses; it has served its purpose. We +are secure in the possession of a large territory some 700,000 square +miles in extent, unsurpassed in natural wealth by any other region in +the globe, containing a population of probably 30,000,000 to 35,000,000 +souls, of whose habits and customs we possess but the haziest knowledge, +whose very languages we are in the main ignorant of; a population +composed of the most diverse elements, the resources of whose widely +scattered habitat are barely tapped, whose willing co-operation, which is +essential to the success of our rule, can only be gained by scientific, +painstaking study and the most tactful, sympathetic treatment. Now should +be a close time for British West Africa. The country needs political +rest. It has been turned topsy-turvy by European rivalry; old landmarks +have been swept away; the boundaries of Native States altered to suit the +exigencies of European diplomacy; immemorial trade roads interfered with. +The native requires breathing space. Official activity should in the main +be limited to the construction, with due regard to method and economy, +of certain indispensable public works, collecting data concerning the +native peoples and respective regions in which they dwell, strengthening +native authority so rudely disturbed by recent events; in protecting +commerce, encouraging capital, fostering native industries—perfecting +those in existence and preparing the ground for others; in short, a work +of gradual, sure, systematic consolidation. It should be our object to +intermeddle as little as possible with native institutions, abide with +scrupulous exactitude to both the spirit and the letter of our treaties +with the Chiefs; develop the native peoples along the lines of their own +civilisation both in the case of Mohammedans and Pagans; use conciliation +in preference to dictation, gold rather than the sword. Administrative +extravagance should be rigidly held in check for fear of burdening new +Colonies with a load of debt; the soldier and the policeman should be +kept in the background, only to be used as a last extremity. Commerce, +good roads, _and statesmanship_ should be our preferable choice of +weapons for mitigating evils, some at least of which the example of +Europe in the past has intensified, others lying in deep-rooted religious +beliefs, requiring careful preliminary investigation and thorough +understanding before being made the object of official action, and then +only of a repressive nature after every pacific inducement had been tried +in vain. Patience, more patience, and again patience. That should be, +ought to be, the corner-stone of British policy in West Africa. It was +the tortoise that won the race; not the hare. + +Unfortunately the hare is the more popular beast just now, and the +forward policy is as much in evidence in British West Africa to-day as it +was five years ago, with the result that what may have been justifiable +then bids fair, if it be not stopped in time, to be disastrous now that +the necessity for it has passed away with the close of international +competition. Energy is being misapplied and misdirected. Let it be +conceded that the existing basis of rule in West Africa, the Crown Colony +system, is the worst in the world to stand the strain of a naturally +active directing influence at headquarters; let it be admitted that it +is a clumsy, inelastic instrument which allows the governed no voice +in the government, which places the suppliers of revenue, both direct +and indirect, in the position of having no effective control over the +expenditure of that revenue, which permits of the jeopardising of years +of commercial effort by some ill-considered legislative act—let these +and many other counts against the Crown Colony system be admitted. The +fact nevertheless remains that that system is capable of reform, of +modification, of being moulded in accordance with the requirements of +the case. The task should not be beyond the capacity of statecraft. Is +it to be seriously maintained that British statesmanship has sunk so low +that machinery suitable to a bygone age cannot be improved and brought +more into line with our altered situation: that we must needs cling to +every ancient wheel and rivet though they be clogged with superfluous +matter, and eaten through with rust? If the machine which it was sought +to preserve intact had done yeoman service in past days, there might +be some excuse for hesitating to supply it with new works. But that is +emphatically not so with the West African machine. + +And it is positively heart-breaking to see that the last few years, far +from bringing any reforms, far from holding out the hope of reform in +the future, have but accentuated the evil. We cannot, it is true, lose +any more territory, unless we care to give away that which is assured +to us by international agreement. But in almost every other respect the +Crown Colony system, as it prevails in West Africa, and under the new +circumstances in which it is performing its functions, is building up +a legacy of trouble which can only be contemplated with equanimity, or +viewed with indifference, by the thoughtless; by those good people who +refuse to walk save in pleasant places, who constitutionally dislike +criticism as much as a cat objects to a wetting. + +Haste and hurry are the order of the day in British West Africa. +Expenditure is going up by leaps and bounds,[12] altogether apart from +expenditure on public works. In the case of public works, large and +costly undertakings are arranged for on the most unpractical lines, +with no effort to benefit by competition, no putting out to tender, +no safeguards without which a business man of ordinary intelligence +will surround himself in order that he may be sure of getting the best +value for his money. An extraordinary theory in economics has become +fashionable. It is that the higher the revenue of a given West African +Colony the more prosperous that Colony must be, quite oblivious of the +effect which every increase of taxation has upon the volume of trade in +the way of reduction, and driving it away to the neighbouring territory +of a foreign rival. If a West African Colony shows in a given year +an increase of £10,000 in revenue, obtained from increased taxation, +jubilation in official quarters is excessive: but either nothing is +heard of the falling off in trade accompanying the increase in revenue, +or it is explained in some other way. The fact that there is a gain +in revenue is held to be proof positive of an abounding prosperity +and wise management. Every fresh increase in revenue is followed by a +corresponding increase in expenditure. The one is made to keep pace with +the other. It does not always succeed, because the expenditure is not +infrequently in excess of the revenue _quand même_. It is also becoming +the usual thing to financially assist these Colonies by “loans” or +“grants-in-aid” or “advances” quite on the West Indian model, while the +official reports invariably lead off with the reassuring statement that +“this Colony has no public debt”: a little farther on, casual reference +to the “grant-in-aid” may be discovered by the aid of a microscope, +tucked away in some obscure corner, a footnote for choice. Lagos, Sierra +Leone, the Gold Coast, Nigeria, are all at the present moment in the +enjoyment of Imperial loans: Sierra Leone for the Railway and the late +Hut-Tax war, Lagos for the Railway, the Gold Coast for the Railway and +Ashanti war, Nigeria for the purchase of the Niger Co.’s treaties with +the natives (the terms of which we have not adhered to), and for raising +an army. Meantime, our neighbours the French are—in their West Coast +Colonies proper, where comparison alone is possible—making their own +Colonies pay a considerable part in the expenses of Railway construction; +taxing their trade less, spending less on administration, governing more +cheaply and quite as well—better by a long way in some cases. + +The producing power of our Colonies, that is to say, the export trade, +the only true test of prosperity in West Africa, is either increasing +slowly by comparison with the expenditure, or it is stagnant, or it is +retrogressing. When it is increasing, the increase is much below the +corresponding ratio of increased expenditure. “Large doses”—veritable +purgatives—of European conceived legislation are being thrust down the +throats of the bewildered natives. The number of Ordinances passed in the +British West African Colonies during the last few years, especially in +Southern Nigeria,[13] is simply amazing. Most of them are far in advance +of the times and cannot but remain a dead letter because, thank goodness, +the existing machinery is not yet sufficiently extensive to carry them +out. To make as few Ordinances as possible, and to ensure that such as +are made shall be permanently useful, does not appear to enter into +the official conception; and in the face of the growing objections to +this rapidity and fertility of the official brain in forming premature +legislation, not only on the part of the natives who are getting more +and more confused, and—as the French put it—_déséquilibrés_, but by all +people in affairs on the Coast who would desire that officialdom should +move more slowly, carrying at each step real and understanding consent: +the work of drafting portentous decrees, the exact meaning of which +the very lawyers at home cannot comprehend, or reconcile with avowed +intentions, goes merrily on. + +Punitive expedition follows punitive expedition. We have had a war in +Sierra Leone, a war in Ashanti, two expeditions in the Gambia, a big +expedition up the Cross River in Southern Nigeria, together with minor +affrays, while in Northern Nigeria, which so far is producing no revenue +and has not attracted a single merchant (and but one exploring expedition +for possible mining purposes), one punitive expedition succeeds another +at an interval of a few weeks at most. I will not now labour the case of +Northern Nigeria, as that most interesting portion of our West African +dominions is discussed at some length farther on, but it is quite evident +that the attention of Parliament to the expenditure of Northern Nigeria +is becoming increasingly urgent. Lagos alone, under the able guidance +of Sir William MacGregor, has known the blessings of peace. Long may it +continue to do so. + +Specific instances and examples of these general statements will be found +scattered throughout this volume. It was, however, necessary to place +them in collective form. In the next chapter, endeavour will be made to +briefly indicate the lines upon which certain reforms might be attempted +and the reasons for those reforms. Official optimism notwithstanding, +it is an undoubted fact that, if something is not very shortly done to +improve the prevailing system, the majority of the British West African +Colonies will drift into a morass of financial confusion paralysing +to their development and progress, while the native population within +them will be comparatively poorer than in the neighbouring Colonies of +commercial rivals. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SOME NECESSARY REFORMS + + “It is well known also that this personal system, at its + best, is full of abuses of the worst kind politically; the + Administrators and those who influence them, get to have + favourites, and even chiefs have their legitimate power, + influence and dignity interfered with because they refuse to + pay homage to their views. In consequence of all this, an + apparently successful Administrator is usually and sharply + followed by even worse confusion and more protracted wars than + were known before his advent. It is the history of all weak + despotic systems, having no basis in the country or among + the people sought to be governed or influenced.”—“The Crown + Colonies of Great Britain” (chapter vi. West Africa), by C. S. + Salmon, formerly Colonial Secretary and Administrator of the + Gold Coast, &c. + + “The inhabitants of the country and the mercantile community + who provide the whole of the revenues, have no voice at all in + the governing of their Colonies and the expenditure of these + revenues, and I sincerely hope that the day is not far distant + when the African community will rise up and protest against + this Crown Colony system of government”—Mr. ARTHUR HUTTON, + President of the African Section of the Manchester Chamber of + Commerce. (Extract from speech delivered.) + + +It will, I think, be conceded that, notwithstanding the extraordinarily +important and revolutionising discoveries of Major Ross, to whom the +entire credit of recent demonstrations belongs, the admirable work +performed by the Liverpool[14] and London schools in the study of +tropical disease and sanitary improvements on the West Coast, the chances +of British West Africa ever becoming a possession where English men +and women can flourish and multiply, is excessively remote; so remote, +indeed, as to be outside the sphere of useful discussion. In fact, +with the one possible exception of the Futa-Jallon uplands, when the +Konakry-Kurussa railway line has connected them with the coast, West +Africa as a whole is unsuitable, and will, according to all reasonable +supposition, always remain unsuitable for European _colonisation_. The +dominion of British West Africa must, therefore, be regarded not in the +light of a colony properly so called, but as a vast tropical estate. + +From that postulate arises a query, or rather, series of queries. What +are we in West Africa for? What do we hope to do there? What object took +us there? What main purpose keeps us there? The answer is not for a +moment in doubt. Commerce took us to West Africa; commerce keeps and will +keep us in West Africa. It is the _fons et origo_ of our presence in West +Africa. The day that it ceases to be so, West Africa ceases to be of use +to the Empire. It will become a costly plaything, and the British people +is too essentially practical a people to care long for toys of that kind. +As in every other part of the world, commerce in West Africa is the +outcome of supply and demand. There is a demand for the products of West +Africa on the markets of the world, and there is a demand in West Africa +for the products of European industrialism. The increased circulation of +a portable currency in West Africa in the shape of silver coinage will +facilitate the operations of commerce, but will not dislodge or alter the +fundamental nature of that commerce. The development of a mining industry +in this or that portion of West Africa will, while it lasts, modify the +conditions of trade in the portion affected, but commerce will remain the +backbone, as it ever has been, of European intercourse with West Africa. + +There is nothing that need occasion regret at the contemplation of the +truth. Commerce is the greatest civilising agent. The steps upward in +the ethical development of the human race have been synonymous with +the spread of commercial relations, and the creation of the means and +measures whereby their promotion has been successively extended. The +most backward peoples to-day are, generally speaking, those whose +secluded habitat renders their commercial transactions with the outside +world scanty and precarious. In these days, when the noble meaning +which attaches to “philanthropy” and “civilisation” is made the cloak +to cover in West Africa so much that is vile, the excuse both sincerely +and hypocritically given to explain away so much that is in painful +contradiction, one needs, perhaps, to be reminded that such commonplace +things as commerce and improved means of communication will do more +to benefit the native than any number of attempts to impose laws and +institutions unfamiliar to him, by violent even if well-meaning measures +of so-called reform.[15] As a nation we should gain much and lose nothing +in frankly admitting to ourselves that it is due neither to a desire +to mend the ways of priestly theocracies, nor to alter the tyranny of +the strong over the weak, which has led to the incorporation within +the Empire of some thirty-five millions of West African natives, but +the belief that West Africa constitutes a vast outlet for the free and +unfettered development of British trade, and an equally vast field for +the cultivation of products of economic necessity to ourselves. Thorough +realisation of the fact would lead to more accurate appreciation and a +truer sense of the direction which our policy should take in West Africa, +if ultimate success and not failure is to attend it. + +Commercial development is then in an especial and peculiar degree the +_raison d’être_ of our presence in West Africa. + +Now what are the principal factors in British West African commerce, and +how are their claims to consideration in the administration of British +West Africa treated under the Crown Colony system? Obviously the two +principal factors are the European merchant and his customer, the native. +The merchant directly supplies, the native indirectly supplies, the +revenue which pays for the salaries of the officials and the general +up-keep of the government, and if it be true, as it undoubtedly is, +that the burden of taxation ultimately falls upon the native producer, +it is equally true that, without the enterprise of the merchant, there +would be no revenue and consequently no local funds for the support +of administrative machinery. It follows, therefore, as a matter of +simple justice, that the merchant should have a voice in the framing of +legislation calculated to affect the internal politics, and consequently +the commerce of our West African possessions. Apart from its justice, +the claim of the merchant to representation in the affairs of our West +African Empire has many features in its favour. He enjoys an expert’s +knowledge, gained by long years of actual contact with the peoples of +Western Africa. Experience has given him an insight into their customs +and laws; an acquaintance with their peculiarities, with the working +of their minds, with their inbred conservatism, which officials whose +residence in West Africa—broken, as it is, by long intervals of leave—is +usually of a very temporary or flitting nature, cannot hope to attain at +any rate with the same completeness; and a mastery, even if it be only an +instinctive mastery, of certain special characteristics which underlie +native conceptions, and which have to be reckoned with in dealing with +them. The merchant is consequently well fitted to be a most valuable +assistant in the administration of British Western Africa. + +The fact is recognised by the French and Germans who share with us the +vast proportion of influence in West Africa properly so called. Ever +practical, the Germans have created an Advisory Board (_Kolonial-rath_) +to their Colonial Office, composed for the most part of the leading +men in the West African trade. The present Colonial Advisory Board has +twelve merchants sitting on its Council.[16] In French West Africa, +but on somewhat different lines, the merchant is similarly treated, and +just recently the representations of the French merchants to M. Décrais, +the then Colonial Minister of France, averted a great evil threatening +the Ivory Coast in the contemplated cession to King Leopold’s nominee, +M. Empain, of a practical monopoly over the whole of the gold-bearing +districts of that dependency, although M. Empain[17] had the most +influential support at his back. + +The French system, though far from perfect, is incomparably superior +to anything we have in this country. It differs somewhat in the +various Colonies, but is substantially composed of two Organisms, the +Metropolitan Organism and the Colonial Organism. Under these dual +Organisms, every Colony which is not directly represented in the French +Parliament is represented at the Colonial Office by a delegate elected +by vote of the white inhabitants of such Colony. In French Guinea, where +the administration in force is in advance of that of any other French (or +English for that matter) West African possession, a commercial delegate +is regularly elected, and at the present moment a merchant, M. Gaboriau, +representing the interests of that Colony, is attached to the Colonial +Office. The weak point in the arrangement is, that the officials in the +respective Colonies as well as the merchants have the right to vote in +the election of a representative, with the result that very often the +officials are in a majority. When that happens, a French politician, who +can use his influence in promoting the officials who vote for him, is +appointed. Each colony possesses a “Superior Council” or “Administrative +Council” composed of the Governor, the heads of departments, and two or +more merchants. In Senegal the merchant councillors have always enjoyed +considerable power, and no step affecting the interests of the Colony is +ever taken without the concurrence of the great Bordeaux merchant firms, +which between them centralise the ground-nut trade (they themselves +built it up), the staple industry of Senegal. Moreover, Senegal is +particularly favoured in that it boasts a Deputy in the Chamber and a +local General Council which enjoys large financial responsibility, the +merchants—provided they do not fall out among themselves—being always in +a majority in the said General Council. + +With us matters are altogether different. England, which passes for +a country where common-sense is the cardinal virtue, refuses to her +merchants any recognised _status_ in the administrative machinery of +West Africa. It has been accurately asserted that the merchant is the +_uitlander_ of British West Africa. He is seldom, if ever, consulted in +the affairs of the country, and although Mr. Chamberlain has on more +than one occasion given verbal assurances that no legislative acts +affecting the natives (and _de facto_ calculated to influence native +production—or, in other words, trade) would be promulgated without +previously being submitted to the merchants for their opinion, decrees of +the highest importance embodying a kind of revolution in our historical +native policy in regard to the laws of native land tenure have just +become law in Southern Nigeria, not only without the merchants being +consulted, but without their being advised in any other way than by a +perusal of the published Ordinances in the local Government Gazette. From +time to time—and during the last two years with increasing frequency, +consistency, and earnestness—the Liverpool and Manchester Chambers of +Commerce, which between them represent the majority of the commercial +interests of Great Britain in West Africa,[18] have approached the +Foreign and Colonial Offices on their own initiative, sometimes +supported by as many as ten or twelve other leading chambers in the +Kingdom voicing industrial interests more or less directly affected by +specific occurrences. When—I am speaking now of recent times—the Foreign +Office has been either memorialised or waited upon by deputations from +the Chambers, the question at issue has been one of international import, +such for instance as the differential tariff against British goods in the +French West African Colonies (1898), and the violation of the Berlin Act +in the Congo Basin (1901 and 1902). In the first case, the action of the +Chambers was surprisingly successful; in the second case, success has not +yet attended their efforts. + +When, as in the majority of instances, the Colonial Office has been +waited upon or written to, the object has referred to some legislation +either contemplated or assented to, or to some measure of internal policy +towards a native tribe or ruler. I cannot find that the Colonial Office +has on any single occasion, in a matter of importance, consented to adopt +the views of the men who, as subsequent events have manifestly proved, +saw clearer than the permanent officials, and whose advice, if taken, +would have avoided the perpetration of serious mistakes. In 1895 the +Manchester Chamber and the local Chamber at Cape Coast strongly advised +“that the King of Ashanti (Prempreh) be allowed to reserve all the rights +that he now exercises over his people,” but that a British resident +should be established at his Court, as the best means of ensuring a +lasting peace with the Ashanti people, who, if they had erred, also +had—as is historically admitted—grounds of legitimate complaint against +the British authorities on various occasions. Prempreh, however, was +arrested and deported, and from that moment the Ashantis never ceased to +intrigue against the British until their discontent, fanned into flame by +the injudicious proceedings of Governor Hodgson, broke forth once more +and led to the last sanguinary expedition, which involved an expenditure +of a quarter of a million of money. + +But the most notable instance at once, of the value of the merchants’ +expert knowledge and of the fatuity of lightly rejecting their counsel, +is provided in the lamentable chapter in the history of Sierra Leone +which began with the enforcement of the Hut Tax Ordinance in 1898, and +which is not yet closed, whatever officialdom may say to the contrary. +As I propose discussing this subject in some detail later on, it is +sufficient to state here that the merchants almost went on their bended +knees, figuratively speaking, in seeking to turn the Colonial Office +from its purpose; that they entirely failed; that they were met by +official assurances which were afterwards shown to be entirely erroneous; +that their predictions and warnings were fulfilled to the letter; that +their views were subsequently substantiated in every respect by the +Special Commissioner despatched later by the Colonial Office to make +investigations as to the origin of the rising, and that the persistent +refusal of the Colonial Office to abide by the Special Commissioner’s +report has reduced our oldest West African possession to such a +condition that, if the railway now in course of construction through +the eastern district does not—and there appears little or no hope that +it will—entirely alter the present state of affairs, Sierra Leone under +the present _régime_, and with the pressure of French competition in the +neighbouring territories, is irretrievably ruined. + +Is it not time that in this respect at least something was done to +bring the management of British West Africa more into line with modern +requirements, and at a period when the commercial position of Great +Britain in West Africa is everywhere threatened by foreign competition, +to establish some working arrangement—call it a West African Council or +Advisory Board or anything you please—whereby the accumulated experience +of the men who are supplying the Government with the wherewithal to +govern, should be used as an auxiliary force for the promotion of the +general interests of Great Britain in West Africa? The nucleus of such a +council or Advisory Board could be at once supplied. + +It is said that the merchants cannot agree amongst themselves. The plea +lacks in truthfulness, and it is permissible to doubt whether it is +sincerely put forward. Unquestionably there are rivalries in the West +African trade. What trade is without them? But to argue that competition +in trade is a bar to co-operation in matters affecting the general +welfare of the country is a very narrow-minded position to take up. +It is converting a legitimate, natural, and healthy phenomenon into a +disqualification which nothing justifies. Where should we be in West +Africa to-day but for our merchant pioneers? Suppose they had endorsed +the official resolution of 1865 by withdrawing from the Coast, would the +Union Jack be floating in West Africa except in Sierra Leone to-day? If +the merchant had been devoid of political conception, and content to +let his horizon be confined to those petty but inevitable aspects of +commercialism which consist in under-selling a competitor, would not the +abandonment of the Gold Coast have followed the battle of Katamansu, and +would the richest portion of the Niger Valley be a British Protectorate +to-day? Let those who suggest that the British merchant in West Africa +is incapable of rising above sordid motives of self-interest remember +MacGregor Laird. The merchant has everywhere preceded the administrator +in West Africa. In his case the old adage must be reversed. It has been +the flag which has followed trade, not trade the flag.[19] + +It is also said that the merchants are not unanimous with regard to +certain features of West African policy. But can any one single out a +body of men among whom variations of opinion on specific points do not +occur? Do all the members of a Cabinet invariably see eye to eye on a +particular measure to be introduced? Are not the very modifications which +any given Bill must go through before being finally drafted and approved +by the Cabinet as a whole a guarantee that legislation evolved from +the interchange of ideas among the sundry persons concerned—and who, +unless they be devoid of individuality, cannot all think alike on every +point—will be the better for the destructive and constructive criticism +to which it has been subjected? The merchants are in substantial +agreement in what they consider the vital principles of British policy +in West Africa, principles which informed public opinion is at last +beginning to realise the urgency of upholding. No material divergency +of views will be found among merchants as to the absolute necessity of +respecting native land tenure, the need of careful finance, the danger +of constant military operations, the indispensableness of preserving +native institutions. If there be a charge against the merchants, it +is that they have not hitherto sufficiently exercised their power of +influencing successive Governments. They have not risen as they should +have done to the height of their duties and responsibilities. They have +allowed outsiders to perform a difficult and generally ungrateful work, +which they themselves should have taken in hand—that of calling public +attention to the urgency of reforms in West African administration. At +critical moments they have been weak-kneed, and fearful of giving offence +when they should have been resolute in standing by convictions which +they knew to be sound. Their attitude is now happily undergoing a change +which, if maintained, is bound to have lasting results for good. + +At no previous period in the history of British West Africa has +the co-operation of the great merchant community in the task of +administration been so pressing a necessity as it is to-day. Never could +better use be made of such co-operation by the department responsible +for West Africa as at present. In the increasing notice which is +being given on all sides to West African affairs consequent upon the +remarkable growth of European relations with that country and with the +birth in West Africa of a modern mining industry, a host of dangerous +advisers is arising. We see old errors creeping back in the guise of +new verities, old misconceptions gaining fresh lease of life, exploded +theories crowding forward to mislead and confuse. Appeals to force as +the solution of all difficulties arising out of contact with a primitive +people, contemptuous disregard of native laws and customs—the “damned +nigger” theory in all its perennial beauty, insistent requests for lavish +expenditure, heedless of plain economic facts, and so forth—these are the +order of the day. Upon elementary errors of geography are grafted the +crudest notions of the political and social condition of the Negro, the +most amazing ignorance of history and past experience in every branch of +West African lore. By a plausible inversion of facts, opponents of the +wild and whirling talk indulged in regarding West Africa are denounced +as sentimentalists, although it so happens that the denouncers draw the +material which serves them as a basis for their contentions from that +very discredited sentimentalism responsible for so many errors in West +Africa, which portrays the native as an abject being, brutish, lazy, +and degraded, greatly honoured by the bestowal of a bible, a suit of +clothes; and a shilling, with a possible extra threepence thrown in as +subsistence-money, for a hard day’s work. No doubt it is possible to +exaggerate the importance of these _ad captandum_ effusions, but their +volume is, perhaps, calculated to momentarily drown the voice of reason. +Parrot-like reiteration, if sufficiently sustained, is apt sometimes to +impress. + +At such a time the assistance of a trained body of men thoroughly +conversant with the affairs of Western Africa, in a position to point to +past experiences, to vested interests, to technical knowledge as their +claim to competency, and to the feeding of the administrative machine +as their claim to consideration, ought surely to commend itself to the +Authorities. To persist much longer in the rejection of that assistance +would be equally short-sighted and unjust. + +Another and an equally important question connected with the management +of our West African Possessions, is the question of the Crown Agents. If +any one attempted to define the duties of that body, he would be hard +put to it to do so. They are here, there and everywhere, and their +interference puts a premium upon extravagance and waste. The Crown Agents +are an anomaly which ought to disappear. At present they constitute a +sort of half-way house between the Colonial Office and the West African +Governors, and are a positive obstacle to sound finance and good business +methods. Enough examples of the extraordinary ways of the Crown Agents +could be given to fill a volume. The West African Colonies are hampered +right and left by the powers conferred upon this body. The Colonies +are not allowed to purchase what they require in the shape of stores, +equipment, material and so forth on the open market. Everything has to +go through the Crown Agents, with the natural result that the Colonies +have to pay 40 per cent. and 50 per cent. more than they would have to if +allowed to invite tenders on their own account. Look at the way in which +these railways have been and are being built. + +The construction is, apparently, the monopoly of one particular firm +(under the direction of the Crown Agents); a firm which, as far as can be +gathered, had had but little experience in railway construction before, +metaphorically speaking, falling upon its feet in West Africa. + +The same firm holds the position of “consulting engineers” to the +Colonial Office. Surely it is anomalous, from the purely business +point of view, that a firm retained as “consulting engineers” to a +Government Department in charge of West Africa should also be the actual +constructors of the West African railways! The two parts strike one as +incompatible. Consulting engineers, one would imagine, would be advisers +and arbiters. All contracts should be publicly and openly tendered for. +A very widespread impression prevails that the time and cost expended in +the construction of these railways have been very great. The Gold Coast +Railway was begun in February 1898; it is officially estimated to reach +Kumasi early in 1904. Assuming that it does, it will have taken six years +to build, which works out at about twenty-eight miles per annum—the +distance from Sekondi to Kumasi being 169¼ miles. + +It is as yet too early to say definitely what the cost of the line will +average per mile. Official estimates, we know, are not always reliable. +In this case, even the official estimate is very high, viz. £8000 +per mile for the Sekondi-Tarkwa section, and £6300 per mile for the +Tarkwa-Kumasi section. + +That dissatisfaction with the policy pursued up to the present (that is +to say, the policy of constructing these railways under the “Department +System,” or, otherwise stated, leaving their construction to the +Crown Agents), is not confined to merchants, mine-managers and other +revenue-payers of the West African Colonies, but is held by competent and +highly placed officials, I reproduce the following remarks of Sir William +MacGregor, made on the occasion of a visit to the Manchester Chamber of +Commerce in 1900, and in reply to the following question of Mr. Arthur +Hutton’s[20]: + + “Do you think, from what you have seen, it (_i.e._ railway + construction) would be better done by contract?” + + SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR: “I believe at the present moment—and I + have said so to the Secretary of State—_I believe there would + be men living who are now rotting in their graves, if it had + been taken out of the control of the Crown Agents_....”[21] + +It is competently estimated that the Lagos railway, begun in 1896, will +have cost £10,000[22] per mile by the time its 125 miles are in full +working order—an enormous rate. The Crown Agents, through whom the +moneys have been advanced to the Colony, exact 5 per cent. interest, +whereas with the security they have to offer, they should easily be able +to get them—and probably have got them—from the Treasury at 3 per cent. +Why should the Colony be saddled with an extra 2[23] per cent. interest +and find its liability for the current year on the railway loan increased +to the enormous total of £54,000, or, say, 22 per cent. of the entire +revenue?[24] Why should all indents be sent through the Crown Agents? The +delays which this ridiculous system entail are only second in point of +importance to the squandering of the public funds which goes on under it. +The Crown Agents appear to think that they know more about the material +needs of the Colonies than the officials in charge of the Colonies +themselves. Two instances have been recently brought to my notice +which would be laughable were they not so deplorably unbusiness-like. +A certain West African Colony required a two-ton engine for a short, +light railway. The request was duly put forward. After months of delay +an eight-ton engine was sent out, too heavy, of course, for the rails to +support it. It was entirely useless. Again, a scheme was drawn up for the +construction of a bridge by the local official responsible. An estimate +was made, and the plans and so forth were forwarded home. The bridge +was urgently required. Months elapsed; then the Crown Agents, who knew +nothing of the local conditions, instead of despatching the materials, +sent out an entirely different counter-scheme, far more elaborate, far +more costly, and totally unsuited to local requirements. The Colony is +still waiting for its bridge.[25] I can only repeat that, whether avowed +or not—in many cases, of course, it manifestly cannot be avowed—the Crown +Agents are looked upon in official and commercial circles in West Africa +as an unmitigated nuisance and a stumbling-block to progress. + +The needs of British West Africa at the present time may be resumed thus: +(1) A Council or Advisory Board in which the merchant element shall be +widely represented; (2) Tight control over the military element—fewer +punitive expeditions, and more tact and patience in dealing with native +races, the officials whose administration is virgin of wars to be looked +upon as deserving of prior promotion; (3) Economy in Administration; +(4) Thorough financial overhaul; (5) Elimination of the Crown Agents; +(6) Open tenders for all public works; (7) Sanitation; (8) Scientific +study of native peoples, laws and languages; (9) Scientific study of +native products and improvement of native industries; (10) Maintenance +and not murder of native institutions, upholding and strengthening of +the power of the Chiefs; non-interference with domestic slavery in +the Protectorates; preservation of native land-tenure; (11) A Civil +Service on the lines of the Indian Civil Service; (12) A Civilian +Governor-General. + + + + +PART II + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DISCOVERY OF NORTHERN NIGERIA + + +The nineteenth century will ever be memorable for the exploration of the +interior of the African Continent. It is difficult to realise when we +read in the daily newspapers of steamers plying upon Tanganyika, ocean +steamers of 4000 tons burthen ploughing their way through the brown +waters of the Lower Congo, gun-boats patrolling the Niger, railways +piercing alike the deserts of the Eastern Sudan and the forests of +Equatoria, telegraphs extending in a network of lines across the Western +Sudan and athwart the Great Central Lakes—it seems difficult, I say, +when we read of these things to remember that at the close of the +eighteenth century the interior of Africa was to all intents and purposes +a blank, and that, even within the memory of most of us, the extent of +geographical knowledge we possessed respecting vast regions many times +larger than European Russia had made no progress since the days of +Herodotus and Pliny. What a colossal work it has been, this solving of +riddles which had baffled the world for ages upon ages! What prodigies +of labour, of courage, of self-abnegation have been required to triumph +over the obstacles which nature and man united in opposing to the early +pioneers of African research! How many splendid lives have been immolated +upon the altar of the African Moloch! + +Notwithstanding the remarkable progress in medical science and hygiene, +and the potentialities of the modern rifle as a weapon of defence +against the attack of man and beast, the difficulties of the African +traveller at the present day are sufficiently great. Deadly maladies +beset him on every side, and the chance of coming to a sudden and violent +end is ever present. But these difficulties are as dust in the balance +compared with the sufferings and privations which the first explorers +of unknown Africa had to endure. Think of Park, and picture to yourself +the position of a lonely European wandering about inland Western Africa +in a thick blue fustian coat, with gilt buttons, keeping his precious +notes in the crown of a top-hat, and kicked, buffeted, spat upon, treated +with contumely and scorn, subjected to every possible insult, over and +again a slave, exposed for hours at a time in a burning sun without +water, often on the verge of starvation, racked by disease, and in so +miserable a plight upon many occasions that death would have been a +welcome relief—yet triumphing over everything and finally returning, +notes and all, to his own land. Park’s experiences naturally occur to +one in relation to the subject which it is proposed to treat in this +chapter, because Park was the real discoverer of the Niger, which had +been known in a vague manner to the ancients, and also to the Arabs (who, +however, wrongly ascribed to it a westerly course, and identified it +with the Nile),[26] and laid the foundation of that remarkable series of +explorations which ultimately ended in Lander’s supreme success. + +In 1805 Park set out once more on his second and fatal journey, with the +firm conviction that he would be able to prove to the world the accuracy +of his own theory, viz. that the Niger and the Congo were one and the +same. The peripatetics of that eventful voyage are known to every student +of Africa. After incredible hardships, Park managed to descend the Niger +as far as Bussa. There, in sight almost of the goal of his ambitions +he perished, victim of a cruel fate, which drove his boat upon those +treacherous rocks, since celebrated for having brought two Christian +nations to the brink of war. There are aspects of Park’s character which +leave something to be desired, but his defects are lost sight of in the +magnificence of his courage, his indomitable will, and the never-failing +optimism with which he pursued his task, undeterred by disappointment and +unshaken by adversity. As an example of human perseverance and fortitude +carried to its highest limits, Park probably holds an unique position +among African explorers. + +Park’s tragic end increased the desire of Englishmen to solve the mystery +of the Niger’s course, and in 1816 the British Government organised a +dual expedition on a large scale for this purpose. One section, under +Captain Tuckey, ascended the Congo, and the other, under Major Peddie, +endeavoured to reach the Niger by a more southerly route than that +adopted by Park, the idea being that both sections would ultimately meet +somewhere in Central Africa. How fantastic was the scheme does not need +to be pointed out, but it must be remembered that in those days the +consensus of learned opinion favoured Park’s theory of identification +concerning the Niger and the Congo. The expedition was an utter failure. +The Niger section excited the resentment of the natives, and had to +return after losing its chief. Captain Tuckey ascended the Congo as far +as the first cataracts, which had baffled the Portuguese for 200 years, +and then leaving the River, pushed North, along what used to be the old +caravan route, to the Upper River, now covered by the Matadi-Stanleyville +railway, constructed by Colonel Thys. He managed to strike the Upper +River in the neighbourhood of the modern Leopoldville, but the trying +landmarch had played havoc with his followers. Sickness broke out, and +finally the expedition had to return with a loss of 75 per cent. of +its European members. Several lesser attempts followed. They all ended +disastrously, and it seemed as though the Dark Continent refused to +yield up its secrets. But Englishmen were not to be beaten. The Western +route was indeed given up as impracticable for a time, but what could +not be accomplished from the West might be achieved from the North. +True, the Desert had to be faced and traversed. But where the Phœnician +and the Roman had dared and done, the Englishman might surely follow. +The Desert had not balked the Sectaries of Mohammed, and long caravans, +conducted by Tripolitan merchants, yearly made their way across those +dreary solitudes. Why should not a party of Englishmen attach themselves +to one of these caravans, and, protected by the influence of the British +Government, armed with the authority of the Pasha of Tripoli, succeed +in reaching the fertile countries of the South, whence rich supplies of +ostrich feathers, skins, ivory, gold dust, and slaves found their way to +the ports of the Northern littoral? + +[Illustration: SKETCH OF THE NORTHERN PART OF AFRICA] + +For many years the African Association had been collecting materials +with a view to a possible penetration by the Northern route. Once the +idea found favour with the authorities, Mr. Lucas was despatched by the +Association to Tripoli. He did very little in the way of exploration, but +brought back many interesting facts confirming Leo Africanus’ description +in respect to the existence of flourishing kingdoms far away to the +South, where arts and crafts had attained a high degree of development. +Ritchie and Lyon followed Lucas. Lyon managed to reach the southernmost +limits of Fezzan, on the borders of the Desert.[27] The Desert itself +remained uncrossed, however, and the mystery of the Niger still unsolved. +Then it was that the British Government determined to make a great effort +to solve the problem, and fitted out an expedition, which did not, +it is true, fulfil all that was expected of it, but which succeeded, +nevertheless, in throwing a vivid light upon unknown Central Africa, and +in disclosing to an astonished world the remarkable civilisation which, +under Arab, Berber, and Fulani influence, had arisen in the heart of that +black “Sudan” the “land of infidels,” and in popular conception, + + “Of the cannibals that each other eat, + The anthropophagi, and men whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders.” + +And so the subjects of this sketch enter upon the scene—three men, +Clapperton, Denham and Oudney, none of them perhaps conspicuous for +ability, or qualified to make the most of their discoveries, yet animated +all three with the ardent love of adventure for which their race has +ever been famous, and whose united exertions enabled Western Europe to +estimate the political and social conditions prevailing in the richest, +most populated, most fertile, and undoubtedly most interesting portion +of the Dark Continent. It is peculiarly fitting that the region which +these Englishmen were the first Europeans to visit, and which we now +designate by the name of Northern Nigeria, should have been ultimately +incorporated with the British West African Empire by the foresight of +another Englishman, Sir George Taubman Goldie, and the diplomatic ability +of the gallant Joseph Thomson. A word now as to the three companions. Of +Denham and Oudney, we know little beyond what can be gathered from their +own writings; Oudney was a medical man, and Denham held the rank of Major +in the army. Oudney was the real leader of the expedition, with which +he had been entrusted by Earl Bathurst, then Secretary of State for the +Colonies; but his untimely death had the result of depreciating the part +which he personally played during its first two years’ work. Clapperton +has written of him that he was “A man of unassuming deportment, pleasing +manners, steadfast perseverance and undaunted enterprise; while his mind +was fraught at once with knowledge, virtue and religion.” Major Denham’s +action in joining a raiding party into Mandara (Eastern Bornu) has +somewhat tarnished his reputation, in my humble opinion very unjustly, +although it is quite true that his action in this respect was the +cause of serious embarrassment to Clapperton later on. In criticising +Denham’s conduct on this occasion, we must bear in mind in the first +place that the Empire of Bornu, at that period, owing to various +dynastic revolutions, and to the pressure of its powerful enemies on the +East—Baghirmi and Wadai—was in a state of more or less constant warfare +both within and without, and that warlike expeditions were constantly +taking place, faction fighting against faction and tribe against tribe, +warfare being in fact a more or less permanent institution in the social +life of the country. And in the second place, we must also recollect that +the members of the expedition had been instructed to examine and report +upon all the various phases of life in the countries which they might +traverse. Now it was impossible for Denham to obtain a thorough knowledge +of the habits of the people without personally investigating the manner +in which they waged war upon their neighbours. Apart, therefore, from the +natural predilections of his soldierly instincts, which would lead him +to find particular interest in matters of this kind, it may be assumed +that Denham considered it his duty to act as he did. Years afterwards, +Barth found himself in much the same predicament. As it happened, the +adventure nearly cost Denham his life. The raided proved too strong for +the raiders, and, assisted by the Fulani cavalry, completely defeated the +latter. Denham’s escape was a marvellous one. He lost everything, and was +wounded in three places. + +An account of Clapperton’s life is contributed by Lieut.-Colonel +Clapperton in the preface to Clapperton and Lander’s journal of the +second expedition to Sokoto, published by Murray in 1829. Hugh Clapperton +was born in Dumfriesshire in 1788. At the age of thirteen he went to sea +as an apprentice, and subsequently entered the Royal Navy. He served in +the _Renommée_ and _Venerable_, and visited the East Indies. He then +went to the Canadian Lakes, and participated in the American War of +Independence. In 1816 he got his commission. A year later the British +vessels on the Canadian Lakes were paid off and laid up, and Clapperton +returned to England on half-pay. In 1820 he met Dr. Oudney in Edinburgh, +and struck up a friendship which resulted in his accompanying the +latter to Africa. Of intellectual attainments he had none, but he was +large-hearted, generous, and tolerant; courageous in the extreme, gifted +with an iron constitution, and of great physical strength. So much for +the personal characteristics of the trio. We may now examine the nature +of their work. The narrative of the expedition in which all three took +part is chiefly contributed by Denham. While Denham was compiling their +joint notes, Clapperton started for Africa again, and reached Sokoto +from Badagry on the West Coast. The story of Clapperton’s second journey +was written by himself, and afterwards published by his faithful servant +Richard Lander, who was destined ultimately to follow the Niger down +to the sea, thus finally solving the great problem in the attempted +elucidation of which Park, Tucker, Clapperton and many others perished. + +The primary, and in many respects the main, obstacle which had to be +overcome by Oudney and his companions, was the crossing of that portion +of the Sahara which lies between Murzuk and Bornu, and which, to use +Denham’s words, “Is made up of dark frowning hills of naked rock, in +interminable plains, strewed in some places with fragments of stone and +pebbles, in others of one vast level surface of sand, and in others, +again, the same material rising into immense mounds, altering their form +and position according to the strength and direction of the winds.” +Caravan routes across the desert had existed for many centuries, and +the commerce of the Central Sudan, with the parts of North Africa, was +still an important one. The route which the travellers hoped to take, in +company with a party of merchants, was the shortest and safest one, that +which starting from Tripoli passes through Murzuk and Bilma to Kuka, then +the capital of Bornu, situated on the shores of Lake Chad. The expedition +arrived at Tripoli in November 1821, but did not reach Murzuk, capital +of Fezzan, until the 8th April 1822. Here the Englishmen met with such +a discouraging reception from the Sultan that on the 12th May, finding +no chance of making any progress whatever, Major Denham started back to +Tripoli to interview the Pasha, by whom the British Government had been +promised every possible assistance. The Pasha proving as lethargic as his +prototype at Murzuk, Denham left Tripoli in a white heat of indignation +to report his conduct to the British Government. This did not suit the +Pasha at all, and he sent three despatches after the irate Englishman +begging him to return, as he had arranged for an escort to accompany the +expedition to Bornu. The despatches reached Denham while the boat he had +taken passage in was quarantined outside Marseilles, and he forthwith +set sail once more for the Barbary shore. On the 29th November 1822, or +a year after landing at Tripoli, the expedition left Murzuk, and set +out upon its way to Bornu under the guidance of Bu-Kalum, a merchant +of repute, much enamoured of pomp and show, and not over energetic in +his movements. Within a few weeks’ march from Murzuk the members of the +expedition were able to appreciate all the horrors of the trans-Desert +slave trade in the sight of “more than 100 skeletons, scattered over the +line of route, some of them with the skin attached to the bones.” + +On the 13th January they reached Bilma, famous for its salt pans, and +on February 4th the discomforts they had endured in the desert received +ample compensation by a view of “the great Lake Chad, glowing with the +golden rays of the sun in its strength.” The natural emotion of the +travellers is thus expressed by Denham, whose descriptions in the general +way certainly do not incline to the picturesque: + + “It conveyed to my mind,” he writes, “a sensation so gratifying + and inspiring that it would be difficult for language to convey + an idea of its force and pleasure.... My heart bounded within + me at the prospect, for I believe this lake to be the key to + the great object of our search, and I could not refrain from + silently imploring heaven’s continued protection, which had + enabled us to proceed so far in health and strength, even to + the accomplishment of our task.” + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE DISCOVERY OF NORTHERN NIGERIA—(_cont._) + + +On the borders of the Lake the travellers observed the cotton shrub +growing well and innumerable flocks of waterfowl disporting themselves. +So tame were the latter that when approached they “merely changed their +position a little to the right or left.” Following the Western shore of +the Chad, the travellers pushed on to Kuka. Within a few days’ march +of that once-flourishing city they began to realise how erroneous were +the popular ideas of the “Sudan.” Instead of “ragged negroes armed with +spears,” who, with the assistance of a few Arabs, managed to terrorise +the country, the travellers were astonished to see a dense cloud of +cavalry riding towards them, the guard of honour sent by the Sheik of +Bornu to bid them welcome. With loud cries of “Blessing, blessing! +Welcome! welcome!” the black warriors, clad “in coats of mail, composed +of iron chain,” bore down upon them in orderly array, waving swords and +spears. Surrounded by this imposing mass of horsemen they entered Kuka, +and were received in audience by the Sheik. After a short residence in +Kuka the companions separated, Denham going off with Bu-Kalum on the raid +which turned out so disastrously for all concerned in it. + +The energetic Major subsequently visited a large portion of the Eastern +parts of Bornu, located and ascended the Shari as far as Logon, then the +capital of an important kingdom, and explored a considerable portion +of the Eastern shores of the Lake. The information he collected in the +course of his peregrinations and the maps of the district which he +compiled were of very great value. The Southern and Eastern shores of +the Lake were entirely unknown, the Lake itself practically unlocated, +and the existence of the Shari unsuspected. It has always appeared to +me that Denham never received the credit which was due to him for his +exploring work. In view of his unscientific training, he was unable to +turn his discoveries to the best advantage, but all things considered, +his investigations proved in the main surprisingly accurate. His +ignorance of African history, too, was very much against him. He was +distinctly an unlettered man, neither possessed of a ready pen nor +imbued with much imagination. The natural result of these shortcomings +is apparent in every page of his Journal. We find him recording the +most trivial incidents, and almost neglecting the social, political and +ethnological problems with which he came daily in contact. The same lack +of study and intelligent research—of education, really—is visible, but +perhaps to a lesser extent, in Clapperton’s writings. + +It was in a sense a new world which the explorers had entered, a +world of absorbing interest, where Eastern magnificence and barbaric +display mingled with the naked barbarism of Africa; where semi-Arabised +potentates went a-warring with mail-clad knights, and powerful Barons +brought their contingent of retainers to assist their liege lord +in his campaigns of plunder and conquest. The travellers had left +nineteenth-century England, had plunged into the Desert, and had emerged +therefrom amid a feudalism which recalled in many ways that of their own +land in the Middle Ages. What an opportunity was theirs in this region, +which for centuries, by reason of its fertility, had proved a magnet +to attract the migration of races from the North, West, and East! Some +twenty years later a man with a truly scientific mind went over the same +ground, and then, and only then, did people realise all that Denham and +Clapperton had left untold. But, although it was reserved for the genial +and cultured German who succeeded Denham to show how profound is the gulf +between a character such as Barth’s, studious and observant, replete +with historical lore and scientific attainment, and men like Denham and +Clapperton, notable only for their courage, dogged perseverance, and +love of adventure, yet the prestige of the former, which increases rather +than diminishes as our knowledge of these regions in question becomes +more extensive, can never rob the Englishmen of the right of priority of +discovery. They were the first white men to reach the Chad, to discover +the Shari, to explore Bornu, Sokoto, and part of Kanem, and to describe, +however indifferently, the wonderful social fabric, the picturesque +civilisation, teeming with energy and industrialism, which existed, and +exists, in the upper portion of the Niger Basin. + +While Denham bent his steps eastwards, Clapperton and Oudney left Kuka +in a westerly direction with the intention of entering the Empire +of Sokoto, founded by Othman Fodio (the Fulani reformer during the +first years of the nineteenth century) out of the heterogeneous and +mutually antagonistic Hausa States. Of this Empire and the remarkable +race which created it, the travellers had heard a great deal while in +Bornu. The two States were for the time being at peace, and the Sheik +Mohammed-el-Kanemy, the virtual, and subsequently the absolute ruler +of Bornu, made no opposition to the Englishmen’s visit. Shortly after +leaving Katagum, at the small village of Murmur, Dr. Oudney, who had +been ailing for many months, died, much to Clapperton’s distress. The +sad event did not, however, deter his companion from pushing onwards, +noting as he went the extraordinary beauty and fertility of the country, +the numerous plantations of cotton, tobacco and indigo, the rows upon +rows of date-palms, the splendid cattle, the luxurious foliage, and the +industry of the inhabitants, tending their flocks and herds, toiling in +the fields, carrying fruit and butter to the markets, weaving and dyeing +their handsome cotton cloths. On January 19, 1824, Clapperton reached +Kano, the great Emporium of the Central Sudan, his first feeling being +one of disappointment, which was not diminished by the circumstance that, +although he had donned his naval uniform, no one took the slightest +heed of him, “but all intent on their own business, allowed me to pass +by without remark.” This little incident, trivial in itself, throws an +interesting sidelight upon the character of the gallant sailor, who was +imbued with a proper sense of the dignity befitting his position and +never failed to uphold it, as witness the following conversation which +took place between him and the Governor of Kano. There is, by the way, a +passage in this short dialogue which may be commended to the attention of +certain missionary enthusiasts at the present time: + + “‘How do you do, Abdullah (Clapperton’s native name)? Will you + come and see me at Hadyja on your return?’ I answered, ‘God + willing,’ with due Moslem solemnity. ‘You are a Christian, + Abdullah?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And what have you come to see?’ ‘The + country.’ ‘What do you think of it?’ ‘It is a fine country, + but very sickly.’ At this he smiled, and again asked, ‘Would + you Christians allow us to come and see your country?’ I said, + ‘Certainly.’ ‘Would you force us to become Christians?’ ‘By no + means; we never meddle with a man’s religion.’ ‘What,’ said he, + ‘and do you ever pray?’ ‘Sometimes; our religion commands us to + pray always; but we pray in secret, and not in public, except + on Sundays.’ One of his people abruptly asked what a Christian + was? ‘Why a Kaffir,’[28] rejoined the Governor. ‘Where is your + Jew servant?’ again asked the Governor; ‘you ought to let me + see him.’ ‘Excuse me, he is averse to it, and I never allow my + servants to be molested for their religious opinions.’ ‘Well, + Abdullah, thou art a man of understanding, and you must come + and see me at Hadyja.’” + +Clapperton came very satisfactorily out of that interview, but he did not +fare quite so well in a later colloquy with Sultan Bello, the ruler of +the Sokoto Empire, who asked him one day whether he was a Nestorian or a +Socinian. The puzzled Englishman, who probably had never heard of either +sect, excused himself by replying that he was a Protestant. The fact of +having such a question put to him thousands of miles in the interior of +the Dark Continent, supposed to be the abode of primitive savagery, was +sufficient evidence of the intelligence of the inhabitants, of which +he received abundant proof every fresh day he prolonged his stay in +the country. Under the able guidance of Bello, Othman’s successor and +“a noble-looking man,” as Clapperton calls him (with the aristocratic +and finely cut features peculiar to the Fulani), the statesmanlike +qualities of the ruling race and the wonderful commercial and industrial +activity of the Hausa population, reached their full development, +and law and order reigned throughout that portion of the new States +which had accepted the Fulani dominion. The country had been divided +into Provinces, to each of which Governors were appointed. Trade was +encouraged, industries protected, and manufactures promoted. Prosperity +was everywhere apparent, and, to quote the words used by Clapperton in +the course of one of his interviews with Bello: + + “The people of England could all read and write, and were + acquainted with most other regions of the earth; but of this + country alone they hitherto knew scarcely anything, and + erroneously regarded the inhabitants as naked savages, devoid + of religion, and not far removed from the condition of wild + beasts; whereas, I found them, from my personal observation, to + be civilised, humane, and pious.” + +Clapperton very much desired to continue his westward journey, and, if +possible, strike the Niger, follow it to its mouth, and thus attain the +supreme object of the mission; for the information which the traveller +had obtained in Sokoto made it a practical certainty that the Niger +discharged itself somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. But Bello objected, +alleging the disturbed condition of the westward country, which had not +yet been subjected. Much to his disappointment, therefore, the Englishman +was compelled to forego his plans. He, however, parted on the best of +terms with his enlightened host, who gave him a letter to the King of +England, and begged him to return at the earliest possible opportunity. +The letter is worth reproducing here: + + “BELLO TO KING GEORGE IV. + + “In the name of God, the merciful and the clement. May God + bless our favourite prophet Mahommed and those who follow + his sound doctrine. To the head of the Christian nation, the + honoured and the beloved among the English people, George + the Fourth, King of Great Britain. Praise be to God who + inspires, and peace be unto those who follow the right path. + Your Majesty’s servant, Rayes Abdullah, came to us, and we + found him a very intelligent and wise man; representing in + every respect your greatness, wisdom, dignity, clemency, and + penetration. When the time of his departure came he requested + us to form a friendly relation and correspond with you, and to + prohibit the exportation of slaves by our merchants to Ataghar, + Dahomi, and Ashanti. We agree with him upon this, on account + of the good which will result from it both to you and to us; + and that a vessel of yours is to come to the harbour of Racka, + with two guns and the quantities of powder, shot, &c., which + they require; as also a number of muskets. We will then send + our officer to arrange to settle everything with your consul, + and fix a certain period for the arrival of your merchant + ships, and when they come they may traffic and deal with our + merchants. Then, after their return, the consul may reside in + that harbour, viz., Racka, as protector, in company with our + agent there. May God be pleased. Dated, 1st of Rhamadan, 1239 + of Hejra. April 18, 1824.” + +Furnished with this letter, which he might well regard as a signal proof +of success, and which augured a promising development of relations in +the future, Clapperton travelled back to Kuka, where Denham joined him +in due course, after his return from the Chad. The homeward journey was +accomplished without mishap, and on January 25, 1825, the survivors of +the mission reached Tripoli, after four adventurous years, replete with +interest to their country and to the world. + +As already stated, Clapperton, when he parted company with Sultan Bello, +did so with the full intention of returning at the earliest opportunity. +Bello had shown himself most eager to establish durable relations with +Great Britain, and had suggested that a British vessel should go to +“Racka,” there to deliver the warlike stores which were to cement the +understanding between his Christian Majesty King George IV. and the +Fulani Ruler. Clapperton found the British Government eager to profit +by the opportunity of concluding an alliance with so influential a +potentate, and lost no time in giving Clapperton (who was raised to the +rank of commander) authority to organise another expedition. Clapperton +himself was all enthusiasm. On the 27th August 1825 he left England in +H.M.S. _Brazen_, in company with his trusted servant, Richard Lander, +and attended by three companions, Mr. Dickson, Captain Pearce, and Dr. +Morrison. Dickson, for some unexplained reason, landed at Whydah with +the intention of reaching Sokoto alone, and was never heard of again. +Disappointed at not meeting any of Bello’s messengers at Lagos, which +it appears had been arranged, Clapperton started his inland march from +Badagry, after trying the Benin route and being dissuaded from adopting +it by an English merchant established in that river. Shortly afterwards +both Captain Pearce and Dr. Morrison contracted fever and died. +Clapperton and Lander pushed safely onwards through Yoruba and Borgu, and +arrived without further calamity at Bussa. The river was crossed below +the rapids, and the expedition duly reached Kano by way of Zeg-Zeg. At +Bussa, Clapperton gathered valuable information with regard to Park’s +untimely end, fully confirming the previous information which had reached +England. + +Everything seemed to promise well for the ultimate success of the +mission. Unfortunately, however, there were a number of causes at work +destined to wreck the sanguine hopes of its leader. As Clapperton neared +his destination, a doubt of the reception awaiting him at Sokoto appears +to have weighed heavily upon his mind. In the first place, Bello’s +messengers had not put in appearance at Lagos; then the seaport of +“Racka,” mentioned in Bello’s map, did not exist as such, which latter +circumstance caused Clapperton to entertain serious misgivings as to +his former host’s good faith. The absence of the messengers can easily +be explained in view of the disturbed state of the country between +Yoruba and the Niger, for the Fulani were then extending their conquests +southwards, and the entire region was in a state of effervescence; but +the misunderstanding about “Racka” is certainly strange. It is difficult +to believe that Bello purposely intended to mislead. Bello had spoken +of the “harbour” of Racka, but as is pointed out in the introduction to +Clapperton’s journal, the Arabic word Bahr, used in the manuscript, does +not necessarily signify sea, but any collection of water, whether lake +or river.[29] On Bello’s map the Niger is designated as the “sea.” It +is probable, therefore, that Bello was perfectly honest in describing +“Racka” as a “harbour,” and that the _bahr_ of the manuscript should +more correctly have been translated by “river” instead of “sea.” Racka, +however, turned out to be an inland town, and the fact strengthened +Clapperton’s suspicions. How the confusion arose it is impossible, on the +documentary evidence available, to determine, but it seems obvious that +Racka must have been meant for Rabba, an important town on the banks of +the Niger, some distance below Bussa, and at one time the capital of the +kingdom of Nupe. + +To this error of interpretation and geography was really due Clapperton’s +subsequent misfortunes, because, had the suspicion that Bello was +playing him false been absent from his mind, the intrepid Englishman +would hardly have adopted the unwise attitude which he subsequently did +in his negotiations with the Fulani monarch. That attitude proved his +undoing, and the direct cause of his death. His mental condition did not +enable him to grasp the fact that the entire state of affairs had changed +since his first visit. Sokoto was then at peace with Bornu. But in the +interval war had broken out again. Now, in addition to the presents that +Clapperton had brought to Bello, his baggage also contained a number of +presents, including war-stores, for the Sheik-el-Kanemy, ruler of Bornu, +who had become Bello’s deadly enemy. It was manifestly impossible for +Bello to allow these presents to pass through the country at such a time, +and he wrote to Clapperton to that effect. To this Clapperton rejoined +that he had been instructed by his Government to go to Bornu, that he +had a letter from Earl Bathurst to the Sheik-el-Kanemy, and that he was +in duty bound to carry out his mandate. This insistence aroused Bello’s +mistrust, which seems to have been intensified by reports, doubtless +spread through the instrumentality of Arab merchants dreading commercial +competition, that Clapperton was a spy sent on behalf of the English +Government to obtain information with the idea of facilitating a future +invasion of the country by the British. Clapperton repeatedly, and with +growing exasperation, pressed his wishes upon the Sultan, and Bello, with +increasing distrust, as repeatedly declined to entertain them. The strain +and the mortification were too great, even for Clapperton’s splendid +constitution, and when Bello, yielding to his own suspicions, and to +the advice of his counsellors, demanded the production of the presents +intended for the Sheik, Clapperton fell seriously ill. After hovering +between life and death for many days, he finally expired in the arms of +his devoted servant, Lander. + +Thus terminated a career of unbounding usefulness. To England and to +science Clapperton rendered great services, and had his intellectual +capacity equalled his courage and determination, those services would +have been even greater than they were. Of him we may truly say that he +was a fine type of the English gentleman of the old school, without +much erudition, but simple, God-fearing, honest, manly, a credit to his +country and to his race. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM. + + “The province of Kano is the garden of Central Africa.”—Dr. + BARTH. + + +It has been said of the Hausas that they are “superior both +intellectually and physically to all the natives of Equatorial Africa.” +The statement strikes one as being exaggerated. The intellectual average +of the Hausa is undoubtedly lower than that of the Fulani, who, thanks to +their genius for combination, administrative capacity, religious fervour, +fighting superiority, and moral influence, completely defeated and +subdued their former masters, although the numerical odds were greatly in +favour of the latter. Again, the physique of the Hausas, though usually +good, is certainly inferior to that of several of the Senegalese races, +the Krus, the Kaffir stock, and probably also to one or two of the Bantu +offshoots now inhabiting the basin of the Upper Congo. Much has been made +of the fact that 500 Hausas trained by British officers beat off several +thousand Fulani at Bida. But what chance have Fulani horsemen against +Maxim guns and repeating-rifles? The Baggara Arab, universally reputed +the bravest of the brave, fared no better against Macdonald’s trained +Sudanese. + +These remarks are by no means put forward to depreciate the Hausa race, +which is undoubtedly a very fine one, but by way of protest against the +somewhat hysterical estimates concerning this people which find favour +among those who profess to look upon them as excellent material for +proselytising purposes, and are ever representing them to us as cruelly +oppressed, groaning under the tyrannical sway of the wicked Fulani. The +fact is, that a great deal of sentimental nonsense has been said and +written, principally by the missionary element, about the Hausas, who +are generally content with their lot, and having accepted Islam do not +suffer from the predatory incursions of the conquering race. Fulani and +Hausas grow up side by side: unions are frequent among them, and the +well-to-do Hausa enjoys a somewhat similar position in relation to the +ruling class as represented by the Fulani, as did the merchant classes in +the old days in our own country in relation to the nobility and governing +classes. + +It seems fairly well established that at least a portion of the Hausa[30] +race inhabited the beautiful and mountainous region of Air or Asben, at +the time (about 700 A.D.) when the Berbers—the modern Tuareg—driven south +by Arab invaders, crossed the desert into Air and made themselves masters +of that region.[31] These Asben Hausas belonged to the family or clan of +Gober. They were the Goberawa, who claim to be the oldest and noblest +branch of the Hausa race. This claim is very generally admitted by Arabic +historians, and is expressly mentioned in the curious Fulani history +of the Sudan communicated to Clapperton by Sultan Bello, son of Othman +Fodio, in 1828.[32] Bello says of the people of Gober that they are “free +born, because their origin was from the Copts of Egypt who had emigrated +into the interior of the Gharb or Western countries.” This statement +is particularly interesting as regards the possible Semitic or Eastern +origin of the Gober family of the Hausas. Dr. Barth, whose authority in +all matters relating to the ethnology of Western Central Africa still +remains uncontested, although fifty years have now elapsed since his +wonderful series of travels was accomplished, attributed to the Goberawa +an original relationship with North Africa. The theory is borne out by +the traditions of the Hausas themselves, who trace back their descent +to a Diggera mother, the Diggera or Deggara being a Berber tribe which, +at some remote period, was predominant in the city of Daura, one of the +oldest centres of Hausa influence. To this day some of the Hausa Mallams +speak vaguely of a former relationship with the East, and Canon Robinson +during his stay in Kano was informed by “the most learned man in that +city” that the Hausas migrated in early times from the Far East, beyond +Mecca.[33] It is much to be deplored in this connection that the national +records of the Hausas should have been destroyed by the Fulani at the +taking of Katsena. Nevertheless, we may reasonably hope, now that the +relations of Northern Nigeria with the outside world are bound to become +more frequent, some further light may be shortly forthcoming which will +help to elucidate a problem fraught with great attraction to all students +of West Africa. + +After their expulsion from Air by the inflowing tide of Berber +immigration, the Hausas gradually spread west and south, and in course +of time formed themselves into seven states, viz. Gober, Daura, Biram, +Kano, Rano, Katsena and Zeg-Zeg.[34] In Hausa mythology each of these +States represented one of the seven legitimate children, offspring of +the Diggera mother already alluded to, to each of whom was respectively +given a task to perform. Thus Gober was the warrior _serki-n-yaki_ +(_serki_, Prince: _n_, of: _yaki_, fighting); Kano and Rano the dyers +_saraki-n-baba_ (from the abundance of indigo _marinas_ or dyeing +pits which represent one of the most considerable national industries +of the Hausas); Katsena and Daura the traders _saraki-n-Kaswa_, and +Zeg-Zeg the purveyor of slaves _serki-n-bay_ which, by the way, affords +incidental proof, if any were needed, that in the matter of slavery the +Hausas can hardly claim superior moral characteristics over their Fulani +conquerors. Disputes between these various States were frequent, and +although peopled by the same race, they were constantly in open warfare +against one another. So great, indeed, was their mutual antagonism, that +when the Fulani uprising took place in Gober, a considerable number of +Hausas, principally from the province of Zanfara, rallied round Othman’s +standard, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Fulani against their own +compatriots. + +[Illustration: A PURE-BRED KANO MAN (HAUSA)] + +Prior to their more or less forced conversion by the Fulani early in +the nineteenth century, the Hausas were Pagans. True, the Hausa King +of Katsena embraced Islam about the seventeenth century, Katsena at +that period being the most flourishing city of Hausa—the “Florence of +the Hausas,” as Richardson[35] calls it—in regular communication with +Arabs from the East, and where the Hausa language attained its greatest +richness and purity of form. But the great mass of the Hausa people were +unaffected by the event. The precise nature of their rites before the +conquest remains obscure. It appears possible however that, at one time, +the Hausas, Songhays, and other tribes of the Niger Basin were snake +worshippers. The Arabic historians Ahmed-Baba, Edrizi and El-Bekri state +that in the time of the first Songhay king—placed at 679 A.D. by Dr. +Barth, at 776 A.D. by others—the natives rendered homage to serpents. +Colonel Frey,[36] in his interesting and ingenious study, suggests that +this worship may have extended to the _manatus_ or _manatee_, that +curious and somewhat uncanny creature being an inhabitant of the Niger +River. + +Be that as it may, with the dawn of the nineteenth century a higher +ideal and a purer faith rose up in Hausaland, and gained ground with +marvellous rapidity. No doubt the result was not obtained without +bloodshed, without cruelty, without what Joseph Thompson called “the +terrible clamour and dread accompaniments of war.” Nevertheless, it was +accomplished, and none but the wholly fanatical will deny that the Hausas +have greatly benefited thereby. To an unbiased mind it must appeal as +little short of marvellous that, in a period comparatively so short, +a whole race should not only have been converted to Islam, but have +remained devoted to its precepts when a lapse into Paganism would have +been easy and, in a sense, natural. Apart from the added dignity which +the acceptance of Islam imparts to individuals in their intercourse with +their fellows in a pagan country, the explanation is probably to be found +in the fact that, after the Fulani had unquestionably established their +political domination over the Hausas, they none the less persistently +continued their religious propaganda by peaceful means, and that, +although a sense of security seems to have temporarily dulled their +political instincts, it has had, on the contrary, a vivifying effect upon +their religious ideals. It is, in any case, notorious that Islam, through +the medium of Fulani preachers, is steadily sweeping down the River +Niger, penetrating into pagan villages, amid the swamps and forests. The +pagan Igarras whom the Niger Company long thought would constitute a +solid bulwark and a sort of buffer-state against the invading tide, are +now being fast won over to Islam, and Fulani _fikis_ are even met with +behind Akassa, a few miles from the seaboard itself. + +It is no easy matter to correctly estimate the Hausa population in +Nigeria, but of true Hausas there must probably be five or six millions, +besides the numerous half-breeds of mixed Hausa and Fulani, Hausa and +Kanuri, Hausa and Songhay, or Hausa and Tuareg blood, the latter of whom +are chiefly to be met with in the northerly districts of the Sokoto +Empire, and are of less muscular build than the true Hausas. The Hausas +are incontestably the traders of Africa. Their commercial aptitude is +renowned from the borders of the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea; +from the Gulf of Guinea to the Shari; from the Shari to the Red Sea. +They are great travellers and have even been met with on the Sangha, +the Ubanghi, and the Congo. Every North African port has its colony of +Hausas. The same may be said of the West African Coast ports. There is +not an important trading centre in the Niger bend but shelters a family +or two of Hausas. Every year numerous Hausa caravans leave Nigeria for +the countries lying at the back of the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast, +and Liberia, to gather the far-famed Kola or _guro_ nut, the fruit of +_Sterculia acuminata_, which they convey with infinite care—delicately +wrapped in leaves—and sell at an enormous profit in Kano, Gando, Zaria, +&c., from whence the nuts are again transported to Bornu, Wadai, and even +as far as Khartoum. + +[Illustration: A HAUSA FROM YOLA] + +If the trading instincts of the Hausas are remarkably developed, their +industrial enterprise is still more so. It may with safety be declared +that the product of their looms and dye-pits constitutes the most +extensive article in the internal commerce of the Dark Continent. Kano +is the head and centre of this intrinsically native industry, which +is unparalleled in Africa, and Kano is, and in all human probability +will continue to be, Manchester’s great rival for the African interior +markets. Kano has been termed the Manchester and Birmingham of the +Sudan, and having due regard to local circumstances and conditions, the +comparison is strictly just. + +The number of Europeans who have visited Kano may still be counted upon +the fingers of both hands. Arab merchants from North and East Africa +have, however, been regular frequenters of the city since the conquest +of Hausa by Othman Fodio, and for some considerable time past Kano +has sheltered an Arab Colony with a recognised “Consul” who enjoys +considerable influence. Its resident population has been variously +estimated at thirty thousand to sixty thousand and its floating +population at sixty thousand to two millions,[37] including the most +varied elements, Hausas, Fulani, Kanuri, Baghirmis, Wadaiens, Arabs, +Tuaregs, and Jews; merchants from Egypt, Tunis, Tripoli and Fezzan, +from the Niger Bend, Adamawa and the Eastern Sudan. The city itself is +of enormous extent, containing within its encompassing wall, which is +reputed to be no less than fifteen miles in circumference, large tracts +of land under cultivation. This immense wall played an important part +in the periodic wars with Bornu at the beginning and middle of the past +century. If the citizens of Kano did not think themselves sufficiently +strong to meet their aggressors in the open, they simply shut the +gates of the city and lined the walls, and the Bornuese hosts, deeming +discretion the better part of valour, never attempted an assault. The +situation of Kano is fairly elevated and otherwise good, but is unhealthy +owing to the presence of large pools of stagnant water into which refuse +of all kinds is indiscriminately pitched. The city is divided into +different quarters, the Fulani quarter, Arab quarter, Hausa quarter, and +so forth. The market is held daily and the most bewildering diversity of +articles are always on sale: native cloths, silk embroidered _tobes_, +leather and brass ware, ivory, weapons, rough agricultural implements, +silver and brass ornaments and trinkets, antimony, ostrich feathers, +live stock—cattle, horses and sheep—and foodstuffs innumerable. Long +files of asses pass through from the distant Chad laden with natron for +Nupe, and arrive from the Niger Bend weighed down with kolas. Camels +are permanently in evidence, whether carrying on their sturdy backs +salt-cakes from Bilma or European merchandise from Tripoli. Brilliantly +attired Ghadamseen and Arab traders caracole on gaily caparisoned steeds, +and the fierce-eyed, black-lithamed Tuareg of the desert (many of whom, +by the way, are extensive property owners in Northern Nigeria) scowls +darkly from the back of his swift-footed _mehari_. In this great city +throbs and vibrates an industrial vitality unequalled in Africa.[38] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM—(_cont._) + + “Travellers who have been in the country tell us that Kano, + which is the Manchester of Nigeria, has an attendance annually + at its market of over one million persons.”—_Extract from a + speech by_ Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. + + +The reputation of Kano as a manufacturing city is of comparatively +recent growth, and although the Hausas have manufactured cotton for a +considerable time (how long is uncertain, but we do know that their +leather-ware[39] was widely sought after as far back as the beginning +of the sixteenth century), the importance of Kano as a trading and +manufacturing emporium only dates from the Fulani conquest and the +destruction of Katsena by Bello. The Hausa cottons of Kano are in demand +throughout the whole of the Islamic world of North, West, and central +Africa. Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil, one of the few Europeans who have +visited Kano, gives it as his opinion that the inhabitants of two-thirds +of the Sudan, and nearly all the inhabitants of the Central and Eastern +Sahara, clothe themselves in Kano cottons; while Dr. Barth estimated the +annual export of cotton from Kano to Timbuctoo alone to amount in value +to some £5000. The principal cotton articles manufactured by the Hausas +at Kano are the _Tobe_ or shirt for men; the _Turkedi_ or women’s dress; +the _Zenne_ or plaid; and the black veil or litham invariably worn by +the Tuareg and very often by the Fulani, Kanuri, and Arab. The _tobes_ +are dyed various colours, while the _turkedi_ are always of that deep, +dark blue obtained by repeated washings in indigo-pits for which the +province of Kano is famous. Of the plaids a large selection is produced, +varying in colour and in texture, some being composed of a mixture of +silk and cotton, others of cotton only, others again of pure silk. Dr. +Barth, speaking of this cotton industry of Kano, and remarking that the +Province which produces it is also able to supply the corn necessary for +the sustenance of its population, and possesses besides splendid pasture +land, says: “In fact, if we consider that this industry is not carried +on here as in Europe, in immense establishments, degrading man to the +meanest conditions of life, but that it gives employment and support to +families without compelling them to sacrifice their domestic habits, +we must presume that Kano ought to be one of the happiest countries in +the world; and so it is, so long as its Governor, too often lazy and +indolent, is able to defend its inhabitants from the cupidity of their +neighbours, which, of course, is constantly stimulated by the very wealth +of their country.” What the lazy Fulani Governor of Barth’s days could +not do, British power can, and indeed has; and having done so, is also +able to ensure that by judicious management the national, social life of +this interesting country shall continue in that state of happiness which +struck the great German traveller. + +In addition to its cloths, Kano produces excellent leather work, +principally sandals, sword-scabbards, riding-boots, shoes, despatch-bags, +water-bottles and saddles, and annually exports large quantities of +tanned hides. The people of Kano also produce iron weapons, rough +agricultural implements and sword-hilts for German blades, which are, or +used to be, imported from the north. The following estimate of the total +trade of Kano, carefully compiled from Dr. Barth’s calculations, will +give some idea of its extent and value at the time (1851) of the German +explorer’s stay in the city. The sterling is arrived at by reckoning one +million _kurdi_ or cowries—the chief currency in Kano—at £100. + + EXPORTS. + + Cloths £30,000 + Slaves 20,000 + Sandals 1,000 + Miscellaneous leather-work 500 + ------- + Total £51,500 + ======= + + IMPORTS. + + Kola nuts (from West Coast hinterlands) £10,000 + Ivory (from Adamawa) 10,000 + Salt (from the interior) 8,000 + Coarse silk (_viâ_ Tripoli) 7,000 + Arab dresses (from Tunis and Tripoli) 5,000 + Beads (Italy, _viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000 + Sword-blades (from Germany, _viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000 + Manchester goods (_viâ_ Tripoli) 4,000 + Muslins (England, _viâ_ Tripoli) 4,000 + Rose oil (_viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000 + Copper (from Wadai and Bahr-el-Ghazal) 2,000 + Woollen cloths (_viâ_ Tripoli) 1,500 + Spices and cloves (_viâ_ Tripoli) 1,500 + Sugar (from France, _viâ_ Tripoli) 1,200 + Tin 1,000 + Egyptian dresses 1,000 + Needles (from Germany, _viâ_ Tripoli) 800 + Common paper, ditto 500 + Razors (from Syria) 300 + ------- + Total £71,800 + ======= + +To which might be added a transit trade in natron, passing through Kano +from Bornu on its way to Nupe, yielding about £1000 “passage-money.” The +remarkable total of £123,300 is thus arrived at. + +Of late years the trade of Kano, both in respect to imports and exports, +has undergone some change, and is bound to become still more modified +as time goes on. For instance, the buying and selling of slaves is a +thing of the past, or soon will be. The imports of ivory from Adamawa +are nothing like what they were in Barth’s time. The internal salt +trade has largely been extinguished, the native article being unable to +compete with European salt. But with this exception—salt—the increased +importation of European goods into the Niger and Binue since 1880, that +is to say, since the spread of British commercial enterprise in the +Upper River and its tributary, does not appear to have affected the +caravan trade of Kano with the Tripolitan ports, _viâ_ the oases of +Bilma, Fezzan, and Murzuk. In 1897, for instance, the British Consul for +Tripoli estimated the goods sent to Sokoto (for Sokoto read the State +of Sokoto, of which the city of Kano is the commercial and industrial +centre and the terminus of the Tripoli caravans, the trade of the city +of Sokoto being insignificant) by caravan across the desert at £46,000. +These figures compared with Barth’s tables of Tripoli imported goods are +actually more considerable than the total value as estimated by Barth +half a century ago. This is a very important fact, and by bearing it well +in mind we shall avoid falling into an error which might have unfortunate +consequences. Then, again, a comparison of the articles imported in 1851 +and 1897 is instructive as affording proof of the conservatism of the +African and the old-established nature of this trade. + + DR. BARTH’S ENUMERATION, 1851. + + Coarse silk, Arab dresses, sword-blades, Manchester goods, + muslins, rose oil, woollen cloths, sugar, spices and cloves, + needles, paper. + + FOREIGN OFFICE REPORT, 1897. + + Cotton and woollen cloths, silk waste, silk yarn, box rings, + beads, amber, paper, sugar, drugs, tea. + +We may go even farther back than this. According to the exceedingly +interesting and minute accounts of “Shereef Imhammed” and “Ben Ali, a +Moorish trader,” given in the first published proceedings of the African +Association in 1791, the trade between Tripoli and the Kingdom of +“Cashna,” _i.e._ Katsena (Katsena being then in its prime), consisted of +the following articles: + + IMPORTS TO KATSENA FROM TRIPOLI. + + Red woollen caps, check linens, light coarse woollen cloths, + baiza, cowries, barakans or alhaiks, small Turkey carpets, silk + (wrought and unwrought), tissues and brocades, sabre-blades, + Dutch knives, scissors, coral beads, small looking-glasses. + + EXPORTS FROM KATSENA TO TRIPOLI. + + Cotton cloths, slaves, goatskins “of the red and yellow dyes,” + ox and buffalo hides, gold dust, civet. + +The “slaves” item is another proof that the Hausa Kings of those days +were extensive slave dealers. It is curious to notice that in the map +attached to this old work, a reproduction of which faces page 38, Kano +does not even appear, which shows that at that period it had little or no +importance as an industrial centre. + +[Illustration: HAUSA LOOM AND SPOOL] + +The articles imported in 1897 were, therefore, substantially the same as +in 1851 and even in 1791. Then as now, English cotton and woollen goods +figured prominently amongst them, and it is evident that up to 1897 large +profits were to be earned by Europeans (indirectly) and Arabs (directly) +in the caravan business between North Africa and Nigeria. Seven years +after the opening in regular form of the Western fluvial route, Northern +Nigeria is seen to have been importing from Tripoli more goods than in +1851. + +It is not due then to commercial development from the south, but to +another reason, that the caravan traffic with Tripoli has fallen off +since 1897. That reason is to be found in the internal political +convulsions of which the Chad basin has been the scene for the last +eight years, and to the external political confusion brought about by +the action of European Powers, or rather of one European Power—France. +When Rabah conquered Bornu in 1893-94, the Ghadamseen merchants suffered +heavy losses through the sacking of Kuka, and trade was entirely stopped +for a time. Rabah saw his mistake, and endeavoured to remedy it by +liberal promises of future support and protection. He kept his word, +and trade revived. Then came the advance of the French down the Shari, +followed by a renewed period of anarchy in Bornu, as Rabah hurriedly +flung himself across the river into Baghirmi to arrest the march of the +invaders. Under Fad-el-Allah, Bornu became a cockpit of internecine +strife. With the consolidation of French influence in a portion of the +Chad region the merchants of the north took heart of grace once more, but +the recent pillage of sundry rich caravans by the Kanem Arabs, various +confederations of Tuareg and other adherents of the Sheik-Senussi, has +demonstrated that at present the French are unable to ensure the safety +of caravans, however desirous they may be to do so. These repeated +blows have played havoc with the Nigerian-Tripoli caravan trade, and +those merchants who are still bold enough to face the risks favour the +Wadai route. In 1900 the caravan trade with Wadai was still important, +amounting in the aggregate, according to the French Consul at Tripoli, to +£210,000, imports and exports included. But it is quite certain that 1901 +and 1902 will show a notable decrease of those figures.[40] + +Are we to conclude, therefore, that Kano’s internal trade with the +north and east has gone never to return, and that the caravan traffic +is a thing of the past? That is the view which appears to be generally +adopted.[41] I confess that I do not share it, and it would certainly +be an immense misfortune for Kano and Northern Nigeria generally if such +were, indeed, the case. The main sources of Kano’s wealth and prosperity +do not depend upon the influx of trade from the south, but upon the +industry of its inhabitants in catering for the requirements not of +Europe but of Africa. It is a great _dépôt_ of Negroland for Negroland, +and if Kano could no longer find purchasers for her cotton and her +leather work, her prosperity must needs decrease and her wealth decline. +Now it is obviously in our interest that this should not happen. It +should be the object of our policy to maintain, strengthen and assist the +commercial and industrial position of Kano, the centre of Hausa activity, +the magnet which attracts a flow of internal commerce from all points of +the compass. How can that best be done? + +In the first place, it is necessary to understand the main caravan system +of North-West Central Africa. The accompanying map (facing p. 84) shows +the principal routes, and a broad survey of the subject induces the +belief that it is the interest of both England and France to encourage +the revival of the caravan traffic between Kano (or, in other words, +Nigeria) and Kano’s interior markets, or, at any rate, to do nothing to +still further curtail it. The wider the stream of internal trade both +in and out of Nigeria the greater the prosperity of the country, and it +would be as equally pedantic for us to object if the French, who are in +more or less theoretical possession of the majority of Kano’s markets, +succeed in eventually diverting _in toto_ the caravan traffic from the +Tripoli route towards Timbuctoo and In Salah, as it would be for the +French to interfere with a possible re-opening of the long-abandoned +eastern route (not marked in the map) towards the Nile. But there should +be an understanding between the two Powers on the subject of this +internal trade, which is centuries old, and which certainly cannot be +displaced in a day; in fact, never can entirely be displaced, except by +oppressive and selfish interference, either on the part of the French or +ourselves. Any action tending to compel a diversion of trade in such +or such a direction would prove in the long run to be anything but +advantageous to the Power which attempted it. For instance, if France +were to start putting prohibitive taxes on exports and imports to and +from Kano over the frontier in order to forcibly confine the circulation +of trade to certain channels, it would lead to serious trouble with the +natives, which would cost more to cope with than any prospective profit +to be derived from such action. Similarly, if the authorities of Northern +Nigeria were to actively discourage Kano’s trade with the territories +under French protection, in order to develop Kano’s trade with the south, +it would only lead to a decrease in the productive capacity of Kano, and +consequently lessen the prosperity of Northern Nigeria as a whole. + +Economic changes are bound to occur, especially when the British and +French railway systems proposing to tap the Niger valley are more +advanced, but there is plenty of scope for both to earn an honourable +livelihood, and the central fact to be borne in mind is that Kano’s +trade is, and must be, as previously stated, more of an internal than an +external one. Before Kano can purchase such cottons, woollens and other +articles as it absorbs, from the south, that is to say, from European +merchants, it must be in a position to give, in return, articles of +African produce that will pay the European merchant to buy. To suppose +that Kano will be able to do so until the iron horse has penetrated well +over the Kano side of the Niger, or until a carriage-road the model of +the one the French are building from Conakry to Futa-Jallon connects +a navigable point on the Niger with Kano, is to cherish an illusion. +Transport charges would kill any chance of profit in a transaction which +differs in every particular from the nature of Kano’s internal trade. The +one would be a direct transaction, to stand or fall on its merits; the +other can best be described as a multiplicity of transactions with the +purchasing commodity represented by native cloth, a useless article so +far as export to Europe is concerned. In fact, it is no easy matter to +determine how Kano will be able to feed a railway from the coast without +the creation of some great industry suitable for European export, +corresponding with the oil-palm industry of the coastwise regions. One +thing at least is certain, that if through extravagance in construction +and working, or other causes, the section of an eventual railway from the +coast to Kano, which passes through the oil-palm bearing regions cannot +be made to pay, the economical outlook for the railway when it leaves the +oil-palm zone is anything but cheerful. Of course, where the main purpose +is strategic, considerations other than commercial come into play, and +the matter assumes a different aspect. + +To resume, it would seem really desirable that a mutual arrangement +between England and France should be arrived at as regards freedom +of circulation for the internal traffic of the Chad region. I urged +that course in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ when the negotiations for the +Convention of 1898 were pending. Recent events suggest that the proposal +might still be adopted with advantage to both parties concerned, and as +a measure both just and wise in the relation it bears to the legitimate +interests of the natives. + +It remains to be said in this connection that the principal articles +imported into the Upper Niger by the Niger Company, which up to the +present has enjoyed the monopoly of the Upper Niger trade, are salt, +brass, copper and iron rods, white damask cloths, white brocaded cloths, +indigo-dyed cloths (in imitation of, but inferior to, the cloth produced +from native looms and dyed in Kano), cowries, rice, yarn and gunpowder. +The salt which is imported chiefly from England has a large sale, being +greatly superior to native manufactured salt from Bilma and the shores +of Lake Chad. The copper, brass and iron rods are chiefly used for +conversion into arrow-heads. As for the cloths, they do not equal the +products of the Kano looms, and unless of the finest white damask, are +rejected by the Mohammedans. They find, however, a ready sale among +the Pagans. These cloths are, as a rule, exchanged against ivory, gum, +bees-wax or rubber, bought by Hausa traders, who in turn take them to +Kano and there exchange them for native-made cloth. + +I have entered rather fully into the trading and industrial statistics +of Kano because, apart from the interest naturally attaching to the +commercial life of one of the most flourishing cities of Africa, the +centre of a great industrial and agricultural district, a knowledge +of these particulars enables one, I think, the better to realise what +are the distinctive characteristics of the Hausa race—Kano being +pre-eminently Hausa. The Hausa is primarily and essentially the business +man of Africa. He is not and never will become a governing personality. +His aims are commercial, and he neither seeks nor desires any other +state. Of political ambition he has none, and although strongly attached +to the Mohammedan faith, and good-humouredly contemptuous of his pagan +customers, he is quite content that they should remain pagans to the +end of the chapter, willingly resigning the attractions of proselytism +into the hands of the Fulani. Withal he is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky +sort of person, generally kind to his slaves, and content to gang his +own gait in his own way. That is the natural state of the Hausa. If we +take him away from his business habits and fashion him into a soldier, +we perforce place him in the midst of artificial conditions of life, +where his individuality become lost. He is then merely interesting in the +sense that our other African levies are interesting, that is, from an +exclusively military point of view. + +The Hausa can be drilled into a good soldier, and under decent treatment +will show much patient endurance and bravery. Like all Negroes, if +adequate supervision be lacking, he will take advantage of the prestige +attaching to his uniform to tyrannise over the aborigines among whom he +is quartered. + +In his military capacity the Hausa has rendered good service in the Benin +and Ashanti campaigns; in the course of innumerable skirmishes on the +lower Niger, throughout the operations so admirably carried out by Sir +George Goldie against Nupe and Ilorin, and so on. It should, however, be +remembered that on those occasions where the Hausa soldier has fought +under the British flag, he has gone into battle with the consciousness +of possessing weapons which gave him an incontestable superiority over +his antagonist. He has never been called upon to face a native force +officered by Europeans, and armed with quick-firing rifles similar to +his own. His capacity to rise to the occasion if necessity demanded it +need not be queried. That is a matter upon which military men personally +acquainted with the Hausa’s qualities and defects as a fighting unit are +alone competent to give an opinion.[42] But until the Hausa has been put +to the test, it may be well not to found too high an estimate of his +military abilities, bearing in mind that, unlike the French West African +recruits, he does not come of a fighting stock. + +[Illustration: HAUSAS DRILLING] + +As already stated, it is in his natural sphere of commerce and industry +that the Hausa shines. In that respect he stands without a rival on +the continent in which he lives. His manufacturing skill is not only +remarkable for Africa: it puts Europe to the blush. For closeness, +durability and firmness of texture, the products of his looms and +dye-pits eclipse anything that Manchester can produce. In a land of +reputed indolence, his activity is as conspicuous as his enterprise. He +makes an ideal commercial traveller, peddling his wares over enormous +distances, and seldom failing to secure a considerable profit on his +transactions. + +The Hausa has so identified himself with the commercial requirements +of a vast region that his language has, throughout it, been adopted as +the necessary vehicle of inter-communication for all that appertains to +trade and commerce. The Hausa language is _per se_ specially well fitted +for extensive propagation among African races. Reclus[43] has said of +it that by its fine sonorousness, the richness of its vocabulary, the +simplicity of its grammatical structure, and the graceful equilibrium of +its phrases, Hausa deserves to rank among the foremost languages of the +Dark Continent; and Sir Harry Johnston includes it with English, French, +Italian, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili among the great languages of New +Africa.[44] + +The first vocabulary of Hausa was compiled by Mr. James Richardson, who, +in company with Dr. Barth and Dr. Overweg, crossed the desert to Lake +Chad in 1850-51.[45] Upon his return from Africa, Dr. Barth himself +published a work upon the Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri[46] languages. +Messrs. Schön[47] and Krause subsequently devoted much study to the +subject, and the former issued a remarkable book on the Hausa language +in 1876, of which there appeared a revised edition in 1885. Later on, +Mr. John A. Robinson, M.A., a scholar of Christ College, Cambridge, made +further researches into Hausa during his stay at Lokoja. After his death +the Hausa Association was formed (1891) with the object of continuing +his labours, and in 1894 the Reverend Charles Henry Robinson, M.A.—now +Canon Robinson of Ripon—was despatched by the Association to Kano. +Canon Robinson and his companions Dr. Tonkin and Mr. Bonner spent three +months in Kano, and in due course the former published an account of his +experiences[48] which excited much attention, coming as it did so soon +after Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil’s remarkable journey from St. Louis +to Tripoli through Kano had revived the world’s interest in the famous +Hausa city. Since then the Hausa Association has published four works +on the Hausa[49] language. In 1897 the Cambridge University appointed a +University Lecturer in Hausa, and the authorities of Christ’s College +established a Hausa scholarship open to graduates of the University or +others who have passed an examination in at least one Semitic language. +The initiative thus displayed by the Hausa Association[50] and by Canon +Robinson is worthy of all praise, and it is greatly to be hoped that +further efforts may be forthcoming which will extend so useful a field of +inquiry to the other great languages of Northern Nigeria, Fulfulde and +Kanuri. + +The Hausa language appears to belong to the Hamitic group, although +it contains numerous Semitic idioms, and also a large number of words +borrowed from the Arabic. + +Some controversy exists as to whether Hausa can be properly considered a +written language or not. Canon Robinson stoutly maintains that it is, and +even goes so far as to assert that there is no race north of the Equator, +nor indeed in all Africa outside Egypt and Abyssinia, which has reduced +its language to writing, or made any attempt at the production of a +literature.[51] That is, as Americans say, a tall order, and I beg leave +to doubt the accuracy of the statement. Sufficient interest attaches to +the point to merit a cursory examination. + +In the introductory remarks to his “Magana Hausa” already referred to, +Mr. Schön speaks of himself as the writer of a “previously unwritten +language”—meaning, of course, Hausa. Commenting upon that passage in +the preface to the “Hausa-English Dictionary,” Canon Robinson infers +that, when Schön wrote the words quoted above, he was probably unaware +that the Hausa possessed any kind of literature at all. That seems to +me a gratuitous assumption, for Barth, who came before Schön, and whose +works Schön would naturally have consulted, more than once declares +categorically that the Hausa language is _not_ a written language. +Yet Barth knew perfectly well that the Hausa had possessed historical +manuscripts, since he lamented their destruction by the Fulani at the +capture of Katsena, which was then, as Kano is to-day, the seat of +culture of the Hausa race. It may therefore be asserted with every +probability of exactness that Schön spoke _en pleine connaissance +de cause_ when he referred to himself as the writer of a previously +unwritten language. Now, can the existence of a certain number of +manuscripts in the Hausa language, and written in Arabic characters, be +considered sufficient proof that Hausa itself is a written language? +If so, then Fulfulde is a written language, because Bello committed +to writing in the language of his race, and in Arabic characters, +a history of the Sudan; and Kanuri is a written language, because +Koelle[52] published in 1854 a Kanuri grammar founded upon a collection +of manuscript literature in the tongue of the Kanuri and in Arabic +characters. In that case it follows that, contrary to what Canon Robinson +affirms, the Hausas are not the only African people north of the Equator, +outside Egypt and Abyssinia, who have reduced their language to writing +or aimed at producing a literature. If the first claim is tenable, if, +that is to say, Hausa is a written language, then the second claim put +forward is not tenable. I do not propose to continue this appreciation +into more technical channels, which would probably be wearisome to the +reader, and will content myself with quoting from a letter received by +me some little time ago from a British Officer then in charge of the +Military Intelligence Department of Northern Nigeria, whose knowledge +of Hausa has been officially declared to be “unique.” Being unable to +reconcile Canon Robinson’s statements that it was a written language, +with the facts as they presented themselves to me, I finally turned to my +correspondent, whose competency I was well aware no one would venture to +dispute. This is what he says: + + “Robinson’s Hausa Grammar was universally pronounced a failure + by all officers of the West African Frontier Force, and they + could make no progress by using it. I have already told you + that the natives say they could not understand him. Moreover, + one hardly talks the same class of Hausa to any two Hausas + consecutively; but after a couple of minutes’ conversation + with a native one knows his dialect, and what words to use, + and how to pronounce those words, the pronunciation varying + considerably.[53] The Hausa writing, very little of which + exists, is simply Hausa written phonetically in Arabic + characters, there being no recognised way of spelling one + word, which fact alone proves how little the written language + is used. Nowadays Hausa is scarcely ever written, except + isolated words, such as ‘Sariki’ and ‘bature.’ The Hausa + writing is called ‘Ajumi,’ and when such words are used in + an Arabic letter, it is usual to prefix the word ‘Ajumi,’ in + order to warn the reader that the following words are Hausa, + not Arabic. The Arabic used is primitive, but correct. As the + Hausa vowel sounds cannot always be correctly represented by + the Arabic vowel marks, there is only the context to guide + one in many Hausa written words, and the task of spelling out + every word phonetically is a laborious one, especially when + the proper sound cannot in all cases be represented. I have + seen some of the most learned Mallams in Nigeria experience + great difficulty in reading Canon Robinson’s specimens of Hausa + literature. Canon Robinson attaches much too much importance to + the Hausa writing. The few specimens that exist are interesting + as curiosities, but the language is useless as a means of + communication.” + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA + + +The palm-oil tree is the staple product of the whole of the coastwise +regions of West Africa from Sierra Leone[54] right down to the Lower +Congo. The Niger Delta may be considered as the central region of its +production. Since regular administration was set up in the rivers,[55] +the output of the oil and kernels of the palm-oil tree has been as +follows: + + OIL. + + Year. Quantity. Value. + + 1892-93 10,079,039 gallons £482,803 + 1893-94 12,207,658 ” 637,625 + 1894-95 Not ascertainable 505,637 + 1895-96 10,672,106 gallons 514,303 + 1896-97 9,350,559 ” 465,583 + 1897-98 8,476,955 ” 410,134 + 1898-99 8,113,820 ” 397,870 + 1900[56] Not stated in C. O. report 491,131 + +The great majority of the oil is sent to England, but France takes a +considerable quantity (£70,880 out of the total of £491,131 in 1900), and +Germany also purchases a fair amount (£28,094 in 1900). + + KERNELS. + + Year. Quantity. Value. + + 1892-93 34,710 tons £301,483 + 1893-94 39,224 ” 334,144 + 1894-95 Not ascertainable 295,313 + 1895-96 36,640 tons 296,397 + 1896-97 38,043 ” 290,125 + 1897-98 39,529 ” 295,545 + 1898-99 40,528 ” 305,791 + 1900[57] Not given in C. O. report 430,016 + +The output of kernels seems to be steadily on the increase. Germany is +far and away the largest purchaser of Nigeria’s kernels. In 1900 she +took more than two-thirds—to the value of £346,997—of the total for that +year.[58] Thus in eight years the fruit of the palm-oil tree in Nigeria +is seen by these figures to have yielded no less than £6,453,900. The +production has certainly been greater, as the Niger Company’s exports of +oil and kernels are only included for 1900, the quantities and values for +the preceding years not being publicly accessible. + +[Illustration: MAKING PALM-OIL] + +The chief centres of palm-oil production in the Niger proper as distinct +from the Delta, or, in other words, in the territories formerly under the +administrative sway of, and still almost entirely tapped in a commercial +sense by, the Niger Company are Ogute Lake, Atani, and Onitsha. The Ogute +Lake produces about 4500 casks of oil annually; it is connected by the +Orashe River, for small craft drawing four feet in the dry season and +eight feet in the rainy season, with Degama, but is only open from the +Niger River during the rainy season (for craft drawing seven feet) or say +from August to the end of December. It is about seventy hours distant +from Burutu. Atani yields about 6000 casks per annum. It is open from the +sea _viâ_ Burutu or Akassa all the year round. Distance from Burutu about +two and a half days. Onitsha will probably exceed before long the other +two districts mentioned as a productive centre, the population being very +dense; distance from Burutu, three days. For kernels, Assay is the chief +centre, producing about 6000 tons annually. It is open all the year round +from Burutu for craft drawing about five to five and a half feet, and +between July and October the rains permit of navigation for craft drawing +up to twelve feet; passage from Burutu, twenty-four hours. Illushi, Idah, +Lokoja, Egga, Jebba, and Shongo are other important centres. + +The commerce derived from the oil-palm tree, apart from its paramount +importance in a commercial sense, has many and varied features of +interest. It was, for example, so far as the oil is concerned, the +trade which first took the place of the slave traffic. The beverage +extracted from it is mentioned in some of the oldest references to the +Dark Continent—thus we know that Cambyses “delighted” in its flavour, +and Herodotus tells us that amongst the gifts with which he despatched +the mission of the Ichthyophagi to Ethiopia was “a cask of palm-wine.” +Collecting the palm-tree’s fruit may also be said to be the national +industry of the West African Negro almost all along the coast—certainly +in Southern Nigeria.[59] It is an industry which permanently employs +hundreds of thousands of Negroes, men, women, and children, and gives +work to many thousands of white men, from the merchant to the steamship +owner, from the manufacturer to the chemist. Often in watching the long +files of carts conveying the bulky barrels in which palm-oil is shipped +home from the west coast, passing along the Liverpool streets, or the +rows upon rows of these casks and heaps of palm-kernel bags piled up +on the dock’s side, have I marvelled at the ignorance of those persons +who inform us that the native of West Africa will not _work_. Not work, +with this testimony to his labours! Not work, when hundreds of English +workmen are busy unloading, rolling and carting these proofs of the +Negro’s industry every month in the year, every week in the month, every +day in the week almost! Not work, when it is borne in mind that this +brilliant yellow stuff with the penetrating smell, shipped in hundreds of +thousands of gallons from West Africa, is brought down to the coast bit +by bit, in small receptacles, often from considerable distances inland, +on the heads of these idle and lazy people; that the kernels in those +greasy, dirty-looking bags have each been extracted with infinite trouble +from an extremely hard shell, that 400 of them are required to make a +single pound of kernels, and that the market value in Southern Nigeria +of those 400 kernels, to the native, is the maximum sum of one penny! A +stone-breaker’s job in this country is not looked upon as a sinecure, but +I beg leave to doubt whether the stone-breaker would be content with one +penny per every 400 stones he breaks. + +[Illustration: DUKE-TOWN, OLD CALABAR, SOUTHERN NIGERIA] + +There is not another tree in the whole world which produces money with so +little expense as this particular crop. In Nigeria the oil is prepared +usually in small quantities, in the small villages scattered over the +country. After being prepared, it is in many instances carried by women +and children to some central native market, situate as a rule on the +edge of a waterway. There it is bought by the middlemen so called, who +are really the carriers of the country, and put by them into the casks +previously supplied by the European merchants. The casks are packed +away in canoes, and the middlemen paddle down through the creeks for +distances varying with the length and character of the waterways, to the +merchant’s factory at the mouth. The merchant then pays for the oil, +gives the middleman an empty cask in exchange for the full one, and +ships the latter by the first steamer that comes along, the middlemen +coopering it up and making it as sound as possible before starting off +on their homeward journey. Palm-oil is used in the manufacture of soap +and candles.[60] It is also employed in South Wales and the States in +the preparation of tin plates, the plates when white hot being dipped in +palm-oil, which gives them their smooth and glassy surface. The demand +for palm oil increases annually, and for many years to come is likely to +keep up with the supply. + +The transaction which takes place between the merchant and the middleman +native is the simplest feature of the trade. Before that stage has +been reached there are ramifications innumerable. A middleman chief, +for instance, will send ten or twelve canoes up the creeks with goods +which he has purchased on trust[61]—a large proportion of the trade is +still carried out on the trust system, credit being given as between the +merchant and the middleman, the middleman and the producer, and again +the producer with other producers further afield, the nearest producer +becoming thus a middleman or carrier for his more distant countrymen—each +of the canoes being in charge of one of his “boys,” with enough men to +convey the craft to a certain market. There that particular canoe remains +until the goods it has got on board are sold and the canoe is full of +oil. The same thing occurs in the case of every market in the district, +and so on all over the country, the canoes sometimes remaining several +weeks away. + +Apart from the porterage, purchase, putting into casks, conveying by +water, final sale and shipment, which employs such numbers of natives in +their respective _rôles_, there is the collection and preparation to be +taken into account before a complete idea can be formed of the varied +stages the palm-oil industry goes through until the product is landed +on our shores. There is, first of all, the process of climbing the tree +to get the fruit, which, of course, is at the top. After removing the +fruit the natives are able, when the nut is properly ripe, to shake it +out of the spiky casing in which it grows. The nut is something like a +plum-stone, only bigger, and contains the oil to the thickness of about +one-eighth of an inch. Inside is the kernel, itself enclosed in a very +hard shell. To extract the oil the outer skin or shell has to be split +or peeled off. The nuts are usually flung into an old canoe, the natives +trampling upon and crushing the outer skin, and then put into boiling +water, which brings the oil to the surface. But there are a good many +ways of preparing the oil, and its different characteristics were at one +time supposed to be due to different ways of preparation on various parts +of the coast. That does not appear to be the opinion now, for the theory +is hardly sufficient to account for the extra quantity of glycerine such +as is met with in Bonny and Old Calabar oil, and the larger proportion of +stearine[62] which exists in the hard kinds of Brass and New Calabar. We +have now come to an end of the history of the collection of palm-oil, and +the second use to which the oil-palm lends itself arrives upon the scene. + +[Illustration: FILLING PALM-OIL BARRELS, SOUTHERN NIGERIA] + +With the breakage of the nut and the extraction of the oil, there +is left the kernel in its covering. The kernel trade did not become +general[63] until a few years ago, the kernel being usually either left +to decay or to reproduce, and for a considerable time it was pointed +out that hundreds of thousands of pounds were annually lost in this +way. But within a comparatively recent time the natives have been +induced to break the hard shell in which the kernel is enclosed, and the +latter are shipped home in yearly increasing quantities from Nigeria +by the merchants, who dispose of them to the African Oil Mills[64] or +some other seed-crushing establishment in Liverpool, or send them to +Hamburg: Germany, as already stated, being the largest buyer. The kernel +yields an oil which in its concrete form is white in contrast with the +yellowy-red or deep red or ochre colouring of the oil in the nut itself, +and is the principal ingredient in Sunlight and other soaps of a similar +character. In its chemical properties it is almost identical with the oil +pressed from the inside of the cocoa-nut—_i.e._ copra—which is known as +“cocoa-nut oil.” It is exclusively used in the manufacture of soap. + +Owing to the very great labour entailed in cracking the shells, a task +generally performed by putting the nut on a stone and breaking it with a +stone or stick, and the immense amount of time wasted by so primitive a +method, it cannot but be a matter for astonishment that some mechanical +contrivance has not been devised and put to general usage whereby the +process might be accelerated and facilitated. It is certainly not due to +any fear of exhausting the supply by too rapid production, for, so far +as any conclusions can be based upon the quantity of oil brought down to +the factories, Nigeria is still a long way off producing anything like +the full quantity of kernels available. The fact is that several attempts +have been made in this direction, but with one exception[65] they have +failed, and the failure has discouraged further efforts. Cracking +machines of various kinds have been imported, but through neglect, the +deadly effect of the West African climate upon machinery of any kind—more +especially perhaps in so very humid a part as the Niger Delta—and other +causes, they have speedily become “old iron.” + +[Illustration: A PALM-KERNEL MARKET IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA] + +Although it may seem presumptuous for an outsider to make such a +suggestion, I cannot but think that something more might be done, in +a systematic and concentrated way, to bring about so great a reform +as the cracking of the kernel-shells by machinery could not fail to +be; quadrupling as it would the total production, and releasing a +large amount of labour, which could be turned into other channels. In +view of the very meagre remuneration which the native is willing to +accept per pound’s weight of kernels cracked by hand, it is difficult +to understand how any real trouble, that decent wages and tactful +management were capable of overcoming, could be apprehended in the +utilisation of sufficient labour to keep the requisite steam-power at +work, more especially as, it is known, the shells would provide a fairly +efficient fuel ready to hand. Moreover, would machinery elaborate enough +to necessitate steam-power be absolutely essential? Could nothing be +invented in the way of importing automatic hand-cracking machines, the +cracking taking place under white supervision at the factories, and the +middlemen carriers bringing in the undecorticated nut, instead of, as at +present, the kernel itself?[66] + +There seems to be much need in this great oil-palm industry, as in other +native industries in West Africa, of co-operation among the official +and commercial classes, which make up the white population—missionaries +excepted—for the adoption of some thorough and comprehensive plan of +teaching the natives more scientific methods of production. It is no use +saying the thing cannot be done. It can be done, and has been done. The +most notable example is provided in the history of ground-nut cultivation +in Senegal, which has by no means reached perfection,[67] or anything +like it, and yet is now realising a million sterling per annum. That +striking result was attained by patient, continuous and unflagging +perseverance on the part of the Bordeaux merchants, coupled with the +friendly support and assistance of the Government, without coercion of +any kind. It took some time, of course, but the results have thoroughly +justified the policy pursued, and Senegal to-day[68] is the foremost +vegetable-oil producing country in the world. We hear a great deal about +technical education in West Africa, carpentering, brick-making, and so +forth, all very admirable in their way, but the time and money spent +in these directions could be more profitably engaged by perfecting the +_existing native industries_ of West Africa, and by creating new ones, +which would do more than anything else to increase the prosperity of +the country, and at the same time be based upon sound science, for +the natural instincts and aptitude of the Negro are pre-eminently +agricultural. Far more lasting good could be achieved thus. + +Officials and merchants working side by side for a common aim, and +science—that is what West Africa needs. What a reflection it is upon our +Administration in West Africa, that the commercial position of Sierra +Leone, for instance, should be declining, year by year, largely owing to +a passion for keeping up a form of taxation which is repugnant to the +natives, and does not even pay the cost of collection, when thousands of +pounds annually are wasted in the Sherbro district alone by the natives +merely collecting the kernels, leaving the oil to rot off—all for want +of encouragement, and the teaching of scientific methods of production, +while acres upon acres of rubber-producing land in Lagos have been +impaired by a similar absence of preliminary common sense. Perhaps the +most curious feature of the whole business is that which consists in +turning round and blaming the native for wilful destruction which—in the +latter case mentioned—he was never taught how to avoid. If the oil-palm +industry were taken in hand in practical fashion, there is no possible +doubt that an enormous development would ensue. But while the want of +sympathy and combination, one might almost say the latent opposition, +between the official and merchant class continues, I cannot see that +matters will be different to what they are. The remedy lies very largely +with the Authorities. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF NORTHERN NIGERIA + + +The Empire has few more experienced servants in the Tropical African +field than Sir Frederick Lugard. Like every other man who has become +prominent, he possesses critics, and no doubt, like every one else, has +made mistakes, but, speaking generally, he is very highly thought of. +Whether General Lugard, with his military instincts and training, is the +right man in the right place, is a matter upon which opinion may differ. +Among military men who have served England in Equatorial Africa, no one +more distinguished could have been chosen. The only reflection which +his appointment gave rise to was an impersonal one. Nobody doubted his +capacity, but it was suggested that the delicate problems of internal +politics existing in Northern Nigeria required civilian rather than +military habits of mind to cope with. + +Those problems are infinitely complex. Seldom did a situation call for +greater display of tact, sympathy and wise discernment. Seldom was there +a more abundant supply of combustible material ready to take fire upon +the initiation of a policy which should lack these qualities. Never a +field more promising of desirable results to reward a just and humane +stewardship, whose highest aim should be the contentment and prosperity +of the people committed to its charge, and whose guiding spirit should +be patience, and, as Sir Andrew Clarke puts it, “use of the power of +imagination.” + +Northern Nigeria, it need hardly be observed, differentiates absolutely +from the southern province, in the nature of its soil, configuration, +altitude, vegetation: in its ethnologic material, in religion, culture, +social condition, political organisation. We have passed out of the pagan +belt, and are in contact with a more advanced type of civilisation; we +have left the forest and merged into the plain, into open park-like +country, sparsely timbered as a rule when compared with the southern +regions; pasture land, agricultural land covered with fields of waving +millet and _masara_, peopled by splendid herds of cattle, where horses +and long-nosed sheep are reared. Animism or fetishism no longer +predominates; a revealed religion has replaced it. Semitic infusion is +now everywhere apparent. It is a new world we have entered—a strange +jumbling of two continents, an amalgam of cross-migratory currents +severally attracted by the fertility of the soil; an industrialism +at once remarkable, deeply interesting and of great promise. A rough +feudalism, a loose central authority, a barbaric splendour in the midst +of primitive surroundings, a system of rule superior to anything we have +yet encountered, and of which the strongest binding cord is religious +faith; large cities, extensive cultivations, tanneries, dye-pits, +looms. A number of States, owning allegiance—more religious and racial +than political—to a supreme chief, and appointing their own district +governors, treasurers, war ministers, judges; controlling their own +armies, managing their own exchequers. Society divided into two distinct +classes—the aristocrats and the plebs—which correspond to divergencies of +race, each class confined to its own quarter, rarely mingling in licit +intercourse, perhaps more so than formerly, yet perpetuating a strain of +pure stock which must have existed in Africa for at least two thousand +years. Away from the towns, in favoured districts, herdsmen of Semitic +blood; planters, agriculturists. In the towns, statesmen, warriors on +the one side; on the other, manufacturers and traders. Riven through the +country, highways of commerce, centuries old, branching to north, east +and west, over which the tramp of feet and hoofs resounded when Rome held +North Africa, and built her forts to the desert’s edge—aye, and beyond +what man and nature have made the desert’s edge—oxen and mules carrying +natron, and asses bearing kola, camels with salt, Eastern spices, and +bales of cotton from far-off Benghazi, cotton brought from Manchester, +silks from France, needles and writing-paper from Germany, beads and +looking-glasses from Venice; richly caparisoned steeds with their +gaily-clad riders, _meharas_ swift of foot, with the _lithamed_ Tuareg +bestriding them; the Fulani shepherd driving along his flocks. Over there +by the lake, herds of elephants roam untroubled, while the Shuwa, with +his hair trimmed _à l’Egyptienne_, wanders restlessly, as though seeking +to pierce the mystery of his origin. + +[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF NORTHERN NIGERIA SHEWING DIVISION INTO +PROVINCES] + +Into that country the white man has come in accordance with the ancient +prophecy, descendants of the white man who first visited it. The same +race, the dominating race, which ever aspires after empire, and which, +on occasion, forgets that the sword untempered by the plough has proved +disastrous to many Empires. + +As before stated, two years elapsed between the advent of the Crown +Colony system in Northern Nigeria and the publication of the first report +by Sir Frederick Lugard. With no official data available whereby the +Commissioner’s policy or the Government’s intentions could be gauged, the +public were only able to judge of the trend of both one and the other +through the scanty information communicated by the news agencies, or +by the vehicle of private letters from Europeans resident in Northern +Nigeria. It cannot be said that such news as did filter through the +thick veil in which Northern Nigeria lay wrapped prior to the belated +publication of Sir Frederick Lugard’s report in February 1902 was of a +reassuring nature. On the contrary, while necessary police-work in Bornu +was so entirely neglected that the French found themselves compelled by +a combination of local circumstances to practically run that country +for us, to give sanctuary to its lawful ruler, to beat off and finally +track to his lair the man who, following his father’s evil way, was +creating a desert wherever he passed; events in Sokoto, which had been +in constant treaty relations with Great Britain’s representatives since +1884, seemed to justify the worst fears, and to corroborate the late +Mary Kingsley’s prediction that “three months of Crown Colony form of +government in the Niger Territories will bring war, far greater and +more destructive than any war we have yet had in West Africa, and will +end in the formation of a debt far greater than any debt we now have in +West Africa, because of the greater extent of territory and the greater +power of the native States, now living peacefully enough under England, +but not England as misrepresented by the Crown Colony system.” The news +received was exclusively of a military nature. It recorded the exploits +of numerous expeditions against native rulers, the “smashing” of this +Chief and the other, foreshadowed a large increase in the Frontier Force, +and a further extension of the area of punitive undertakings. Every +steamer for Burutu had its complement of officers on board for Nigeria, +and the military element appeared to reign supreme. At the same time the +propagandist efforts of Bishop Tugwell at Kano, which should never have +been allowed, resulted in what was predicted of them when started, viz. +failure, utter and complete. Disappointment had its inevitable sequel +in the shape of a strengthening of the repressive theory for Nigeria by +the apostles of peace. Bishop Tugwell’s chief assistant, the Rev. J. +A. E. Richardson, on his return hastened to get himself interviewed by +Reuter, described “the Emir of Sokoto and the King of Kano as the chief +opponents of civilisation in this part of the world,” and expressed +his hope that the former would be speedily “dealt with.” In the same +interview, this youthful and enthusiastic reformer was fain to admit the +existence in the territories of the aforesaid “opponents of civilisation” +of “fields upon fields of cultivated land,” houses “splendidly made,” +“broad thoroughfares,” “big, beautiful gardens,” &c. The existing +“civilisation,” although not of the Exeter Hall pattern, had at least +something to recommend it! The theme was taken up at home by another +bishop, who delivered a sermon which was simply an appeal to brute force +in Northern Nigeria, and provoked a good deal of comment. Observers +noted an almost exact parallel between Northern Nigeria and East Africa, +where the havoc wrought by the unchecked forces of militarism and +religious bigotry is of public notoriety. + +When Sir Frederick Lugard’s report appeared its pages were eagerly +scanned, and it was with intense relief that a clear, definite line of +action was traced therein, and that an apparently determined intention +was noted to make a stand against certain undesirable features of policy +which had already become conspicuous. In fact, so outspoken were some of +Sir Frederick Lugard’s remarks that it was permissible and legitimate +to suppose that many of the things which had occurred did not meet with +his approval. Another reflection suggested itself from a perusal of the +report, viz. that the Commissioner was being hampered in the pursuance of +his task by the absence of the right type of political assistants. Events +subsequent to the report have tended to confirm rather than weaken that +impression, which, however, is, after all, but an impression, and cannot +at present be asserted as a fact.[69] + +The chief points to be gathered from the report, as bearing upon +the Commissioner’s policy, were (1) maintenance of Fulani rule, (2) +necessity of taking in hand the affairs of Bornu, (3) advisability of +accepting with great caution mere accusations of slave-raiding, (4) harm +perpetrated by crude information, (5) recognition that more good can be +effected “by getting into touch with the people” than by “a series of +punitive expeditions and bloodshed,” (6) no compulsory religious training. + +A programme such as this cannot fail to command universal approval, and +if Sir Frederick Lugard is determined to unflinchingly carry it out he +can count upon the thorough-going support of every single person in this +country who takes a lively interest in British West Africa. Nay more, he +can rely with confidence upon receiving the most strenuous backing should +it at any time become apparent that, in his attempt to get his own way, +he is not being sufficiently seconded by the Home Authorities, or that +the policy of Downing Street in specific directions makes the attainment +of that programme difficult if not impossible. Having said so much, it +is to be hoped that any criticism directed to the affairs of Northern +Nigeria may not be misunderstood in the quarter where one would greatly +desire it to be looked upon in the light of a friendly attempt to assist, +and not as criticism is so often regarded on West African matters, as +being due to a carping desire to find fault on the part of those who, +while fully entitled to speak their minds, are distant from the scene of +action, and have none of the worry and trouble involved in actual contact +with, or direct responsibility for, the questions upon which they write. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE FINANCES OF NIGERIA + + +On June 30, 1899, a Treasury Minute informed the Royal Niger Company of +the intention of her Majesty’s Government to revoke their charter. At the +end of 1899 Sir Frederick Lugard proceeded to Africa to take over the +Niger Company’s territories in the name of Great Britain. On January 1, +1900, Crown Colony Administration was established in the Niger Company’s +territories, following its similar establishment in the Delta, which had +taken place some years previously.[70] In February 1902 the Government +condescended for the first time—in the face of public pressure—to +publish a report by Sir Frederick Lugard, _dated London, May 1, 1901_. +The report, which is very interesting, but in many respects incomplete, +notably as regards finance, only brings us down to March 31, 1901, so +that, although we are now well on in the third year of Crown Colony +Administration in Northern Nigeria, this single report is the measure of +the confidence which the Government sees fit to repose in the British +people, concerning the direct responsibilities they have acquired over +some twenty-five million natives of Africa. + +There are several reasons why the public should not rest content with +such meagre information. The first reason is financial. The expenditure +of the two Protectorates—Northern and Southern Nigeria—is assuming very +large proportions, a heavy load of debt weighs over them, and not only +is there not the slightest sign of an effort to wipe off that debt, but +almost every month that passes sees an extension of liabilities. The +present condition of our national finances does not justify a continued +attitude of indifference towards the expenditure of public funds on an +increasing scale in Nigeria. On the other hand, our main object in West +Africa being what it is, viz. commercial in nature, there is extreme +unwisdom, from the ordinary business point of view, in neglecting to +ascertain how the largest and most important of our estates in West +Africa is being managed, and if the outlay is giving now, or is likely +to give in an appreciably near future, those returns which the public is +justified in expecting. + +What, then, are the facts as to the financial situation of Northern and +Southern Nigeria? In the first place, there is the debt of £865,000 +incurred by the Government in buying out the Niger Company. This debt is, +while it exists, a bar to progress, and at a Conference held in London +on September 20, 1900, we find Sir Ralph Moor, Commissioner for Southern +Nigeria, admitting the fact. When a speaker at that Conference urged that +more should be spent on technical education in the Protectorate, and +that the necessary amount might be paid out of the surplus revenue, Sir +Ralph Moor quickly retorted that they had no surplus revenue, but were +“in the unenviable position of owing her Majesty’s Treasury £800,000.” So +much for the debt, and the obstacle to desirable improvements which its +existence entails.[71] + +The debt notwithstanding, the administrative expenditure of Southern +Nigeria steadily increases. In the year 1899-1900[72] it reached the +figure of £176,128,[73] being an increase of £29,383 over the preceding +year, and exceeded the revenue by £12,000. No figures are yet available +of the expenditure of Northern Nigeria since the substitution of the +Crown for the Niger Company in the _rôle_ of Administrator, but a +reference to the estimates of March 31, 1902, shows that Northern Nigeria +received a grant-in-aid of £88,800 in 1900-01, and another of £280,000 in +1901-02, which includes the provision of £200,000 for the West African +Frontier Force voted in 1900-01. We are, therefore, confronted with +a minimum expenditure for Northern Nigeria in two years of £368,800. +At this rate it is difficult to see how Nigeria is ever to become +self-supporting. Such an enormous expenditure could only be warranted by +an extraordinary development in trade, or by the creation of means of +communication for that development, to be looked upon in the light of +expenditure on capital account. It is all very well to call it “Imperial +expenditure.” Of course it is “Imperial” expenditure, and so is every +penny spent in the furtherance of British trade abroad “Imperial.” What +we have to try and form an opinion upon is whether the administrative +expenses of Nigeria are in any way proportionate to the interests which +the Administration is supposed to be promoting there. If it is, well and +good; if it is not, reform is required. + +The relation of the expenditure to the trade of Nigeria is comparatively +easy to establish. The total trade (excluding specie) of the Niger Coast +Protectorate in 1898-99 amounted to £1,477,398, and the total trade of +Nigeria—that is, the Niger Coast Protectorate plus the territories of the +Niger Company—in 1900 (excluding specie) was £2,113,878. If we deduct, +therefore, the one set of figures from the other we can arrive at a close +approximation of the trade done in the former Niger Company’s territories +included since 1900 in the Protectorate of Nigeria. The trade of the +Niger Company’s territories in 1901 was, therefore, roughly £650,000, of +which it is quite safe to assume that Northern Nigeria did not produce +more than one-third, if it produced that, the bulk of the trade being +confined to the Niger Company’s territories in the Lower River. The +trade of Northern Nigeria would thus be represented by some £216,660 +out of the total of £650,000. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that +it rose in 1901 to £250,000, the total for the two years 1900 and 1901 +would be £466,660. Now Northern Nigeria, as already stated, received +for the same period £368,800 from the Imperial Exchequer. Pursuing the +same method of illustration for the export trade as for total trade, +the export trade of the Niger Company’s territories works out at some +£360,000, of which, say, one-third from Northern Nigeria, or £120,000. +Putting it down at £140,000 in 1901 gives a total of Northern Nigeria’s +export trade, or, in other words, Northern Nigeria’s producing capacity +for the two years mentioned of £260,000, so that Northern Nigeria is in +the disastrous financial situation of spending more than it produces. The +one-third basis of calculation is a large and generous one, and Northern +Nigeria’s share of responsibility in the debt is not included in the +reckoning. The position then, so far as Northern Nigeria is concerned, +is unmistakably clear. Northern Nigeria is at present a financial burden +to the Empire. Eight years’ experience of Crown Colony Administration in +the Niger Delta, where the machinery set up is not nearly so elaborate +as in Northern Nigeria and where the natural exploitable riches are far +greater, is hardly calculated to cause feelings of confidence as to what +eight years of a similar system will lead to in Northern Nigeria. In the +three years ending December 1899 the Niger Delta (excluding therefrom the +Niger Company’s territories) produced a trade which averaged in value +£1,800,000, of which over £1,000,000[74] represented exports. Under +the Crown Colony system, with its expensive machinery necessitating +taxation to keep up, its military expenditure, and the absence of all +commercial co-operation in the Administration, the value of exports has +only once (1893-94) managed to rise above £1,000,000, while with that one +exception the highest and lowest figures have been £844,333 and £750,223 +respectively, and the total volume of trade for any given three years +has never reached the average figure of £1,800,000. The totals of the +three years prior to 1900 were respectively £1,441,383, £1,389,922, and +£1,507,288. Making every allowance for the fall in the market price of +certain products during recent years, which, by the way, has been to +some extent counterbalanced by the increased export of new articles, the +conclusion to be derived from these figures is that the Crown Colony +system in Southern Nigeria has not yielded results which the country has +the right to expect, and the moral is that, whatever may be the position +of affairs in other British possessions in West Africa, Englishmen should +really pull themselves together and seriously consider whether the +brilliant future which Nigeria should have in store for it is to run the +risk of being compromised just for want of a little courage in facing the +facts as they are. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MOHAMMEDANS, SLAVE-RAIDING, AND DOMESTIC SERVITUDE + + +It has been truly remarked that more permanent good can be accomplished +“by tact and gold with Mohammedan chiefs in West Africa than by the +Maxim and the rifle.” That is a policy which has had much to do with our +great and striking success in India. Its application to Afghanistan has +within recent years been amply justified by results. Why should it not be +followed in Northern Nigeria? Which is cheaper, an output of £5000 per +annum in subsidies, or the expenditure of much larger sums in military +operations? What is more likely to conduce to the prosperity of a vast +densely populated tropical estate where the white man cannot settle, to +gain your own ends peaceably, albeit not so speedily as might be desired, +or to use force and face the dislocation of the existing social system +which violent measures entail? Few people, if they will but calmly +consider the matter, can fail to endorse the quotation given above. In +Northern Nigeria the question is not merely one of expediency; it affects +the honour of England. + +When MacGregor Laird started on his pioneering expedition up the Niger +which laid the foundations of British trade in the Upper River, his +instructions from the Government ran as follows: “It is most desirable to +impress upon the chiefs that you are there as traders, not as colonists, +not as acquirers of land, but simply as traders and for the protection of +trade.” When Lord John Russell despatched Captain Trotter and Commander +William Allen up the Niger in 1840, he recognised the advisability of +subsidising the native chiefs: “he himself (the chief) shall have for +his own share, and without any payment on his part, a sum not exceeding +one-twentieth part value of every article of British merchandise brought +by British ships and sold in his dominions.” When Mr. Joseph Thomson +concluded in 1884, on behalf of the National African Company, a treaty of +amity and friendship with Umoru, Emir of Sokoto, “King of the Mussulmans +of the Sudan,” he undertook on behalf of the Company to pay the Emir 3000 +bags of cowries (roughly £1500) per annum. When that treaty was confirmed +with the Emir on behalf of the Royal Niger Company (the designation of +the National African Company when it received its charter) in 1890, +and again with the Emir’s successor in 1894, the payment of the annual +subsidy was confirmed. It was distinctly stipulated in those treaties +that the Royal Niger Company “received” its power from the Queen of Great +Britain and that “they (the Company) are her Majesty’s representatives +to me.” In the eyes of the Emir, therefore, the Company was just as much +“Great Britain” as a consular representative, or a High Commissioner. +In exchange for this annual subsidy, the Emir of Sokoto transferred “to +the above people (the Company) _or other with whom they may arrange_, +my entire rights to the country on both sides of the River Benue and +rivers flowing into it throughout my dominions for such distance from its +and their banks as they may desire.” The Emir also bound himself not to +“recognise any other white nation, because the Company are my help.” In a +letter dated April 27, 1894, the Prime Minister of Sokoto repudiated any +intention of treating “with any other from the white man’s country except +with the Royal Niger Company, Limited.” Separate subsidies were also +paid by “her Majesty’s representatives (the Niger Company)” to Gandu, +as well as to the rulers of Nupe, Adamawa, and other important vassals +of the Emir of Sokoto. That, at any rate, was a well-defined political +relationship. By it the Royal Niger Company were able to secure this vast +and populous country to Great Britain, and by it peace was, with the +exception of Nupe[75] and Ilorin, preserved. Whatever may be said of +the merits and demerits of the Royal Niger Company as an administrative +body, it must be readily granted that a coherent policy was here applied, +and that its results were, from the Imperial standpoint, exceedingly +satisfactory. The nature of the bargain was precise. The Emir of Sokoto +and his vassals conferred extensive rights upon England’s representatives +and agreed to treat with no other country but England on the basis of a +subsidy of £1500 per annum in the case of Sokoto, and sums varying in +importance in the case of Sokoto’s vassals. The bargain was—according +to the terms of the treaty—binding upon the Niger Company and its +successors. The Emir of Sokoto kept to his share of it, and at a time +when France endeavoured, through Colonel Monteil, to upset the Company’s +treaty, the Emir loyally observed his obligations.[76] The Company no +less loyally observed theirs. It is humiliating to have to confess it, +but the British Government has been less loyal than the Company, and less +loyal than the African chief whose loyalty enabled England at a critical +moment to uphold the claims of her representatives to political influence +over Sokoto. The Crown, it seems, has declined to fulfil the obligations +imposed on England by these treaties, while reaping to the full the +advantages which the existence of the treaties confers. The first public +intimation that the Imperial Government had broken faith with the Emir of +Sokoto was made by the Rev. J. A. E. Richardson, already alluded to. His +statement ran as follows: “The yearly payment in form of gifts which was +made to the Emir of Sokoto by the Niger Company has not been continued +by the Imperial Government, and quite recently the Emir flatly refused to +allow the erection of a British telegraph line.” No official announcement +has been made on the subject, nor has any member of Parliament taken the +trouble to inquire. But there is not, I think, any doubt whatever that +the Imperial Government has, in point of fact, done this thing. I have +made careful inquiries in quarters likely to be well informed, and it +seems that it was considered _infra dig._ for a Government to politically +subsidise a West African chief. That is an extraordinary doctrine. Since +when has it been considered _infra dig._ for Englishmen to keep their +word with native potentates? Since when has it been thought a criterion +of Imperial rule to show native rulers that England’s promise is not +worth the paper upon which it is written? Is that what has been called +the “new Imperialism”? Is it astonishing that the Emir of Sokoto should, +in the face of such a repudiation of treaty obligations, “flatly refuse” +to allow the erection of a telegraph-line or anything else? Is it not a +terrible handicap upon the professed intentions of the most well-meaning +administrator, to be confronted at the outset with so powerful a cause of +native suspicion and hostility? + +Let us observe, for a moment, how the successive stages of British action +on the Niger must appear to the native rulers of the country. We start +off by saying that we have come to the country as merchants and nothing +more, not as acquirers of land, but simply as traders. In 1870 the Emir +of Nupe, Maroba, is found co-operating with Bishop Crowther—an earnest +and godly man—to facilitate the operations of merchants at Lokoja. In +1884 Mr. Joseph Thomson is able, without any show of pomp or power, +to induce the Emir of Sokoto, supreme ruler of the whole country, to +sign a treaty of enormous importance, which practically amounts to a +Protectorate, in exchange for a yearly subsidy. Sixteen years later a +British Government ceases the subsidy, and follows up that performance by +initiating a policy of active interference in the Emir’s dominions. As +this costs money, the next step will very probably be that the Emir and +his subjects will be expected to contribute towards the up-keep of the +Administration, and England, having agreed through her representatives to +subsidise the Emir in return for advantages conferred, will end by making +the Emir pay for permission to remain in his own country. “It seems +really incredible,” remarked the _Morning Post_ the other day, commenting +upon the fighting with the Emir of Kontagora,[77] “that a great Empire +administering savage countries should have no other weapon save an +appeal to arms.” It has other weapons, and the most potent of them is +the one upon which the Indian Empire has been reared. That weapon may be +described thus, “Keep to your plighted word.” + +The cause of the repeated military expeditions of which Northern +Nigeria is the scene, is said to be slave-raiding. “Slave-raiding” is +an evil which no one can possibly defend. It leads to great misery, to +depopulation and devastation. Its agency is violence. To suppress it is +the duty of every European Government. On those points there can be no +difference of opinion. The difference comes in when the means adopted +to do away with “slave-raiding” are examined. At present but one remedy +has been devised and put into practice in Nigeria. It consists in +opposing violence by violence. It has the merit of simplicity, but at +best it is but a crude way of procedure, and its efficacy as a reforming +agent is open to doubt. “The very foundation,” says Carl Schurz, “of +all civilization consists in the dispensation of justice by peaceable +methods, instead of the rule of brute force,” and he adds a sentence +well worth thinking over: “Although a course of warlike adventure may +have begun with the desire to liberate and civilise certain foreign +populations, it will be likely to develop itself, unless soon checked, +into a downright and reckless policy of conquest with all the criminal +aggression and savagery such a policy implies.” It is impossible not to +feel the force and the truth of this sentence when the history of British +East Africa is studied. These “nigger hunts,” to use the term, not of +a “deluded philanthropist” or “impracticable sentimentalist,” two of +the many choice epithets with which people who do not believe in the +practical advantages of “nigger hunts” are consistently assailed, but of +a specially gifted officer, have worked incalculable mischief, and have +put back the hands of the clock for many years. “Some of the wars and the +punitive expeditions of the past few years,” remarks Professor Gregory +in his admirable and impartial work,[78] “have been no doubt inevitable +and just. They have been the ‘Cruel wars of peace.’ But some of the +military expeditions in East Africa have been simply criminal in their +folly and thoughtlessness.” Yet the Home Authorities defended all these +expeditions, and covered the perpetrators of blunders with its sheltering +wing, to the detriment not only of the general interests of the Empire, +but of the efficiency of the public service, by discouraging officials +who had a different conception of the duties of their position, but who +saw, by experience, that to get up a row with the natives, to fight some +brilliant action and get their “heroism” talked about, was the surest way +to obtain promotion. That, I am afraid, is in West Africa also a motive +power to advancement. + +In his report Sir Frederick Lugard shows that he is alive to the abuses +which a too constant “appeal to arms” may give rise to, and how the +designation of “slave-raiding” can be converted into a mere excuse to +justify acts of injustice and oppression. “Though force,” he says, “must +be occasionally applied to bands of recalcitrant robbers, I am convinced +that a few such lessons will suffice, and that the district officer, +with tact and patience, aided by sufficient civil police, can achieve +the pacification of the country effectively, and that parsimony in the +appointment of these officers, and of their native staff of police, &c., +would be a policy of false economy, resulting in unnecessary bloodshed.” +And again, “It is my conviction that throughout Africa—East and West—much +injustice and oppression have been unwittingly done by our forces acting +on crude information, and accusations of slave-raiding, &c., brought by +enemies of the accused to procure their destruction.” + +What is the genesis of this slave-raiding we hear so much about? In the +first place, it must be obvious to all who have studied the history +of inland Western Africa with any degree of attention, that a great +deal of what is called “slave-raiding” is not “slave-raiding” at all, +but military operations undertaken by the rulers of Mohammedan States +for the suppression of risings against their authority, rendered +weak by ineffective organisation, and by the absence of adequate +means of communication. Sir Frederick Lugard has thrown useful light +upon other circumstances which may lead to wrongful accusations of +slave-raiding.[79] But, taking the first case, how often may not an +expedition entered upon by a Mohammedan Emir against his pagan subjects +in West Africa be as justifiable, if reckoned by the same standard, as +the chastisement of a tribe by the representatives of a European Power +for resisting a tax enforced by that Power, and considered by the tribe +excessive and unjust? The only fair and rational interpretation of +slave-raiding, properly so-called, is the incursion of an armed band, +without previous provocation of any kind, into a peaceful district, +followed by the capture of a number of prisoners of war who are +subsequently sold into slavery by the victors. That is a condition of +affairs by no means peculiar to West Africa. It prevailed in Europe +and in Great Britain at a period when civilisation was infinitely more +advanced than it is at present in West Africa. + +The motive forces to which slave-raiding is due in Nigeria are: (1) +economic necessities, or, in other words, the revenue needs of native +rulers, requiring many prisoners of war who, as has been well said, serve +the double purpose of cheque-book and beast of burden; (2) the incidental +effect of conquest; (3) the direct incitement given to intertribal wars +by white men on the West Coast of Africa for a period extending over +several centuries, a system which, by the way, prevailed not farther back +than slightly over fifty years ago on the Niger; witness Richardson’s +and Barth’s representations to the Government of the day. Those three +causes are common to, or have been common to, West Africa as a whole. To +them must be added, in the case of Northern Nigeria and other countries +in West Africa converted to Islam by the sword, religious zeal. Let us +take those causes severally one by one and examine them. + +[Illustration: A MOHAMMEDAN CHIEF AND HIS STANDARD-BEARER] + +With regard to the first, it must be patent to all who can look at the +matter with unprejudiced eyes that, until native rulers in Northern +Nigeria are able to count upon a source of revenue replacing that which +they lose by the disappearance of raiding operations for slaves, and +until a portable currency can be introduced into the country to take +the place of the human currency—that is, slaves—the economic _raison +d’être_ of raids will remain; and that is why, apart from any other +considerations, a subsidy to the native rulers on the part of the +European “over-lord” cannot but prove itself an instrument for good, +pending the slower but certain modifications which the creation of +roads, railways, the development of trade which should ensue from their +creation, and the introduction of an easily portable currency—such as +silver coinage—cannot fail to bring with them. When in course of time +such development takes place, matters should be so arranged that the +rulers of the country benefit by the growth of trade in their respective +districts, or, in other words, that a portion of the revenue derived +by the Administration from trade in a given district should accrue to +the ruler of that district, and be expended in the improvement of that +district. + +In all communities where the ethical standard of the people has not +been influenced by the Christian ideal, the enslavement of prisoners of +war has existed from time immemorial. The moral standard of the Fulani +Chieftains of to-day is not lower than that of Imperial Rome, and for +many, many centuries after the tragedy of Golgotha, men enslaved one +another in England and in Europe as the natural sequel to warfare. + +As for the heavy load of responsibility which England shares—and to a +very large extent—with other Powers towards the native of West Africa in +her actual _rôle_ of inculcator of the higher principles of morality, it +cannot too often be called to mind. It is not so very long ago—a mere +nothing in the history of nations—that Englishmen hounded on these native +chiefs against one another, supplied them with arms and ammunition, +excited their fiercest passions, pandered to their worst vices, and all +for what? To secure, under circumstances of cruelty more aggravated +because more protracted, those very slaves which Englishmen to-day are +but too ready to liberate, by killing the descendants of the chiefs who +formerly supplied them with the objects of their desire! + +Religious fanaticism has ever been attended with outrages upon humanity, +sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. In considering the case of +the Fulani conquerors of Nigeria, we must, if we are just, recollect +how relative good and evil are in matters of this kind, how dependent +upon those hundred and one things which make up hereditary instincts and +environment. Have the Fulani committed more atrocities than Christian +Europe (although far behind Christian Europe of those days) perpetrated +upon the Jews? Can we turn over the pages of Gibbon and condemn to the +death penalty these wanderers in Darkest Africa, when we read of the +deeds of Christians amid “civilised” surroundings, where art and crafts, +the ease and luxuries of life, culture and refinement had reached, +comparatively, so high a stage—a stage which West Africa had never known? +Are the episodes of Saint Bartholomew and the persecutions of “bloody” +Mary not vividly within our recollection? Do not the lessons of history +suggest that “civilisation” would best fulfil its mandate, and rise to +the level of its claims, by drawing upon an abundant store of patience +in dealing with the evil of “slave-raiding” in Nigeria and elsewhere in +West Africa? And if there be a fair prospect, as there undoubtedly is, +of removing the causes, economical and otherwise, which produce slave +raids, by peaceful methods, to employ the ways of peace rather than the +sword, although the process be a slower one, we can have made but very +few real strides in the last two thousand years if statesmanship be not +equal to the task. This is sentimentalism, you will say. Well, it is +easy to call names, but the following passage indicates, at least, that +a British Government was not ashamed once upon a time to preach much the +same doctrine: + + “While you describe the power and wealth of your country, you + will, in all your interviews with the African chiefs and with + other African natives on the subject of the suppression of the + slave trade, abstain carefully from any threat or intimidation + that hostilities upon their territory will be the result of + their refusal to treat.... You will allow for any hardness of + feeling you may witness in them on the subject of the slave + trade, a hardness naturally engendered by the exercise of that + traffic, and in some cases increased by intercourse with the + lowest and basest of Europeans. You will endeavour to convince + them by courtesy, by kindness, by patience, and forbearance of + your most persevering desire to be on good terms with them.”[80] + +At what period, and under what circumstances, has this persevering desire +to establish friendly terms, as a basis upon which to work to do away +with the internal slave-trade of Nigeria by the exercise of courtesy, +kindness, patience, and forbearance been consistently applied, or been +given a fair chance? We should be hard put to it to supply even one +instance, in a given district.[81] + +So much for the moral aspect of the question. There is another aspect to +which the most unsentimental of mortals will not deny the attributes of +severest practicability. I refer to the effect of these wars, nominally +undertaken for the suppression of slave-raiding and the upsetting +of priestly theocracies in West Africa, upon the well-being of the +inhabitants and upon the prosperity of the Colonies themselves. Those who +may be inclined to look into the matter may peruse with advantage that +very able volume, “Ashanti and Jaman,” by Dr. Richard Austin Freeman, one +time Assistant Colonial Surgeon and Anglo-German Boundary Commissioner of +the Gold Coast.[82] Sir Frederick Lugard in his report writes: “Already, +with the removal of the fear of the Fulani, each petty village is +claiming its ancient lands, or raiding those of its weaker neighbour, and +interminable feuds are the result.” That passage entirely confirms Dr. +Freeman’s opinion with regard to the forcible splitting up of the Ashanti +confederation after the Wolseley expedition. The latter part of it is +almost word for word that of a letter which lies before me at the present +moment, and which I received from an Englishman in the Niger shortly +after Sir George Goldie’s brilliant but inconclusive campaign against +Nupe. “The whole country is confused”—wrote my correspondent—“the central +authority having been suppressed; each man raids on his own.” In point +of sober fact, almost every war waged in West Africa has a deteriorating +effect, unless it be followed immediately by constructive action, which +in the vast majority of cases is impossible owing to the vastness of the +country. We read of a chief falling foul of the British Authorities and +being deposed. If captured, he is marched off to the coast and deported; +if he succeeds in escaping, the chances are he will rally some followers +round him and prove a source of trouble for a considerable time. However +that may be, he is at any rate replaced by some other individual who may +or may not have, according to local custom, a right to the chieftainship. +A resident with a small escort may or may not be left in the capital. +Now, bearing in mind that in Nigeria a district over which a particular +chief holds at least a nominal sway is sometimes as large as Wales or +larger, no great amount of imagination is required to picture what but +too often happens. Let us, for the sake of argument, consider Wales an +inland kingdom, and imagine it under the feudal system, the King aided +by his barons ruling the country, with many abuses no doubt, but still +ruling it after a fashion and able to make his power felt. At a given +moment the King quarrels with a neighbour. The neighbour enters the +country, defeats the King’s armies, marches on the capital, captures +it and the King together. The King is taken away a prisoner and the +conqueror remains in the capital with a small force, ignorant of the +language of the people, of their history, traditions, customs and laws. +He will not be attacked because it is known that his soldiers possess +weapons which kill easily at 300 yards, which mow down men in heaps, and +which it is as futile to attempt to face as it is to stand against the +roaring tornado hurtling through the forest. But for obvious reasons +it is also known that he cannot effectively hold the country. Result +number one: all semblance of authority within gun-shot of the capital has +disappeared. Result number two: every ambitious baron develops schemes of +aggrandisement, starts foraging in the property of his neighbours, who +do ditto with religious unanimity; another party remains faithful to the +deposed King and intrigues to get him back; another may take the part of +the dummy appointed by the conqueror, presuming that step to have been +adopted. Sequel: disorganisation, widening of area of disturbance, social +chaos, impoverishment of the country. + +This is not, indeed, the exception but the rule in West Africa. The +facts are on record. I have quoted two eminent authorities in specific +instances and mentioned one other case. But the examples are numerous, +and were it necessary one might amplify them considerably. Sometimes +the effect is chiefly commercial, as in the case of Nana, ex-chief of +Lower Benin.[83] Since his removal after the war in that district the +volume of trade has fallen considerably, which has been a bad thing, +of course, all round, from the point of view of both revenue and +commerce. Speaking generally, the only logical outcome of a punitive +expedition in West Africa is the replacing of what has been pulled down +by something else which shall answer to the needs of the people in the +same way, or a military occupation of every yard of the country. West +Africa being what it is, the thing cannot be done, and the consequence +of punitive expeditions in that part of the world, no matter what the +motives, alleged or real, may have been, is ninety times out of every +hundred reactionary, sterile, and morally destructive. Hence, whether it +be a matter of slave-raiding or fetishism, or disputes about land, or +difficulties about trade, punitive expeditions are things to be avoided, +and the Administrator who avoids them is the type of man which West +Africa needs most. + +A reference to the question of slave-raiding in Nigeria would be +incomplete without mention being made of domestic slavery, or more +properly termed domestic servitude. I remember assisting, not so +long ago, at a lecture by a missionary on Northern Nigeria. With +great impressiveness the lecturer announced that a large proportion, +four-fifths I think he said, of Hausas in Nigeria are slaves. There was +no doubt of the effect of the statement upon the audience, composed +of benevolent, well-meaning people, who conjured up at once the +most horrible visions. The mere enunciation of the fact, or alleged +fact—because, from what I have been able to ascertain, the estimate +is widely exaggerated—is calculated to horrify a public ignorant of +the nature and characteristics of domestic slavery in West Africa, and +there can be as little doubt that such is the deliberate and perfectly +sincere intention of the individuals who make these bald statements, as +that their after consequences upon the public mind are harmful. All are +agreed that the intestine warfare which results in the capture of many +prisoners and their conveyance over large distances always involves great +hardships and sorrow, and very often fearful sufferings upon the victims. +But the weight of evidence is decidedly against the supposition, still +so widely entertained, that domestic slavery in West Africa is what the +unscientific advocates of its hasty abolition, regardless of the obvious +political objections to such a course, would have the public believe. + +[Illustration: MANDINGO MUSLIMS] + +Nay more, while it may be fully admitted that a condition of servitude +is indicative of a state of society which we happily have grown out +of, and which in itself is essentially opposed to the moral law, no +impartial student will be prepared to deny that the condition of tens of +thousands of toilers in this country is infinitely worse than anything +which prevails under the West African native system, where poverty at +least is normally non-existent. The latter, it is true, are technically +free, but to them actual freedom would, if exercised, lead to starvation +pure and simple. They are bound in chains more enduring than any forged +by native blacksmiths in Nigeria. The “White Slaves of England” was an +appropriate title to a series of terrible articles published a short time +ago in a popular London magazine, the absolute accuracy of which has +since been acknowledged. “The West African slave”—a celebrated French +explorer and administrator has said—“is not so unhappy as many people +who live round us and whom _we will not see_.” That is the simple truth. +Between the domestic servitude of Nigeria—where any form of paid labour +is unknown as a native institution—and plantation slavery under European +supervision there is all the difference in the world. Compared with the +latter, the former is relative bliss. Degradation was the keynote of +the one. The other permits and frequently leads to equality between the +owner and the servant. Under the European system the slave was a dog and +worse than a dog; under the West African system the slave is part and +parcel of the social life of the people, a member, and not unfrequently +an honoured member, of the family.[84] With the second generation, the +distinction between the owning and serving class in West Africa is less +pronounced, and with the third generation, if it has not already been +practically effaced, the distinction is simply theoretical. Slaves then +own slaves of their own, while still theoretically remaining slaves +themselves. Once a slave is incorporated in a household he usually +remains a fixture, is decently treated, and, if his conduct is good, +his material prosperity rapidly increases. It is the commonest thing in +the world for a slave to rise high in his master’s favour, and even to +hold lucrative and responsible positions. All the relations of domestic +life in three-fourths of the Niger territories are based upon the system +of domestic slavery, and there is no question which requires to be +approached by the authorities with greater breadth of comprehension, with +greater largeness of views, with a more sincere resolve to resolutely +set aside all appeals, by whomsoever uttered, to bigotry, passion, or +prejudice. + +The harm which hasty legislation tending to violently interfere with the +entire social fabric of a people and with a custom centuries old entails +cannot be exaggerated. It spells utter disorganisation, and has already +worked incalculable mischief in the British West African possessions by +destroying the authority and influence of the chiefs and breaking up the +whole labour of the country. The lesson has been learned rather late in +the day, and there is hope that it will bear fruit, but the influences on +the side of error are very strong at home, and it never seems to occur to +those amongst us whose profession in life is the inculcation of the moral +virtues, that we have no greater right to destroy or abolish domestic +slavery without compensation of some sort, if only that of substituting +railway transport and portable currency in West Africa, than we had in +the West Indies or in South Africa. Why should West Indian planters and +Cape Colonists receive compensation for the loss of their slaves, and +the African chief nothing—except bullets? The policy of the sword and +the application of twentieth-century legislation to twelfth-century +conditions, however good the intentions, are, in the main, Imperial +mistakes, for which England may indirectly pay, but whom the present +generation of natives and the generations which come afterwards do—and +will—suffer in their persons. “It is understood”—cabled Reuter’s agent on +the Binue on September 21, 1901, subsequent to the capture of Yola—“that +Government will not interfere for the present with domestic slavery, the +evil effects of such a policy being still felt in the provinces of Nupe +and Ilorin. It upset the internal economy of the whole country, and the +male slaves, instead of working on their master’s farms, became rogues +and vagabonds, and the women something worse.” What a biting satire upon +the notion that immemorial customs can be changed by a stroke of the pen +without breeding disorder and social chaos! The question of domestic +slavery in Nigeria may best be approached by once again recalling +that great truth, “God’s design in the perfecting of man’s mind is +evolutionary and not revolutionary.” + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF NIGERIA + + +The difficulty in estimating the producing capacity of the enormous +territory of Nigeria is not in stating what _natural_ products of +economic value grow there, but what do not. Nigeria is the tit-bit of +West Africa, and practically every form of vegetable growth peculiar +to West Africa, or shared by West Africa with other and less favoured +tropical portions of the globe, is to be found within its extensive +limits. A soil of surpassing richness; numerous waterways, a prolific, +industrious population—all the elements are there to make of Nigeria +under wise management a second if smaller India, but an India unvisited +by drought, or those fearful scourges which are so terrible a drawback to +the internal prosperity of India; perchance a happier, richer India. + +With the exception of the oil-palm industry, everything is in its +earliest stages in Nigeria. Development is rudimentary. Deducting palm +oil and kernels, the value of the whole of Nigeria’s exports in 1900—the +only year available—amounted to the relatively small sum of £212,457. +Rubber, ivory, timber, ground-nuts, fibres, coffee, cocoa, gum copal +and shea butter are amongst the other products exported. The white +sweet-smelling flowers of the rubber vine are one of the commonest sights +in the forests of Nigeria. The tree, shrub and vine rubber are all met +with. The value of rubber exported from Nigeria in 1900 was £137,289. +It may increase to almost any figure if the authorities will but take +warning by the sad experience of Lagos, enlist a brigade of trained +rubber-workers to instruct the chiefs in the science of collecting, +and prevent—which they can easily do—grossly adulterated rubber from +leaving the country, and so preserve a high standard of quality, for, +in the present sorry condition of the rubber market, low-class rubbers +are almost unsaleable. Here, again, one is compelled to preach, if it +be for the fiftieth time, co-operation between the officials and the +merchants. In French Guinea, the evils of adulteration (for which, by +the way, the merchants were, I am afraid, primarily responsible) have +been successfully combated by a working partnership, so to speak. It is +not necessary to impose restrictions upon the freedom of the native in +collecting this product in his forests, but it is essential to maintain a +_permanent_ staff of native rubber-collecting instructors. It would cost +very little, and the experiment, if patiently and intelligently pursued, +would give magnificent results. + +Next in importance to rubber comes ivory, which, however, must be +regarded as a temporary commerce. Almost the whole of the ivory trade +of Nigeria hails from the Binue region, and for many years Yola was the +principal buying depôt of the Niger Company, as much as forty tons being +sometimes purchased there in the course of the year. The consequences of +the Anglo-German Agreement of 1893 and the Franco-German Convention of +1894 are calculated to greatly diminish the trade. The ivory business +is entirely in the hands of Hausa traders, who make, or used to make, +most of their purchases in the famous markets of Banyo, N’Gaundere, and +Tibati, carrying the teeth overland to the Binue and then conveying them +across the river, to dispose of either at the Niger Company’s pontoon at +Yola or factories at Ibi, Lake Bakundi, Lau, and Amageddi, or at Kano, +where it was sold for cloth and found its way eventually to Europe, +_viâ_ the desert route and Tripolitan ports. This is still done, but, +for the reason stated, the volume of trade is almost certain to diminish +as the years go on. When the ivory is sold to the Niger Company, English +manufactured cloths are purchased in exchange, and this again is bartered +by the Hausa traders against the superior article of native make in Kano. +Sometimes salt, tobacco, copper-rods, and gunpowder are in request +by the ivory traders, instead of cloth. It is always an open question +with Hausa traders which pays them best, the single transaction if they +sell direct at Kano, or the double transaction involved by sale to the +Niger Company. The chief currency of these regions is now the cowry +shell, and cowries have a native market price just like anything else; +for example, a hundredweight of salt will equal 25 heads of cowries, or +roughly 12_s_. 6_d_. When a tusk is brought to the factory it is weighed +on a butchers’ steelyard. The tariff per pound is 10 heads of cowries. +If the tusk weighs, say, 28 lb., it fetches 280 heads of cowries, about +£7, or £560 per ton in barter goods, but the price actually paid for +mixed ivory in the Binue has been under £500 per ton for many years past. +The arrival of an ivory caravan is always the occasion for a great deal +of excitement. Some of these caravans stretch over a mile in length. +First comes the trader and his friends on horseback, followed by the +trader’s wives and the various members of his household. Behind them +come the slaves, weary and footsore (slaves of Hausas be it noted—not of +Fulani), struggling under their valuable loads. The tusks are carried +sometimes on the heads and sometimes upon the shoulders. Of course, these +caravans can only travel in the dry season, for during the rains the long +marches would be attended with enormous difficulty. There are plenty of +tricks in the ivory trade, and our Hausa friend is very fond of putting +heavy substances in the hollow of the tusks, knowing well that if he is +undetected the increased weight will add to his profit. The Hausas call +ivory “owry”[85] and elephants “giwa.” They very often bring the flesh of +the animal, which fetches higher prices in the native markets than beef +or mutton. + +Gums, of which there exist many different kinds in Nigeria, also +constitute a source of future riches. There is gum arabic (_Acacia +senegalensis_) which oozes from the bark—much like sap from a venerable +cherry—and the “copals” found in solidified, translucent lumps, by +digging at the roots of acacias, and which sometimes fetch as much +as £80 per ton on the European markets. Very beautiful some of these +specimens are, varying in colour from pale lemon to deep orange-yellow, +and clear as the finest amber. These graceful gum-trees form in many +places a notable feature of Binue scenery, and abound in many parts of +Bornu, and it is not an unusual circumstance for a Bornuese cavalcade, +including several individuals wearing the old-world surcoats of chain +armour which has so excited the interest and curiosity of travellers in +that country, to arrive at a trading-station on the Upper Binue with a +load of gum arabic for sale. The natives of Hamarua (Muri), too, are +noted gum-collectors. As in the case of almost all Nigerian products, +the absence of competition among European purchasers (the Niger Company, +it must always be remembered, has been the sole trader in these regions) +has hitherto prevented the natives from bringing in very large quantities +of gum, and where ivory is to be got, it is hard to induce Hausas to +go in for laborious gum collecting and picking. There can be little +doubt whatever that the gum trade is susceptible of being increased to +thousands of tons per annum. The supplies must be almost inexhaustive. +After many years of assiduous collection, the Kauri pine forests of New +Zealand still furnish 8,000 to 10,000 tons per annum of fossil gum, more +or less similar to the West African “copals.” It can be said without +fear of exaggeration that there are hundreds of thousands of tons of +this valuable product in West Africa waiting to be dug up. One fine +day the fact will be better realised than it is at present, and we may +then expect to see a remarkable development in the product. Among other +valuable trees freely growing in Nigeria, but of which the economic +aspects have not yet been thoroughly studied, two at least deserve +special attention. They are the Kedenia (Kedenya) or Shea-butter tree +(_Butyrospermum_ or _Bassia parkii_[86]—the _beurre de Karité_ of the +French), sometimes, and erroneously, called the tallow-tree, and the +papain or paw-paw (_Carica papaya_). Shea butter has of late appeared as +a regular if small export from the Niger.[87] Large forests of it are to +be found in the Lagos hinterland, and also in Dahomey, where the French +hope to exploit it when their railway enters the zone of production. +Shea butter fetches about £24 to £26 per ton in Europe. It contains +certain medicinal properties of a purgative nature, I believe, and is +said to form a component part of the well-known Elliman’s Embrocation. +By the inhabitants of Nigeria the butter of the Kedenia is held in high +esteem, and is put to a number of varied uses: medicinally, for cooking +purposes, &c. The Fulani dose their horses internally with it, and +also rub it on the sores which the cumbrous high-peaked saddles of the +country frequently produce on the backs of their steeds. The Kanuri, or +Bornuese, use it to light their lamps with, and other tribes believe +it to be a sure cure for rheumatism. There seems to be a possibility +of the shea-butter tree being put to a second use; recent experiments +have shown that the latex furnished by this tree contains properties +similar to gutta-percha.[88] The butter- or tallow-tree (_Pendatesma +butyracæ_), which is often confounded with the shea-butter tree, is an +entirely different tree, belonging to the genus _Guttifera_, whereas the +shea butter is of the genus _Sapotacæ_. The French appear to have been +the first to make any economic use of this tree, and for the first time +last year, when a trial shipment of nuts was forwarded from Conakry to +Marseilles by the leading French firm of merchants in the former place. +The nuts when crushed were found to yield a valuable oil possessing +ingredients which render it particularly applicable for the manufacture +of candles. That wise and brilliant administrator, the late Dr. Ballay, +Governor-General of French West Africa, left a legacy of priceless worth +behind him in the shape of officials reared in his school and imbued with +his sentiments, and M. Cousturier, the present very able Governor of +French Guinea, has taken up this subject of the tallow-tree nut—“lamy” +as it is called—most energetically, in co-operation with the council +of merchants established in that Colony. My latest information on the +subject is that further shipments of “lamy” nuts from French Guinea have +taken place to Marseilles, Hamburg, and Bremen, and that the prospects of +disposing of the nuts to seed-crushers at remunerative prices is assured. +It remains to be seen whether the nut can be produced in adequate +quantities in French Guinea. I have not been able to positively ascertain +whether the tallow-tree occurs in Nigeria, but there is every probability +that it does, and if so, it will be another vegetable product of value to +be added to Nigeria’s long list.[89] + +Seldom is it that on village market-days in Nigeria the golden +pear-shaped fruit of the _paw-paw_ does not appear for sale. The natives +look upon paw-paw fruit in the double light of a delicacy and article +of considerable utility. The juicy milk of the fruit, and the large, +handsome leaves contain the singular property of making hard meat tender, +a peculiarity which has given rise to many “travellers’ tales” on the +coast. The toughest steak is rendered soft and agreeable to the palate +by being rubbed with the juice of the paw-paw, or wrapped round in its +leaves. The active principle of the dried juice of the paw-paw is +somewhat akin in nature to pepsin, and is regularly used as a substitute +for the latter in France and Germany. So far, the demand is small, but +there seems every likelihood that it will increase. In connection with +the future development of the paw-paw in Nigeria, it is interesting to +note that a small factory for the preparation of pepsin from this fruit +has been established within recent years in the Island of Montserrat. +In addition to the trees already mentioned, the kola (_Sterculia +acuminata_, sometimes termed the _Sterculia cola_), the gutta-percha, +the giant baobab (_Adansonia digitata_) or monkey bread-fruit tree, and +the bamboo palm (_Raphia vinifera_) must be briefly touched upon. The +kola-nut is to the Fulani, the Hausa, the Kanuri, the Songhay, &c., what +coffee is to the Arab and opium to the Chinese—a never-failing panacea. +So indispensable is the kola to the daily existence of the native of +Northern Nigeria, so enormous the demand, that the Hausa journeys +thousands of miles to the districts of the Niger bend (the Gold Coast +hinterland chiefly), and even to the Gambia hinterland and the valley of +the Senegal, to barter his blue cottons for this much-sought-after fruit. +European science will, no doubt, eventually succeed in so improving the +quality of the Nigerian kola as to make these long journeys yearly less +necessary. Kola plantations should then become a lucrative feature of +Nigerian industry. + +Gutta-percha is as valuable an article of commerce, and as greatly +in demand for European manufactures, as rubber itself. In Nigeria +gutta-percha is collected immediately the rainy season is over, the sap +at that time of year flowing more freely from the tree. In coagulating, +the milk assumes a reddish tinge. + +The baobab has been aptly termed the monarch of the African vegetable +kingdom. From the bark of the _kuka_, as the Hausas call it, excellent +ropes and strings for musical instruments are fashioned, while the +fruit, when crushed and dried, furnishes the natives with an excellent +substitute for sponges. + +[Illustration: A BAOBAB + +THE GIANT OF WEST AFRICAN FLORA] + +Vast groves of the bamboo palm (_R. vinifera_) exist in many parts +of Southern Nigeria, and although but little utilised at present, +experiments have demonstrated that the fibre derived from the branches +of this palm is capable of producing an excellent and durable bass[90] +somewhat similar in quality to that which is obtained from the allied +spices, the _Raffia ruffia_ of Madagascar, the demand for which on the +European market is already extensive. + +Date palms, dum palms, and cocoa-nut palms, lemons, bananas, plantains, +sweet potatoes, yams, sugar-cane, hemp, tobacco, benni seed,[91] pepper, +cassada, castor seed, capaiva—Nigeria produces all these in more or less +abundance, according to the locality, and also ground-nuts and large +quantities of capsicums (red pepper). The valuable indigo plant is widely +cultivated by Hausas and Fulani, and Kano owes much of its wealth to the +dyeing industry carried on by the natives. The native-woven Kano cloth, +dyed a deep indigo blue, is renowned all over Northern, Western and +Central Africa. With European skill, the cultivation of indigo in Nigeria +may possibly have a future before it, although the present outlook is not +encouraging. + +The cotton shrub grows luxuriantly in Northern Nigeria, and the cloth +manufactured from it by the natives can favourably compare, for +durability and fineness of texture, with the best Manchester article. +There may yet be a great cotton industry in Nigeria, but the subject of +cotton cultivation in West Africa is sufficiently large to justify a +special chapter. + +Ebony, mahogany and other valuable cabinet woods abound in the enormous +untapped forests of Southern Nigeria, and if no peddling restrictions are +placed upon the development of the timber industry, it should reach large +proportions. Sapelli is beginning to have some importance as the foremost +port of shipment for Southern Nigeria timber. + +Nigeria also produces cereals in plenty, such as maize or Indian corn, +millet, rice, barley, guinea corn, gero, &c., and on the high plateaux +coffee, tea, and perhaps vanilla could be grown. + +As far as minerals are concerned, silver,[92] tin, antimony and stone +potash[93] are known to exist in several parts of Nigeria, but none +of them, save the latter, have been worked. When the country has been +better explored and surveyed, gold and copper may also be found (small +quantities of gold dust are sometimes sold by the Kanuri to Fezzan and +Ghadamseen merchants), but their presence in any extent is at present +problematical. + +Tin is known to exist up the Binue, and an English Syndicate has been +formed to explore and report upon the tin-bearing possibilities of +certain districts. The Niger Company are about to start prospecting +operations, and the Germans are also said to be studying the same subject +at Garua. + +Such, briefly enumerated, are the chief natural products of Nigeria, +the most fertile and prolific portion of the Central African Continent, +towards which has gravitated a commercial movement from north, east and +west for centuries past. Such eminent authorities, in their respective +ways, as Barth, Nachtigal, Monteil, Thomson, &c., speak in terms of +unbounded admiration of the fruitfulness and the beauty of these regions, +and all the information brought by travellers and explorers of lesser +importance only tends to confirm the assertion of the great geographer +Reclus, that the countries of the Chad Basin are the richest in Africa. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RUBBER-COLLECTING IN NIGERIA + + +I have already briefly alluded to the vegetable products of Nigeria. The +collection of rubber, however, presents many features of interest, and +deserves more extended treatment. + +Of late years the West African rubber industry has grown enormously. In +some cases the increase has been phenomenal. The Niger Coast Protectorate +and the Gold Coast have within the space of six years more than doubled +their rubber exports. The performance of Lagos has been still more +remarkable, although unfortunately the wastefulness, or perhaps it would +be fairer to say the lack of scientific knowledge on the part of the +natives in tapping the trees and vines, has led to a notable falling off +in production during the last three years. It seems evident that Western +Africa may in time rival Brazil as the rubber-producing country of the +world. + +The rubber found in West Africa is of various kinds. The place of honour, +so far as our own Colonies are concerned, may be given to the rubber-tree +properly so-called, _Kickxia Africana_ (the “Ere” or “Ireh” of the +natives), and a beautiful tree it is, springing up clean and smooth to a +height of sixty feet. Then come various species of _Ficus_, and last, but +not least, the _Landolphias_, or rubber-vines. + +In Nigeria rubber is found, roughly speaking, from Abutshi, 120 miles up +the river Niger, as far as Jebba on the Niger and Yola on the Binue. We +will suppose that a rubber-collecting expedition has been decided upon by +the inhabitants of some village fifteen or twenty miles from the river +side (rubber in Nigeria is scarce on the actual river banks). + +Soon after dawn all the available men and women gather together—a +light-hearted, jabbering crowd. Extraordinary animation reigns throughout +the village. The ground is strewn with the implements necessary to the +rubber-collector’s art, and with the victuals essential to the sustenance +of his body while the work is being pursued. They include such varied +articles as calabashes, “matchets,” knives, dried yam in bags, and fresh +water in bottles which once contained that delectable, throat-peeling +liquid known as Hamburg gin. Mingled with them, in apparently hopeless +confusion, numerous spears and flint-lock guns lie scattered. There +is generally something or other on the prowl in an African forest in +the shape of leopards, or “humans,” or spirits—and it is just as well +to be prepared for any emergency. Hence these warlike accompaniments, +calculated to deceive the inexperienced into a belief that raiding and +not rubber is in question. + +Through the village and beyond it, passing plantations of millet, yams, +Indian corn and cassava, winds the caravan, until the fringe of the +forest looms near. Then, abruptly parting with the bright sunlight and +the waving fields, we plunge headlong into an atmosphere of gloomy, +fantastic weirdness, and disappear amid the silent shadows of the giant +trees. By this time the caravan is reduced to single-file formation. It +has stretched out for a mile or more along the narrow curling path, which +often takes the form of an almost complete circle, those who compose its +extreme rear being within hailing distance of the leaders, while between +the two extremities and the centre is a broad belt of impenetrable bush. +And what a solemnity broods over all! Everything is hushed. The bare +feet of the natives sink noiselessly on generations of fallen, rotting +leaves. The air is damp, humid, and enervating. We glide along in the +semi-religious light as though oppressed by some vast, undefined, awesome +presence. It is a world of great black shadows and mysterious depths; and +within it the soul shrinks and falters beneath a weight of indescribable, +all-potent, unnerving melancholy. A hot breath, laden with sickly and +overpowering perfume, rises in stifling gusts till the brain reels, and +you long with a great yearning for air and light and waving fields. +And then, suddenly, a glimpse of Paradise. Shattered by lightning, or +perchance, riddled by the larvæ of some monstrous coleoptera, a forest +giant has tumbled headlong, tearing by the impetus of his fall a great +rent in the sombre dome above, through which, though chastened and +subdued, the sun’s rays filter down upon the path beneath. There, in that +temporary clearing, Nature seems to have lavished all her gifts. Festoons +of glorious orchids stretch out their capricious blooms, asking to be +plucked. The wild tamarind, with its exquisite, plum-coloured, plush-like +fruit, invites the touch. Round flowers and fruit flutter countless +brilliantly coloured butterflies, and the glimpse of a deep tropical +blue, far, far overhead, completes the fairy sight. No palm-fringed oasis +among shifting sands can be more blessed to the traveller than these +gem-like clearings amid the sullen gloom of the tropical forests of +Western Africa. + +But to return, with apologies for this digression, to our +rubber-collectors. No sooner has the member of a caravan—every one acts, +as a rule, independently of his fellow—pitched upon a spot which seems +propitious, than down comes the load off his head. A little preliminary +in the shape of refreshment is ever conducive to good labour, so recourse +is had to the _ci-devant_ gin-bottle and the dried yams. These inner +cravings having been satisfied, the rubber-collector makes with his +“matchet” a number of transverse incisions in the bark of an adjacent +rubber-tree, or vine,[94] as the case may be; hangs his calabashes (empty +gourds) beneath the cruel rent, sees that the sap is running; looks +round for more trees, makes more incisions, hangs up more calabashes; +and then, feeling fully satisfied with his labours, casts himself down +upon the ground and lies there awhile, heedless of the crawling legions +of the insect fraternity. Every now and then he will lazily rise and +make the round of the trees he has tapped, to assure himself that the +sap is flowing freely into the calabashes. A really good workman will +collect three or four pounds of rubber a day, so that, taking an average +of, say, two pounds for each individual, a caravan numbering one hundred +and fifty souls will gather a considerable quantity of the stuff in a +comparatively short time. The sap is then boiled in an iron pot to make +it coagulate, salt and lime being sometimes added to help the process of +solidification. It is then rolled into balls. When the calabashes are +full the homeward march begins. + +The home-coming of the caravan is marked by congratulations on the part +of those who stayed behind, and every proud owner of a calabash or two +of rubber recounts to the members of an admiring household the wild and +terrible adventures (in the shape of spooks, leopards, and what not) +which have befallen him in the forest. + +The last stage in the business, so far as the native is concerned, has +then to be carried out. The rubber having been collected, it must be +sold. So off goes the collector to the nearest trading station with the +spoil. Now, if the commercial ways of the Heathen Chinee are dark, the +ways of the Heathen son of Ham are much the same on occasion. The rubber, +he knows, is bought by weight. Primitive reasoning convinces him that if +he rolls his rubber round a stone or bullet, not only will the ball weigh +more, but he will be able to make more balls out of the rubber he has +collected. The consequence is that the European trader, when he cuts the +rubber ball in two (being used to these little pranks), frequently comes +across a stone, bullet, or other heavy substance embedded in the centre, +to the unbounded astonishment, needless to remark, of our friend the +collector, who cannot for the life of him understand who placed it there, +and asserts, with much emphasis and gesticulation, that only a ju-ju or +spirit of the most depraved character could have played an honest man so +low-down a trick. + +[Illustration: WASHING RUBBER] + +When the rubber has finally passed into the white trader’s hands, after +the preliminary native preparation, it is still found to contain a +large proportion of water (about 10[95] per cent.) and emits a most +disagreeable odour. This water has to be ejected before the rubber is +fit for the European market. The balls or cakes are therefore placed in +a pressing machine, resembling an ordinary mangle, then cleaned of the +impurities which may still remain, and finally cut into strips, soaked in +sea-water to prevent “sweating,” and shipped in wooden casks.[96] + +The rubber trade of Nigeria is only in its infancy, and the advent of +competitive private enterprise into the Niger territories should have the +effect of stimulating the industry to a notable extent. + +The unfortunate destruction of the rubber trees and vines in the Lagos +forests has been instrumental in producing a _furor_ of restrictive +legislation on the part of the authorities. There is grave doubt as to +whether this method of approaching the subject is not mistaken and likely +to defeat its own ends. It is incongruous, to say the least of it, to +first of all encourage the native to exploit a new product, to give him +no scientific instruction or training in the process, and then, when +the inevitable happens, to express great indignation at his villainous +capacity for mischief, and frame legislation calculated to interfere +with his free use of his own property! It is not the general custom of +the native to destroy a product out of which he makes money. In the case +of the oil-palm, in the usage of which they have been long accustomed, +the native chiefs themselves legislate against over-tapping, witness the +“porroh” of the Mendis. It is a matter of instruction. It is notorious +that the crisis in the Lagos rubber industry is entirely attributable +to the gross foolishness displayed by the authorities in the first +instance in not taking the necessary means to teach the natives the art +of rational production. What is wanted is the creation of small centres +of instruction in every district, where the natives could come for +information, where various products could be shown, tested and commented +upon. The official in charge would have no powers whatever conferred +upon him in a political sense, but would be connected, of course, with +the Government. His duty would be that of instructor, supervisor, guide, +and assistant. He would certainly be welcomed by the chiefs, so long as +they were assured that his _rôle_ was entirely divorced from political +designs. The experience would cost very little, and the benefits accruing +therefrom, both as regards the perfecting of existing native industries +and the stimulation of new ones, would be considerable, and would do away +with the necessity, or alleged necessity, of subsequent legislation of an +irritating character. A little more of that sort of thing and a little +less blood-letting and “murder of native institutions,” as Miss Kingsley +used to put it, in order to improve them, would be very desirable. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FULANI IN NIGERIA + + “Remember that Paradise is found under the shadow of swords. + These wretches are come to fight for an impious cause. We have + called them into the right way, and to reward us they threaten + us with arms. Meet this attack with courage and be certain + of victory for the Prophet has said, ‘Even if a mountain is + guilty against another mountain, it is swallowed up in the + earth.’”—The speech of OTHMAN, the Fulani conqueror of Hausa, + to his soldiers on the outbreak of war. + + +“The King of Gober took many of their cows. The Phulas said nothing. He +returned again to seize their cows. The Phulas said, ‘Is it right on us +to take vengeance?’ But the King of Gober took some of their cows and +returned them to them, saying, ‘Let there be peace between us; you leave +this place and return to some place near me.’ They replied they would not +go. In the morning he commenced fighting with them, with one thousand +horse soldiers to seize the Phulas; but they drove him back with great +force. From that time he did not make open war with them again; but he +brought poison, put it into the water, and all who did drink of it died. +After this the Phulas made war with him, and when they had conquered +his people, they caught many of them and made them slaves; in this way +it was that the Phulas got possession of Gober. In the same way it was +that they sent their people to all parts of Hausa and fought with the +Pagans.”[97] Thus does a native version explain the origin of the great +Fulani uprising in the Hausa States in the early part of last century +which started a great wave of Muslim conquest, sweeping southwards from +the Chad Basin almost to the ocean. “We will dip the Koran in the sea,” +swore the conquering host of white-clad horsemen, and but for the +concentration of the agricultural Yorubas, which checked their advance +and led to their overthrow, by a night surprise, outside the walls of +Osogbo,[98] they would have fulfilled their vow. + +The story of the Fulani revolution—misnamed by some “invasion”—in Hausa +has been often told, sometimes correctly,[99] sometimes with obvious +bias against the reformers, and _minus_ several important facts, such, +for instance, as the co-operation which the revolutionists sought and +found among the Hausas themselves. To describe it once again would be +superfluous. Suffice it to say that “victims of persecution,” as their +own records assert and as Barth confirms, and as we are at least as +warranted in believing as those other accounts which make them out to +be the oppressors rather than the oppressed; in much the same position +of social and political inferiority to men whose intellectual superiors +they are, as their compatriots find themselves to-day in Borgu, the +pastoral Fulani of Northern Nigeria, remembering the performances of +other of their brethren when similarly situated, and acting under the +influence of their mallam Zaky, or Othman Dan Fodio, to give him his +European appellation, flung aside the crook, took to the sword, and with +the name of “Allah” on their lips completely subjugated in a few short +years the mutually antagonistic Hausa States, made themselves masters of +the principal cities, converted the natives to Islam, and so ably and +justly administered the country,[100] that, in Clapperton’s words, “The +whole country, when not in state of war, was so well regulated that it +was a common saying that a woman might travel with a cask of gold upon +her head, from one end of the Fellatah[101] dominions to the other.”[102] +From cattle rearers and herdsmen the Fulani temporarily became warriors, +administrators and statesmen, a minority retaining these attributes to +this day, while the bulk of the people continue their usual avocations. +Their capacity for combination enabled them to overcome the Hausa States, +perpetually engaged in intestine quarrels; their statesmanship induced +them to foster and encourage the caravan trade with the Tripolitan ports; +their administrative genius was observable in a hundred ways, not the +least in obtaining their revenue by the maintenance of existing forms of +taxation.[103] Their intense religious zeal has been so communicative +that the Hausas have never even fractionally relapsed into Paganism.[104] +When we contemplate the achievements of the Fulani in Nigeria we are lost +in wonder, and there is no difficulty in endorsing what Sir Frederick +Lugard has said of them—and what many French administrators and officers +have said before him—“they are born rulers and incomparably above the +negroid tribes in ability.” What potent allies these men can be to the +wise administration which makes use of their services in Western Africa, +which gains their confidence and enlists their sympathies! + +[Illustration: FULANI SWORD] + +The wholesale manner in which the Fulani have succeeded in stamping +their individuality upon the races with whom they have come in contact +is astonishing. Everywhere in their wonderful _trek_ from east to west, +and from west to south, from the valley of the Senegal to the valley of +the Binue, new and more virile generations have sprung up beneath their +fertile tread, destined in the course of time to found for themselves +separate kingdoms, almost to become separate nationalities. Thus in +Futa Jallon, that mountainous region abounding in the fine cattle the +Fulani themselves introduced in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, +and which before the French occupation supplied the Freetown markets +with fresh meat, we find the Fulani powerfully affecting the ethnic +elements of the country by their unions with the indigenous Jalonkes and +Mandingoes. In Senegambia, a well-nigh distinct race has arisen in the +Tukulors, Fulani crossed with Joloff and Mandingo. Hausas and Kanuri of +Bornu, Tuareg of the southern confederations, and Susus from the Northern +Rivers[105] have all received an infusion of Fulani blood. And yet the +pure Fulani element has preserved itself, and while absorbing countless +tribes and becoming itself greatly modified in certain districts, +has succeeded in perpetuating the parent strain which has never been +absorbed.[106] At the present time may be found, scattered throughout the +Western Sudan, in the Futa Jallon highlands, and in the regions abutting +upon Lake Chad—in Adamawa notably—the same type of nomadic herdsmen, +refined, hospitable and courteous in demeanour, simple and patriarchal in +his habits, with clear-cut features and copper-coloured or olive-tinged +complexion, who tended his hump-backed cattle and roman-nosed sheep a +thousand years ago in the oasis of Tuat and the plains round Timbuctoo. +And by his side, his wives, rejoicing in a greater degree of liberty and +authority in the household than any of their African sisters, with the +charm of another land upon them, soft-eyed, spice-loving daughters of the +East, from whence they came in those dim and distant days shrouded in +impenetrable mist. + +[Illustration: PURE-BRED FULANI GIRL, ADAMAWA] + +The history of the Fulani is not confined to Nigeria. Their rise to power +in the old Hausa States, and the foundation of the Sokoto Empire is, as +we have seen, quite a modern event, and it is only partially accurate +to say that their dominating influence in inland Western Africa dated +from the Jihad of Othman. The latter’s successes certainly inspired the +Fulani (but perhaps more especially the cross races of Fulani blood) +west of the Niger to warlike deeds. The Fulani revolution in Hausa was +followed by the Fulani uprising in Segu against the pagan Bambarras +and Soninkes. Timbuctoo fell into their power in 1826. Mohammed Lebo +started a crusade in Massina, directed as much against the pagans as +against his co-religionists and compatriots, for their lack of zeal and +the impurities which had crept into their religious observances. After +Mohammed Lebo, the great Tukulor chief, El-Haji-Omar, a man of remarkable +ability, belonging to the fanatical sect of the Tijaniyah, gathered +an immense host around him, by means of which he waged war on all and +sundry, showing particular animosity towards the parent stock from which +he sprang. But his religious zeal was untempered by political purpose, +his constructive powers appear to have been small, he fought entirely for +his own hand, and his collision with and subsequent defeats by the French +resulted in the revolt of those who had suffered from his excesses. It +is a curious fact that he should have finally been driven to desperation +and suicide, and his power extinguished, by the Fulani themselves, +notwithstanding the ties of blood which bound them to the Tukulors, from +among whom Omar naturally obtained most of his recruits. Nevertheless, +El-Haji-Omar is still a name to conjure with in the Western Sudan, and +other adventurers of his type have from time to time given the French +a deal of trouble. But the Fulani had been masters in a considerable +portion of Western Africa long before Othman raised his standard in +Gober of Hausa. In the next chapter endeavour will be made to search +the earliest records throwing light upon the presence of the Fulani in +Western Africa. This will help us to approach the problem of the origin +of a race which constitutes the ruling factor in the foremost, in point +of size and importance, of the British Protectorates in West Africa. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FULANI IN WEST AFRICAN HISTORY + + “In every kingdom and country on each side of the river there + are some people of a tawny colour called Pholeys.... They live + in hoards or clans, build towns, and are not subject to any + kings of the country, though they live in their territories: + for if they are ill-treated in one nation they break up their + towns and remove to another. They have chiefs of their own, who + rule with so much moderation that every act of government seems + rather an act of the people than of one man.... They plant near + their houses tobacco, and all round their towns they open for + cotton, which they fence in together; beyond that are their + corn-fields, of which they raise four kinds.... They are the + greatest planters in the country, though they are strangers in + it. They are very industrious and frugal, and raise more corn + and cotton than they consume, which they sell at a reasonable + price, and are very hospitable and kind to all; so that to have + a Pholey town in the neighbourhood is by the natives reckoned a + blessing.... As they have plenty of food, they never suffer any + of their own nation to want; but support the old, the blind, + and lame equally with the others; and, as far as their ability + goes, assist the wants of the Mandingoes, great numbers of whom + they have maintained in famines.”—FRANCIS MOORE on the Fulani + of the Gambia (1734). + + “A race in which self-reliance and colonising instincts are + prominently developed. Education and mental training are + carefully attended to. In every town and village are men who + devote themselves to the instruction of youth. Nearly every man + and woman can at least read Arabic. Under the enlightened rule + of Alimami Ibrahim Suri, life is held in reverence, property + is sacred, robbery committed in the highway is punishable with + death.... There is a woman in Timbo who knows the whole of the + Moallaket by heart, an accomplishment in Semitic lore which + many an Oriental scholar in Europe might envy.”—DR. BLYDEN on + the Fulani in Futa-Jallon. + + “They occupy a high place in the scale of intelligence.”—BAIKIE + on the Fulani of Northern Nigeria. + + +The earliest mention we have of an Empire existing in West Africa is +contained in the _Tarik_,[107] a history of the Western Sudan, written +in the seventeenth century by one Abderrahman ben Abdallah ben Imran +ben Amir Es-Sa’di, and apparently ascribed by Barth in error to the +celebrated _savant_ of Timbuctoo, Ahmed Baba. That Empire was the Empire +of Ghanata, so called from its capital Ghana, which has been identified +with Walata or Biru. The spread of the Empire was enormous and extended +to the Atlantic, embracing the valleys of the Senegal and the Gambia. +Ghana was situate in the central province of the Empire, by name Baghena, +the modern Bakunu according to Commandant Binger. The _Tarik_ states +that twenty-two kings had reigned in Ghanata prior to the Hejira. Barth +approximated the foundation of Ghanata to 300 A.D. It was attacked and +defeated in the eighth century[108] by a Berber tribe (Zanaga, Senhaja?), +the invaders subsequently succumbing, at what period is obscure, to +the Mandingoes—or Mandingo-Fulani, _i.e._ Tukulors—who from its ruins +constructed another Empire which grew to even larger proportions, that +of Melli, Melle,[109] or Mali, as it is variously spelt. Who were the +original founders of the Ghanata or Walata Empire? + +[Illustration: FULANI CHIEF—FUTA JALLON] + +Dr. Robert Brown, in his most admirable edition of Pory’s translation of +Leo,[110] says: “Walata is the Arab and Tuareg name, while Biru is the +one applied to it by the Negro Azer, a section of the Aswanek, who are +the original inhabitants of the place.” At the time the above was written +no complete copy[111] of the _Tarik_ was obtainable, and Dr. Brown was +unable consequently to consult the work, and to observe how closely +it corroborates Barth’s famous chronological history of the Songhay. +Had he done so the passage in question would, no doubt, have undergone +modification, for the _Tarik_ distinctly tells us that the name of the +original founder of the Ghanata (Walata) dynasty was Quaia-Magha,[112] +and Magha, as M. O. Houdas points out, is a Fufulde word meaning “great.” +Thus it is legitimate to assume, in view of the absence of rebutting +evidence, that the original founders of probably the oldest Empire in +West Africa, of the first Empire at any rate of which record is left +to us, were of Fulani blood. In any case, it would appear to point +conclusively to the existence of the Fulani language, and therefore to +the presence of the Fulani in the Senegal region of West Africa from the +very earliest times. + +It may be argued that a single word is a slender basis upon which to +construct a theory. But when it is borne in mind (1) that the ensuing +historical record of the very same region, 1500 years later, viz. +the arrival at the court of the Bornuese king Biri of two religious +chiefs _of the Fulani of Melle_, proves the presence of the Fulani in +the country which the _Tarik_ asserts was ruled over by a king with a +Fulfulde[113] affix to his name; (2) that every successive account, +both Arabic and European, referring to the same region corroborates the +circumstance, it will be conceded that the assumption goes far beyond +mere plausibility. There is every reason to believe that the Fulani +were numerous in the Empire of Melle[114] (if, indeed, the rulers of +that Empire were not of mixed Fulani blood, which seems probable[115]), +sometimes in the ascendant, sometimes the under-dogs, according as their +political fortunes rose and fell.[116] In the middle of the fifteenth +century they were certainly the ruling race in Baghena (the central +province, as already stated, of the Ghanata Empire, which seems to have +preserved its name subsequent to the Mellian conquest), having succeeded +apparently in getting the upper hand. We know this from the Songhay +records, which tell us that at that period Askia, the powerful Songhay +king, “conquered Baghena and slew the Fulani chieftain Damba-Dumbi.”[117] +Thirty years before that event the chief of Baghena was also a Fulani, +as is testified by the records of Askia’s predecessor. About 1450 +Ca-de-Mosto speaks of “el rey dos Fullos” on the banks of the Senegal. +Later on, John II. of Portugal sends an embassy to Tamala, “powerful +king of the Fulas.” De Barros, the Portuguese historian, refers to a +great war, “incendia de guerra,” in the Senegal country (1534). Masses of +Fulani, says de Barros, left the country of “Futa”—probably Futa-Toro—in +a southerly direction. So numerous was the host, he continues, that +“it dried up the rivers in its passage.” Marmol also refers to this +southward movement. The Fulani, “who had raised so formidable an army +in the southern parts of the province of ‘Fura’ (Futa) which borders +on Mandingo, which they were marching against, that they pretended it +dried up rivers.”[118] No doubt that was the beginning of the Fulani +migration into Bondu and Bambuk, to be followed at a subsequent period +by a continuation of the movement into Futa-Jallon. The _Tarik_ gives us +the story of the foundation of the Fulani State of Toro by Salta Tayenda, +“the false prophet,” in 1511.[119] According to the _Tarik_, the Fulani +were ruling as far eastward as Masina in the fifteenth century, and +Barth’s chronological table of the Songhay mentions an expedition by a +Songhay king against the Fulani of Gurma, still farther east. + +Coming to a later period, we have Jobson (1628) talking of the Fulani +as oppressed by, and in subjection to, the Mandingoes in the Gambia +region. In 1697 the Sieur de Brüe pays his first visit, on behalf of +the French Senegal Company, to the court of the Fulani ruler on the +Senegal River. Labat’s description of the event is most picturesque. +They were the days when African monarchs were treated with respect by +the European who desired to trade with their subjects. Even the cynical +prelate to whom we are indebted for the relation of Brüe’s voyage, and +who chuckles over the small villainies practised upon the Fulani by +the Company, expresses astonishment with the Fulani institutions, the +judiciary and administrative systems, the agricultural and commercial +aptitude of the inhabitants. “As far as the eye could reach,” he says, +quoting from Brüe’s papers, “not an inch of ground was left uncultivated +or neglected.” Farther on he speaks of “vast plains covered with cattle.” +“They”—the Fulani—he continues, “cultivate the soil with care and make +abundant harvests of large and small millet, cotton, tobacco, peas and +other vegetables, and they rear prodigious quantities of cattle.” In +short, we find the same well-defined characteristics in the Fulani Empire +in the Senegal of the seventeenth century as are observable in their +Empires of more recent date. Herdsmen and agriculturists by nature, they +produce, when circumstances have placed the government of the countries +in which they have settled into their hands, a class of statesmen and +administrators. + +[Illustration: HALF-CASTE FULANI GIRL—FUTA-JALLON] + +I have quoted a considerable number of authorities—the list might easily +be extended—to show that the Fulani have lived in the Senegal and Gambia +region from remote times, and that their identification by the _Tarik_, +and by Barth, with the Ghanata Empire, estimated by the latter to date +back to A.D. 300, is, therefore, inherently probable. From the region +in which they have alternately been rulers and ruled, and where they +reside to-day under French domination, the Fulani have gradually spread +themselves south and east, throughout almost the entire region of inland +Western Africa. The movement continues and is one of the most interesting +ethnological factors in Western Africa. On the west, the forest belt has +prevented the Fulani from reaching the ocean, although on two occasions +they were very nearly doing so, from behind Lagos in the middle of last +century, as mentioned in the previous chapter; from behind Sierra Leone +about thirty years before their defeat at Osogbo, their cavalry (as in +Yoruba) being ineffective against the opposition of the forest dwellers, +Sulimas and others—the free Negroes of the Sierra Leone Protectorate, +upon whom Downing Street in its wisdom imposed a property tax in 1898. +Ashanti tradition mentions the advent of “red men” from the interior as a +contributive cause of their migration southward.[120] To-day the Fulani +have reached the borders of the great Congo forest, and according to some +accounts are present in very large numbers on the Sangha River.[121] Will +they seek to penetrate the forest or will they turn aside, oblique to the +north,[122] once more and, as though impelled forward by an inscrutable +decree of Providence, gravitate imperceptibly towards the spot where they +crossed into the Dark Continent from Asia, and first set foot upon that +African soil which for some four thousand years has been their home? + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ORIGIN OF THE FULANI + + “The most interesting of all African tribes.... A distinct + race.”—DR. BARTH, “Travels in Central Africa” (5-volume + edition). + + +Of all the mysteries which lie hidden, or but half unveiled, within the +bosom of the still mysterious Continent of Africa, there is none that +presents a more absorbing or more fascinating interest than the origin of +the race which has infused its individuality throughout inland Western +Africa, and whose fertilising influence is visible from the banks of the +Senegal to the Chad. + +In the previous chapter it has, I venture to believe, been fairly +established that the Fulani are indubitably associated with our earliest +available records of Western Africa, and that, with the exception of +Hanno’s narrative (touched upon presently), every important reference, +spread over many centuries, to the portion of Western Africa between the +tenth and twentieth parallels of North latitude, bears witness, directly +or indirectly, to the presence of the Fulani within that region at a +remote period.[123] Whence came this people, which differentiates so +radically in colour, form, habits, customs and manners from the Negroes +among whom they have settled, and which dominated in the valley of the +Senegal as far back as the fourth century? + +Their own legends; their complexion and structure; their mental +development and physical characteristics, all point emphatically to the +East as the cradle of the Fulani race; a “distinct race,” as Dr. Barth +truly says, and not the bastard product which some would make out. + +[Illustration: LOW-CASTE FULANI, WESTERN SUDAN] + +Before attempting to piece together the various threads which in the +aggregate amount, in my humble opinion, to a virtual demonstration, it +may be well to state that the Eastern theory numbers opponents who, +from their position and attainments, compel our attention. There are +those who entertain the belief that the Fulani belong to the Berber +stock. There are others who think—and this I cannot but regard as wildly +improbable—that the Fulani are of Nigritic extraction. M. Marcel Dubois, +the brilliant author of “Timbuctoo the Mysterious,”[124] whose treatment +of the Fulani is anything but impartial, categorically denies the Eastern +theory. “It was from the West,” he says, “from the Senegalese Adrar +(Aderer of British maps), from the land of sand extending north of the +Senegal that they came.” “The Foulbes,” he continues, “had been driven +towards the Sudan, very probably when the Moors, expelled from Spain, +invaded Adrar.” M. Dubois finds corroboration of his views in a passage +of the _Tarik_ (which, being written by an Arab, is necessarily biased +against the Fulani) to the effect that the “Foulbes originated in the +country of Tischitt.” I venture, very respectfully, to differ from M. +Dubois. According to Leo, the Moors or Berbers conquered Ghanata in the +eighth century, the ruling caste at that time, as both the _Tarik_ and +also Barth’s records lead us to infer, being of Fulani blood, which in +itself casts doubt upon M. Dubois’ assertion. But the more one endeavours +to reconcile M. Dubois’ contention with existing records, the less sound +does it appear. The Moorish power in Spain was not finally extinguished +until towards the close of the fifteenth century. Nevertheless, it may be +said that the Moorish cause was lost in Europe, and that their expulsion +commenced with the defeat of Salado in 1340.[125] We can, therefore, +for the sake of argument, take the middle of the fourteenth century as +the period, approximately, when the Moors began to be “expelled from +Spain.” This would be about the time when, in M. Dubois’ view, the Moors +were driving the pastoral Fulani towards Aderer, “the land of sand.” +Now, apart from the self-evident contradiction of a people whose wealth +has ever been in their flocks and herds, originating in an arid district +(sand not usually being associated with pastures), the Fulani were in +point of fact already considerably farther south. Was not the market of +Jenne (on which M. Dubois has himself thrown such a glamour of interest) +attended as early as 1260 by Fulani?[126] Did not the King of Bornu +receive a Fulani deputation from Melle between 1288 and 1306?[127] Is it +conceivable that the Fulani, compelled to evacuate Aderer in the middle +of the fourteenth century, would have ruled over vast tracts of territory +as far south as Gurma, only one hundred years later? M. Dubois will have +to bring forward a great deal of evidence—certainly something more than +his own assertion, and an obscure passage in the _Tarik_—to upset the +Eastern theory of Fulani origin. + +Of native traditions among the Fulani attributing an Eastern origin +to their race we have no end, and although too much significance need +not be attached to them, they must not on that account be overlooked. +There is generally a foundation of truth in native legends of this +kind. Anthropometrical studies, or rather craniological studies, are, +however, extremely valuable. Although carried out to a small extent +so far, they appreciably strengthen the Eastern theory. Dr. Verneau, +whose reputation as an anthropologist is well known, has recently +published[128] the results of an examination of five skulls of Fulani +chiefs from Futa-Jallon. The first three belonged to individuals known, +when alive, to the French authorities of that Colony. The other two were +brought home by Dr. Maclaud, who has travelled extensively among the +Fulani, and to whom I am indebted for several of the photographs here +reproduced. None of the originals were Fulani of the pure type. The one +approaching nearest to purity was Alfa-Alliu, who was condemned to death +for an unprovoked attack upon a French convoy. Of this individual’s +skull, Dr. Verneau reports: “Alfa-Alliu belongs by his cranial and +facial characteristics to the sur-based (vaulted) pentagonal type which +enters into the composition of the present population of Erythria and +the ancient population of Egypt.” Of two other skulls out of the five +examined, Dr. Verneau remarks: “Their owners, no doubt, had a certain +amount of negro blood in their veins, which resulted in a thickening of +the osseous frame and in a notable prognathous accentuation....[129] +Nevertheless, these two chiefs were not negroes; the width of the +forehead, the prominence of the bones of the nose, the proportions of the +nose itself, and the form of the chin, preclude any connection.” Of the +two remaining skulls, Dr. Verneau concludes thus: “I will not further +insist upon the cephalic character of these two deeply crossed Fulani. +I would merely observe that, notwithstanding the mixed breed, they +present two cranial forms which we find wherever the influence of the +Ethiopians has been felt.” It is necessary to add that by “Ethiopian,” +Dr. Verneau—as he is careful to explain in the opening lines of his +paper—designates the Abyssinian type, holding that the synonymy given to +the terms “Negro” and “Ethiopian” is a popular confusion. Élisée Reclus, +in his great geographical work, also states that the formation of the +Fulani cranium has affinities with the Egyptian type. To this testimony +may be added, that the most recent studies in Berber anthropometry +tend to divorce the Berbers from the ancient Egyptian and the Eastern +stock.[130] + +Dr. Blyden, who visited Timbo (the capital of Futa-Jallon, one of the +most important Fulani centres in West Africa) in the seventies, and who, +like Dr. Bayol and others, was immensely impressed with what he saw, +remarks in a report to the Government of the time (to which I have been +able, through the doctor’s kindness, to have access): “On entering a +Fulah town the first thing which strikes a stranger is the Caucasian cast +of features, especially among the older people; yet every now and then, +in the children of parents having all the physical traits of the Semitic +family, there recurs the inextinguishable Negro physiognomy.”[131] “It +is evident,” the doctor goes on to say, “that while there is a large +infusion of foreign blood among the people, there is still the influence +of a powerful race-stock which has thoroughly assimilated the alien +elements, and this may be judged from the strong pride of ancestry which +they possess, their respect for the past and their care for posterity.” + +D’Eichtal sought to trace in the Hovas of Madagascar a relationship with +the Fulani, which would, obviously, connect them with the Malays—the +object of d’Eichtal’s treatise. The sole basis of the theory was a chance +similarity in certain words; but were d’Eichtal right, we should have +to admit a complete reversal of the cycle of Fulani migration, which is +quite impossible. Fulfulde cannot as yet be definitely classed among +the languages, but, so far as our knowledge extends, it has Semitic +antecedents. When we endeavour to find some other links, connecting the +Fulani with the East, several circumstances arrest our attention. The +first is provided in a passage of Hanno’s “Periplus”; the second, in +the invasion of Lower Egypt by the Hyksos; the third, in the Hebraic +tendencies and peculiar familiarity with Hebrew legends observed among +the Fulani; the fourth, in an attachment to their cattle so remarkable +as to suggest a far-off bovine worship. These points may be severally +examined. + +[Illustration: PURE-BRED FULANI GIRL—FUTA-JALLON] + +When, towards the close of the sixteenth century B.C., the rulers of +Carthage conceived a scheme of over-sea colonisation which should +redound to the glory of the Empire and free it at the same time from a +portion at least of the undesirable elements of the population, they +despatched an armada of sixty ships containing some thirty thousand +souls, under the command of a worthy magistrate of the name of Hanno, +with instructions to pass through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of +Gibraltar) and to lay the basis of a colony somewhere beyond them. The +fleet appears to have navigated the West Coast of Africa until it reached +the Senegal, the Carthaginians proceeding for some little distance up +that river, subsequently pushing southward to the Gambia and farther +still to the “Southern Horn,” which it has been sought to identify with +Sherbro Sound.[132] This meeting of Phœnician culture with aboriginal +primitiveness on the West Coast was, as Sir Harry Johnston has strikingly +put it, “The first sight that civilised man had of his wild brother since +the two had parted company in Neolithic times.” And yet in one respect +this general statement is open to doubt. It was not only Negroes with +whom the Carthaginian navigator came in contact. + +On his return, Hanno wrote an account of his wanderings, in the Punic +tongue, termed a Periplus or circumnavigation, which he dedicated to +Moloch, the deity of the Carthaginians, in the Temple of Cronos. Through +the enterprise of Greek scientists, the relation of Hanno’s voyage +has been preserved to us. About three centuries after its completion, +Ptolemæus Claudius, a Greek geographer and historian, published eight +volumes of geographical research. The portion relating to Africa was +mainly founded upon Carthaginian material and included a translation of +Hanno’s “Periplus.” From Ptolemy’s description, we gather that in the +neighbourhood of the Gambia (Stachir) the Carthaginians came across a +people of a lighter hue than the Negroes. These people the author calls +“Leucæthiopes.” Pliny also speaks of the “Leucæthiopes,” placing them, +however, a couple of degrees farther north. Thus five hundred years B.C., +Carthaginian navigators reported in West Africa the existence of a people +to whom the epithet of “black” did not apply, in the same region in which +eight hundred years later—that being the first reference to West Africa +which has come down to us—we hear of an Empire whose rulers were “white,” +founded by a monarch with a Fulfulde affix to his name. + +Who could those light-complexioned “Africans” have been? Not, assuredly, +Arabs; still less Bantus. With the Berber tribes the Carthaginians were +in touch everywhere, in Mauritania, Numidia, Cyrenaica. From the Berbers, +Carthage drew her mercenaries, who often enough proved more dangerous +than useful. The colonists would have recognised the type had they met +with it in West Africa, and if the “Leucæthiopes” had been Berbers they +would have been differently described in the “Periplus.” Indeed, there +is some ground for believing that the colonists numbered Berbers among +their ranks. Moreover, the Berber occupation could not at that time have +extended as far south, by at least fifteen degrees, as the Senegal-Gambia +region. There is not, so far as I am aware, any record extant suggesting +the presence of the Berbers in the valley of the Senegal until the eighth +century A.D. To what race, then, could the “Leucæthiopes” have belonged? +To what race but the Fulani, to whom the description given by Hanno could +alone—bearing in mind the period of the expedition—by any possibility +apply? That is link one.[133] + +[Illustration: FULANI HOUSE—FUTA-JALLON] + +The invasion of Lower Egypt by the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings from the +East is one of the obscurest stages of Egyptian history. Professor +Lepsius believed that the invasion of the Shepherds occurred during the +thirteenth dynasty (which, according to the same authority, began in 2136 +B.C.), and ended about 1626 B.C. with the expulsion of the Shepherds. +About 2000 B.C. then—a little earlier or a little later, according to +other authorities—Egypt, being at that time under the Theban dynasty, +was invaded by vast hordes of Asiatics, who brought with them enormous +quantities of cattle and sheep.[134] It would seem as though some great +internal convulsion, the cause of which can only be conjectured, had +precipitated into the fertile valley of the Nile a number of nomadic +pastoral tribes, by nature herdsmen, shepherds and agriculturists, but +converted for the time being either through famine, scarcity of pastures, +pressure of other tribes behind them, or spontaneous race-expansion, +into a warlike and conquering people which swept onward in irresistible +strength until they reached a land suitable for their herds—their only +wealth. The distinctive character of their occupation is preserved in +their name—Hyksos or Shepherd Kings. After a sanguinary struggle, the +invaders succeeded in fairly establishing themselves in Lower Egypt, and +gradually extended their influence over Upper Egypt, where, however, they +were unable to gain complete mastery. Their supremacy lasted about five +hundred years. They were finally overthrown and driven out of the country +by the representatives of the old Theban dynasty under Misphragmuthosis +and Thoutmosis, somewhere about 1636 B.C., if we adopt the estimate of +the celebrated Egyptologist, Professor Lepsius. What became of them? The +Egyptian scribe, Manetho, contends that they crossed back into Asia, +but the statement is very doubtful, and his further assertion that they +occupied Judea and founded Jerusalem is scouted by the learned. + +Is it not legitimate to suppose that a portion, at any rate, of +so enterprising and courageous a people, which must have been +extraordinarily numerous to have held sway over Egypt for so considerable +a period, should have preferred to plunge into the unknown West, in +search of fresh territories where their herds might find sustenance, +rather than ignominiously return in the direction from whence they came? +For five hundred years Africa had been their home. Africa offered them +extensive pastures for their cattle. They must have largely mingled and +intermarried with the Egyptians. Family and historical ties bound them +to the African soil. They had become adopted children of that Continent, +which in all ages has exerted a peculiar fascination over the various +immigrant peoples that have entered it. History, I believe, contains not +one single instance of a people which, having once settled in Africa, +has left it again. The Shepherds had risen in Africa to a position of +paramountcy. Out of the undisciplined host which spread itself like a +torrent over the Nile Delta, a race of statesmen had evolved capable +of ruling what was perhaps the mightiest Empire of the then civilised +world. It is incredible to imagine that a whole people could have been +driven in a fixed direction, as Manetho would have us believe. Tens of +thousands must have been employed, as their compatriots the Hebrews were +employed, by the victorious Thebans, in raising those mighty monuments of +stone whose ruins to-day provoke the wonder of all men. Many more must +have escaped westwards, and gained with their belongings the fertile +plains of inland Cyrenaica, and, through the ages, pushed on and on, +ever seeking pastures new, until in the course of a thousand years the +Carthaginians found their descendants in the rich valleys of the Senegal +and Gambia—with their national characteristics preserved, their “powerful +race stock” unimpaired, their “strong pride of ancestry” remaining, their +ways adapted to their new environment. + +Others again may have migrated south and have largely influenced +the composite ethnic elements of Erythria, of which the nomadic +cattle-rearing Wahuma of Uganda would appear to be an offshoot—the +Asiatic origin of the latter being generally admitted. So much for link +number two. + +The advent of the Hyksos in Lower Egypt was approximately contemporaneous +with Hebrew emigration from Mesopotamia to Palestine. Three hundred years +later, in 1700 B.C. according to Biblical records, when a grievous famine +lay upon the land, the famous Israelitish _trek_ into Africa began, upon +the direct invitation of Egypt’s ruler, in whose employ Joseph had risen +to a position of great influence. The new-comers established themselves +in the fertile province of Goshen,[135] east of the Nile, where the +river branches as the prongs of a fork. Who was the reigning Pharaoh +at the time? The gap in Egyptian history unfortunately prevents an +answer. But that, unless the most competent Egyptologists are hopelessly +wrong, he was one of the Shepherd Kings, cannot be doubted. And, apart +from the similarity of dates, there are inherent reasons which still +further fortify what may almost be said to be a certainty. The Hyksos +were a conglomeration of Asiatic herdsmen whom circumstances had forced +into the valley of the Nile. The _rôle_ of warriors and administrators +which they assumed was probably an accident, the result of finding a +powerful nation in occupation of the land they coveted, and whom they +had to subdue before being able to occupy. That they succeeded is proof, +not only of their courage but of their political genius and power of +organisation—qualities for which the Fulani are to-day conspicuous, +notwithstanding the demoralising tendency of contact with intellectually +inferior races. It was their political genius which led the Hyksos to +invite an influx of Israelites, Asiatics like themselves, of the same +Semitic origin and the same Monotheistic leaning. The wisdom of the +policy is apparent. The Hyksos knew well that their rule was unpopular, +that the Princes of the overthrown Theban dynasty were continually +intriguing against their domination in the southern provinces, and that +their hold upon the country depended upon the number of their adherents +in the north. They set themselves, therefore, to encourage Asiatic +immigration. Inversely, it was but natural that, when the representatives +of the old Theban dynasty once more came into their own, the Israelites +should have been specially marked out for resentment. + +The administrative seat of the Hyksos was Memphis, the city sacred to +the worship of the bull Apis. At first the Hyksos replaced the worship +of Apis, incarnation of the divine Osiris, by their own divinity Set, +but they were compelled by the pressure of public opinion to allow the +revival of the national cult. After suffering a temporary eclipse, +bull-worship continued as before. It is, indeed, open to question whether +the Shepherds themselves, and their compatriots the Israelites, did not +end by adopting, partially at least, the divinities of the conquered. Can +we not trace, for instance, in the incident of the golden calf erected by +Aaron in the wilderness, and the employment of golden calves by Jeroboam, +in order to symbolise the deity, the strong hold which bull-worship had +taken upon the imagination of those pastoral Semites, the Israelites, +whom the Hyksos, pastoral Semites like themselves, had invited to reside +with them in the land of Goshen? What more natural that, being herdsmen, +and taught by long years of experience to look upon cattle-rearing as +their natural avocation, the Semitic invaders of Egypt and their allies +should have been predisposed, and insensibly drifted, towards the +adoption of the religion which they found existing in the country they +had conquered, and of which the chief symbolical deity was a bull? + +[Illustration: FULANI CATTLE-PEN] + +Now is it not a very singular fact that the Fulani should be the only +people in Western Africa whose former religious beliefs have been +associated, by those who have lived amongst them, with an ancient +bull-worship, the former cult of Egypt? The unusual regard they have for +their cattle, even after Islam has been established among the great bulk +of them for upwards of nine centuries, is singled out for special notice +on the part of numerous observers. Reclus deems the circumstance to be +worthy of notice: “The scrupulous care,” he says, “which they devote +to their cattle-pens has something in it of a religious nature.” Here +and there, in the Western Sudan, tribes of Fulani are met with, whose +members have remained pagan, and their paganism, in so far as it has been +observed, consists in a superstitious reverence for their cattle, almost +amounting to adoration. Among the Mohammedan Fulani the _bororo_[136] +is still pre-eminently the national representative of the race, and the +purest types are found among the _bororoji_, rather than amidst those +of their countrymen who have become over-lords, administrators and +land-owners on a large scale. “The Foola nation,” says Winterbottom, “is +the only one in this part of the coast to whom the title of _armentarius +afer_ can be justly applied.”[137] Many and various are the stories told +by French officers serving in the Western Sudan of the curious affinity +between the Fulani and their cattle, an affinity which is a perpetual +subject of comment among their Negro neighbours.[138] Clapperton tells us +how the cattle respond at long distances to the shrill cry of the Fulani +herdsman, who, by the way, is said never to employ a dog.[139] One of the +most remarkable French stories is that related by an officer operating in +the Baol district of the Western Sudan. In the course of a day’s work the +officer had commandeered some cattle from the natives; among the animals +was a fine black bull obtained from a group of wandering Fulani herdsmen. +When night fell, the cattle were duly penned and a _Spahis_[140] posted +as sentry over them. Towards midnight the officer was roused from sleep +by the _Spahis_ informing him with much solemnity that it would be +necessary to slaughter the black bull at once. “Are you mad?” cried +the astonished Frenchman. “Not at all, Lieutenant,” replied the soldier +imperturbably; “it is the cattle that are mad, for the Fulani are calling +the bull—listen.” Stepping out into the moonlight the officer listened. +Presently from a neighbouring hill came the sound of a plaintive chant. +At the same moment a violent disturbance took place among the cattle. +The officer hurried towards the pen followed by the sentry, the chant +meanwhile continuing in a cadence of inexpressible melancholy. The +commotion in the pen increased, and before the Frenchman could reach it, +one of the beasts was seen to clear the enclosure at a bound and crash +through the bush, following the direction of the sound and bellowing +loudly the while. It was the black bull. He had broken the halter which +bound him and leapt a palisade five feet high! With the disappearance of +the bull the chant abruptly ceased. Next morning the Fulani were nowhere +to be found.[141] + +The Hebraic flavour—if one may put it so—which seems to permeate many of +the Fulani customs, especially among the less contaminated elements of +the race, has been recorded by careful observers. A friend, an officer +in the employ of the Northern Nigeria administration, who was intimately +acquainted with the Fulani, whose language he spoke, and who possessed +considerable erudition, had prepared a number of notes for me on the +subject, which, unfortunately, I never received, owing to his death while +serving in Africa. One custom which had specially impressed him among +the pure Fulani was the habit of setting aside the firstborn. He found +that the Fulani woman of unmixed blood in the Binue region never suckled +her firstborn, but consigned it to the care of friends, and completely +disinterested herself from its future career, while bestowing upon the +second child, and subsequent children, the usual motherly solicitude. +He connected this singular custom with a distorted rendering of the +punishment visited upon the Egyptians in the time of the Captivity. + +[Illustration: A HALF-CASTE FULANI GIRL AND A SUSU] + +The lecture delivered in 1886 by Captain de Guiraudon (who published a +Fulfulde manual, and who resided for several years in the Fulani country +in Senegambia) before the seventh Congress of Orientalists contains some +interesting references to the subject under discussion. In the course +of his relations with the Fulani, De Guiraudon was particularly struck +with their peculiar knowledge of Jewish history. So familiarly did they +speak of the chief Hebrew personalities of the Old Testament, and so well +posted were they with the principal events related in it, that they could +not, argued De Guiraudon, have acquired their knowledge merely through +Arabic sources. They referred to those times as though dealing with their +own national records. Moses and Abraham might have been individuals of +the same race as themselves. “In their oral legends Moses plays a very +important part, and although certain passages of the Scriptures are +transformed or rather assimilated, they have so intense a Biblical and +Hebraic tone as to exclude all Arabic influence.” De Guiraudon noted, +however, that their Israelitish chronicles ceased after Solomon. “What +they knew of the miracles of our Saviour was so distorted and erroneous +as to prove that the New Testament had reached them from afar, in a vague +and fragmentary condition.” De Guiraudon’s conclusions are best given in +his own words. “It would seem as if the Puls (Fulani), if they themselves +did not profess the Jewish faith, which I would rather be disposed to +affirm than deny, were at least in permanent contact with the Jewish +people in remote times, and that, influenced at one time or another by +the Israelites, they received Old Testament legends directly from them.” + +Dr. Blyden also testifies in an indirect way to the close acquaintance +of the Fulani with the history of ancient Hebraic personalities. “They +hold the language of the Koran,” he remarks, “in the greatest veneration, +affirming that it is the language which was spoken by Adam, Seth, Noah, +Abraham, and Ishmael. The descendants of Ishmael, they contend, have +never been in bondage to any man; and that during the bondage of Isaac’s +descendants in Egypt the language lost its purity and copiousness.” + +It is significant that the son and successor of Othman Dan Fodio, sultan +Bello of Hausa, second Fulani ruler over the Hausa States, in the history +of the Sudan written in Arabic characters which he gave to Clapperton, +describes the “Tow-rooths,” who may, I think, be identified with the +Torodos (a sect of Fulani greatly looked up to), as “having originated +from the Jews.”[142] Mungo Park, when writing of his experiences among +the Mandingoes—who appear to have been converted to Islam by the Fulani, +with whom they have been in close relationship, amiable and the reverse, +for many centuries—observed a similar widespread knowledge of incidents +in Old Testament history, such as the death of Abel, the lives of the +Patriarchs, Joseph’s dream, and so on. Winterbottom is equally emphatic. +“The customs of these people (the Fulani),” he says, “bear a striking +resemblance to those of the Jews described in the Pentateuch, and after +Mohammed, Moses is held by them in the highest estimation.” There is some +uniformity, too, between the following descriptive passages. The first is +from Kenrick (American edition), the second from Laing’s history of the +Sulima people and their relations with the Fulani: + + “The Jews were commanded, on the day of the Atonement, to + provide a goat to carry the sins of the people, and the + high-priest was to lay his hand on the head of the goat and + confess the national sins. So among the Egyptians whenever a + victim was offered, a prayer was repeated over its head, if any + calamity was about to befall either the sacrifices or the land + of Egypt, ‘it might be averted on this head.’” + + “Musah Bah (a Fulani chief), shortly after his installation, + ordered a great feast to be held, and, inviting to it all the + head-men of Jallon Kadoo, explained to them the nature of the + Mohammedan faith and told them that the Foulahs had come to + settle in their country with a desire only to do them good and + to show them the true road to happiness. He then ordered a + large wafer of country bread and a bleeding sheep to be placed + before him, and invited all those who wished to be instructed + by the priests of Futa-Jallon to place their hands upon the + bread and touch the sheep, which all the head-men did.” + +The motives were different, but the Fulani ceremonial savours greatly of +the Old Testament. So much for the remaining links. + +Enough has been said, I think, to show that there is a vast field open +to systematic inquiry and investigation, which may possibly lead to +discoveries of a most interesting and important kind. Having examined the +links one by one, let us see how they look when riveted together and what +conclusions they suggest. The straight-nosed, straight-haired, relatively +thin-lipped, wiry, copper or bronze complexioned (“pale-gold” as one +writer puts it) Fulani male, with his well-developed cranium, and refined +extremities; and the Fulani woman, with her clear skin, her rounded +breasts,[143] large eyes,[144] antimony-dyed eyebrows, gracefulness of +movement, beauty of form, coquettish ways and general attractiveness—are +Asiatics. They are the lineal descendants of the Hyksos, having migrated +westwards with the overthrow of the Shepherd conquerors. Their customs +bear record to their progenitors having been influenced both by the cult +of ancient Egypt and by the Israelites, whose presence in the Nile Delta +was contemporaneous with Hyksos rule. Their presence in West Africa +dates back at least 2500 years. To dogmatise on such a subject would be +foolish; to claim having evolved an original theory would be impertinent. +But I am not aware that the Eastern theory of Fulani origin has been +hitherto worked out with any attempt at consecutiveness, or an endeavour +made to amalgamate and give in connected form—however imperfectly—the +chief factors for further study which may be usefully followed up by +some one more competent than the author. + +And what is to be the policy of Great Britain, of France and of Germany +towards this wonderful race? Surely it should be dictated in the first +place by a desire to preserve. With their faults—and what race is devoid +of faults?—the Fulani have admirable qualities which can fit them to be +worthy and reliable co-builders and assistants in the task which the +Powers have undertaken in Western Africa. Their virility has hitherto +been equal to all the calls upon it. They retain “the strong pride of +race.” They possess in the highest degree the attributes of rulers. +It would be a misfortune indeed if, with the advent of the European, +possessed of those swift engines of destruction he is at times so prompt +to use in the name of civilisation, the Fulani should disappear from the +regions they have leavened with their intelligence. + + + + +PART III + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SANITARY AFFAIRS IN WEST AFRICA + +(By Major RONALD ROSS, F.R.C.S., F.R.S., C.B., Liverpool School of +Tropical Medicine.) + + +The first question which any one who has studied the history of West +Africa will ask, is this—Why has the country developed so slowly? +It is actually nearer to Europe and more accessible than several +tropical countries, which have certainly progressed far more towards +civilisation—such as the West and East Indies, Central America and the +seaboard of China; it is, generally speaking, a rich country; with a +fertile soil, sufficient rainfall, large rivers, good harbours, fine, +well-watered plains, a vast population, and a climate not excessively +hot. One would expect to find here flourishing settlements, large cities, +a prosperous agriculture and a great commerce; but what we really have is +a series of second-rate, if not third-rate, settlements which are just +able to hold their own in the midst of the forests and marshes which +surround them; and a native population which can scarcely be considered +other than barbarous beyond a short distance from the settlements +referred to. The discrepancy between the expectation and the fact is +remarkable. India, for example, with her vast tracts of well-cultivated +lands, her cities, her ports, her universities, her thousands of miles +of railway, her society, and her well-organised Government is far indeed +above West Africa. If the best West African province could be transferred +bodily to the East and placed alongside even such outlying parts of +India as Assam and Burma it would look very shabby in comparison. The +principal West African towns seen by me, Lagos, Accra, and Freetown, +cannot for a moment be compared with the great Indian capitals and +stations such as Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Rangoon, Secunderabad, +Allahabad, Delhi, Benares, Pindi, Lahore. In general appearance, +construction, and style of living they are on a level with such +“benighted” spots as Moulmein in Burma, Nowgong in Assam, or Masulipatam +in Southern India. West Africa possesses no Simla, Bangalore, Darjeeling +or Ootacamund. + +The whole country reminds one chiefly of the derelict Coromandel Coast +minus its principal city. Yet it may perhaps be doubted whether in +extent, fertility and natural resources West Africa is really far below +India. Europe has been trading with West Africa for centuries; it has +long drawn from it many valuable commodities; it has explored it and +made settlements in it which have lasted for hundreds of years. Why has +not Europe done more for it, then? The question is really one of great +importance in the philosophical history of civilisation, especially in +these days when civilisation tends so strongly to overflow from the +temperate climates into the tropical ones. Here we have two countries +equally gifted with natural resources and equally exposed to the +civilising irradiance of Europe. Yet, while India is of itself already +one of the great Powers of the world, the other still remains in the +condition of a newly discovered continent, to be opened up in the future. + +Of the three reasons usually assigned for this curious fact, the first +generally given is that in India Europe found a certain degree of +civilisation already existing before her advent; while in West Africa +she started to work upon a completely barbarous country. No doubt +this has much to do with the result; but we must remember that many +countries now far ahead of West Africa were little or no less barbarous +than West Africa a few centuries ago—such as many portions of tropical +America, Burma, and the Islands of the Pacific. It can scarcely be +said that the antecedent semi-civilisation of India and China has been +always favourable to progress, nor that a basis of complete barbarism +is always fatal to it. Another reason, perhaps more frequently given, +is that the natives of West Africa are incorrigibly indolent. Yet it +is by the labours of these very people, controlled by Europeans, that +the prosperity of the Southern States of America has been established. +In my humble opinion the West African should be very good material +for civilisation. Compared with the East Indian, he is perhaps not so +patient, laborious, or thrifty; but, on the other hand, he is much more +vivacious and virile; he is not hampered by the restrictions of caste; +he is physically strong and healthy; he is capable of producing men who +are intellectually not a whit inferior to the average European; and above +all, instead of adhering obstinately to his own customs as the Indian +so often does, he always shows a remarkable desire for the customs and +culture of Europe. In fact, I personally feel, though I may be wrong, +that these people are better material for civilisation than East Indians, +and I do not think that the backwardness of West Africa can be wholly or +even largely assigned to defects in their character. + +To many of us the real reason for this backwardness appears to be +undoubtedly the so-called unhealthiness of the West African “climate” for +Europeans. It is impossible to deny the fact that the European cannot +live on the West African Coast in the same security against disease as he +enjoys in the East and West Indies; and in my opinion it is this fact, +and not the original barbarism of the natives, or their indolence, which +retards progress here. The agent of civilisation dies on the threshold of +the country which he comes to develop. + +It would require a large volume to deal adequately with this important +subject, and I can only attempt an outline here. We shall first ask what +is the cause of this unhealthiness, and secondly, what is the remedy. + +I shall not attempt to give any statistics of mortality among Europeans +or natives, because what statistics exist are not at all reliable. +But the fact that the country is extremely unhealthy for Europeans is +universally accepted; and is, moreover, demonstrated by the high rates +for life-insurance, by the large amount of leave which Government grants +to its employés, and by the difficulty which all employers experience in +obtaining European agents for West African work, even for high pay. In +fact, the country is so notorious in this respect that it is unnecessary +to labour the point farther. + +What are the causes of the unhealthiness of West Africa for Europeans? +The first series of causes are undoubtedly a group of infectious +diseases, certainly or probably due to parasitic invasion of the body. +These are principally what is known as malarial or intermittent fever, +with its most dangerous variety, blackwater fever; various other fevers, +dysentery, and according to many physicians, yellow fever. The first +attacks the European with greater force than it attacks the habituated +native, but nevertheless produces great havoc among native children. It +is so prevalent that new-comers frequently succumb within a few weeks +after arrival, while old residents often suffer from relapses during +the whole of their stay in the country. In addition, epidemics either +of this fever, yellow fever, or some allied disease, sweep through the +settlements, causing great mortality among the Europeans; dysentery +and bowel complaints are scarcely less to be feared in some parts. The +records of West Africa are blackened by these terrible plagues, which +time after time have blotted out the names of the most daring travellers, +the most capable governors, and the most enterprising traders; which +mutilate the lives of those whom they do not kill; and which hamper every +political or commercial enterprise by striking down or intimidating the +agents who are sent out to execute it. + +But we must not imagine that these are the only factors of the total +result. The heat and moisture of the climate are most enervating to +Europeans. The general absence of good food—good meat, bread, vegetables, +and milk—tends to produce dyspepsia and melancholy. The absence of most +of the comforts and amenities to which Europeans are accustomed in their +own home—good houses, good servants, society and exercise, not to mention +the absence of wives and children—depress the mind; and when this general +outline is filled in by such details as the ever-present dread of serious +sickness, the constant stings of insects, the unsavoury surroundings of +a squalid native population, it must be confessed that the colonist has +much to depress him. What wonder if, in such circumstances, alcoholism +and debauchery sometimes complete the sketch! The fact is, that what we +call the “unhealthiness” of West Africa is a complex due to many causes +which assist each other. People are apt to fall into a vicious circle +from which it is hard to escape. I may say, indeed, that the whole of +West Africa has fallen into this vicious circle and has not yet escaped +from it. Let us consider the point farther. + +When we find much sickness in a given country we are too inclined to +think that the sickness is entirely due to certain natural conditions +which are present in that country and which render it unhealthy. We +forget that the sickness may be due, not to the country itself, but to +the fact that the inhabitants do not take proper precautions against the +diseases which persecute them. Now the whole trend of sanitary science +has been to show in a convincing manner that the great infectious +diseases are preventable, if only the proper precautions are taken. +Time after time we have witnessed the entire disappearance, or at least +the partial disappearance, of such diseases from whole countries. For +example, small-pox and typhus have almost vanished from the great States +of Europe—at least we may say so when we compare their prevalence in the +past with their prevalence at the present day. Typhoid and diphtheria +are diminishing daily. Malarial fever and dysentery, which were formerly +scourges of parts of Britain, have almost entirely gone from the country. +Even in the tropics we shall find numerous instances of the same kind. +Calcutta was once a hot-bed of fever and cholera, and was probably as +fatal to Europeans as West Africa is now said to be. Rangoon was deadly +when the British first went there. A century ago cholera often swept away +whole regiments in India. We now look in vain for this state of things. +As a whole, India is perhaps as healthy for Europeans as England is—at +least if we exclude the enervating effects of mere heat; and, indeed, I +think that in some respects, in the absence of colds and chest complaints +and in the benefits of open-air life and exercise, Europeans in India are +more fortunate than their brothers at home. + +Such facts alone clearly demonstrate that many diseases are not dependent +upon natural factors beyond human control; but science has reinforced +the argument by showing that a number of infectious diseases are due to +microorganisms which spring from previously diseased persons and not +from the air, soil, or water of localities. When, therefore, we speak +of a given place being unhealthy, we merely mean that from some cause +or other infectious disease is readily propagated from the sick to the +healthy in that place. This may in part be due to the local conditions +as regards heat, moisture, and so on being especially favourable to the +transmission of the disease germs; but it may also be due to the fact +that no precautions are taken to check this transmission. + +Thus in the case of West Africa we may ask, Is the local sickness really +due to the climate being specially favourable to the transmission of +disease; or is it due to the neglect of proper precautions? I would +not be prepared to say that as regards heat, moisture, and profuse +vegetation—conditions long known to be particularly favourable to +malaria—West Africa differs much from Calcutta or Rangoon. So far as +nature goes I can see little difference between West Africa and other +tropical regions which I have visited. On the other hand, I see the +greatest difference in the mode of life adopted by Europeans in West +Africa and in India; and I am convinced that the excessive mortality +amongst them is due largely, if not principally, to this cause, added to +the imperfect condition of public sanitation in the country. + +My own visits to West Africa have been short and limited. I have thrice +lived in Freetown for brief periods, and have paid flying visits to +Bathurst, Accra, Lagos, and Ibadan. But though my experiences of the +country were thus brief enough, I was always in a position to see a good +deal in the time at my disposal, and my powers of sanitary observation, +so to speak, were previously exercised by eighteen years’ employment in +the Indian Medical Service. Moreover, for the last three years I have +been in constant communication with many old residents on the Coast, +and I have also learned much from the members of several expeditions +sent there by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and by reading +numerous reports on the sanitation of the country. I state these facts +simply in order to enable the reader to judge of the value of my +testimony on the points under consideration. I do not pretend that a +greater experience would not have increased that value; but at the same +time it should be remarked that a sanitarian of any experience, like a +trained physician, can often make a correct diagnosis in a comparatively +short time; and that it is not necessary to examine every town in a +country in order to arrive at a general conception of its sanitary +condition. Moreover, the towns which I have seen are the capitals of four +out of the six British Colonies on the Coast. + +In my experience, such as it is, the mode of life of Europeans in West +Africa is not suited to the tropics. + +Take the houses to begin with. They are not generally good. It is +absolutely essential in the tropics to have good roofs and large airy +rooms. Our wise forefathers recognised this early in India, and built the +great solid structures which are such a prominent feature of Calcutta +and Madras and many Indian stations. I have seen nothing of the kind in +West Africa. Even in Lagos and Accra the houses can be described only as +second-rate. In Freetown they are simply execrable; and it is monstrous +that Englishmen, much more ladies, should be compelled to live in them. +It should be remembered that many of these West African hovels are built +by Government. In Ibadan I saw a magnificent iron house which I was told +cost the Government £6000, but which is so ill-designed and ill-placed +that in the heat of the day the inmates are compelled to go outside and +sit under leaf shelters! Then again, in India the Europeans and some of +the better class natives live in a separate quarter; but in West Africa +this seems to be the case only to a limited extent; while in Freetown +the Europeans often live over native shops. Remembering that infectious +diseases are communicated from the sick, we shall easily understand +why the absence of a separate quarter is so dangerous to health. Those +absolute essentials to comfort in the tropics, punkahs and mosquito-nets, +which are invariably used in India, are often the exception in West +Africa, or were so until quite recently. + +As regards food, we find little efforts made to help the African +colonists to obtain good provisions. Fresh milk and butter often cannot +be got at all, even where cattle exist in plenty. Government sometimes +maintains, at considerable cost, botanical gardens for various economical +purposes. I was told that these gardens used to grow vegetables for the +Europeans until stopped by a mandate from England, on the ground that a +Government botanist is not a vegetable gardener!—a type of the hopelessly +unpractical spirit which has crept into all British administration. As a +result the colonist has to fall back upon native vegetables, to which he +is not accustomed. The meat is generally poor and coarse, and no proper +effort is made to improve it. Ice—another essential in the tropics—cannot +generally be obtained. I was gravely informed that ice-machines will not +work in West Africa. It is difficult to see why this is the case, because +they will certainly work in the hottest and dampest parts of India. +Aerated waters have to be imported and cost about sixpence a bottle; I +suppose that they, too, “cannot be made” in West Africa. In India they +are made everywhere and cost about a penny a bottle. Singular effect of +the West African climate! + +What are more necessary anywhere than exercise, recreation, and society? +In India the smallest station has its gymkana; its polo, tennis, cricket, +and even football; its dinners, its afternoon parties, its balls; +its shooting and riding. As for West Africa, though, owing to the +intelligent encouragement of the Governors, much attention is now being +given to this subject, things are very different. A resident of Sekondi +told me that their “only amusement is to drink.” So it seemed. In many +places horses do not exist, because it is said they do not live there. So +far as I know, Government has never attempted the slightest scientific +inquiry into this most important matter, although probably the disability +is due merely to some easily preventable parasitic disease. In Freetown +many people take no exercise at all and are carried about even for short +distances in hammocks. In up-country places, I hear, the dulness of life, +owing to the absence of recreation and exercise, is often intolerable and +heart-breaking. + +Turning now to affairs of state sanitation, let us first ask, what +would have been the logical and business-like course for adoption by +Government from the earliest days of these Colonies? Seeing the obvious +fact that all development of the country was being retarded by the +sickness and mortality among the European Officials and traders, a +practical Government would from the first have strained every nerve +to remedy this state of things. It would have spent every available +penny in the sanitation of the coast towns, which are, in fact, the +portals of the continent. It would have kept these scrupulously clean, +swept and drained. It would have housed its employés thoroughly well +in quarters removed from the infectious vicinity of the poorer native +locations. It would have encouraged the traders to do the same for their +agents. It would have organised farms for the purpose of producing good +fresh food—meat, milk, butter and vegetables. It would have created +or endowed places of exercise and recreation. It would have attempted +to add in every possible way to the comfort of the Europeans, who are +the backbone of the Colonies, knowing that reasonable comfort is half +the way to health and happiness, and that senseless and unnecessary +discomfort is more than half the way in the other direction. It would +have taken scrupulous care of the water supply; of the conservancy; of +the drainage of swamps. It would have insisted on the adequate sanitation +of native locations near European locations, in the interests both of +natives and Europeans. It would have maintained an up-to-date medical and +sanitary department, provided with sufficient powers and funds for its +work. It would have kept accurate statistics of sickness and mortality, +especially among the Europeans. It would have ordered numerous scientific +investigations into the causes of the most disastrous West African +diseases, both among men and domestic animals. Above all, it would have +put the direction of sanitary affairs into the hands of the ablest +scientific men it could procure. + +Now I do not wish to take the _rôle_ of the fault finder; but I must +say, so far as I know—and I hope I may be mistaken—the Colonial Office +and the West African Governments and municipalities can scarcely be +said to have given adequate attention to a single one of the items in +this programme—at least until quite recently. Consider the question of +surface drainage for instance. It has been well known, since the time of +the Romans, that surface-drainage removes malaria; and malaria is the +principal enemy of the West African Colonies. Surely, then, the most +obvious considerations should have induced Government to reclaim the +large marshes existing in the vicinity of the principal settlements. A +small annual expenditure, if persisted in, would have gradually done the +work; and, as Sir William MacGregor once observed, the local Governments +have had at their disposal for years large gangs of gaol prisoners who +could, with advantage, have been employed on such useful labours instead +of shot-drill. But no; the marshes have been allowed to exist as they +were. It is only quite recently that the swamps of Lagos and Bathurst +have been touched. In Freetown the swamps existed in almost every street +in the native quarters during the rains, and were, in fact, actually +made by incompetent engineering efforts and maintained by the grossest +sanitary neglect—the roadside drains being generally nothing but series +of deep pools full of stagnant water seething with insect life. Yet +this town was called the white-man’s grave; and Heaven was blamed for +causing a disease which man could easily have prevented if the most +elementary teaching of sanitary science had been attended to. Even after +the connection between stagnant water and malaria was fully verified +and explained by the discovery (completed in 1899) that the disease is +carried from the sick to the healthy by certain kinds of mosquitoes which +breed in stagnant puddles, no spontaneous effort was made by Government +to improve the surface-drainage in Freetown. + +In 1899 the Liverpool School took the trouble to send out an expedition +which made a complete map of the mosquito-breeding puddles in the +town; and next year the Commission of the Royal Society extended our +observations. Two years later, however, another expedition of the +Liverpool School found that everything had been left in exactly the +same old state, except that the salary of the chief sanitary official +had been largely increased. Not a puddle, not a ditch had been drained; +not a single effort worth mention had been made, to act upon the new +discovery which was of such importance to these Colonies; and it was not +until the advent of the new Governor, Sir Charles King-Harman, assisted +by the Liverpool School, that any adequate attempt was made to clear and +drain Freetown. In the other Colonies progress was equally slow, until +Sir William MacGregor and Dr. Strachan commenced their anti-malarial +campaign in Lagos. The central authority, the Colonial Office, instead of +forcing on measures in a brisk, business-like way, contented itself with +publishing good advice which every one had heard a dozen times before. +The Governments of the Gold Coast (Sir Matthew Nathan), of the Gambia +(Sir George Denton), are now pushing on in this direction; and we can +only hope that the progress will be maintained in the future in all the +Colonies. + +The other items of the programme mentioned above have also received +little attention. The medical and sanitary services have not been kept in +an up-to-date condition. + +For instance, in 1880, Laveran discovered the parasite which causes +malarial fever; but even twenty years later there were few doctors who +used the discovery for the proper diagnosis and treatment of the fevers +prevalent on the Coast. In most cases they were not even provided with +microscopes for the work. In these respects the West African medical +services were only on a par with the other State medical services; which, +while they often contain exceedingly smart men, are generally wanting as +a whole in scientific ability and push, and in the influence which they +should exercise in the government of the countries to which they belong. +A high official once informed me that of all the men under his orders +the doctors had the least sense of duty. This is little to be wondered +at, since, in my experience, efficiency does not lead to advancement in +these services, and the most perfunctory men reach promotion as readily +as the most meritorious. I have noticed a dozen instances of the almost +complete indifference to science shown in these public medical services. +For example, when the first Liverpool expedition reached Sierra Leone +in 1899, the principal medical officer of the R.A.M.C. forbade us to +feed mosquitoes upon his cases of malarial fever for experiment, though +neither he nor his subordinates took the smallest trouble to prevent +their men from being bitten night and day by the insects in the barracks +and hospitals. We were convinced that this order was given simply out of +wilful desire to obstruct us. Similarly in India a military doctor once +forbade me even to prick the fingers of his patients in order to study +their blood. The manner in which the R.A.M.C. authorities interrupted +the researches of Colonel Bruce, F.R.S., on tsetse-fly disease and +horse sickness in South Africa, and in which the Madras Government +persecuted Dr. King for his small-pox work, is well known. It would be +folly to expect that services administered in this manner could ever +take a leading part in organising great campaigns against disease in the +colonies; and I fear that, until Sir William MacGregor led the way in +Lagos, the West African medical services, even though they have possessed +many able men, have done little to improve sanitation in that country. +The fault is entirely with the chief offices of Government, which too +often appoint and retain as heads of their medical departments men who +have no scientific status or even scientific knowledge, and at the +same time take no trouble to promote the deserving. I have known many +instances of this. It would be much better, in my opinion, to fill such +offices from the ranks of able civil practitioners or scientists at home, +rather than to select men who have no other claim to the post than long +official service. + +One of the greatest defects in the sanitary administration of West Africa +has lain in the constant refusal of Government to investigate the causes +of sickness by making use of the services of experts. Government argues +that it is not its duty to investigate disease; but is it not? It admits +the duty of maintaining expensive medical services, but not that of +helping those services to increase their knowledge of their business! +A logical position truly! In my own humble opinion the Colonial Office +ought to have spent at least £5000 per annum during the last fifty years +for investigation of the causes of sickness in West Africa alone. Do +not talk to me of want of funds. There are plenty of funds, but they +are thrown away on military expeditions; on the salaries of useless +legal officials—chief justices and attorney-generals of little villages; +and on building houses such as the one I referred to at Ibadan, which +cost £6000, enough to pay for sanitary researches for years, and is +uninhabitable! It is a case illustrating that peculiar form of mind which +looks upon all research and investigation as idling and waste of time +and money, a frame of mind which seems to be specially a British one. We +have yet to learn the obvious fact that, if we wish to get a thing done, +we must first make suitable inquiry as to how it should be done. Disease +cannot be removed from a continent merely by establishing a medical +service; we must also help the service to perfect its knowledge. The hand +is not the same thing as the brain. In West Africa we have long possessed +the hand, but the brain has been wanting. + +The truth is that the defects of the West African sanitation are really +due to the fact that the colonial councils are almost entirely in the +hands of certain castes which are not scientific castes, and which +care little for sanitary matters. I mean the politicians, soldiers, +tax-collectors and legal people. To these it is a matter of little +moment to cleanse streets, to purify towns, to banish disease from +thousands of homes. It is not given to them to stand powerless by the +side of death-beds and to hear the cries of the bereaved at the moment +of bereavement. If they have money to spend, do they spend it for the +purposes for which it was really chiefly taken from the tax-payer—for +conservancy and hygiene? The filthy condition of most native towns in the +British tropical possessions gives the answer. No, it is a finer thing +to build a grand new post-office or law-court, or to conduct a forward +military policy which will find its place in the home papers and delight +the heart of the British greengrocer (and voter) at his breakfast table. +Well, after all, it is human nature—each man for his own caste. As for +me, I have been too long an official myself not to understand these +little matters. + +I have said that West Africa has fallen into a vicious circle, and the +nature of this vicious circle will now be apparent. The unhealthiness +of the Coast for Europeans tends to check their activities in all +directions; and in return this detrimental effect on their activities +tends to check their efforts towards ameliorating sanitary affairs. The +two conditions work hand in hand. It is impossible to remain blind to the +disastrous economical effect of the unhealthiness. It leads to a constant +change in the working staff of the country, not only in consequence of +death and sickness, but also in consequence of the frequent furlough +which is rendered necessary. From the highest to the lowest, few +Europeans remain in West Africa for more than two or three years at a +stretch; and many Government officials are entitled to leave after one +year. This has the effect of rendering all business discontinuous. As +soon as a man has started a piece of work he is called away from his +efforts, and is obliged to leave everything to a successor. In India +the period of residence in the country before furlough can be demanded +is five years at least, and even then the break in the business which +occurs during the furlough is often very mischievous. How much more so +must be the interruption which occurs in West Africa every year or two! +The same thing prevents people in West Africa from taking sufficient +interest in the homes of their exile. Many of them have told me that all +the time they are in the country they are indifferent to what happens, +that they simply live from hand to mouth, careless of their surroundings +and longing only for the day when, if fate spares them, they can escape +once more for a brief interval to Europe. It is this feeling which +makes them indifferent to the houses in which they live, to the food +they eat, to their surroundings—and sometimes, I fear, to their duties. +The danger, discomfort and _ennui_ of life are so great that a chronic +condition of callousness inimical to all serious effort is frequently +arrived at. We must remember these facts when we are inclined to blame +them. What wonder then that a matter like sanitation, which requires +such constant endeavours, is apt to be neglected. Thus the circle comes +“full round” again; and the neglect of sanitation leads to the paralysing +unhealthiness which leads to the neglect of sanitation. I have observed +the same thing elsewhere—notably in the unhealthy planting districts of +India. + +What must we do to mend this state of affairs? Well, the vicious circle +must be broken at all costs. + +But how? I think that there is really only one way in which it can be +done, and that is by the introduction of a new force into the vortex. I +mean public opinion and public effort at home in Europe. These must be +roused for the sake of our countrymen in West Africa. This country should +be made to understand that it has something more to do than to watch +processions of colonial troops and to brag of its Empire. It is its duty +to see that the Empire which it boasts of is properly administered, and +that our countrymen who are sent to carry on the affairs, both official +and commercial, of that Empire are not left to die there unnecessarily. +This duty has certainly been most grossly neglected in the past. It +should be the work of all of us, especially of those who govern the +country, of the wealthy merchants who trade with it, of the rich people +who do not know what to do with their money, and of men like myself, who +are hired to study and teach tropical sanitation—it should be the work of +all of us to see that it is not neglected in the future. + +As every one knows, this new force has already come into being. Every day +sees some notice of West African affairs in the Press. The able Governors +of the Colonies are, I think, doing all for the cause which their limited +means allow. The merchants of Liverpool and London have come forward most +handsomely with their tropical schools, which I make bold to say are +doing well also. A single philanthropist has actually drained and cleaned +the houses in Freetown _pro tempore_, at his own expense, and last, but +by no means least, many young pathologists have given their time and +risked their health for the cause. + +But what are the exact steps which should be taken? I have already +indicated these above. It is the duty of the Government to see that +the principal settlements are kept scrupulously clean and drained; to +construct and publish proper statistics of sickness and mortality among +the Europeans; to appoint whole-time health officers; to enforce sanitary +laws; and to encourage the building of good houses and the establishment +of dairies, settlement farms, gymkanas and other institutions or trades +which are likely to conduce to the comfort and health of the colonists. +Thus Government has a great deal to do. It has only begun as yet. + +But it is not Government alone which must act. Sir William MacGregor +recently pointed out to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce that men who +carry on business on the Coast have much to do for their employés—to +give them good houses, to force them to take proper precautions against +malaria, and to add to their comfort in every possible way. + +Then there is the philanthropist millionaire. I wish that we could +get hold of him in earnest. Sir Charles King-Harman once told me that +£100,000 would reform the West Coast if presented as a free gift, by +enabling Government to start gymkanas, dairies, and such like for the +Europeans. So it would; and the money ought to be obtained. + +Lastly, the Colonial Office ought to do one thing—a thing which was +recommended by a deputation which waited upon the Colonial Secretary some +time ago. That is, it ought to appoint a Sanitary Commissioner on the +Indian model, to make constant inspections of sanitary matters in the +West African Colonies, and to report directly to the Colonial Office. +We were told, however, that the scheme was too costly, and otherwise +impossible. But shortly afterwards a gentleman with a large salary was +appointed in order to inspect the knapsacks, &c., of the black troops—a +much more important matter than any sanitary business! + +I may mention here an opinion which I frequently heard expressed on the +Coast, namely, that the West African Colonies have now outgrown the +present system of control by small detached Governments placed under +an office in London. It is contended that the whole country should be +administered by a Governor-General on the Indian lines. I fancy that +sanitation would not lose by the change. + +Such are my humble opinions on sanitary matters in West Africa. They are +given in response to an invitation from the author of this book; and, of +course, exigencies of space have prevented my dealing with many points +which should be dealt with in a complete survey of the subject—which +would require a book for itself. I have thought it best to say exactly +what I think without much reservation; but, of course, my views may, +perhaps, not be so sound as I imagine. It would be the grandest thing in +the world if sanitary science could give to civilisation such a glorious +gift as West Africa; and I believe that it will. But the thing will be +done only by straight speaking, hard hitting, and the most indomitable +action. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LAND TENURE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA + + “In dealing with the natives, one must never touch their rights + in land.”—SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR. + + “The so-called labour problem is, in my opinion, created by + the people who complain of it, and not by the natives, who are + perfectly willing to work when fairly treated.”—Mr. J. A. DAW, + of the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation.[145] + + “I know the Gold Coast natives well, and I repeat, you can + get all you want out of them, if people will only realise + that the native is a human being, and not an animal or a + machine.”—Captain DONOVAN, late of the Gold Coast Police.[146] + + “Nothing in all the history submitted on this subject is more + misleading, untrue, and unjust than the reiterated statement + that the chiefs and people of Western Africa are unfitted for + peaceable self-government. It is not pretended they will reach + for the present any Western European ideal, but they will not + lag behind some people who claim to be better. The people do + not want war; the very facility with which their disputes are + temporarily adjusted serves to show this disposition. The Coast + is far from having recovered from the dire effects of the slave + trade. The chiefs are weak, and much of their power is taken + from them by the very British Administration which scolds them + for their non-success.”—C. S. SALMON, “The Crown Colonies of + Great Britain.” + + +If there is one thing more than another upon which the most competent +students of West Africa are agreed, it is the tenaciousness of the West +African Negro to his landed rights. Land tenure in West Africa has been +properly described as a “cult.” The most experienced English, French and +German observers have noted this characteristic. Wherever it has been +adequately studied, the system of native land tenure, in its tribal, +family, individual and commercial aspects, is found to be at once simple +in its broad lines, elaborate in its details, and approaching in many +respects to the most advanced democratic conceptions of Western Europe. +Before the torchlight of scientific inquiry, the old idea of the Negro +being more or less of an animal, incapable of evolving any rational +or consistent policy; too backward to frame anything approaching an +unwritten code of law; his every act of life being merely the outcome +of natural instinct, can no longer be entertained. And to the knowledge +that these beings, who were thought irrational, and inconsequent to the +extent of being the half-devil, half-child of popular imagination, has +been added the conviction that the commercial and political success of +the Powers of Europe in their West African Possessions depends for its +attainment upon the recognition of native law in respect to property. + +But although the testimony to this effect is shared by those who have the +largest experience of West Africa, and although evidence is accumulating +on all sides which corroborates in the most ample manner the statements +of Ellis, Sarbah and Mary Kingsley,[147] it is nevertheless unhappily +true that the tendency on the part of the European Powers, not only to +interfere with the native law of land tenure, but to frame legislation +without regard whatever for its importance in the relationship between +the European and the Negro, is increasingly manifest. It would seem as +though, having discovered that the West African Negro is not a brute +but a man, evidence which establishes the discovery is deliberately set +aside; because it is so much easier to go on treating the native as a +brute, that is to say, as a being deprived of the faculty of reasoning, +and who, on the principle of “a woman, a dog and a walnut-tree, the more +you beat ’em the better they’ll be,” will come fawning to our feet in +abject humility upon every fresh exhibition of our superiority. + +It is very curious to observe this conflict of forces; painstaking +research, its published results, and the influence it wields, _versus_ +impatience and disinclination to investigate on the one hand; and selfish +material interests on the other. The future of European political and +commercial enterprise in West Africa is largely bound up with the +struggle for the capture of Public Opinion which is going on in this +country and on the Continent. At present, the purely materialistic +notion, assisted by its twin-brother Indifference, is in the ascendant. +Apparent success having been secured in that part of tropical Western +Africa where, under the tuition of his white masters, the native has +become a mere machine for the production of dividends to European company +promoters, a great impetus has been given to the conception, popular +in so many quarters, that the _raison d’être_ of West Africa and the +West African is their exploitation by Western Europe, on such lines and +in such fashion as the peoples of Western Europe see fit. The European +Governments are alternately allowing themselves to be dragged along this +perilous path whose ultimate destination is the abyss called Failure, or +are hanging back from it, beset with doubts. But the danger is acutely +realised by many, and as it gathers in extent and consistency, is being +energetically opposed. The merchants, English, French and German, are, +as a body, unanimous in condemnation. The exceptions to the rule are +exceedingly few and far between. The best type of Colonial Administrator +in West Africa also is utterly antagonistic, and amongst the still +restricted but daily growing section of the Public which follows the +affairs of West Africa with intelligent interest a strong feeling of +protest gathers volume every day. These forces are numerically inferior, +but they carry great weight, and if they can succeed in combining they +must ultimately win the day. But the struggle will be long and bitter. + +An attempt has been made in this volume to show (1) the unwisdom of +interfering too rapidly, and without sufficient care and thought, with +native customs generally, and (2), as regards the evil of slave-raiding, +the advisability of seriously considering whether force is the only +weapon which a great Empire can forge to suppress it. In the latter +case, the Powers are able to put forward a plea justifying interference, +insomuch as the evil is an active one. The only difference of opinion, +as already stated, is the form which such interference should take. In +the former case the evils, if some of them are evils—a matter which +admits of a good deal of qualification—are of a kind that patience, +tact, and time—time above all things—will prove the most efficient +means of combating. But in respect to native law of land tenure, we are +not confronted with any evil. On the contrary, the system of native +land tenure is essentially just, thoroughly adapted to the needs of +the country and its people, a striking refutation of the “arrested +development” theory as applied to the Negro, and _per se_ an eloquent +vindication of the Negro’s claim to consideration at the hands of +the European invaders of, and settlers in, his country. There can be +no justification whatever for the break-up of land tenure, or for +the alienation of native property, under any pretext. It is morally +indefensible, and what is morally indefensible is seldom politically wise. + +In West Africa, the circumstances being what they are, interference with +native property is bound to affect, not in theory but in practice, the +interest of every single individual in the country. In the coastwise +regions of West Africa proper, as far south, that is to say, as the +Rio del Rey, where Bantu culture begins, it may be accepted as a rule +(whatever differentiation may exist in the system of land tenure in +widely removed districts), from which the departures are extremely +rare,[148] that every square yard of the country is _owned_. Sarbah for +the Gold Coast; Clozel and Delafosse for the Ivory Coast; Ellis for +Yoruba; Mary Kingsley for the Rivers; Bohn for French Guinea; Fabre for +Dahomey, have borne witness in their respective fields of observation to +this fact—that there is no land without an owner. There is also a vast +amount of untabulated corroborative information from almost every part +of the Coast. South of Rio del Rey the land customs of the natives have +not been the object of so much inquiry as north of it, and there the +population is not in the main so dense, but what gleanings are available +to us appear to be conclusive on the same point: in all inhabited +districts land is never without an owner, whose claims, whether tribal or +family, are as sacred in native unwritten law as they would be if duly +set forth in a legal document, in accordance with the full requirements +of European jurisprudence. + +It is easy to understand why this should be so. The native lives on +the produce of his land. He not only lives upon it, it is also his +wealth, his currency, his medium of exchange for European goods. The +products which he gathers in his forests, the plantations he makes in +the clearings and the plains, these are at once his sustenance and his +cash. Is it astonishing, therefore, that he guards his land and all that +grows therein, or is built thereon, with passionate jealousy; and that, +whereas he can be induced without difficulty to lease his property rights +under certain conditions to Europeans for even a long term of years, he +can seldom be brought, save by physical compulsion, to alienate them for +ever? Ought it to be matter for surprise that legislation calculated to +hinder his free use of the products of his land, or action of which the +logical consequence is to reduce him from the position of land-owner to +tenant, either provokes him to pit his spears and flintlocks against the +repeating-rifles of the despoilers, or breeds in him such utter confusion +of mind, such bewilderment and terror, that, + + Fleeing to the forest’s dim recess, + He broods in sullen unproductiveness, + Plunged in deeper savagery, + Witness to the high morality + Of Christian peoples? + +Strange, indeed, does it seem, with the burden of historical proof to +the adaptability of the Negro; with the abundant and cumulative evidence +of his willingness to trade, to learn, to take on new industries, to +everywhere follow up his natural profession of agriculture; with the +actual and daily evidence of his enterprise and producing capacity in the +existing oil-palm, ground-nut, mahogany and rubber industries; strange, +indeed, that European statesmen worthy of the name should for a moment +entertain the idea, or lend ear to the suggestion, that in a country +like West Africa, where the white element compared with the black is as +a grain of sand on the sea-shore, and where the European can attain +nothing that is permanent or lasting without the willing co-operation +of the Negro, the spontaneous production of the Negro as a free man, +in the enjoyment of the fruits of his own land, can be replaced by the +forced production of a serf deprived of his lands, his freedom, and his +individuality! + +If in one sense the question of native land tenure in West Africa is +distinct from that of native labour, it is in another way closely allied +to it, and to treat of one without referring to the other is difficult, +if not impossible. But it is equally difficult, when once the labour +problem is raised, to confine oneself to West Africa only; for the theory +of “assimilation” is very much to the fore just now, and although the +conditions prevailing in West Africa differentiate absolutely from those +in Central, East, and South Africa, the same general arguments are made +to apply more or less to all four. I must, therefore, crave the reader’s +indulgence if I wander somewhat afield. + +There is not the least shadow of doubt that the tendency to go past the +law of native land tenure in West Africa owes its origin in large measure +to the oft-repeated statement that the Negro will not work. Numbers of +people have for some time past been assuring the Public that West Africa +can only be developed by compelling the native to work.[149] It is, of +course, assumed _à priori_ that the native of West Africa does not work. +How the contention can be justified in the face of demonstrable and +easily accessible facts to the contrary, we need not pause to inquire. +It suffices that the contention exists, and that there is not a paper +dealing with African affairs in Great Britain, or the Continent of +Europe, which does not contain in almost every issue some reference to +the matter. Nor is discussion limited to such papers. In the speeches of +public men whose interests are associated with Africa; in conferences, in +books, pamphlets, and not infrequently in the daily press, the subject +crops up again and again. The refrain is usually much after this style: +“The native will not work. We have to work and pay income-tax. Why should +not the native? What is the use of Africa to us if the native refuses to +work? It is intolerable. He must be made to work.” + +It must be admitted that the spirit of the hour is admirably suited to +act the part of receiver to these laments. The signatory powers of the +Berlin Act have allowed the gradual establishment and consolidation in +Western Central Africa of an institution the existence of which is based +upon repudiation of the inherent right of the native to his land or the +fruits thereof; and upon forced labour on the part of the dispossessed +for their despoilers. What wonder that the public of France and Germany, +observing the enormous profits derived by people immediately connected +with this institution, and led astray by the apathy of their statesmen +to the evil, should put down to political ability what is merely +outrage; and impatient at the comparatively slow progress of their own +possessions, should begin to loudly call for the adoption of a similar +system therein? “The King of Belgium has succeeded in making the natives +work. He and his coadjutors are reaping a huge harvest. Belgian industry +is the gainer. Antwerp has become the first rubber market in the world. +Why not imitate the King of Belgium?” + +[Illustration: THE IDLE NATIVE! MARKET SCENE IN WEST AFRICA] + +It would be grossly unfair to describe this mental attitude on the part +of public opinion in France and Germany as having been due, or as being +due, to a natural callousness. At one time, indeed, the proceedings +of the Congo State were severely condemned in both countries, and not +farther back than 1895 Count Alvensleben, German Ambassador in Brussels, +was carrying on a correspondence with the then principal Secretary +of the Congo State anent the payment of rubber premiums by the Congo +State to its agents and the trading operations of that State, couched +in such language as would have brought about between two European +Powers an immediate rupture of diplomatic relations. But wealth commands +great power, and its rapid acquisition is a blunter of conscience. +The Belgian financiers who control the two great Trusts in the Congo +State—the _annexes_ of the Domaine Privé Trust and the Thys Trust—were +desirous for their own ends of still further extending their power. +They managed to obtain the co-operation of many highly placed persons +in France and Germany, and to secure the assistance of an important +section of the Colonial Press in the two countries. The result is seen +in the creation of what is known as the Concessionnaire _régime_ in the +Colony of French Congo; its partial adoption in the French Colony of +Dahomey; its attempted establishment in the auriferous French Colony +of the Ivory Coast; and its introduction into German Cameroons, where, +however, experience has led to a revulsion of feeling as healthy as it +is encouraging. In other words, the indifference of the Powers to the +violation of the Berlin Act by the Sovereign of the Congo State has +involved the application of the new slavery to another vast tract of +territory in Africa. Public opinion has been worked to such good purpose +that the lucubrations of a Carl Peters or Camille Janssens are not only +listened to with patience, but are regarded by many as the embodiment +of a rational colonial policy; while in France, open appeals have for +the past year and more been uttered every day in favour of a _régime_ +of forced labour at the point of the bayonet. The theory that the Negro +will not work and must be compelled to do so has, therefore, made strides +rapid enough among the Western nations on the Continent of Europe to +satisfy the fondest hopes of its promoters. + +In England the modern school of thought in African affairs shows a like +tendency. We hear in various forms how essential it is to inculcate +the African with the notion of the “dignity of labour.” As we are here +dealing with West Africa, it would be out of place to discuss at any +length the labour questions connected with South Africa. But it is only +too obvious that the financiers of the Rand and their friends at home +are the leading spirits through whom British public opinion is being +influenced towards coercion in the matter of native labour in Africa +as a whole, just as the Brussels and Antwerp financiers who run the +Congo State are the instruments whereby similar notions are propagated +on the Continent of Europe. As already stated, special conditions, as +well as the nature of the native population and, indeed, nearly all +attendant circumstances, differ profoundly in West Africa and South +Africa, but it is necessary to indicate the prevalence of a common +shade of thought which it is sought to apply in practice wherever the +European has secured a sufficiently strong hold upon the Dark Continent. +In a fascinating volume of African travel recently published by a +brilliant young explorer, Mr. H. S. Grogan, can be found embodied, in +a style distinguished for its honest vulgarity, frank brutality and +entire absence of those hypocritical sophistries so much in vogue, the +views of the “modern school” as to what is, or what ought to be, the +inter-relationship of European and Hamite in Africa. + +Here are a few samples of his arguments: + + “But few people at home,” he writes, “realise what an alarming + and ever-growing difficulty has to be faced in the African + native problem. It is a difficulty that is unique in the + progress of the world.... Under the beneficent rule of the + white man he thrives like weeds in a hot-house.... What is to + be done with this ever-increasing mass of inertia? We have + undertaken his education and advancement, as we have carefully + explained, by the mawkish euphemisms in which we wrap our + land-grabbing schemes. When we undertake the education of a + child or beast we make them work, realising that work is the + sole road to advancement. But when we undertake the education + of a nigger, who, as I have endeavoured to show, is a blend + of the two, we say; ‘Dear Nigger, thou elect of Exeter Hall, + chosen of the negrophil, bread-and-butter of the missionary, + darling of the unthinking philanthropist, wilt thou deign to + put thy hand to the plough, or dost prefer to smoke and tipple + in undisturbed content? We, the white men whom thy conscience + wrongly judges to be thy superiors, will arrange the affairs + of state. Sleep on, thou ebony idol of a jaded civilisation, + may be anon thou wilt sing ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers.’ ... A + good sound system,” proceeds Mr. Grogan, “of compulsory labour + would do more to raise the nigger in five years than all the + millions which have been sunk in missionary efforts for the + last fifty.... Why should not other peoples be called upon to + work for the cause of progress? Throughout Africa the cry is, + ‘Give me labour.’ There is a sound maxim in the progress of + the world: ‘What cannot be utilised must be eliminated.’ And + drivel as we will for a while, the time will come when the + negro must bow to this as to the inevitable. Why, because he + is black and is supposed to possess a soul, we should consider + him, on account of that combination, exempt, it is difficult + to understand, when a little firmness would transform him from + a useless and dangerous brute into a source of benefit to the + country and of satisfaction to himself.” + +What a typical passage is this! The Negro lazy and degraded, useless +and dangerous: the European doing all the work while the Negro smokes +and drinks—whether imported European liquor or liquor manufactured +locally is not stated: narrow-minded visionaries at home preventing the +salvation of Africa in the shape of compulsory labour on the Rand mines +which constitutes “education”: the perfection of morals that result from +such education, and so forth! The crowning folly is conveyed in the +words “what cannot be utilised must be eliminated,” which, I suppose, +means a “thinning-out process”—such as Professor Gregory tells us has +been accomplished only too successfully in Unyoro, where “it has been +estimated that in the four years following the establishment of British +rule the population was reduced to a fourth”—in order to prevent the too +rapid propagation of these “hot-house weeds!” And yet what Mr. Grogan +says is repeated by many and believed by more—the mass who swallow +this tainted diet as though ’twere nectar, and absorb these grotesque +distortions as if they were gospel truths. + +Let us endeavour to examine this question in a practical, temperate, and +impartial spirit. According to ethnologists, the true, uncontaminated +Negro is only found in West Africa, roughly from Senegal to the Rio +del Rey. He inhabits the coastwise regions and the forest belt. The +innumerable creeks and forests of the Niger Delta shelter the purest +specimens, ethnologically, of his race. South of Rio del Rey the Bantu +stock begins, and predominates as you work southward. Behind the forest +belt the true Negro stock has become changed and modified by infusion +of Berber and Fulani, and also, but to a lesser degree, of Arab blood. +In the Niger bend, in the regions round about Lake Chad, in Northern +Nigeria this blending of races has created a bewildering variety of mixed +types, while here and there both the invaded and invading elements have +preserved their purity—for instance, among the Negroes, the Bambarra +of the Upper Niger; among the Berbers, the noble Imosagh; among the +Arabs, the Shuwa; among the Fulani, the Pullo herdsmen of Futa Jallon, +Adamawa, Bondu, and of many other parts of the Western Sudan. Leaving +west for east, you have the Shoa, Galla, Somali, and Jew in Abyssinia +and its confines; then the Bantu—product, as Dr. Voight thinks, of +Semitic and Negro mixture—spreading southwards, inwards and westwards; +universal everywhere, right down to the Cape—the Masai, Wahuma, Pigmies, +Hottentots; and, in the French Congo, the Fans, presenting small channels +of ethnic divergence in a vast sea of Bantu stock. + +[Illustration: WEST AFRICAN “YOUNG HOPEFULS”] + +Throughout all this huge expanse of territory the soil is in the main +so fertile that it produces with little trouble everything which the +native requires for his subsistence and his comfort, where his sense of +what constitutes comfort has not expanded as the result of intercourse +with a higher ethical development—a “higher civilisation,” to use the +hackneyed term. The climate being mostly hot, it militates against great +physical energy, which, moreover, is not, and has not been, economically +necessary for the African for countless generations. The degree of +development of the native depends upon the extent of his contact with, +or remoteness from, influences tending to create in his mind fresh +ideas; a higher conception of arts and crafts—influences which may +have filtered through to him either by the medium of trade, successive +migration, conquest by a more advanced race, or the infiltration of a +revealed religion. The more inaccessible the region, the further inland +the people, the wider removed from highways of commerce their situation, +the more primitive their state. That is logical, although there are, of +course, exceptions. But that in his primitive state the African is the +“useless and dangerous brute” which the shallow materialism, the frenzy +for expansion, the unthinking, rather blatant callousness of the hour +would make him out to be, is one of the many fictions which pass for +truths about Africa. The Wa-Kavirondo are the most primitive people in +the Uganda Protectorate. They go absolutely naked, are more moral than +their partly clothed neighbours, and are agriculturists. “Wherever they +settle, the jungle around them is soon converted into fruitful fields, +yielding sweet potatoes, or various forms of corn. Those who can afford +it keep goats and sheep, and the wealthy have herds of cattle,” says +Dr. Ansorge, adding that among them, “where the European villain with +his lies and frauds has not yet made his appearance, the white man’s +simple word is equal to a solemn and a binding oath.” In most parts of +Africa, south of the equator—in the huge central portion at any rate—in +the Upper Nile valley, the region traversed by Mr. Grogan, the native +has never had the motive, the spontaneous impetus to produce more than +his needs required or his fancy led him to. Yet he works in iron, moulds +pottery, has in many cases a highly developed artistic instinct,[150] +manufactures cloth and ingenious and elaborate weapons of offence, has +some notions of harmony, and often enough a vein of true poetic instinct. +When local conditions have been favourable to the evolving of important +social agglomerations, a native state form has grown up which was a cause +of abundant astonishment to the early European travellers in Central +Africa. Yet, as far back as we are able to plunge in the dim recesses +of the past, these millions of natives—this “mass of inertia”—were +entirely cut off from intercourse with the outside world, isolated from +all contact with the “superior” races. A few stray Egyptian traders +probably penetrated to the head waters of the Nile and the Great Lakes. +Later on, a handful of Arabs wandered inwards from Zanzibar, but until +Burton, Speke and Grant, Livingstone (working from the south), Baker, +Emin, and Stanley revealed the interior of Africa, its inhabitants had +been innocent of all communication with the higher culture. One need not +inquire whether the lot of these people has been much brighter since +the advent among them of the half-caste Arab slave-trader, the Belgian +ivory and rubber hunter, the over-zealous European missionary, and the +land-grabbing fever of the Powers. An estimate on that point must be +largely a matter of opinion. But to expect that these natives are going +to willingly emigrate _en masse_ to the Rhodesian mines, hire themselves +out for the performance of arduous labour, dig, delve, undertake +plantation work and the like with the zeal of a European workman anxious +to earn a living wage, is a piece of consummate folly. They can only +be induced to do so by the most tactful treatment; by the payment of a +decent wage; by the selection of European agents possessing some sense +of proportion, and at least a rudimentary knowledge of the teachings +of history. To attempt to revolutionise these peoples’ conceptions in +a few years is madness, and to try and drive them by coercive measures +constitutes a policy at once immoral, short-sighted, and disastrous.[151] + +Until quite recently British West Africa remained unaffected in any +material sense by the gradual gravitation of European public opinion +towards the use of coercion in dealing with the African, together with +the non-recognition of native land tenure and the various concomitants of +the “exploitation” policy. The birth of a scientific gold-mining industry +in the Gold Coast, however, has let loose a flood of ignorant talk +about West Africa, and raised up a whole host of evil advisers who are +busily intent in introducing South African methods in the West African +goldfields. Constant complaints are being raised about the scarcity of +labour, the indolence and the slothfulness of the native. Experienced men +like Mr. Daw, of the Ashanti goldfields, have not hesitated to speak out +boldly against these views; and so far the Colonial Office,[152] to its +honour be it said, has refused to yield to the clamour, and has declined +to repeal the law on the acquisition, extent, and registration of mining +concessions whereby the rights of the native owners of the soil are amply +safeguarded. In that respect the Concessions Ordinance must rank as the +most equitable legislative measure for the protection and preservation of +native land tenure which exists in West Africa. It is true that of the +numerous complaints which the Ordinance has given rise to, those that +refer to the actual working of the measure are justified. The machinery +for registration is hardly complete enough, and in that and some other +respects matters might be improved. It is also true that cases have +occurred where native chiefs have, knowingly or unknowingly, sold their +properties twice over, and thus perpetrated a fraud which, no doubt, is +exceedingly reprehensible; but certainly not more so than the numerous +frauds deliberately consummated by sundry Gold Coast company promoters in +foisting upon the British public bogus concerns, causing pecuniary loss +to hundreds and thousands of English men and women. The African chief who +indulges in sharp practice can be punished in the Gold Coast, but his +European prototype generally manages to escape the clutches of the law. +It is to be hoped that the Colonial Office will maintain the Concessions +Ordinance in its integrity, while perfecting the machinery to administer +it, for the law, as a law, is a credit to British justice in West Africa. + +On the other hand, it is much to be regretted that the Colonial Office +should have framed a code of laws and regulations in respect to the +development of forest products and the attribution of forest reserves, +in Southern Nigeria, which have given rise to grave objection, and must +continue to do so. The effect of these regulations in the aggregate is +to authorise the High Commissioner to issue any rules he chooses with +regard to all kinds of forest produce, not excepting the produce of the +palm. No proper distinction is drawn between so-called “waste”[153] +lands and forest lands at the disposal of the native and the Government +respectively. Natives are to be compelled to take out licences to enable +them to do what they have hitherto done without restriction. The licences +are to be granted by the Government officials. Half the money goes to the +local treasury, the other half to the native owner, but only if he can +show that he is entitled to it! The native is tried, under the penalties +provided by the proclamation, by the European officer and not by his own +local court. All this is bad and short-sighted policy. It must inevitably +tend to suggest to the native mind that the Government is taking entire +possession of his land. His rights of land tenure are being treated as +though they had ceased to exist, and had been vested in the Government. +We are officially assured that the native chiefs are satisfied that +this is not the case, and that they welcome these regulations. It is +impossible to regard these assurances otherwise than with scepticism. In +Southern Nigeria the Crown Colony Government is a despotism absolute and +entire. There is no legislative council; there are no native newspapers. +The native has no means of ventilating his grievances. The powers of +the High Commissioner are more sweeping than that of the Tsar of all +the Russias. There is no check upon him, no control of any kind. He +does exactly what he likes, and “force” in Southern Nigeria, in other +words, punitive expeditions are but of too frequent occurrence. For +upwards of three-quarters of a century the natives of Southern Nigeria +have been encouraged by successive British Governments in the belief +that they were free to utilise the products of their own forests. I +defy any jurist to say what amount of freedom they will enjoy if these +regulations are carried out to the letter. I have sought the opinion +of English lawyers not unversed in native law on this matter, and they +have been anything but impressed with the justice or legality of the +measure. The regulations have been compared to a retrogression “to the +days of William the Conqueror.” “The interpretation of the Commissioner’s +powers, under this Ordinance”—I am quoting from the letter of a lawyer +to whom I submitted the measures in question—“are far too arbitrary. +What privileges are left to the native who, you will remember, is the +owner of the soil? It seems that he is in the unfortunate position of +being the owner of his land without being able to obtain the slightest +advantage from that land, and if he attempts to deal with the products +thereof, even with the very best intentions, he is liable at the will +of the Commissioner to imprisonment or fine as provided by the Bill. +This is surely not the intention of the framer of the Bill; at least I +hope not.” The Chambers of Commerce on the one hand, and the Aborigines +Protection Society on the other, have protested against this reactionary +legislation, which shows that both in commercial and philanthropic +circles a similarity of feeling exists in regard to its tenour. It is one +thing “to protect the forests from destruction,” which is understood to +be the motive of these regulations, and no reasonable being would object +to the framing of common-sense rules for the preservation of rubber trees +and vines (although it is not rules but _instruction_ which is required) +and certain young hardwood trees of slow growth; but it is quite +another thing to introduce a series of cast-iron laws of this wholesale +character, of doubtful legality, of still more questionable expediency, +inevitably calculated to lead to friction and distinctly prejudicial +to the development of legitimate commerce. The Crown Colony system in +the Rivers has not been such a brilliant success that it can afford to +deliberately run such risks! These proclamations, it may be added, were +passed into law in Southern Nigeria without the merchants who supply the +whole revenue of the country being advised or even consulted. Such is the +business-like method with which we conduct our affairs in West Africa! + +[Illustration: AN IBO FAMILY GROUP—SOUTHERN NIGERIA] + +In Lagos, where a similar measure was introduced (it should be stated +that the law is of home manufacture), it met with considerable native +opposition, and passed through several stages of amendment before +becoming law. In Lagos there is a legislative council on which natives +sit—in a minority it is true—and there are local newspapers. Channels +exist, therefore, through which native opinion can make itself heard. +There is also, happily, a Governor of the widest sympathies, of great +and extensive knowledge and experience. Under his auspices we may feel +assured that nothing will be wittingly done to alienate native rights in +land. The Bill, as amended, provides that it shall be open to the duly +constituted Native Councils, or Governments, of the inland protected +States, to construe its clauses in accordance with native custom and +usage; and as the chiefs are just as interested in preserving their +forests as the legislators or the merchants, we may feel tolerably sure +that the objects aimed at will be secured. Moreover, it is further +provided that the Native Councils shall themselves issue licences +when required, the proceeds of which shall come to their own local +treasuries entirely; and shall themselves inflict fines under their own +law, and in their own courts; and the Governor is further recommending +that the Government reserves shall be conveyed under lease.[154] +There you observe the difference between the two procedures. The one +arbitrary, dogmatic, despotic—the other such as it is seen to be. If +any difficulties arise in Lagos in the course of the working of the +Bill,[155] it will not be for the want of doing everything possible +to avert them, of surrounding the rights of native land tenure with +safeguards which, so long as they are adhered to, will be sufficient +to protect them, of imbuing the native mind with the feeling that +the Administration intends to conform to the traditions of native +usage; but they will be due to the principle involved in the Bill, the +principle, that is, of a _primâ facie_ right of interference, directly +or indirectly, on the part of the Government, in the affairs of native +States, whose internal independence in contradistinction to their +external relations is guaranteed by treaty. On that point opinion will +differ, and some of us will continue to think that, in all matters +affecting native industries, instruction is better than restriction.[156] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A COTTON INDUSTRY FOR WEST AFRICA + + +Within the past few months a subject of the greatest possible moment to +West Africa, and of vital importance to no inconsiderable section of the +inhabitants of Great Britain, has been discussed in concrete fashion, and +there is every reason to hope—nay more, to feel assured—that practical +results will follow. I refer to the movement for the promotion of +cotton-growing in West Africa. + +What has already been done may be stated in a few words. On May 8 a +memorable meeting was held at the Albion Hotel, Manchester, under the +auspices of Mr. Arthur Hutton, the President of the Manchester Chamber of +Commerce. The Chambers of Commerce of London, Liverpool, and Oldham were +represented at the meeting, together with the managing director of the +British West African Steamship Lines, Sir Alfred Jones,[157] the Oldham +Cotton Spinners Association, the Manchester Cotton Spinners’ Association, +various other associations of a similar character from Blackburn and +other Lancashire towns, the West African merchants, cotton merchants, +brokers, weavers and manufacturers, &c. The object of the meeting was +to widen the area of cotton cultivation under the British flag, more +especially in West Africa, and before the close of the proceedings a +“British Cotton Growing Association” had been formed with a preliminary +capital of £10,000, to be exclusively devoted to experimenting in West +Africa and other over-sea possessions. This meeting was followed by +another held in Manchester in June, in the course of which the decision +arrived at previously was confirmed and enlarged, and it was decided to +raise a fund of £50,000. The resolutions passed at this second meeting +were as follows: + + RESOLUTIONS. + + “(1) That, in the opinion of this meeting, the continued + prosperity of the British cotton industry depends on an + increased supply of cotton, and it is desirable that our + sources of supply should be extended. + + “(2) That in order to attain this end an association be formed, + to be called the British Cotton Growing Association. + + “(3) That its principal object be the extension of the growth + and cultivation of cotton in British colonies, dependencies, + and protectorates. + + “(4) That a guarantee fund of £50,000 be raised, to be spread + over five years, no guarantor being required to contribute more + than one-fifth of his total guarantee in any one year. + + “(5) That this association shall have power to form a + subsidiary company, or companies, and to dispose of any of + its assets to any company thus formed, on conditions that + subscribers to this association have the first option of + taking up shares in any such company in proportion to their + subscriptions. + + “(6) That a general committee should be appointed. + + “(7) That this general committee should appoint from their + number members to form the executive committee. + + “(8) That the executive committee shall immediately collect + all the available information on the subject and despatch + expert expeditions to report on the best methods of procedure, + and shall have power to (_a_) acquire land on which to make + experiments and to establish plantations; (_b_) distribute seed + among the natives to encourage them by advice and assistance to + grow cotton on their own land, and to engage experts for this + purpose if necessary; (_c_) establish stations to buy and sell + cotton, or any of its by-products, animals, implements, or any + other articles or goods necessary for the expeditions; (_d_) to + adopt any other means that may suggest themselves from time to + time to attain the object in view. + + “(9) That the general committee issue a report once each + half-year of the work which has been done.” + +A third meeting took place at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce on July +14, in the presence of Sir William MacGregor, Governor of Lagos, and Sir +A. King Harman, Governor of Sierra Leone, when practical ways and means +of promoting the cultivation of cotton in their respective Colonies for +export to Europe were debated.[158] + +Having thus briefly indicated the various measures adopted, we may +profitably inquire into the origin and causes of the movement. That +inquiry cannot fail to impress the thinking public with the importance +of the issues. With every year that passes Great Britain is becoming +more than ever dependent upon the United States for her cotton supply, +and with every year that passes the increase in the cotton production of +America accentuates itself by comparison with the production of other +countries. Thus in the decades 1870-80, 1880-90, and 1890-1900 America +has produced 4½, 6½, and 9½ millions of bales, while India has produced +2, 2½, and 2 millions; Egypt 384,000, 400,000, and 700,000; and Brazil +600,000, 300,000, and 380,000 in the same period. The gradual position +assumed by America as controller of the world’s cotton is, therefore, +clearly apparent, and although the production of Egypt and India is +increasing, the ratio of increase when compared with America is trifling, +while the production from countries outside India and Egypt is decreasing. + +That is one consideration. Another consideration is this. Forty years ago +England took the bulk of American cotton. To-day the Continent, thanks to +the growth and to the marvellous success of Continental spinners, takes +one-third of the entire American crop. + +Yet another factor is the increase in the American consumption of cotton. +A few years ago the American _consumption_ of cotton was almost _nil_. +America now consumes a third of her produce. In the opinion of some +experts—although in some quarters a contrary opinion is held—America +will consume by the end of next year at least one-half of her production. + +Now these are very serious facts for industrial Lancashire. The terrible +distress which visited Lancashire in the days of the American Civil +War is still sufficiently recent to be remembered, and one shudders +to contemplate the consequences which would ensue if anything should +again prevent Lancashire from obtaining her share of the cotton crop of +America, with nothing but the existing inadequate supplies from other +parts of the world to fall back upon. The danger is a very real and +pressing one. As matters stand at present, Great Britain is practically +at the mercy of the United States, and in a position of almost entire +dependence upon the market manipulations of American speculators, in +whose power it is to regulate the price to suit their own convenience. +So unsatisfactory is the actual condition of affairs, that for the past +three years it has hardly paid importers to ship cotton to Liverpool. The +fear of an American syndicating of cotton is not, perhaps, altogether +groundless in these days of vast trusts and combinations, while the +competition from Continental spinners, and, above all, increased +American consumption, make the outlook as gloomy as it well can be. It +is therefore imperative that something be done to increase the area of +cotton production under the British flag. So much for the wider aspect of +the question. + +Those to whom this matter specially appeals have naturally enough +turned their eyes towards West Africa, and it is in connection with the +possibilities of the development of an export cotton industry in that +part of the world that some remarks may fittingly be made in this volume. +I say an “export” industry, because, as we know, a native industry to +supply local wants has existed in West Africa for centuries past. We +have seen, for example, the paramount part which the cotton industry +plays in the prosperity of Kano and Northern Nigeria generally, where, +in addition to supplying local wants, manufactured cotton cloths are an +article of barter; in some regions indeed a veritable currency, sent +far and wide to countries of inland Western Africa where the excellence +of the Kano article is in perpetual demand. But what is true of Kano is +true of many other portions of West Africa. The cotton shrub (_Gossypium +herbaceum_)[159] is met with in a wild state all over West Africa, and +cultivated very extensively. Wherever Islam has spread, cultivation has +increased, but in pagan communities the manufacture of cotton cloths +is indulged in to no inconsiderable extent. The pagan tribes of Sierra +Leone, of the Gold Coast and Liberia, turn out the most beautiful cloths. +Their excellence and felicity of design are such that no one who has seen +them can fail to be impressed with the capacity of the races, with their +primitive appliances, which produce them. The endeavour to promote cotton +cultivation on a larger scale in West Africa will not be, therefore, a +new thing, and what might have been an initial difficulty is happily +non-existent. + +Nor will West Africa be called upon for the first time in its history to +supply Europe with raw cotton. When the American Civil War broke out, +high prices were offered for West African cotton, which was universally +pronounced by experts to be of excellent quality. Cotton was exported +in its raw state from the Gold Coast, Fernando Po, Lagos, the Gambia, +and Angola. Indeed the export was continued long after that, and between +the years 1878 and 1885 raw cotton to the value of £56,501 was shipped +home to Europe from the Gold Coast and Lagos. Even before the American +War, as was recently recalled to memory by Mr. Elijah Helm,[160] himself +a Quaker, the constitutional objections of the Quakers to utilise the +products of slave labour led to the formation of a small association, +which imported cotton from West Africa of a quality so good, and in +quantities so considerable, as to provide for the not very extensive +wants of the Quaker fraternity. + +But with the close of the war, and the considerable fall in price since +those days, the West African export cotton industry has become virtually +extinct. A very little, I believe, still finds it sway to Europe from +the banks of the Volta and from Angola, but that is all, with the +exception of the Togoland experiment of last year, of which I shall speak +later. + +The four main requirements for the successful cultivation of cotton are: +(1) a suitable soil, (2) adequate irrigation or a regularly recurring +rainfall, (3) sufficient labour, (4) transport facilities. British West +Africa can, in the main, give the first three, in some places better than +in others. British West Africa’s capacity to furnish the fourth depends +upon whether the grassy upland plains of the interior may be considered +more fitting or less fitting than the swampy, better-watered regions of +the coast. If the former be thought the most likely, the country behind +Lagos alone affords the necessary qualifications at present. Lagos, +moreover, is particularly fitted in respect to the third requirement, +that of labour. A railway 125 miles long runs up from Lagos town to the +interior, passing through the naturally rich and productive belt of +forest, where it is hopeless to expect, and where it would be dangerous +to attempt to promote, cotton cultivation. But beyond the forest belt +a park-like country opens out of an area of some 10,000 square miles +in extent, the greater proportion of which would be suitable to the +cultivation of cotton, and would go far to justify and hasten, if +taken up in earnest, the extension of the existing railway line to the +Niger. If, therefore, it be a question of experimenting in a region of +grass-covered plains—similar to those of Texas—Lagos, by reason of its +railway, is the only British colony where such experiments can at present +be undertaken. The intelligence of the Yorubas, their agricultural and +industrial capacity, the dense agglomeration of population met with in +the country, the need of providing or strengthening the _economic_, as +opposed to the strategic, argument for a continuation of the line (let +us fervently trust under different conditions) to the Niger; all those +factors render it in the highest degree to be hoped that Lagos may be +chosen as a centre of activity for the new movement. Lagos, let it never +be forgotten, is one of the doors of Northern Nigeria. + +If, on the other hand, the consensus of expert opinion favours the +low-lying coastwise regions, where fluvial transport to the actual port +of shipment is relatively easy, the Gambia and Southern Nigeria primarily +suggest themselves. Those possessions seem to me to offer advantages +over Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. The present condition of Sierra +Leone is not encouraging. The railway, if it achieves anything at all, +which is doubtful, can only do so by increasing the yield of the fruit +of the palm, and by bringing the interior oil-palm districts into closer +touch with the coast markets. This may enable that unfortunate Colony +to bear the heavy burden under which it is now staggering. To cut down +the forests in the Eastern districts of Sierra Leone in order to plant +cotton would be suicidal. In the Gold Coast, again, there is an opposing +factor in the shape of the gold-mining industry. The mining companies are +perpetually grumbling about the scarcity of labour, for which in many +cases they have themselves to thank. Their demands upon the population +have already resulted in drawing away a number of people from their usual +avocations, with the result that the export of timber is decreasing; and +any further deviation of available labour, such as the cultivation of +cotton would necessitate, would seriously affect the producing capacity +of the country, not only as regards timber, but in respect to other +natural and cultivated products, such as palm oil and kernels in the +first category, and cocoa in the other. + +For the Gambia, on the other hand, the advent of a new industry would be +a boon. The Gambia entirely relies for its existence upon the ground-nut. +It is always a bad thing to have all your eggs in one basket. When an +article like the ground-nut is in question, it is very bad, because +you are at the mercy, as it were, of the seasons. The ground-nut is +necessarily a fluctuating article on that account, and one year may +produce a fine crop, to be followed the next by an indifferent one. Sir +George Denton—the genial and popular Governor of the Gambia—intended, I +know, to try and start a better system of irrigation in certain parts of +that Colony, in order to widen the extent of ground-nut producing land, +and any such project would be all to the good, of course, for cotton +cultivation. The population of the Gambia being mostly Mohammedan and +largely composed of those most enterprising people the Mandingoes, and +Mandingoes crossed with Fulani blood—remnant of the old empire of Melle—a +cotton industry (to which they are long inured) could be started with so +much greater hope of success from this fact. + +In Southern Nigeria[161] the field is vast. You can march for miles on +either bank of the main river through a cotton-growing country. The +density of the population varies, of course, in different districts. +Fluvial means of transport abound. The people, it is true, are not +blessed, or cursed, with many wants; but there is no valid reason +why, with a little painstaking care and sympathetic treatment; with +improvements in the production of kernels which, as already suggested, +would release a considerable amount of native labour for other pursuits; +with a greater display of combination between the official and mercantile +class; with a good deal less blood-letting, fewer punitive expeditions, +“clearing away of the refuse of the population,” “drastic measures,” and +so forth; the natives of Southern Nigeria should not be induced to take +up cotton cultivation for purposes of export. + +Granted the necessity; given the soil, irrigation rainfall, labour and +transport, as specifically mentioned above; admitted an experience in +cotton growing, spinning and weaving among the natives; what remains to +be studied in this great enterprise destined, let us hope, to make of +British West Africa a great cotton-producing country on which England can +count in case of need; to assist in freeing us to a large extent from +a position of dependence upon America, and so prevent the accumulating +dangers of the hour, and of which the creation cannot fail to confer the +greatest benefit upon the British West African possessions? + +Obviously the first consideration is one of price. Can a cotton industry +in West Africa be made to pay? Can sufficient inducement be offered +to the native to encourage him to produce cotton for export? Can West +African cotton compete with any degree of success against the American +product in the matter of price? On what lines can a cotton industry in +West Africa be promoted? Based upon the data available, which are not, of +course, by any means complete, the general consensus of opinion amongst +experts appears to be that, with the inculcation of scientific methods of +cultivation, the treatment of the cotton shrub as an annual instead of a +perennial, the introduction of the necessary implements and of ginning +and compressing machinery it will be possible to make cotton-growing +profitable. In this respect the experiments of the Germans in Togoland +are particularly interesting. To Germany belongs the credit of initiating +the new cotton movement. From the German Colony of Togo came last +year, for the first time in its history, fifteen thousand marks worth +of cotton. The conclusions of the German Agricultural Committee were +precise. The absence of adequate transport facilities alone prevented the +complete financial success of the first experiment. Further, it was shown +upon analysis that, of the various types of cotton raised from American, +Egyptian, Indian and native seed, the type raised from the native seed +produced, as a whole, the best staple, equal in quality to average +American. This absence of transport is likely to be remedied in time, +as a survey is now being made for a railway from the coast to Misahöhe. +Meanwhile the Germans are so far from being discouraged that a company +is, I understand, about to be brought out for the express purpose of +developing the cotton industry in Togo[162] with a capital of £37,500. + +[Illustration: TRAVELLING ON THE NIGER IN THE DRY SEASON] + +The French are also devoting a great deal of attention to the subject +just now. Some years ago the then military Governor of the French Sudan, +Général de Trentinian, took the matter up. Nothing came of his efforts, +but M. Roume, the new Governor-General of French West Africa, has +now adopted it as one of the planks of his platform, so to speak. He +is anxious to establish a cotton industry in Senegal, which, like the +Gambia, lives upon ground-nut production. More ambitious schemes are +vaguely mooted, and some enthusiasts already speak and write as though +the valley of the Upper Niger were about to be converted, as it were by a +flash of the magician’s wand, into a rival of the Southern States. That +with its magnificent soil and splendid natural irrigation the valley of +the Upper Niger may some day fulfil the aspirations of the French is, +perhaps, more than possible.[163] But we are a long way off that yet. + +It seems difficult, then, to believe that this simultaneous impulse on +the part of competent men in England, Germany and France can be founded +upon a miscalculation in respect to working expenses, and I think we may +feel tolerably certain that, if cotton costs an average per lb. of 2⅛ +_d._ to produce in Texas, such parts of West Africa as can be endowed +with similar facilities in respect to machinery, and where transport, +either by rail or water, is available, will be able to produce cotton at +a lower figure; and as the interest of the West African shipowners is to +fill their ships homeward bound from the West Coast, we may also presume +that they will make reasonable concessions to encourage the industry.[164] + +There remains the question of how to set about establishing a cotton +industry in West Africa upon a sound basis. Shall it be attempted in +the form of plantations managed by white overseers and with paid native +labour; or shall it be left very largely to native initiative, and +develop itself on the lines of a native industry—as, I believe, is the +case in India? I think that all who have some knowledge of West African +matters will unhesitatingly pronounce in favour of the latter solution. +West Africa is essentially a country of native industries, and the best +economic results have been obtained in West Africa when the motive power +all through has been the native, with the European as teacher, instructor +and guide, but _not_ as manager or director of native labour.[165] In +the construction of public works the same phenomenon is observable in +a somewhat different form. Experience has demonstrated that where the +recruiting of labour for railways or road construction has been left in +the hands of the chiefs, requisite labour was forthcoming, and sufficient +left on the farms to allow usual production, and therefore the export +trade has remained unaffected; whereas when recruiting operations have +been directed by Europeans outside the authority of the chiefs, labour +was indeed obtainable, but at the cost of disorganising the general +labour supply of the country and consequently affecting adversely the +export trade. + +A knowledge of these facts suggests, therefore, that the cotton industry +can be promoted with the greatest chance of success by interesting the +rulers of the country and their councils in the movement; by giving the +chiefs the benefit of expert advice; by enlisting their sympathies and +good-will; by supplying them with cotton seed, implements, and possibly +hand-gins, gratis; and so on. Here at least the necessity of proceeding +on lines of instruction entirely is manifest. The object is to improve +an existing industry, to greatly enlarge and systematise it, _to get the +people of the land interested in it_. If the native can see a profit in +the business, he will take it up. That is morally certain. It has been +so in every branch of West African commerce. So keenly has the native +embraced new trade outlets offered to him that upon occasion he has, when +uninstructed in the art of production, compromised the future. Absolute +and entire co-operation of officialdom and commerce is essential if the +cotton movement in West Africa is to be attended with success. The +Germans may here serve us as a model to imitate. The home Government, +the local Government; the forces of industry and commerce in Germany, +and in the particular Colony where the experiments are being made, have +vied with one another in the effort to achieve an aim of common interest +to all. Centres of instruction have been established in the Colony; +model farms have been created; Negro farmers from the States have been +brought over through the instrumentality of Mr. Booker T. Washington, the +distinguished Negro scholar and manager of the Tuskegee Institute.[166] +In all these matters the official world has worked hand in glove with the +commercial world. + +It is equally important that the cotton associations and merchants should +be in earnest. No mere pecking will suffice. Disappointments and delays +must be discounted in advance. There are sure to be plenty of both. +Ginning and compressing machinery must be set up either on the coast, +or, if it be decided to try Lagos, at large centres such as Ibadan and +Abbeokuta; and preferably what is known as the “American round lap,” +which ensures simultaneous ginning and compressing in 250 lb. round +bales, instead of the more cumbrous and more expensive separate ginning +and compressing machines, which produce the 500 lb. square bale. In +short, the movement must be engineered, from the beginning, on a real +scientific basis. If Togoland with its transport difficulties has been +able in the first year’s experience to export 70,000 decimal pounds of +cotton, what may not be achieved by those of our West African Colonies +where transport facilities exist; where the population is at least as +dense if not denser; and where British subjects have been in contact with +the natives for periods ranging from fifty to one hundred years? + +I cannot leave this subject without referring to the indirect relation +it bears to the Negro problem in the States. At present all is vague +and uncertain. We cannot tell what may be the outcome of the movement; +but if it be a success, what vistas does it not open up for the future! +We have seen how the Germans have invited the co-operation of American +Negro cotton farmers. The few who have gone out—the German reports assure +us—have elected to remain. More, it is announced, are to follow. What +would the attitude of the American Government be in the face of a steady +flow of emigration on the part of the coloured population of the Southern +States, to help to build up in its country of origin what it has built up +in America? In what light would the Americans regard the up-springing of +a great cotton industry in West Africa? If, as events seem to indicate, +America is likely to become on an ever-increasing scale the principal +consumer of her own raw cotton, would such an occurrence be viewed with +equanimity by the American public? Or if not with actual equanimity, +with at least the feeling that the danger, presuming it to be one, might +be cheerfully faced if a deeper peril could thereby be diminished, and +in time perhaps altogether removed? Could white labour in the American +cotton plantations, with the exception of the more swampy and malarial +regions, be substituted for Negro labour, in the event of appreciable +emigration? These are questions for American statesmen and thinkers +to answer. If American intelligence can perceive in these tentative +suggestions a clue, be it ever so faint now, of future potentialities, +a clue worth following up and investigating, let America remember that +a million square miles of African territory, which was declared in 1884 +internationally free commercial land, and in the consolidation of which +under its present _régime_ America is to a large degree responsible, is +in the grip to-day of a band of greedy monopolists in whose bowels reside +no scruples, no pity, no humanity; who are sowing red ruin wherever their +influence can be asserted. If America ever seriously turns her attention +to West Africa as a solution of the greatest problem of her internal +politics, let her cast her eyes upon the Congo State, misnamed Free—the +abode of cruelty and persecution, of slavery and reaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE MAHOGANY TRADE + + “The traveller who wanders through the dim recesses of the + tropical forest of Western Africa soon feels the sense of + its beauty lost in that of its mournful grandeur, and there + steals over him a profound feeling of solitude and a deep + consciousness of the solemnity, majesty, and utter loneliness + of this great, gloomy wilderness.”—Dr. AUSTIN FREEMAN. + + +The great forest region of Africa is one of the wonders of the world. +It is a moot point whether Africa should be described as possessing two +forest belts or only one. Roughly speaking, the forest region takes the +form of an inverted hatchet or axe, with French Congo, the Congo Free +State, and a portion of the Great Lakes districts as the blade; while +the West Coast, from Sierra Leone downwards, provides the handle. There +are gaps here and there; in the Cameroon hinterland; among the mangrove +swamps of the Niger Delta, and behind Lagos on the Niger side. The +forest is densest in the Upper Congo, where Stanley, we know, struggled +in it for many weary weeks, as though held in the grip of some hideous +nightmare from which there was no escape. + +In this natural hot-house, always bathed in an atmosphere of humidity and +steam, vegetation flourishes in the wildest profusion and exuberance, and +with the widest diversity of size and species, from the mighty _bombax_ +to the creeping lichen. So abundant is this luxurious growth, so thick +the canopy formed by the spreading branches and creepers overhead, +that, save here and there, where some giant has fallen and broken down +the surrounding undergrowth, leaving a gap overhead through which the +sunlight penetrates flickeringly, the forest is plunged in eternal +gloom. This gloom and the silence which accompanies it are the two +great characteristics of the African forest. Except for the occasional +chattering of monkeys, the crash of a falling tree, or the far-off +chirrup of birds, who seek the sunlight in the topmost branches, the +silence broods everlastingly. The effect of living amongst this gloom +and silence is most depressing to the European, and it is no matter for +surprise that the terrific solemnity of their environment should have +exercised a profound influence upon the naturally superstitious minds +of the native Africans who dwell therein. It is amongst the dwellers in +the forest region that we find the lowest type of African humanity[167] +and the most sombre developments of African religious conceptions. All +European travellers who have spent some time in this great forest region +have been alike impressed by its grandeur and its melancholy, and their +descriptions bear witness to the way in which their feelings have been +wrought upon by the natural phenomena with which they were surrounded. + +It is only within quite recent years that European enterprise has +concerned itself with the potential riches of this vast forest region, or +rather of that portion of it which it is as yet possible to commercially +develop, viz. the belt on the West Coast—or, to refer to the illustration +given above, the handle of the axe. The results already achieved in a +short period of effort, which can hardly be called more than tentative +and unsystematic, are such as to warrant the most sanguine expectations +for the future, when facilities of transport shall have brought the main +portion of the forest region within reach of the European markets. It is +curious to observe how, in its main lines, the trade of Western Africa +has arisen in a succession of well-defined stages. The earliest trade was +in gold-dust, and, so far as we know, confined to gold-dust, unless the +gorilla (or more probably the chimpanzee) skins brought home by Hanno +be counted as trade—which would be a somewhat humorous classification. +Then ensued a long period of absolute neglect of West Africa by civilised +man. When once more the latter turned his attention to that part of the +world, gold was again the principal item of trade, accompanied by ivory, +and later on by slaves—the later a monstrous evil, whose Nemesis is +to-day making itself felt in the United States. The gold trade died out, +the ivory trade languished, and the gum, palm oil and kernel trades came +into existence, to be followed by the rubber trade, and lastly by the +timber trade—principally confined to mahogany. On the principle of _plus +ça change, plus c’est la même chose_, the gold industry is now again +reviving, although on very different lines from the old barter system. +That is, of course, a general statement. There have been, now and then, +exceptions to prove the rule, and so far as timber is concerned, a not +inconsiderable business was carried on in the Gambia and Sierra Leone +some fifty years ago. + +[Illustration: FELLING A MAHOGANY-TREE] + +[Illustration: SQUARING THE TREE] + +Sir Alfred Moloney, however, was able to write in 1887 that, after having +made many inquiries, such timber trade as had previously existed “may +be said to have altogether ceased or to have sunk into the export done +in dye-woods and ebony.” The following tabulated statement shows how +insignificant was the timber trade in West Africa between the years 1878 +and 1885: + + WOOD AND TIMBER EXPORTS FROM WESTERN AFRICA, 1878 TO 1885. + + Year. Articles. Countries whence imported. Quantity. Value. + Tons. £ + + 1878 Wood and timber From the West of Africa, Nil. Nil. + unenumerated not particularly designated + 1879 ” ” ” ” + 1880 ” ” 1733 14,892 + 1881 ” ” No mention. + 1882 ” ” 1458 10,750 + 1883 ” ” 1441 11,100 + 1884 ” ” 1395 9,980 + 1885 ” ” 1181 9,565 + +In 1889 the total import of African mahogany was only 68,000 feet, and +in 1890—or a little over ten years ago—it did not amount to more than +259,000 feet. To-day the mahogany trade has grown to be one of the most +important branches of commerce in West Africa. Enormous quantities of +logs are shipped home from the Gold Coast, Lagos and the Ivory Coast, and +the mahogany exports from the Niger Coast Protectorate,[168] which were +started in August, 1899, produced 23,983 superficial feet in the year +1899-1900. + +The industry is carried on by two categories of shippers, viz. the +European merchant established on the coast, who either employs native +labour to cut down his own trees, or who buys timber direct from the +native; and the native merchant who ships home on commission. The chief +centres of the mahogany trade on the coast are: for the Gold Coast—Axim, +Twin Rivers, Sekondi and Chama; for the Ivory Coast—Assinie, Half +Assinie, Lahou and Grand Bassam; for Southern Nigeria—Benin and Sapelli. +Lagos timber is carried round to Forcados in branch boats, and there +shipped on the homeward-bound steamers. The South Coast mahogany trade +is chiefly confined to Botica Point, Gaboon, Eloby and Mayumba, although +a few logs have been sent home in the steamers of the Cie Belge Maritime +du Congo, from near Boma in the Congo Free State. The South Coast timber +trade appears to be dying out, owing chiefly to the pale colour of the +wood, which does not now commend itself to buyers.[169] The vast forests +of the Upper Congo cannot, with advantage or profit, be tapped until +the Congo Railway Company lowers its preposterous rates, and until the +administration of the country is in other hands than the monopolist +clique which controls it. + +[Illustration: DRAGGING THE SQUARED LOG THROUGH THE BUSH] + +[Illustration: SAPELLI, SOUTHERN NIGERIA’S PRINCIPAL TIMBER PORT] + +It may be interesting to give the actual exports of timber from the Gold +Coast and Lagos from 1895 to 1899, showing the wonderful strides which +have taken place. The Gold Coast, it may be stated, has a total forest +area of 12,000 square miles. + + EXPORTS FROM THE GOLD COAST. + + Year. Value. + + 1895 £28,245 + 1896 52,234 + 1897 90,509 + 1898 110,331 + 1899 87,076 + + EXPORTS FROM LAGOS. + + Year. Value. + + 1895 Nil. + 1896 £275 + 1897 8,271 + 1898 12,944 + 1899 34,737 + +Liverpool, Havre, Hamburg, Marseilles and Bordeaux absorb nine-tenths of +the exports of mahogany from Africa, but a certain proportion finds its +way from those ports to the United States.[170] Of the ports mentioned, +Liverpool holds far and away the first place. The statistics of Liverpool +imports from 1889 to 1900 inclusive will be found in the Appendix. + +In view of the evidence given of the phenomenal increase of the mahogany +trade, it seems almost incongruous to say that the existing condition +and the future prospects of the trade have, for some months past, been +causing much apprehension in West African commercial circles. The truth +is that the growth of the trade has been checked, and for the last twelve +months has even been showing signs of decay. There was a decreased +export in 1901 of over 11,000 tons, and the figures for the first six +months of the present year show a further decline, although prices have +considerably advanced and the demand for good logs exceeds the supply. + +It is a fact recognised by all the interested parties that the export +of mahogany from West Africa has received a serious check. What are the +reasons? They differentiate with the localities. In the Gold Coast the +falling off which has occurred is due, in the first place, to labour +being attracted from the timber to the gold-mining industry, and to the +needs of railway construction. Many thousands of natives have thus been +drawn away from timber-felling to work on the railway; for the mines, or +as carriers for the various prospecting expeditions into the interior. +A second contributory cause has been the necessarily trade-disturbing +element of warfare, otherwise stated, the Ashanti War, in the shape of +the general unrest and disorganisation brought about by the excessive +demands for carriers, &c. In the Ivory Coast, prospecting expeditions +have also affected the output. As far as Lagos is concerned, the remarks +of the Governor in the last report of that Colony for last year afford +the requisite explanation.[171] + +The freight question is undoubtedly held to militate against the +development of the timber industry, and it had been freely prophesied +that the effect would begin to make itself felt last year. How much the +decline was due on the whole to high freights, and how much to other +causes mentioned, it would be difficult to say. With the technicalities +of the subject I will not bore my readers. Suffice it to say that the +principal objection which is advanced against the steamship owners, +is the way in which the system known as the “sliding scale” is worked +out. At present logs over two tons pay increased freight, and a further +increase is made upon logs of three tons and upwards. It is urged +that, if the principle of the bigger the log the better the timber +were sound, this would be all right enough; but it so happens that the +average sale price of a one-ton log is much the same as that of a two-, +three- or four-ton log, except when the heavier log is what is termed +a good “figured”[172] log. Figured logs fetch any price, according to +the fancy of the purchaser, and in such cases the question of freight +is a bagatelle. But the vast majority of the logs do not possess these +qualifications, and the increased freight on the heavier logs tells +very heavily against the merchant, and may even go so far, when low +prices prevail on the home market, as to render any profit on the sale +impossible. Of course, the steamship owner has his reply ready; and, so +far, he considers it good enough to justify the existing rates. + +When all is said and done, the fact remains that the timber trade is +languishing. It would be a thousand pities to allow this to continue, +if it can be avoided. A trade once abandoned or paralysed is not easily +restarted. It is in the interest of all the parties concerned to arrive +at a _modus vivendi_ which shall allow the native who cuts and squares +the wood, the merchant who ships it, and the steamship owner who carries +it, to make a profit. In this as in other respects one would like to see +some systematic measures of instruction adopted, under joint official +and commercial auspices, to show the natives how the best logs can be +selected for felling, which would avoid the sending home of a mass of +worthless and immature timber calculated at times to flood the market and +depreciate prices, while damaging the forests in Africa. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA + + +The steady and continuous spread of Islam in the western portion of the +Dark Continent is a fact which no one acquainted with the subject will +attempt to deny. It is, indeed, so well established that to specialise +particular instances where it has been observed would be a needless +undertaking. It is everywhere palpable, striking, impressive. It can no +more be disguised or ignored than the concurrent circumstance of relative +failure on the part of Christian missions. While Mohammedanism continues +to gain converts far and wide; to absorb whole tribes; to filter down the +rivers to the ocean; to pierce the forest belt, with hardly a check—save +here and there, as, for example, among the Ibos on the Niger—Christianity +makes no headway in the interior; and even in its confinement to the +coastwise region, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, some of +the Europeanised towns on the coast, its progress is slow, so slow, +indeed, that well-informed observers are not wanting who believe that it +is losing rather than gaining ground. At any rate, it is not, I venture +to think, an exaggeration to say, Christianity is maintaining itself with +difficulty among heathen communities in West Africa, and beats in vain +against the strong tide of Mohammedanism.[173] + +It cannot be without interest to Englishmen whose West African Empire +covers so large an area, and numbers between thirty and forty millions, +to devote careful attention to a subject which is fraught with such +far-reaching importance, and which it is imperially necessary for Great +Britain to take into serious consideration as constituting a factor which +has to be reckoned with and appreciated at its proper value. On that +account it may not be out of place to discuss in a general way the whole +subject of Mohammedanism in West Africa. The problem is a great one, and +although there is no pretence here to more than touch the fringe of it, +even a tentative effort is, perhaps, of interest to the daily increasing +section of the public, which begins, although still but dimly, to realise +the nature and the extent of the responsibilities Great Britain has +undertaken in West Africa. + +Rejecting, as, in my opinion, we can do with safety, the legend that +attributes the existence of Mohammedanism in Walata (Biru), the seat +of the Ghanata Empire as early as the sixtieth year of the Hejira, or +about 682 A.D., there is yet good reason to believe that Islam crossed +the Sahara, and became powerful in the Western Sudan, earlier than the +eleventh century A.D., which is the period assigned to that event by the +majority of authorities. We know positively that the fifteenth prince of +the first and Za dynasty of the Songhay, Za Kasai, was converted to Islam +in the year 1000 A.D.[174] From El Bekri we glean that Mohammedanism +had taken such firm root in the Songhay Empire about sixty years after +the conversion of Za Kasai (1067 A.D.) that none but a Muslim could be +king. In the reign of Yusif Ibn Tashfin, the founder of Morocco, 1062 +A.D., many Negroes, according to Leo Africanus, became followers of +the Prophet. Barth’s invaluable “Chronological Table of the History of +Bornu” shows us that Islam was introduced into Kanem (and Bornu)[175] +in the reign of Hume, the first of the Muslim rulers of that extensive +Empire (1086-89), and the circumstance that this potentate died in Masr +(Misr)—_i.e._ Egypt, infers that he was either on his way to or from +Mecca.[176] Now it seems inconceivable that Gao or Gogo, the capital +of the Songhay Empire, which was situate on the Niger about 500 miles +in the heart of the country of the Negroes, should have yielded to the +influence of Islamic preachers who came from the north, before the +introduction of that religion in the intervening region comprised between +the southern limits of the Sahara and the Western Sudan. That it should +have struck the Niger, and followed it as providing the swiftest vehicle +of penetration inland before permeating the countries that lay on either +side of the river, is natural enough, and we find indirect confirmation +that it did so in the circumstance that the other great Negro kingdom +contemporary with Songhay, that of Melle or Mali, which had succeeded +Ghanata, only embraced Islam in the person of its king, Baramidana, +in 1213, or about two centuries after the conversion of Za Kasai. It +may therefore, I think, be assumed, without departing from the limits +of inherent probability, that if the existence of mosques in Walata +were relegated to 900 A.D. instead of 682 A.D., the former date would +approximately represent the truth; and that Mohammedan proselytisers +must have been busily at work in the Senegal about that time or a little +later, pushing southwards and eastwards from thence, until they reached +the Niger, and pursuing their course onwards to the most important city +on its banks, Gao; reaching it, as already stated, in the opening years +of the eleventh century,[177] and having met with success, continuing +their triumphal progress to the third great Negro kingdom of West Africa, +Kanem.[178] + +The introduction of Islam revolutionised Western Africa. His first +contact with a revealed religion powerfully affected the naturally +intense spiritual nature of the Negro. What was the precise nature of +the religious beliefs entertained by the Songhays, Mandingoes, Fulani, +Hausas and other tribes inhabiting the Upper Senegal and Upper Niger at +the time of the advent of Mohammedanism it is difficult to say. It may +have been the animism which, under its modern appellation, Fetishism, +is met with to-day in its purest form among the true Negroes of the +coastwise swamp and forest regions. Or, as is much more probable, it +may have been a form of pantheism allied with animal worship inherited +from contact, at a remote period, with Egyptian culture; as witness the +_Tarik’s_ description of the original fish-god of the Songhays, believed +by some authorities—and not without reason—to have been the manatee;[179] +the alleged regard of the Mandingoes for the hippopotamus;[180] and the +strong presumptions of an ancient bovine worship among those Fulani who +have remained faithful to their original calling of _bororoji_ (herdsmen) +as distinguished from their more ambitious countrymen of the towns, whom +destiny has fashioned into statesmen, diplomatists and warriors. Whatever +those beliefs may severally have been they were flung aside, and Islam +struck so deep that the Negro became in time not only as zealous, but +upon occasion more zealous than his Semitic teachers. Under the fostering +impulse and care of the new religion, these backward regions, says +Thomson,[181] commenced an upward progress. A new and powerful bond drew +the scattered congeries of tribes together and welded them into powerful +communities. Their moral and spiritual well-being increased by leaps and +bounds, and their political and social life took an altogether higher +level. + + “Islamism is in itself stationary, and was framed thus to + remain; sterile like its God, lifeless like its first principle + in all that constitutes life—for life is love, participation + and progress, and of these the Coranic deity has none. It + justly repudiates all change, all development, to borrow + the forcible words of Lord Houghton, the written book is + there the dead man’s hand, stiff and motionless; whatever + savours of vitality is by that alone convicted of heresy and + defection.”[182] + +The underlying thought in the above passage is evidently comparative. +The writer is unconsciously drawing a comparison between the two great +revealed religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, as such. +But as we are here concerned merely to treat of the performances of +Islam in West Africa, and of the effect upon the _Negro_, primarily +of Islam, indirectly of Christianity, it can without hesitancy be +asserted that what may be partly true in the description given of +Islam in its relation to mankind as a whole is wholly false as regards +its influence in West Africa. To the _Negro_ the God of Islam is not +sterile: Islam is not lifeless. It is a living force, giving to its +Negro converts, as Mr. Bosworth-Smith says, “an energy, a dignity, and +a self-respect which is all too rarely found in their pagan or their +Christian fellow-countrymen.” Individually and collectively the Negro +has progressed since Islam crossed the desert, and just as to the Negro +fetishist of the forest and the swamp religious conceptions permeate +every act, preside over every undertaking and insinuate themselves in +every incident of his daily existence, so Islam, where it has laid +permanent hold upon the Negro, claims from him an allegiance entire and +complete. + +We need not seek for proof of this. It is writ large over West +Africa. Negroes, not by dozens or by scores, but by tens of hundreds, +traverse thousands of miles on foot from the innermost parts of the +Mohammedanised Continent; from Senegal, from the Niger Bend, from Bornu, +from Hausa, from our Coast Colonies of Sierra Leone and Lagos, to perform +the Haj, the sacred journey to Mecca, which every true believer should +accomplish at least once in his life. A clergyman belonging to the +Church Missionary Society, writing from Tripoli,[183] recently spoke +of “a ceaseless stream of Hausa pilgrims continually passing through +Tripoli on the way to Mecca after a wearisome tramp across the desert,” +a significant admission from such a source. This “ceaseless stream” is +not confined to Hausa. It flows from all parts of Western Africa. It has +flowed thus for many centuries, and the volume, far from diminishing, +increases. That is not the sign of sterility. Burton, during his stay in +Mecca, was witness of the extraordinary influence wielded by Islam on the +Negro mind. The case, as he remarks, was not an exceptional one. + + “Late in the evening,” he says, “I saw a negro in the + state called Malbus—religious frenzy. To all appearance a + Takruri,[184] he was a fine and powerful man, as the numbers + required to hold him testified. He threw his arms wildly about + him, uttering shrill cries, which sounded like _le le le le_, + and, when held, he swayed his body and waved his head from side + to side like a chained and furious elephant, straining out the + deepest groans. The Africans appear unusually subject to this + nervous state, which, seen by the ignorant and the imaginative, + would at once suggest ‘demoniacal possession.’ Either their + organisation is more impressionable or, more probably, the + hardships, privations, and fatigues endured whilst wearily + traversing inhospitable wilds and perilous seas have exalted + their imaginations to a pitch bordering upon frenzy. Often they + are seen prostrate on the pavement, or clinging to the curtain, + or rubbing their foreheads upon the stones, weeping bitterly, + and pouring forth the wildest ejaculations.” + +Dr. Blyden, speaking of the native Moslems of Sierra Leone, has said, +“Wherever they go, they take the Koran with them. In a wreck or a fire, +if nothing else is saved, that book is generally rescued. They prize and +honour it with extreme reverence and devotion.... I have known them to +pay as high as five pounds sterling for a Manuscript Koran and think it +cheap.” One might fill a volume in giving concrete instances, as well as +general statements founded upon the personal observations of travellers +in all parts of Western Africa, to prove the inapplicability as concerns +West Africa of Palgrave’s passage quoted above, a passage which I have +specially chosen because it represents, unfortunately, what may be called +“home opinion” on the subject. + +It can, no doubt, be said with truth, that the majority of West African +Mohammedans cannot read Arabic, and that a large proportion of them +only know the ordinances of the Koran by hearsay; but this, far from +being an argument against the influence of Islam in West Africa, is but +an added proof of the grip which Islamic thought has attained over the +African mind, and of its having supplied the Negro—not through specific +rules, regulations and ordinances, but in its main conception—with +something which he required both in a spiritual and material sense. It +is, moreover, advisable to accept with caution the general statements +attributing wholesale ignorance of letters to Muslims in West Africa. +Blyden gives a long list of works which he observed in a Mallam’s house +in the Sierra Leone hinterland. The _Tarik_ tells us that, not long +after the introduction of Islam in West Africa, many Negroes rivalled +their Semitic or Berber teachers in knowledge and erudition. Barth met +in the wildest parts of Adamawa a Fulani from far-off Massina carrying +a considerable number of Arabic books as _trade_. Many other instances +could be given. + +Islam in West Africa is, indeed, a living force and a most powerful +agency “everywhere knitting the conquerors and the conquered into an +harmonious whole,”[185] and Englishmen must regard it as such. It +confronts them more particularly in its political aspect in Northern +Nigeria; and in Sierra Leone, the Gambia, the Gold Coast, Lagos, and to +a much lesser degree, in Southern Nigeria, in its social aspect. People +in England appear strangely unacquainted with these facts. West African +Mohammedanism is presented to them in distorted shape by those who +have interest in so doing, and to whom the public ear is more readily +accessible. But the local authorities in the West African Colonies +realise the state of affairs; and what is more, are rapidly coming to +the conclusion that the Mohammedan section of the community is not only +the most orderly and the most progressive, but necessitates, both as a +matter of duty and of policy, recognition on the part of the Government. +Within the last few years Mohammedan schools have been established with +official sanction and support in all our Colonies; a mosque built by the +late Shitta Bey has been opened at Lagos[186] by the (then) Governor in +person, and in Sierra Leone a Director of Mohammedan Education has been +especially appointed at a fixed salary per annum. + +As with Great Britain, so with France, but to a very much greater +degree. France’s African Empire is almost wholly an Islamic one, and +confining ourselves to that part of it which is properly West African, +the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are Muslims. With the +exception of a small section of Bobos, Diakankes and Bambarras, a larger +but declining section of the Malinkes and a few wandering Fulani in +the more remote districts of Barani, Fuladugu, Bobo-Dialassu, &c., the +whole of the Western Sudan is more or less Muslimised. In the north +of her colony of Guinea, France has the large Muslim Fulani State of +Futa-Jallon; in Senegal, Mohammedanism has spread right down to the +ocean; in the Chad region, in Baghirmi and a considerable distance up +the Shari, Islam has flourished for at least four centuries, and through +Fulani cattle-rearers and Hausa traders, the tenets of the Prophet are +being propagated as far south as the Shari, Sangha and Ubanghi. The +French have established numerous schools at which the sons of Mohammedan +chiefs receive instruction on Western lines. Among such schools may be +mentioned those of Kayes and Medina. Special instructors appointed by +the French Government teach Arabic side by side with French, and every +effort is made by France to secure Muslim co-operation on lines of +Western thought in the great work which she has taken in hand. The French +African Committee go so far as to print a special bulletin in Arabic, +which, together with the Arabic newspaper _al Mobacher_, published in +Algeria, is distributed gratuitously to a large number of influential +Mohammedans throughout the Western Sudan, especially in such centres as +Jenne, Timbuctoo, Nioro and Sokolo. Needless to say these publications +are largely composed of laudatory articles calculated to inspire their +readers with the justice, generosity, and liberty of French political +conceptions. The French seem to be adopting in this, as in many other +respects in West Africa, a very enlightened attitude. At the Kayes +school, for instance, they have appointed a special teacher from Algeria +to superintend instruction in the Arabic tongue.[187] Moreover, in +order to make clear to the Muslim population that their sons can attend +the Government schools without fear of having to listen to teaching +conceived in a spirit of hostility or criticism towards Islam, the +French authorities not only permit but encourage the presence during +class time of the Muslim schoolmasters themselves, thus removing the +natural suspicion of Muslim parents, and at the same time making allies +of the “marabouts.” This line of conduct, it may be added, is especially +embodied in the instructions given to all District Commissioners. + +How comes it that Islam has succeeded with the West African Negro when +Christianity has fared so badly? Islam has marched from triumph to +triumph among the Negroes, but of the greatest effort ever put forward +by the Christian Church in West Africa, that by the Portuguese in the +Congo in the sixteenth century, there remains little or no trace, and the +results of more widespread but less consistent (because rent by internal +differences) efforts of to-day cannot be termed otherwise than profoundly +discouraging, when one considers the lives expended in a fruitless task; +pitifully sterile, when one is aware of the large sums that have been, +and continue to be, spent in the attempt. It would seem as though the +failure of the Christian Church in North Africa, and the failure of Roman +Catholicism in South West Africa, in the sixteenth century, were to be +repeated in these later days by the multifarious sects and denominations +the monotony of whose painful struggles to gain a foothold on the western +shores of the unfathomable continent is only varied by the jealousies and +recriminations which they indulge in towards one another. + +The Protestant churchman is wont to ascribe the failure of Christian +propaganda in South-Western Africa in the sixteenth century to Roman +Catholicism, which to him is the embodiment of an evil little if at all +removed from the evil of Islamic doctrine.[188] I have heard English +and French Roman Catholics attribute it to the inherent incapacity, or +weakness, or corruptibility—according to the particular views of the +individual—of the would-be converters, the Portuguese. Persons devoid of +special religious prejudices are sometimes inclined to argue that the +mere fact of the slave trade being in existence contemporaneously was in +itself sufficient to account for it. Upon examination none of these views +appear very conclusive. Protestantism has not fared better in West Africa +than Roman Catholicism. Indeed, it may be doubted whether it has fared, +on the whole, quite as well. No argument worthy of serious attention has +been adduced to prove the exceptional unfitness of Portuguese prelates to +successfully accomplish the task they had begun, nor does the decline +of the political influence of Portugal in West Africa provide a fitting +explanation, because the flimsy nature of the first apparent successes +of the Roman Catholic Church had become evident before that decline took +place. As for the alleged slave-trade deterrent, it was, contradictory as +the statement may appear, probably no deterrent at all, but rather the +reverse; for the policy of the Portuguese consisted in promoting friendly +relations with the more powerful potentates of the littoral, and in +supplying them with guns and gunpowder to make war on the inland tribes. +The latter, and not the coastwise natives, were, in the main, the chief +sufferers by the slave trade; and the coast people, being guaranteed from +molestation, would have no occasion to invoke the miseries inflicted upon +them by the Portuguese traffickers in human flesh, when approached by the +Portuguese inculcators of Christianity. In fact, if the political acts +of professing Christian nations in West Africa are to be considered as a +factor in the measure of success, or failure of Christian propagandism +in West Africa—a debatable proposition upon which I propose to refer +later on—it may without hesitation be affirmed that recent developments +of European policy have done more to prejudice the natives against the +doctrines of Christianity, as propounded by European teachers, than the +slave trade with all its savagery and horrors. + +[Illustration: A SUSU MALLAM] + +We must go deeper than this, and in doing so try and clear our minds +of preconceived opinions, no easy matter when certain errors have +been so persistently dinned into our ears that they have come to be +regarded as cardinal articles of faith; and those who in this respect +occasionally venture to disturb the serenity of our convictions are +looked upon as outside the pale of respectable society. One of such +preconceived opinions is embodied in the quotation from Palgrave’s +“Arabia” already commented upon. Another bears on the nature of Islamic +proselytism in West Africa. It is an ingrained belief with most people +that Mohammedanism in West Africa has ever been propagated by brute +force; is ever and always associated with “slave-raiding.” The mere +epithet of “slave-raiders” applied in Reuter’s telegrams to a tribe +with whom trouble has occurred, is sufficient to justify in the eyes +of the public any expeditions of a punitive kind which the authorities +in their wisdom think fit to organise, against those who have incurred +the displeasure of a District Commissioner or Military Commandant. Far +be it from me to assert that occasions do not arise when the adoption +of punitive undertakings is not only an unavoidable necessity, but a +positive duty owed by the Suzerain Power to its protected subjects. But +I would venture respectfully to suggest that the term “slave-raiding” is +much abused, not a little distorted, and sometimes most unfairly applied. +It is used almost exclusively in connection with Mohammedan tribes. When +a difference comes about with pagans, we are told that it is caused by a +predilection to human sacrifices. A reference to the frequent collisions +which have taken place between Great Britain and the natives of Western +Africa during the last six years will show that, either as a primary or +an accessory cause of the difficulty, human sacrifices are invariably +given in the case of a pagan community and slave-raiding in the case of a +Mohammedan community. + +There could be no greater error than the prevalent idea that in West +Africa, Islam has attained its remarkable successes _manu militari_. Most +of Islam’s triumphs in West Africa have been won by the peaceful sect +of the Quadriyah, founded by Sidi-Abd-el-Kader-el-Jieari in 1077 A.D., +first introduced into West Africa in the fifteenth century; and the work +accomplished by this sect has been more enduring and more widespread +than that of the other great order in West Africa, the Tijaniyah, which +believes primarily in the sword as a means of conversion. + + “In the beginning[189] of the present century[190] the great + revival which was so profoundly influencing the Mohammedan + world stirred up the Quadriyah of the Sahara and Western + Sudan to renewed life and energy, and before long learned + theologians or small colonies of persons affiliated to the + order were to be found, scattered throughout the Sudan, + on the mountain chain that runs along the coast of Guinea, + and even to the west of it, in the Free State of Liberia. + These initiates formed centres of Islamic influence in the + midst of the pagan population, among whom they received a + welcome as public scribes, legists, writers of amulets, and + schoolmasters; gradually they would acquire influence over + their new surroundings, and isolated cases of conversion would + soon grow into a little band of converts, the most promising + of whom would often be sent to complete their studies at the + chief centre of the order; here they might remain for several + years, until they had perfected their theological studies, and + would then return to their native place, fully equipped for the + work of spreading the faith among their fellow-countrymen. In + this way a leaven has been introduced into the midst of fetish + worshippers and idolaters which has gradually spread the faith + of Islam surely and steadily, though by almost imperceptible + degrees. Up to the middle of the present century[191] in the + Sudan, schools were founded and conducted by teachers trained + under the auspices of the Quadriyah, and their organisation + provided for a regular and continued system of propaganda among + the heathen tribes. The missionary work of this order has been + entirely of a peaceful character, and has relied wholly upon + personal example and precept, on the influence of a teacher + over his pupils, and the spread of education.” + +The Quadriyah order, moreover, is not animated by hostility towards +Christians, in which it differs materially from that of the Tijaniyah. +The French find it advisable to co-operate politically with the former +sect. “It is,” writes Captain Morrison in the interesting report already +alluded to, “our business to see that the Negroes, Moors, Tuaregs and +other inhabitants of the Western Sudan should become more affiliated to +the Quadriyah (Kadria). It is, thanks to the spirit with which the Imam +of Lanfiera inspires his adepts, that friendship and protection have been +granted to all our explorers in that region.” M. le Commandant Binger +thus describes the work of Quadriyah Muslims in the important city and +country of Kong, in the hinterland of the Ivory Coast, which he was the +first to discover and bring to the notice of Europe: + + “A hundred years ago, the influence of the Muslim community of + Kong did not extend beyond a few miles of the city. Surrounded + on all sides by pagan tribes who existed by rapine and + brigandage, the people of Kong could not carry on trade and + dispose of their cotton goods without great loss, consequent + upon the exorbitant taxes imposed by the pagan kinglets, + non-payment of which involved the pillage of caravans. What did + the Muslims do? They established Mohammedan families from Kong + in all the villages situated between Kong and Bobo-Dialassu + first, and between Kong and Jenne afterwards. It took them + fifty years to settle one or two families in each village. + Each of these immigrants organised a school, asked some of + the inhabitants to send their children there, then little by + little, through their relations with Kong and other commercial + centres, they were able to render service to the pagan king of + the country, to gain his confidence, and gradually to take part + in his affairs. If a difficulty arises it is always a Muslim + who is appealed to. Even if he be quite alone in the country, + the king will empower him to negotiate, because he is usually + able to read and write and has the reputation of being a good + and holy man. If the Muslim ambassador fails in his mission, he + proposes to the pagan king that the mediation of the people of + Kong shall be invoked. Thus the country becomes placed under + the protection of the Mohammedan States of Kong. Gradually + Islam makes progress. More Muslim families settle among the + pagans, who do not fail to become converts. The latter quickly + recognise that the one means of finding aid and protection + wherever their travels may lead them lies in the adoption of + Islam.[192] Moreover, have not the pagans a significant example + before them? Do not the Muslims live in comparative ease and + comfort? The pagan, while acknowledging that it is commerce and + industry that render Mohammedans prosperous, attributes much + of that prosperity to the Supreme Being, and the Muslim takes + care to point the moral, ‘God wills it thus.’ It is clearly + apparent from the above that the Islamic propaganda of Kong is + carried on by persuasion. Force is but rarely employed, and + only against pagan peoples composed of thieves and brigands, + and when the Kong Mussulmans are driven to make use of it.”[193] + +The practices of the Kong people in this respect are not at all peculiar +to themselves. We find the same procedure mentioned by Thomson, Barth, +and numerous other explorers; and the influence of Islam among the Hausas +could never have been maintained if to the early conquests of Othman +Fodio had not succeeded the peaceful efforts of the Muslim teacher, +schoolmaster and priest. Dr. Blyden once described to the writer the +incidents relating to the conversion of one of the largest pagan towns in +the Sierra Leone hinterland, the knowledge of which he gleaned from the +inhabitants themselves in the course of his travels in the Protectorate. +On a certain day the inhabitants of the town observed a man, black like +themselves, but clad in a white garment, advancing down the main street. +Suddenly the stranger prostrated himself and prayed to Allah. The natives +stoned him and he departed. In a little while he returned, and prostrated +himself as before. This time he was not stoned, but the people gathered +about him with mockery and reviling. The men spat upon him and the women +hurled insults and abuse. His prayer ended, the stranger went away in +silence, grave and austere, seemingly oblivious to his unsympathetic +surroundings. For a space he did not renew his visit, and in the interval +the people began to regret their rudeness. The demeanour of the stranger +under trying circumstances had gained their respect. A third time he +came, and with him two boys also clothed in white garments. Together they +knelt and offered prayer. The natives watched, and forbore to jeer. At +the conclusion of the prayer a woman came timidly forward and pushed her +young son towards the holy man, then as rapidly retreated. The Muslim +rose, took the boy by the hand and, followed by his acolytes, left the +village in silence as before. When he came again he was accompanied by +three boys, two of them those who had been with him before, and the third +the woman’s son, clad like the rest. All four fell upon their knees, +the holy man reciting the prayer in a voice that spoke of triumph and +success. He never left the town again, for the people crowded round +him beseeching him to teach their children. In a short time the entire +population of that town, which for three centuries had beaten back the +assaults of would-be Muslim converters by the sword, had voluntarily +embraced Islam! + +It is in incidents such as these, which are by no means rare in West +Africa, that the moral force of Islam lies, and which is largely +accountable for its astonishing successes. The fanatical zeal of an +Ahmadu, a Samory and an El-Haji-Omar are but drops in the ocean compared +with the systematic moral suasion exercised by Islamic teachers, who, +carrying no staff or scrip, relying solely upon the inward strength +derived from contact with a higher creed, brave the perils and +discomforts incidental to their calling with a sublime indifference only +met with in Biblical narrative. There is a passage in Arnold’s “The +Preaching of Islam” which accurately interprets the misconceptions which +exist on the subject of Islamic propaganda in West Africa: + + “Unfortunately,” says that author, “for a true estimate of the + missionary work of Islam in Western Africa, the fame of the + _jihads_, or religious wars, has thrown into the shade the + successes of the peaceful propagandist, though the labours of + the latter have been more effectual to the spread of Islam + than the creation of petty short-lived dynasties. The records + of campaigns, especially when they have interfered with the + commercial projects or schemes of conquest of the white man, + have naturally attracted the attention of Europeans more + than the unobtrusive labours of the Mohammedan preacher and + schoolmaster.... These _jihads_, rightly looked upon, are but + incidents in the modern Islamic revival, and are by no means + characteristic of the forces and activities that have been + really operative in the promulgation of Islam in West Africa; + indeed, unless followed up by distinctly missionary efforts, + they would have proved almost wholly ineffectual in the + creation of a true Muslim community.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA + + +Being now perhaps in a somewhat more open frame of mind with regard to +the work of Islam in West Africa, we may attempt to investigate the +methods of Islam and the methods of Christianity in their relationship to +the Negro. In this manner we may hope to come to still closer quarters +with the subject, and by so doing arrive at a tolerably clear impression +of its various phases. Why does Africa, which was, as has been truly +said, “the nursing mother of Christianity,” remain impervious to the +teachings of the highest religion? Why does Christianity, which has +laboured for so many centuries in Western Africa, make no appreciable +advance in that country? The failure may, I think, be ascribed to four +main causes: first, the refusal to admit that the circumstances which +regulate certain natural laws vary with climatic considerations and +racial idiosyncrasies; secondly, the tendency which Christianity, as +taught in West Africa, has to denationalise; thirdly, the incompatibility +between the ideals of Christ and modern conceptions of Christianity; +fourthly, the political action of Christian Powers. + +For obvious reasons the question of polygamy is a very difficult one +to publicly discuss, but the subject of Christianity and Mohammedanism +in Western Africa cannot adequately be treated without referring to +it. It is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that the refusal of the +Christian Church to admit polygamists into its fold is one of the great +obstacles with which the Church in West Africa has to contend. That is +not seriously disputed, and yet, so far as can be observed, the chief +dignitaries of the Church with whom all decisions affecting missionary +enterprise in West Africa must ultimately lie, give no sign that they +realise the paramount importance of the problem. Now and again individual +utterances are made, which tend to show that some Churchmen, at least, +are possessed of a spirit sufficiently broad to approach the subject in +more practical fashion. A well-known Canon of the Church once remarked +that, “owing to polygamy, Mohammedan countries are free from professional +outcasts, a greater reproach to Christianity than polygamy to Islam.” +Although the first part of that statement may not be accepted _ad +literatim_, there are, unfortunately, sufficient data to show that the +morals of Mohammedan communities in West Africa are higher than those of +the Europeanised West Coast towns, where alone Christianity has gained a +sort of foothold, and where a monogamous Christianity has been preached +off and on for centuries past. And it is, at any rate, true that in West +Africa the Mohammedan is, as a rule, distinctly averse to relationship +with public women; and also, as a rule, jealously guards the honour of +his wives and daughters. + +Let us consider for a moment how this refusal on the part of the Church +to receive polygamists appeals to the Negro in relation to Christianity. +If there is one social feature of the Negro which all observers are +agreed in recognising, it is the sincerity and depth of the link between +mother and son.[194] With what sort of feelings, then, must the Negro +look upon a religion which, according to its expounders, brands his +parents with immorality? In very truth, whether we approach this great +subject from a standpoint of common sense and severe practicability, +or whether we claim to study it on moral grounds alone, only one +conclusion can be arrived at. To offer Christianity to the Negro at +the price of repudiating the members of his household is unreasonable, +preposterous, unjust, and even cruel. It is unreasonable, insomuch as +it ignores the most fundamental laws of human affection which exist in +more or less developed form in every community and under every clime. +It is preposterous, because it displays an extraordinary ignorance +of the customs of the Negro and the strength of the family tie, and +all that appertains to it among the Negroes. It is unjust, because it +would deprive the rejected women (and children) of all they possess, +cover them with shame and obloquy, thus deliberately inciting them to +lead immoral lives. It is cruel, because, with an entire inconsequence +and heedlessness of after effects, it would break up a social system +consecrated by immemorial usage. There is a noble passage in Faidherbe’s +great work which I cannot refrain from quoting in this connection: + + “Certain people,” said that distinguished Frenchman, “would + seem to desire that the natives should be induced to repudiate + their wives and to retain but one. This method appears to me + to be thoroughly immoral. What! Our object is to strengthen + family ties, and we would begin by disorganising the family! We + should commit a great injustice, and we should be displaying + a singular callousness towards the women and children, if we + professed to grant to the native the title and privileges of a + citizen on the condition that he kept one wife and expelled the + others. We should place venerable fathers of families in the + position of sending away, with their children, wives with whom + they had lived for fifteen, twenty, or thirty years. And how + would they distinguish between their wives?... Disorganisation + would be complete.”[195] + +There is another aspect of the question which cannot fail to arrest the +attention of all enlightened and truly Christian men. Is polygamy a +necessary institution on physical grounds for the Negro _in Africa_? The +evidence in a corroborative sense is not to be lightly dismissed. Without +stopping to discuss the generally admitted theory that the sexual side of +man’s nature becomes more pronounced as the tropical zone is approached, +it is incontestable that a well-grounded belief exists in West African +educated native circles that the effects of monogamy upon the Negro _are +racially destructive_. Dr. Blyden’s testimony in this respect may not, +perhaps, command universal acknowledgment, but the following passage +from his writings is well worthy of note: + + “Owing,” he says, “to the exhausting climatic conditions, the + life and perpetuity of the population depend upon polygamy. + The difference is marked between children born under monogamic + restrictions and those whose parents are polygamists. In the + one there is the evidence of physical deterioration and mental + weakness; in the other are manifest physical vigour and mental + activity and alertness. In the one there is the sad evidence + of arrested growth, suppressed physical development, and + intellectual sluggishness; in the other there is astonishing + muscular strength and fully developed chest—a reproduction of + their fathers’—not weaker, but wiser than their fathers’, when + not diverted from aboriginal simplicity by alien influence.” + +The exhausting climatic conditions of which Doctor Blyden speaks is +accountable for a custom, almost universal throughout West Africa, among +both Mohammedans and pagans; which, although it may have some drawbacks +attaching to it, must nevertheless be assumed to entail preponderating +advantages for the racial welfare of the people, or it would hardly have +been so widely adopted. I refer, of course, to the extensive period of +lactation—three years as a rule—during which time husband and wife have +no connection; connection, indeed, generally ceasing when conception has +taken place. The custom is attributive to the belief that too frequent +child-bearing is injurious to the health of the mother and the offspring, +in view of the climate.[196] This is a point which also deserves the +most attentive consideration. The instinct of primitive peoples in such +matters is generally found to be based upon knowledge born of experience. +The only portion of the Dark Continent where orthodox Christianity has +made any appreciable inroad is Uganda. Now what does Sir Harry Johnston +tell us in his last report? He says there is a serious decrease in the +birth-rate of the Bantu Waganda. He quotes Monseigneur Strachir’s opinion +that one of the causes of this state of affairs is the introduction of +monogamy, consequent upon the spread of the Christian faith. + + “In many parts of West Africa,” continues Sir Harry Johnston, + “where Christianity prevails, but where there is very little + result other than pious utterances from the mouth, ostensible + monogamy is corrected by the possession of recognised or + unrecognised concubines, and by a general promiscuousness in + sexual matters. But in Uganda, Christianity seems to have taken + such a real hold upon the people that, though by no means free + from immorality—as no nation or community is free from the same + tendency—they really seem to be striving at genuine monogamy + and the exclusive possession of one wife for a partner. As the + Baganda women are certainly very poor breeders, this means that + the majority of couples only have one child. In fact, the birth + of a second child on the part of the wife is such an unusual + occurrence that the wife, in consequence thereof, is given a + new and honorific title.” + +A Liberian Bishop—one of the kindliest of men—to whom I showed the +above passage, replied sententiously that the ways of the Almighty were +unfathomable, but that the disappearance of the few could not be held to +weigh in the balance as compared with the salvation of the many; which +seemed to me to bear a curious analogy to that passage in “Azurara” +in which the old Portuguese historian, apostrophising Prince Henry +the Navigator on the occasion of the first appearance at his court of +West African slaves, torn with every accompaniment of barbarity from +their homes by those gallant knights Antam Gonçalvez and Nuno Tristram, +exclaims: + + “O holy Prince, peradventure thy pleasure and delight might + have some semblance of covetousness at receiving the knowledge + of such a sum of riches, even as great as those thou didst + expend to arrive at that result?... But thy joy was solely + from that one holy purpose of thine to seek salvation for the + lost souls of the heathen. And in the light of this it seemed + to thee, when thou sawest those captives brought into thy + presence, that the expense and trouble thou hadst undergone + was nothing: such was thy pleasure at beholding them. And yet + the greater benefit was theirs, for though their bodies were + now brought into some subjection, that was a small matter in + comparison with their souls, which would now possess true + freedom for evermore.” + +I hope it will not be thought that these references are made with any +idea of depreciating the efforts, and in some respects surprisingly +successful efforts, of Christian propaganda among the Bantu races of the +Uganda Protectorate. The point under discussion is not the evangelising +success of the Church in Uganda, but the physical effects of a monogamous +Christianity upon the races of Africa. + +[Illustration: FULANI MALLAM] + +I have been at great pains to obtain all the evidence available bearing +directly or indirectly on this subject, and in the aggregate it bears out +what precedes. The highest type of the Christian educated Negro urges +that an entire latitude should be left to the aboriginal element in the +matter, and although professing monogamists themselves, they strictly +maintain—whether rightly or wrongly is not for the layman to decide—that +in so doing the Church would not be acting contrary to the principles of +divine revelation.[197] + +I have given as the second contributory cause of the non-success of +Christian missions in West Africa the tendency to denationalisation. +It is unhappily true that the Christianised Negro becomes to a large +extent denationalised, and the reason of it lies in the methods employed +to convert him. Islam, on the other hand, not only encourages the +spirit of nationality in the African, but intensifies it. The Muslim +Negro is elevated among his pagan neighbours; he gains their respect +and increases his own. Islam takes the Negro by the hand and gives him +equality with all men. From the day the pagan adopts Islam, no Semite +Muslim can claim racial superiority over him. Islam to the Negro is the +stepping-stone to a higher conception of existence, inspiring in his +breast confidence in his own destiny, imbuing his spirit with a robust +faith in himself and in his race. Christianity does not do this for the +Negro. Its effect, indeed, is quite contrary. Instead of encouraging, it +discourages. Instead of inculcating a greater self-reliance, it seems +to lessen that which exists. The Christian Negro for the most part is +a sort of hybrid. He is neither one thing nor another. His adoption of +European clothes causes him to be looked upon partly with suspicion, +partly with ridicule, by his pagan fellow-countrymen; although they make +use of his services as clerk or secretary when occasion requires it. +Mohammedans treat him with undisguised contempt. More bitter perhaps +than anything else is the scorn which Europeans themselves bestow upon +him. Question any white official, military man, trader or traveller, as +to his impressions of the West African native. He will tell you that the +pagan native of the interior is more often than not a fine fellow, one +of nature’s gentlemen, hospitable, kindly, simple, courteous; that the +Mohammedan native is a splendid man, with a carriage full of pride and +self-reliance, arrogant may be, haughty, but singularly dignified, with +a conscious superiority and quiet confidence stamped all over him. But +the Christian Negro is seldom spoken of without opprobrium. His vanity, +his conceit, his “veneer of civilisation,” the vices he has acquired and +so forth, are the inevitable theme. His unfortunate habit of adopting +the latest vagaries of European fashions, both in his own person and in +the person of his women folk, is the butt of constant sarcasm, as are +the accounts of the solemnisation of the Christian form of marriage in +a native West Coast town. Even the missionaries are compelled, although +with natural unwillingness, to admit an unpalatable fact. “There are a +great many natives on the coast and in Lower Nigeria,” writes Canon +Robinson, “who call themselves Christian; there are distressingly +few converts.... My advice to travellers on the coast in search of +trustworthy servants would be to prefer the heathen or Mohammedan to the +professing Christian, because a bad religion sincerely accepted, or even +no religion at all, is to be preferred to a religious profession which +is only a sham.” A humiliating confession, humiliating to the Christian +Church, humiliating to European civilisation. What between one thing +and another, the Christianised Negro is a _déclassé_, a _culotté sans +culottes_.[198] Of course there are exceptions, but they are relatively +scarce, and consist in the main of natives who have acquired wealth by +commerce (wealth being a safeguard to open obloquy all the world over, no +matter what the colour of the possessor’s skin), and who either through +the enjoyment of special educational advantages, or because they are men +of unusually high character and intelligence naturally, have succeeded +in grasping the true Christian ideal and have gained moral and spiritual +ennoblement thereby. It is my privilege to number such a man among my +friends. But I greatly doubt whether he would feel at ease in travelling +or sojourning alone in the interior, even among the tribe to which he +belongs, in his own country of origin. There seems to be a barrier +between the Christianised Negro and his non-Christian countrymen; a +barrier which excludes sympathy, and which European policy tends to still +further accentuate. + +To what are these things due? To no one particular circumstance, but to +a whole set of circumstances, which together produce the effect. To the +general, omnipresent suggestion—possibly quite unintentioned in many +cases—of the Negro’s inherent racial inferiority, inculcated by European +missionaries. To the never absent, one might say inevitable insistence, +whether outspoken or only understood, upon a great intellectual, social, +moral gulf which yawns between the Negro and his Caucasian instructor; a +gulf that can never be bridged by Christianity, as taught in West Africa +by Europeans. + +The third and fourth contributory causes, viz. incompatibility between +the ideals of Christ and the modern conceptions of Christianity, and +the political action of Christian Powers, may be treated together, for +they are closely allied one to the other; as, indeed, they also are to +the third cause, upon which I have briefly touched. There is a striking +passage in the last literary contribution on West African affairs, +penned by Miss Kingsley on that fatal voyage to the Cape, which puts in +more pregnant language than I could hope to do the underlying thought +expressed above: + + “I know,” wrote Miss Kingsley, “that there is a general opinion + among the leading men of both races that Christianity will + give the one possible solution to the whole problem. I fail to + be able to believe this. I fail to believe Christianity will + bring peace between the two races, for the simple reason that, + though it may be possible to convert Africans _en masse_ into + practical Christians, it is quite impossible to convert the + Europeans _en masse_ to it. You have only got to look at the + history of any European nation—the Dutch, the Spanish, the + Italian, the German—every one calling themselves Christian, but + none the more for that tolerant and peaceable. Each one of them + is ready to take out a patent for a road to heaven, and make + that road out of men’s blood and bones and the ashes of burnt + homesteads. Of course, by doing this they are not following the + true teachings of Jesus Christ, but that has not, and will not, + become a factor in politics.” + +The bewildering contradictions between the ideals laid down by Christ, +as taught by the expounders of his word, and the practical effect of +that teaching as exemplified in the conduct of Europeans and European +Governments, confronts the Negro at every turn. The more intelligent he +is, the more advanced in the social scale, the more puzzling does it +become. Is it a question of charity? The Muslim propagandist speaks of +Christ with deep respect amounting to reverence. He is _Kalima_—the Word; +_Masih_—the Messiah; _Qual-ul-Haqq_—the Word of Truth; _Ruh_—the Spirit +(of God). He is “One illustrious in this world and in the next”: “One who +has near access to God.” The Christian missionary speaks of Mohammed “as +an impostor;” “an arch impostor;” “a man full of evil and wickedness.” +Islam is a “bad religion”: “its ways are the ways of darkness”: “it is +Satan’s work,” and so on. Is it a question of self-abnegation? The Bible +and the Koran utter the same precepts in almost identical terms. But what +a difference in the spiritual practice of their respective expounders +in West Africa! The Muslim preacher follows out the letter of his book. +He goes on his way alone and unattended, carrying neither purse nor +scrip. He lives the life of the Negro, enters into his pursuits, shares +his hardships and his pleasures, assimilates himself in every possible +way with those whom he hopes to convert. The European missionary is +compelled, by the exigencies of the climate very greatly, to attend +primarily to his own comforts. He travels with a long file of carriers +bearing his baggage; preserved foods, linen, camp impedimenta and what +not. Some of the most earnest missionaries keenly realise the drawbacks +which such procedure must entail in the prosecution of their work, both +physically and morally. They are deeply sensible of the adverse influence +which it cannot fail to exercise over their labours. We have seen an +English prelate, high up in the hierarchy of his Church, suggest a +decrease in his salary, in order that the balance might be devoted to the +appointment of another helper in the great cause.[199] On the other hand, +we find in the works and letters of prominent missionaries engaged in the +West African field, egotistical essays of the following description: +“Care must be taken that the waterproof cloak is _stitched_. Sponges, +bath-towels, &c., will suggest themselves. Do not forget the table-linen; +a neatly arranged table helps to tempt the appetite, which is often +fastidious. Antibilious compounds are worth in my judgment _two guineas_ +a box.” The above passage is derived from a book recently published, +written by a missionary with nine years’ experience in West Africa. The +articles mentioned by the writer are recommended by him as indispensable +to the welfare of a teacher of the Gospel in West Africa. The following +is a typical passage culled from the epistolary effusions published from +time to time in the organ of the Church Missionary Society from the pen +of a most energetic Bishop, who has been endeavouring with singular +ill-success, and not without some danger of arousing disturbances, to +evangelise the Hausas. “We are all well.... Our appetites are enormous. +We have plenty of food. We receive presents of food from the people every +day—rice, onions, corn, maize, fowls, bananas, &c. B—— shoots a good many +partridges and guinea-fowl, and we have a good reserve of European and +English stores.” That these little peculiarities do not in the slightest +degree detract from the sincerity of the writers may be accepted without +reserve. All we are here concerned with, is to consider the general +effect which these conceptions of the methods of propagating Christianity +in West Africa are likely to have upon the African. Are men who profess +so tender a regard for their well-being calculated to make much headway +in an evangelical sense? It may reasonably be doubted. + +Is it a question of vice? The Mohammedan preacher does not leave a +stone unturned to combat drunkenness in every form, and to a very +large extent he succeeds. The sobriety of the great mass of Muslimised +Negroes no longer requires to be demonstrated. Laxity in this respect +is the exception which proves the rule. The European missionary also +denounces drunkenness, and with a fervour at times which is not always +discriminating. But he is terribly handicapped (1) by the European +trader, about one-fifth of whose total trade consists in the importation +of freshly distilled liquor, often but not invariably containing various +impurities, and in quality not exceeding that which is sold in low +public-houses in this country, and which freely mixed with water may +not be very injurious, but drunk neat, as for the most part it is, in +the _coastal_ regions of West Africa, is—we have overwhelming testimony +to that effect—harmful;[200] (2) by the European Governments who, +although they do now and again raise the duty on spirits in deference to +public opinion, tacitly encourage a traffic without which their whole +administrative machinery would become temporarily paralysed, seeing +that from 45 per cent. to 75 per cent. of the revenue of their Colonies +is derived from this traffic. These circumstances may, or may not, be +preventable. They exist, and cannot be ignored. As for another kind of +vice; the life lived by many white men in West Africa is not, perhaps, +calculated to give the Negro a high idea of the morality of Christian +Europe. His occasional visits to Europeanised coast towns—presuming him +to be living some distance in the interior—do not probably imbue him +with the notion that his trousered countrymen are the gainers in moral +ethics, through contact with European civilisation; nor, unhappily, can +it be said that the tales and personal experiences related by those of +his educated brothers who visit our great cities are of a kind to lessen +the impression he may already have formed as to the results of twenty +centuries of Christianity in Europe.[201] + +Is it a question of gauging the true inwardness of the doctrine of peace +and love? It is to be feared that the political aims of European Powers +in West Africa are too often associated with Maxims and Martinis to +admit of much doubt on that score. The Negro is a shrewd man, and he +distinguishes professions from actions. The readiness with which the +white interlopers in his country appeal to the sword as the shortest cut +to the solution of a misunderstanding is instructive. The hastiness with +which his habits and customs are trampled upon by his would-be elevators; +the cheerful alacrity he is expected to show in swallowing innovations +thrust upon him at what, to his conservative prejudices, appear to him a +moment’s notice; and, finally, the increasing desire on the part of his +European friends to appropriate his most precious heritage, his ancestral +lands, and the fruits thereof, for their own use—all these things, +whether in fashionable parlance they be the “inevitable” accompaniments +of opening up West Africa by Western Europe or not, constitute those +contradictions of which I have already spoken, and whatever else they +may do, militate against the spread of Christianity in the land of the +Negroes. + +Is there a remedy, and if so, on what lines is it to be sought for? +There is only one _native_ Christian State in Africa—Abyssinia—and its +Christianity is declared by eminent divines to be tainted with all +sorts of heresies and objections. But it has endowed Abyssinia with +sufficient vitality to enable her to repel Mohammedan invasion for a +long term of centuries, and the strong religious zeal of Abyssinia’s +warriors was not a negligible factor in beating back the unjustifiable +aggression made upon the independence of that country by Italy. To-day +the Emperor of this African Christian State is, with one exception, +probably the most powerful native ruler in the world. No doubt, it does +not enter the heads of European statesmen to encourage the growth of a +similar State in West Africa; which, indeed, is an obvious impossibility +for many reasons. Yet Abyssinia provides a moral for the Christian +Church. The Christianity of Abyssinia is an _African_ Christianity, +originally taught by an _African_, perpetuated by _Africans_. Orthodox +or unorthodox, it has shown itself suitable to the necessities and the +requirements of Africans; and if Christianity in West Africa, is ever +destined to make appreciable progress, it will be when it is provided +with its only feasible agent, a West African Church: a Church designed +to respond to the needs of West Africa, which are not the needs of +Europe; a Church whose servants shall be neither Europeans nor repatriate +“Afro-Liberians,” but West African Negroes, imbued with the instincts and +patriotism of race; a Church founded upon an enlightened acquaintance +with nature’s immovable laws; upon principles of true science, which is +true religion; upon a wise recognition that what is good and proper and +right for one great branch of the human family may be bad, improper, and +wrong for another. + + + + +PART IV + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +ANGLO-FRENCH RELATIONS IN WEST AFRICA + + +The subject of the relationship between England and France in West Africa +is one to which every year that passes adds importance. The French +have during the last few years left us far behind in Western Africa, +so far as territorial expansion is concerned. They have now a great +Empire there. They have acquired it by dint of persistent, far-sighted, +courageous effort; qualities which it is regrettable to state have been +conspicuously lacking on the part of the British official world. If +a tithe of the energy which has distinguished Liverpool, Manchester, +Glasgow, and Bristol merchants in Western Africa had been displayed by +successive British Governments, the possessions of Great Britain in West +Africa to-day would be infinitely more extensive than they are. + +In addition to getting the better of us, in a territorial sense, +France—whose possessions touch our own at almost every point—is steadily +becoming a serious commercial competitor. It is with that commercial +competition that we shall have to reckon in the future to an increasing +degree. It is of two kinds. There is legitimate competition and unfair +competition. In either case it behoves us to carefully study its nature +and consequences; to draw the necessary lessons therefrom; to candidly +acknowledge in a spirit of tolerant common sense that in many respects +the cause of its pressing hardly upon us is due to superior management +on the part of the French; to appeal to the spirit of equity and fair +play in our neighbours, when, as is the case in some parts of their West +African possessions at present, British merchants, who have powerfully +contributed in creating the trade of those very possessions, are getting +neither fair play nor just treatment; and generally to brace ourselves +together, realising that in West Africa, as everywhere else, the old +position of undisputed commercial supremacy which Great Britain was +able to maintain at one time with very little trouble, can no longer be +retained unless we shake off our facile opportunism and tackle the new +conditions in a scientific manner. + +Of early French enterprise in Western Africa very little seems to be +known by the average Englishman; and yet the French were among the very +first pioneers of Western Africa—probably the very first—before the +Portuguese, at any rate, by at least 100 years. After the remarkable +studies recently published in the French African Committee’s journal by +Commandant Binger, the distinguished chief of the African department of +the French Colonial Office, there is not, I think, any alternative but +to accept as conclusive the French claim of being the first Europeans to +visit the West African coast. Spanish and Genoese navigators; the former +hailing from Catalonia, the Lancashire of Spain, may possibly have been +contemporaneous with the French. But, apart from French testimony, it is +affirmed by eminent Spanish authorities themselves, such as Navarette +and Viera, that the French preceded their own countrymen. The Canaries +were discovered by a Genoese of French descent, and with a French name, +Maloisel to wit, about 1275 A.D. They were also conquered by a Frenchman +named De Béthancourt in the first years of the fifteenth century. In +the beginning of the fourteenth the West African coast as far south as +the Senegal certainly, and Sierra Leone probably, was regularly visited +by French ships. So much has now been established. Whether French ships +then pushed south to the Gold Coast is not quite so clear. Personally I +incline to the belief that this has also been satisfactorily made out, +and the confirmatory testimony of Villaut-de-Bellefonds no longer stands +alone. + +The paucity of historical and documentary evidence has hitherto been +the principal objection to the French claim of priority. It has, of +course, been made the most of by Portuguese historians. But, apart from +the circumstance that Commandant Binger has now been able to partly +fill up the gap, and apart from the eminently reasonable explanation +of Labat that the old records of the port of Dieppe, from whence many +of the French ships bound to the West Coast started, were destroyed by +the bombardment of that port in 1694, there is very good reason, to my +mind, why the Portuguese on the one hand should possess such splendid +and unique accounts of their early exploits in West Africa from the +middle of the fifteenth century onwards; and why, on the other hand, the +French, who arrived on the scene at least a century before them, should +be so poorly represented in their own national archives. The reason is +this. The enterprise of Portugal in West Africa—which has so incomparably +enriched the domain of geographical knowledge—was, from the first, an +official undertaking. It was conceived by Prince Henry the Navigator, +one of the most remarkable figures in history, and all the resources +of the science and literature of the age were invoked by him to give +to the new epoch of discovery a national and historical permanency, +which should be the means of reflecting glory for ever on Portuguese +annals. Very different was the enterprise of the French. It was in no +sense official, but private. It was undertaken not by renowned knights +and important personages in kingly service, but by hardy, illiterate, +independent mariners and merchants of Normandy. The object was not, as in +the case of the Portuguese, fame, geographical discovery, and religious +zeal, but trade. The men who fitted out the French ships and sent them +on their perilous course were Dieppe, Rouen, and Honfleur merchants; and +the French vessels returned, not with captives forcibly torn from their +homes with every accompaniment of cruelty in order to convert them to +a faith of peace, charity, and good-will, but with ivory, spices, and +gold dust. That was the earliest form of trade in West Africa by the +people of Western Europe. The slave trade came afterwards. To this day a +local industry in ivory carving exists at Dieppe, and every one who has +visited that quaint old seaport has noticed the numerous ivory ornaments +displayed in the shop windows. If, therefore, the British merchants can +claim to be the latter-day pioneers of commercial enterprise in West +Africa; if during the century that has just closed their commercial +aptitude and initiative gained for them the foremost commercial position +on the West African littoral, it was French merchants who originally +led the way. We have too often led the way ourselves in most parts of +the world to begrudge the French this honour, so far as Western Africa +is concerned. Rather should it be a bond of respect, the twin sister of +sympathy between us and our neighbours. + +The first recorded instance upon which Englishmen and Frenchmen met off +the West African coast resulted, curiously enough, in an alliance. It +happened in this way. One William Towerson, in the course of a voyage to +Guinea in 1555, being pursued by some Portuguese brigantines, opportunely +came across a fleet of French ships, with whom he joined company for +safety. The alliance does not seem to have been a very satisfactory one, +as it turned out; still, it was an alliance, of sorts. This first meeting +took place some thirty-five years subsequent to the earliest known +appearance of an Englishman in West Africa, in the person of one Andrew +Battel, of Leigh—whether an ancestor of the three old maids of that ilk, +history sayeth not—who put to sea in a Portuguese slaver, and after +many extraordinary adventures amongst the natives of Angola, succeeded +in getting back to his native country. The beginning of the sixteenth +century marked the awakening of Englishmen to the potentialities of the +West African trade. It had been preceded by a notable slackening in the +energies of Normandy merchants. The Hundred Years’ War with England had +crippled enterprise of any kind in France. The House of Valois was in a +parlous state. The great war which began in 1337 and continued, with +occasional breaks of short duration, until the marvellous successes of +the Maid of Orleans compelled the English to give way, was marked by +the crushing defeats the French sustained at Crecy and Poitiers at the +hands of Edward III., and at Agincourt at the hands of Henry V.; and, +to make use of some quoted words, “The State was reduced to bankruptcy, +the nobility excited to rebellion, and the mass of the people sunk in +barbarism.” + +No sooner, however, had the victories of Joan of Arc infused new vitality +into the French, than we find renewed evidence of the enterprise of +Dieppe and Rouen merchants in West Africa. The revival of that enterprise +coincides with the entry upon the scene of English merchants: Windham, +Hawkins of evil memory, Rutter, Baker, and others, and the records bear +witness to the contemporary presence of French trading vessels on the +West Coast from Senegal to the Gold Coast. Recent discoveries of old +manuscripts, dating back to 1574, at Honfleur prove that from that year +to 1583—a space of nine years—thirty-two French vessels left that port +alone for West Africa. For some time English and French got on well +enough on the West Coast. The power of Portugal was fast decaying, and +adventurers of all nationalities, notably the Dutch, were hurrying to the +spot. Then came more wars between English and French, with their natural +effect upon commercial transactions in West Africa. In 1696 the French +destroyed the British settlement at the mouth of the Gambia. For the +next hundred years or so relations between the Europeans established or +trading on the West Coast appear as a tangle of animosities. Every one +seemed to be fighting his neighbour, and pirates of all nationalities +attacked every vessel they came across, including those owned or manned +by men of their own race, even Gambia Castle, garrisoned by a British +force, being on one occasion captured and sacked by a notorious British +pirate named Davies, presumably a Welshman! Notwithstanding all this +dire confusion, the English were gradually getting the upper hand all +down the coast. In 1794 Sierra Leone was bombarded by a French squadron +without the authority apparently of the Revolutionary Government then in +power. Twenty years later, the power of Napoleon having collapsed, all +that was left to France by the Treaty of Vienna was her settlement on the +coast of Senegal. + +England remained in a preponderating position politically and +commercially on the West African coast. Such, too, was her position in +the main until the revival of a French Colonial policy, under the impulse +of those far-seeing statesmen Gambetta and Jules Ferry in 1883. At any +period between 1815 and 1883 England had the opportunity of creating an +extensive Empire in West Africa and annexing practically the whole coast. + +And here the curtain rings down on the old _régime_, and a new chapter in +the history of Anglo-French relationship in West Africa begins. + +To whom should be properly attributed the initiation of the scramble for +Africa? It has been a cause of considerable inconvenience to the Cabinets +of Europe, and of still greater inconvenience, we may feel tolerably +certain, to the natives of Africa. Each Power that participated in it +throws the onus on its neighbour. So far as West Africa is concerned, +whatever claim or credit may be taken, the French must, I think, be +held guilty or meritorious, according as individual opinion may differ. +The scramble in West Africa arose from what, for want of a better +description, may be termed the discovery by the French of the West +African hinterlands. When Gambetta and Jules Ferry awoke the slumbering +colonial instincts of their countrymen, inland West Africa was to all +intents and purposes a blank. Englishmen and Frenchmen sat on the coast, +the former doing a large trade and the latter little or none. In two +places only were organised attempts at interior penetration being made. +On the Lower Niger, Englishmen were pushing their trade inland. On the +Senegal, the era of political conquest begun by Faidherbe was being +slowly developed, despite many difficulties and set-backs. The political +energies of Great Britain were paralysed by the resolution arrived at in +1865 to abandon all Government action in West Africa, with the possible +exception of Sierra Leone. France was still feeling the effects of the +disasters of 1870. + +With the propaganda of Jules Ferry and Gambetta in favour of a policy +of Colonial expansion, a change came o’er the spirit of the dream as +regards West Africa. Backed by a strong body of opinion; supported by +men of note, such as M. Waldeck Rousseau, as he has himself recently +reminded us, French activity in Western Africa became very pronounced, +and the work once begun was not abandoned on account of the temporary +reverses suffered by French arms in Tonquin, which drove Ferry from power +and broke his heart. French missions, generally of a peaceful character, +started eastwards and southwards from the Senegal, and northwards from +the coast, to explore the unknown interior. They reported it to be a +fairly salubrious, fertile, cereal-producing and cattle-rearing country, +unobstructed by dense forests such as are met with inland from the West +Coast proper to a depth varying from sixty to two hundred miles. This +country was inhabited by intelligent races relatively advanced in the +scale of civilisation, possessing flourishing industries and commercial +aptitude. The French found regularly constituted States, more or less +Muslimised, and in some of which social law and order had reached a high +stage of development; large towns of 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants with +regular market-days, where iron smelting was highly advanced, where the +natives dressed in handsome clothes of their own manufacture, and used +leather sandals, sword-belts, and scabbards, despatch-bags, and saddles +fabricated by themselves. It was a revelation. The chief drawback about +this vast inland region, which seemed to offer such brilliant prospects +under able administrative supervision, was its liability to be swept by +fire and sword at any moment by some over-zealous adherent of a certain +militant sect of Mohammedans, which enjoyed great influence in the +Western Sudan. These French agents were generally well received, and by +their means vast stretches of hitherto unknown country were opened up and +brought to the knowledge of the world. + +Out of these discoveries was born the desire—the very natural and +legitimate desire—on the part of the French to build up a mighty empire +in West Africa, a black Indies, which should rival the Indies of the +East in extent, in wealth, and in the prestige which its acquisition +would confer. Exploring and semi-political missions were followed by +expeditions of a definite political character, and district after +district, State after State, tribe after tribe, came under French +influence; by peaceful means in the majority of cases. All this time the +English were doing nothing, in an official sense. Liverpool men were +calling upon the Government to wake up to what was going on, but their +efforts were entirely unsuccessful. Wider and wider grew the sweep of the +French net, closer and closer to our own Colonies, which it threatened to +throttle in its meshes. Sierra Leone became encircled on three sides by +French territory; the magnificent country of Futa-Jallon, the Switzerland +of Western Africa as it has been called, which had been visited at +various times by agents of the Government of Sierra Leone (notably Dr. +Blyden), of which it formed the natural hinterland, was acquired by +France without firing a shot. The Gold Coast, and Lagos, and what is +now known as Northern Nigeria—whose safety the Convention of 1890 was +supposed to guarantee—were in imminent danger of sharing a similar fate. + +I have often seen it stated, even by authorities of no mean order, +that the French were permitted or allowed to carry out the great task +of securing the hinterlands of Western Africa. In point of fact, the +statement is very misleading and has had a somewhat mischievous effect. +England was not in a position to allow or disallow. The French conceived +a plan and carried it out in the face of tremendous obstacles; they were +prepared to undergo sacrifices which we were not prepared to accept, and +such being the case, they were answerable to none but themselves. Their +success and our failure was the due measure of their enterprise and our +apathy. + +When the future of our Colonies appeared thoroughly compromised by the +cutting off of the interior markets, the British Government suddenly +realised that Liverpool and Manchester merchants had been clearer-sighted +than British officialdom, and at the last moment efforts were made to +secure for the British Colonies such of the hinterlands which remained +unabsorbed. Then arose a very delicate position, which taxed the +diplomatic resources of both Powers to the uttermost. British and French +officers with excitable native troops under their command, remained +facing one another in the far interior a few hundred yards distance for +weeks at a time, awaiting instructions from the irrespective Governments. +To the good sense, tact, and mutual esteem of these officers is due that +peace was preserved between England and France. We owe a deep debt of +gratitude to these men, who, suffering from the debilitating effects of +the West African climate and the hardships attendant upon West African +travel—neither of which are conducive to sweetness of temper, managed to +keep their heads. Mainly thanks to them the quarrel was adjusted without +bloodshed, and the Anglo-French Convention of 1898 was signed. It left +our Colonies of the Gold Coast and Lagos greatly circumscribed, but +assured us in “Nigeria” a magnificent territory some 504,000 square miles +in extent. + +The era of territorial rivalry between Great Britain and France in +Western Africa has, it may be legitimately assumed, quite passed away. +We continue to be rivals in commercial matters, but that is a peaceful +rivalry—or should be—which ought not to exclude friendship. Nevertheless, +as trade questions are often converted into fertile causes of dispute, it +is essential that Englishmen and Frenchmen, in order to work harmoniously +together in the future, should thoroughly understand one another’s +points of view in this connection. We, as a nation, are free traders. +The French, as a nation, are protectionists. It would be absurd and +undignified for us to complain of the different economic standpoint +taken up by our neighbours. Moreover, there are various degrees of +protectionism in France. There is the extreme school of M. Méline, +which, if its doctrines were strictly applied to the French West African +Colonies, would ruin them in five years. There is the school which +upholds partial protectionism in France, but favours freedom of trade in +the French Colonies. The latter is happily gaining in strength. We should +endeavour as far as in us lies to work with the representatives of this +school. One of the clauses of the 1898 Convention, which caused a great +outcry in France when it became known, stipulated that no differential +treatment was to be meted out to British trade throughout a considerable +part of the French West African possessions for a term of thirty years. +The following extract, bearing on this subject, from an address read by +M. Bohn, the head of the largest firm of French West African merchants, +before the Marseilles Geographical Society, in September 1898, three +months after the Convention was signed, is interesting: + + “A certain colonial school,” said M. Bohn, “starting from the + premise that the only object of colonies is to favour the + outlet of goods manufactured in the mother country, demands the + application of prohibitive tariffs upon foreign goods imported + into our colonies. This system, which contributed so powerfully + to lose Spain her finest colonies, flourishes in Gaboon, + which is the least prosperous of our colonies, and which only + subsists at all by constant grants in aid from the metropolis. + These examples are hardly encouraging. On the other hand, we + are able to see that those of our colonies which are developing + themselves in the most rapid and satisfactory manner are those + where no differential tariffs exist.... From that point of view + it is certain the Franco-English Convention of June 1898, by + abolishing for a period of thirty years all differential duties + in the Ivory Coast and Dahomey, has assured for that period the + commercial prosperity of these colonies.” + +That notable statement and others like it (the truth of which has been +amply borne out since) show that experienced Frenchmen engaged in the +West African trade realise, as we do, that a policy of free trade is one +which in West Africa spells commercial success by the nation which adopts +it. The existence of such views in France is a very encouraging sign for +those who firmly believe that trade is the greatest progressive agency +which can be brought to bear upon the relations between Western Europe +and Western Africa. + +Recent events are proving that a natural community of interests exists +between British and French merchants in Western Africa; that they will +have to fight a common foe, the Concessionnaire, and that every action +calculated to bring them into closer relationship is a step in the right +direction. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +TEN YEARS OF FRENCH ACTION IN WEST AFRICA + + +The history of France’s action in West Africa during the last ten +years has been so remarkable that it deserves to be recorded in some +detail, and where possible her policy may be usefully compared with +our own. On January 23, 1892, the Paris _Figaro_ published a literary +supplement entitled “Our African Domain,” in which was set forth by +various competent authorities—amongst whom was Captain Binger;[202] +Emile Masqueray, the well-known student of Algerian problems; Georges +Rolland, one of the foremost advocates of the Trans-Saharan Railway; and +“Harry Alis,” the redoubtable Colonial propagandist, Lord Cromer’s _bête +noire_, whose tragic end will be in the recollection of many—the past +achievements, actual position and future aspirations of France in Western +and Central Africa. The supplement was divided into five parts, entitled +respectively “Algeria”; “Penetration towards the Chad”; “Senegal and +Dependencies”; “Our Position on the Gulf of Guinea”; “Congo and Chad.” +At the time this supplement appeared, the revival of Colonial ambition +in France, which owed its inception largely to the foresight and courage +of Jules Ferry, had taken firm root among the _élite_ of French public +opinion. But although the seed where it fell gave forth lusty fruit, the +sowers were relatively few, and the area under cultivation was still but +small in 1892. The Chamber of Deputies was slow to grant fresh credits. +Politicians as a whole viewed the eloquence of Eugène Etienne and other +exponents of the Ferry school with ill-disguised nervousness, if not with +positive apprehension, fearing that the country was being turned from its +true business of guarding against possible aggression from Germany, and +was playing into Bismarck’s hands by rushing into Colonial adventures +which it was known that Bismarck, for his own reasons, was desirous of +encouraging. No one party or rather group cared to identify itself too +closely with the expansionists, remembering the whirlwind of popular +passion which assailed and overwhelmed _le Tonkinois_. On the other hand, +it was not wise to entirely dissociate one’s self from a movement which +was steadily gaining a hold over the masses. So Parliament vacillated, +and, swayed by contrary winds, voted funds one minute and sought to +withdraw them the next. + +The _Figaro’s_ supplement was widely criticised. The schemes it +elaborated were not merely ambitious, they were gigantic. “Our policy,” +it argued, “is to make one homogeneous entity of Algeria, Senegal, and +Congo _viâ_ the Tuareg-Sahara and the Central and Western Sudan.” The +timid Deputy shuddered at the prospect. What must have been, even to the +master-minds who initiated the policy, not much more than a fond hope +strengthened by an unshaken faith in the destiny of the country; what, +in the eyes of those who opposed it, appeared as a monstrous figment of +the imagination, is to-day in its main lines a reality! How has it been +accomplished? + +“Our intentions are pure and noble, our cause is just, the future +cannot fail us,” wrote Faidherbe in 1859, and, on the whole, despite +errors, despite the effects of temporary reaction coming after acute +disappointment, despite some individual instances of cruelty and +oppression, events have justified Faidherbe’s confident declaration. +The work of France in Africa during the last ten years and more has, in +the main, been a work of progress tending to benefit the populations +with whom she has come in contact. Notable exceptions there have been, +of course, especially during the years 1897 and 1898, when the scramble +for West Africa was at its height, and under the spell of an insensate +rivalry deeds were committed by all the parties in the struggle which +cannot be too strongly condemned. To France’s debit account must be +placed the ruthless proceedings of Bretonnet in Borgu; the needless +bloodshed of which Mossi, Kipprisi, and Gurunsi were the scenes; the +inevitable barbarity which characterised Marchand’s hunt for carriers +in the Upper Ubanghi and Bahr-el-Ghazal. These incidents in themselves +are odious and reprehensible; but it is only fair to recognise that they +were the outcome of international jealousies the responsibility for which +was collective rather than single, shared in by other Powers as well +as by France herself. In what may be regarded as France’s own sphere +of influence, acts have also been perpetrated from time to time which +call for censure. The punishment meted out to certain towns hostile to +the French in the Western Sudan have been altogether disproportionate +to the offence. In the case of the French officers Voulet and Chanoine, +an incalculable amount of suffering was inflicted upon the unfortunate +people on the western banks of the Niger. But from these isolated +transgressions against the principles of humanity, culpable as they have +been, the records of no European Power in Africa are free; and they +cannot, in the circumstances of France, be held to negative or even +weaken the advantages she has undoubtedly conferred upon the population +of the Western and Central Sudan, nor yet tarnish the great reputation +France has achieved in the emancipation of millions from centuries of +tyranny and invasion. If she has had her Voulets and Chanoines, France +can show in the persons of her De Brazzas, her Bingers, her Monteils, +her Crozats, her Foureaus, Noirots, Gentils, Hoursts, and Lenfants, +performances which the subjects of other Powers may have equalled but +have not surpassed; always excepting Barth, whose moral grandeur towers +high above that of all his competitors on West African soil. + +From the time when the Sieur de Brüe—one of the clearest-headed Frenchmen +who ever served his country in Africa—paid ceremonious visits to the +King of Kayor and the “grand Seratik” of the Fulas at the close of the +seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth century; from the +time when raiding bands of Trarza Moors, extending their depredations to +the very confines of St. Louis (1840-60) compelled Faidherbe to take the +offensive against them, to the present day, it has been the lot of France +to find herself confronted in West Africa with races differentiating in +every respect from the true Negro of the coast regions—the people whom +England had, up to 1900, been chiefly concerned with. Eight years before, +a certain Select Committee of the House of Commons, frightened at the +responsibilities England was assuming in West Africa, pusillanimously +recommended the abandonment of all our settlements except Sierra Leone, +thus enunciating a policy the evil effects of which continued until +1895 and greatly limited our footing in West and Central Africa; France +had just emerged successfully from a death grapple with one of the most +powerful individuals that ever sprung from African loins, el Haj-Omar, +the great Tukulor Mallam and warrior. Looking backward at that long +vista of years, when France was slowly but irresistibly thrusting her +influence into West Africa, _viâ_ the Senegal and Upper Niger, by pouring +out her treasure and the blood of her sons like water; while England +remained supine on the coast heedless of the representations of her +merchant-pioneers, it was not surprising that, awakening almost too late +from our lethargy, we should have found the French, having triumphed over +their obstacles in the north, forging southwards and cutting off our +rich hinterlands in the interior. Writing to the Marquis of Dufferin in +1892, Lord Salisbury contrasted the policy of Great Britain and France in +Western Africa. “France,” wrote Lord Salisbury, “from her basis on the +Senegal Coast, has pursued steadily the aim of establishing herself on +the Upper Niger and its affluents.... Great Britain, on the other hand, +has adopted the policy of advance by commercial enterprise.” There was, +indeed, on the part of Liverpool, Manchester, and Bristol merchants, +plenty of “commercial enterprise,” but it would have been difficult for +Lord Salisbury to have quoted a single instance where that “commercial +enterprise” had constituted “a policy of advance.” + +It is due to the type of native inhabiting the chief radius of France’s +operations in Western Africa, that her task has been rendered so +dangerous and so difficult, and its fulfilment so remarkable. Criticise +as we may, and often enough unjustly, because ignorantly, the colonising +capacities of our Gallic neighbours, and the fluctuations of their +colonial policy, it is beyond question that no nation on earth could +have achieved what she has achieved in Western Africa, without the +possession of a doggedness and determination for which we do not—to +our own injury, be it said—even now, give her the credit which she +deserves. For centuries upon centuries the enormous tract which lies +between the edge of the Sahara Desert and the fringe of the tropical +forest belt—consisting for the most part of grassy uplands varied by +wide plains of amazing fertility, by reason of the yearly overflow of +the waters of the Niger—had been the cockpit of Africa. Empire after +empire rose and fell; invasion and counter-invasion swept devastatingly +over the country. The splendours of Jenne and Timbuctoo vanished with +the sway of the Songhay, beneath the bullets of Morocco’s musketeers. +Fulani domination arose and gave way before Tukulor cruelties. Semi-negro +kingdoms came into being, declared their independence of this or that +conqueror, only to be subdued, while their victors had, in turn, to bite +the dust before some stronger foe. The mingling of races in that vast +region has no parallel in Africa. Ages ago the pastoral Fula—veritable +Asiatic—had settled therein with his flocks and herds, destined in +time by the sheer force of superior intellect to become the master +where he had been either the guest or the despised tenant. Later came +infiltrations of the Moorish element proper; pastorals also these, +emigrating from the plateaux of Adrar to the well-watered valley of the +Niger. Tuaregs, the redskins of the Sahara, descendants, as some affect +to believe, of those tall, fair-haired, long-limbed warriors of Northern +Europe who, about 1500 B.C., advanced slowly through Gaul and Spain, +and crossing the Mediterranean in ships, landed on the North African +Coast, ever pushing southwards, overcoming the terrors of the desert and +reaching the green pastures beyond, but repairing the greater part of the +year to the desolate Saharan solitudes of which they remain the virtual +masters, though Foureau and his _tirailleurs_ have for the first time +in history passed through without paying the toll. Arabs too, but again +later, and generally speaking farther south and east in Kanem, Wadai and +Baghirmi, where Lamy met his death and Gentil was fighting two years and +more; Arabs from the north with caravans of merchandise, and other Arabs +from the east; Shuwas, of whom no man knows the history or the origin. +They intermarried, these tawny, straight-haired nomadic strangers, with +the aboriginal blacks, or raped their women, as the case might be; and +from these unions, legitimate or otherwise, through long centuries, +there sprang into existence fierce cross-races and wild, reared in war, +nurtured in an atmosphere of turmoil and brigandage; negro Fula, negro +Moor, negro Arab, exaggerating the savage instincts of the parent stock, +whom they turned and rent when strong enough. One such hybrid product +became in time the scourge of the Western Sudan—the Tukulor, offspring +of Negro (Joloff) and Fula, unsparing, ruthless, dreaded alike by Fula +and Negro, and whose atrocities are written in letters of blood from Toro +(Senegal) to the frontiers of Hausa. + +In this medley of races there came in the tenth century of our era +the first whisperings of a revealed religion. The whispering quickly +changed to the deep hum of many voices proclaiming aloud the word of the +Prophet. Islam spread with inconceivable rapidity. The Fulani became +speedy converts, but the arts they employed to win over their pagan +neighbours were usually peaceful. Not so with the Tukulors and the other +cross-races. They saw in it naught but a fresh incentive to warlike +deeds, and soon professed Mohammedans were not merely massacring the +infidels, but waging battle against their more peaceable co-religionists. +As though this were not enough, another fruitful cause of bloodshed +and disturbance was fated to arise, and still further plunge in woe +this distracted country. The Portuguese adventurers on the coast, in +the course of their professed desire to save the soul of the Negro, +made a discovery, to wit, that the muscular development of the Negro +eminently fitted him for manual labour. From that discovery dates the +most atrocious traffic the world has ever witnessed. In their greed +for slaves, the Christians of Western Europe and of America—without +distinction of nationality, though perhaps the Portuguese and English +were the worst offenders—set tribe against tribe; and the better to +stimulate the industry, imported wholesale guns and gunpowder, objects +which they ascertained the Negroes greatly coveted. The blacks waged war +right merrily upon one another, and their so-called prisoners of war +filled the slavers’ hulks. Presently the tawny races beyond the forest +belt joined in the game, desiring above all things the acquisition of +guns and the wherewithal to use them, which meant power and increased +facilities for plunder. Slave-raiding then assumed almost incredible +proportions. Internecine warfare received a new and terrible impetus. No +excuse, whether valid or imaginary, was henceforth needed to attack one’s +neighbour; and where in former days contentment might have been secured +by a rich booty of cattle and sheep, the requirements of the case now +necessitated the capture of the human animal himself. In such a country, +desolated by centuries of strife; among such a people, upon whose vices +Europe had grafted her own; under such circumstances, has lain the +destiny of France in Western Africa. + +A favourite argument used by those who favour a militarist policy in +Northern Nigeria consists in pointing to the action of the French in +the Western Sudan. It is held by some to be inconsistent to express +approval of the military trend of French policy in regions adjacent to +Northern Nigeria, and to disapprove of it in Northern Nigeria itself. +I do not think that the charge of inconsistency will bear examination. +In the first place, we should be careful not to generalise. In West +Africa proper—that is, in the coastwise regions, the home of the true +Negroes—the military policy has, on the whole, been rarely resorted to +by the French. In the Western Sudan, although, no doubt, a good deal +of bloodshed might have been avoided at different times, I fail to see +myself, bearing in mind the object of French policy, how that object +could have been obtained without military conquest. As far as the purely +moral aspect of the matter is concerned, the right of any European Power +to interfere in the internal affairs of West Africa may be queried; but +if a given region can, in West Africa, be pointed to where the results of +such interference are of a beneficent nature, that region is the Western +Sudan. France is restoring to the enormous expanse of territory between +the Niger and the tropical forest belt the prosperity which it possessed +in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries under the Songhay, when Jenne +was the granary and the store-house of the Niger countries. She is laying +the basis of a prosperity far greater than in those days, because she +is able to bring peace where the Songhays could not. Having conquered +the cross-races, she wisely refrains from either interfering with their +customs, such as domestic slavery, upon which the social fabric of West +Africa depends, or from allowing, save in strictly circumscribed limits, +Christian propaganda among them, being well aware that such propaganda +in Mohammedan communities but newly subjugated is the certain precursor +of trouble, bloodshed, and fanaticism. She has hunted down and destroyed +the four tyrants who successively barred her way to the interior, and +who had perpetrated untold miseries upon hundreds of thousands of human +beings—El-Haji-Omar, Amadu, Samory and Rabah. Had she been able to +acquire the services of these men, it would perhaps have been better, but +the body of evidence is against the possibility of her power to have done +so. But there is a limit to approval of French military action, and if, +now that France’s political influence is internationally secure in the +regions east and north of the Chad, she chooses to embark open-eyed in a +struggle with the Senussi, she will be making a grave mistake. Unless +deliberately incited by unprovoked aggression, her game there is to +sheath the sword and give diplomacy the innings, and those Frenchmen who +see the danger of precipitate, immature action in Wadai and Kanem, and +are strenuously agitating against it, are wise in their generation.[203] + +But, taken all in all, the circumstances in which England finds herself +in Northern Nigeria, and the circumstances in which France found herself +in relation to the Western Sudan before the conquest, are widely +different. The aims pursued by France in the Western Sudan, and by the +English in Nigeria, were not in their inception the same. The regions +coveted by France were for the most part widely removed—at immense +distances indeed—from her basis on the coast and her basis on the Senegal +River. To make her claims to those regions _internationally_ valid, it +was requisite that France should wield some tangible influence over them, +and in many cases that was impossible without conquest. + +But the British in Northern Nigeria were very differently placed. +Northern Nigeria was the prolongation, so to speak, of the British base +in “the Rivers.” It lay immediately at the back of them. The possession +of the Niger’s mouth facilitated the extension of British influence up +the River and its affluent the Binue. Moreover, British merchants and +explorers had ascended both the Niger and the Binue many years before; +they had paved the way for what was to follow; and for fifteen years +before the advent of direct Imperial control in Northern Nigeria, its +native potentates had been united in close ties of political relationship +with a British Chartered Company. The Government stepped into the shoes +of the Chartered Company, not to play the _rôle_ of _conquisitador_ and +initiator, but to reap crops sown for it; to consolidate work already +half accomplished. It should, in parenthesis, be stated that France +manages the Western Sudan, a territory very much larger than Northern +Nigeria, and where a state of continuous internecine warfare had existed +for centuries, with an army not more than 3000 strong. Again, if warfare +has attended the establishment of French influence in the Shari region, +it has been due to special circumstances. Thus Gentil acquired a +Protectorate over Baghirmi without firing a shot. It was only when the +country which France had placed under her protection was invaded and laid +waste by Rabah that military action became a duty. + +No comparison is really possible between the respective parts of Great +Britain and France. Both are distinct, and must be judged according to +their antecedents and special features. + +In Northern Nigeria[204] we have to do with native rulers with whom we +have been in treaty relationship for fifteen years, and in commercial +relationship for longer still. They are our wards, we are in a fiduciary +capacity towards them; they are our _protégés_. We undertook by treaty to +subsidise them; we pledged ourselves by treaty “not to interfere with the +customs” of their people. It should be our object, following the precepts +of Sir Andrew Clarke, to make those rulers “far bigger” men than they +are, not to break them. They come of a proud race, a capable race, of +superior mental calibre, possessed of statesmanship and skill. They have +played a great part in the history of Western Africa. Barth, who knew +them well, has said of them that “they are the most intelligent people in +Africa.” To reduce them to impotence; to scatter their power; to break +the organisation they have created into small pieces would be politically +foolish, practically unwise, morally unjust, Imperially disastrous. +To strengthen their rule where weak; to perfect it where oppressive; +to assist them, work with them, and through them along their natural +lines; to interfere as little as possible with the customs and habits +of themselves and their people; to respect their religious beliefs; to +work gradually, peacefully, tactfully, for the attainment of the only +conceivable objects which have taken us to their country—commercial +development, advancement, prosperity—those should be the political +principles guiding us in Northern Nigeria. + +The accomplishment of the colossal plan sketched out by the _Figaro_ +in 1892, viz. the unification (if the word be permissible) of the +French possessions in Africa by expeditions from north, west, and +south, designed to meet on the shores of Lake Chad, may now be briefly +given. It is a stirring tale. The first attempt—if we exclude that of +Flatters from the north, of which the purpose was limited—was made from +the south, by the blue-eyed, fair-haired enthusiast, Paul Crampbel. He +fell assassinated by Rabah’s emissaries at El Kuti on April 15, 1891. +Dybowski and Maistre, sent out by the French African Committee in +Crampbel’s footsteps, had to retire without doing much more than useful +exploring work. Then came Gentil’s turn, a modest naval lieutenant who, +profiting by Rabah’s complications in Bornu, succeeded after incredible +difficulties in reaching the mouth of the Shari (after signing a treaty +of Protectorate with Baghirmi) and floating a small steamer upon the +waters of the mysterious lake. But the success was short-lived. Rabah +recrossed the Shari, forced the French to retire, and once again swept +Baghirmi with fire and sword. France hurried fresh reinforcements to the +spot, and these under Bretonnet were attacked by Rabah and decimated. A +further and more vigorous effort was required. + +And here the scene shifts to the north. In October 1898 that intrepid +explorer, Foureau, left the oasis of Sadrata, near Wargla, in Algeria, +at the head of a force of picked men, 310 strong, consisting of troopers +from the Senegalese and Saharan _tirailleurs_, than whom there are +probably no more splendid fighters in the world, unless it be our own +Sikhs. Foureau was accompanied by three civilian friends. Commandant +Lamy led the military portion of the expedition, which comprised four +other officers besides himself. The object of the expedition was to +cross the Algerian Sahara and reach the Chad, while Gentil and Bretonnet +gained a firm foothold on its shores by working upwards from the Congo +and Ubanghi. Foureau and his companions plunged into the unknown desert, +and for ten months entirely disappeared from view. Frequent rumours of a +wholesale massacre reached Europe, and remembering the fate of Douls, De +Palot, Dournaux-Dupérré, and Joubert, Flatters and Bonnier, at the hands +of the fierce nomads who roam the desolate wastes through which Foureau +had to pass, France held her breath. If Foureau fell, it would not only +be a frightful disaster, fraught with peril to French policy throughout +her vast Mohammedan zone in Africa; it might also mean a revulsion of +popular feeling, a hanging up of cherished schemes for a generation or +more. But Foureau did not fall or fail. He reached the Asben oases in +safety, and demonstrated to timid minds that the Tuaregs, when confronted +by a well-armed and disciplined force, skilfully led and sufficiently +numerous to inspire respect, prefer, in the main, to hold themselves at a +distance.[205] + +Again the scene changes. The plan was half-performed. The third advance +came from the west by the way of the Niger Bend. It was at first attended +by the direst results. The gallant Cazemajou met a cruel and treacherous +death at Zinder. Voulet and Chanoine, who succeeded him, showed what evil +unlimited authority and the disordering effects of the African climate +can work upon ill-regulated minds. Denounced by one of their subordinates +for barbarous conduct towards the natives, they, having already forgotten +the ordinary dictates of humanity, forgot alike honour and patriotism, +foully murdered the superior officer who had been instructed to replace +them, tore off their uniforms, declared themselves renegades, and +perpetrated the wildest excesses. But their shrift was short, and they +soon met their fate from the rifles of the native soldiers they had +temporarily led astray. + +The French Government, however, did not relinquish its determination. The +fragments of the Voulet-Chanoine mission were got together, and under +the joint leadership of Captain Joalland and Lieutenant Meynier reached +the Chad, subsequently joining Gentil’s forces in the Lower Shari. By +this time Foureau had also gained the Chad. The three missions, which +after so many vicissitudes thus met together in their common goal, were +immediately called upon to face a new and most formidable danger. Against +the town of Kusri or Kusseri, where the French had established their +headquarters, Rabah was marching at the head of 5000 men, of whom 2000 +were armed with guns of various patterns. He had also three fieldpieces, +captured from Bretonnet. The French disposed of a total strength of +774 officers and men—the latter natives without exception—with four +fieldpieces. They were assisted by 1500 Baghirmi auxiliaries, who do not +appear to have been of much use, contenting themselves with looting after +the battle was over. Rabah pitched his war camp three miles from Kusri, +and awaited the onslaught of the French. It proved to be irresistible. +Rabah himself perished. His losses amounted to 1000 killed and wounded, +and his camp, with the whole of its contents, fell into the hands of +the French. The French losses were severe. They included the brave +Lamy, Captain Cointet, a white non-commissioned officer and seventeen +men killed. Their wounded amounted to sixty, among them Captain Lamothe +and Lieutenants Meynier and Galland. But the victory was complete, +and Rabah, the noise of whose conquests had filled Central Africa for +close upon a quarter of a century; whose destructive strides had left +a bloody track from the Bahr-el-Ghazal to the Chad; Rabah, the last of +the great _conquisitadores_, had gone the way of El-Haji-Omar, and of +Samory. The plan elaborated by the _Figaro_ eight years previously was an +accomplished fact. + +Since Rabah’s overthrow the French have been engaged in systematically +consolidating their hold upon the Central Sudan and the lower Shari. M. +Terrier, the able Secrétaire-Général of the French African Committee, +explains in the Committee’s Bulletin for April 1901 the procedure which +is being adopted. One cannot but be impressed with the grasp, the +sagacity, and the statesmanship displayed. The Shari region has been +divided into two districts, the most northerly of which abuts on Lake +Chad, and includes Baghirmi and the Shari mouths. It is administered +on military lines. The southern district, comprising the upper reaches +of the river and its affluents, is administered on civil lines. The +population of the southern district is composed of Negroes, whose +religion is fetishism, or what it pleases us to call fetishism. The +northern district is inhabited by various branches of the Negroid +Baghirmis; by the Kotokos; by the Shuwa Arabs, and by a few pastoral +Fulani. The pagans of the southern district have for centuries been +subjected to the raids of the Arabised-Negroes of Bornu and Baghirmi. It +was from among them that the principal supplies of slaves which used to +find their way across the desert route to Tripoli before the Firman of +1865 were drawn. France, by ridding them of their external foes, claims +the right to make them share in her administrative expenses. She is all +the more justified in doing so, as for many years to come, and until +the Shari is connected with the Ubanghi by a railway, there will be no +trade upon which to levy duties in order to obtain revenue. One-half of +the population is expected to furnish carriers, and the other half pays +an annual tax of four pounds of rubber per hut, of which two pounds is +returned to the chiefs as commission. We are assured—on the authority +of M. Terrier—that the chiefs are bringing in the tax voluntarily from +long distances. In the northern district, which was directly under +Rabah’s influence, the French found an existing organisation which they +have in the main retained, but the tax levied by the Emir of Baghirmi +upon his subjects being considered too heavy, the French have reduced +it by two-thirds, thus relieving the population from an undue burden +of taxation. The Emir and his chiefs—through whom French influence is +exercised—benefit by this reduced tax; that is to say, they keep it for +themselves. Contributions of slaves to the Emir and chiefs in the form of +tribute by the sub-chiefs are, of course, suppressed. The revenue of the +Emir being thus limited, but nevertheless assured to him, together with +the continuation of his prestige, the Emir himself, who owes his throne +to the French, and has, moreover, been relieved by them of the necessity +of paying an annual tribute to Wadai, is expected to furnish annually +to the Administration 240 pounds of millet, 500 cloths, and 100 oxen, +amounting roughly to £1680. + +Here, then, as in the Western Sudan, the words of Faidherbe ring sound; +and M. Etienne, speaking at a Conference held the other day at the Paris +Colonial School, was only saying what has hitherto been true when he +asserted that: + +“France can in all sincerity maintain that she has delivered the peoples +of inland Africa from an intolerable yoke. She has liberated millions of +human beings from sanguinary tyrants who had reduced them to slavery. She +has accomplished a work of emancipation, of liberty, and of generosity.” +It would be sad indeed if, led astray by evil counsels, France should be +induced in another portion of her West African domain, viz. French Congo, +to tarnish the great reputation she has undoubtedly built up. + +It may be doubted whether the problems with which France has had to +contend in West Africa have ever been rightly understood among us, for +Englishmen are usually generous-minded enough to appreciate good work +carried out by others, even though the others are sometimes rivals. +Certain is it that of the nature of French exploits in West and Central +Africa the average Englishman is hopelessly ignorant, and even English +writers of repute persist in shutting their eyes to the great, the almost +revolutionary changes which experience, dearly bought, has wrought in +French Colonial conceptions. We have failed as a nation in doing justice +to the actions of the French in Africa. We have underrated their capacity +and refused to admit the existence at their council boards of a central +plan carefully matured which the frequent shuffling of Ministerial +portfolios merely retarded but did not alter. At the present moment we +apparently will not realise that France is applying to the economic +development of her vast territories the same strenuousness of purpose +with which she steadily pursued her work of conquest and absorption. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE FRENCH POSSESSIONS + + +The logic of facts is gradually bringing home to Englishmen that the +French have within recent years revolutionised the commercial position of +their West African possessions; of those possessions, that is, which are +at present commercially exploitable. But a singular amount of ignorance +continues to prevail on the subject, and in non-specialist circles the +French possessions are still in a sorry condition both commercially +and financially. So far is that deep-rooted idea from the truth, that +not only are the French doing exceedingly well commercially in West +Africa; but they are doing comparatively better than we are. Moreover, +their possessions are actually costing less to manage, and economy +in administration is not secured at the expense of requisite public +works; quite the contrary. The days when Englishmen could represent the +ideals of French Colonial management in West Africa in the light of a +custom-house official and a soldier; an expenditure overlapping revenue; +constant grants from the mother country; an embryonic trade and a growing +budgetary deficit, have passed and gone. In some respects the French +are turning the tables upon us. Even so distinguished an authority as +Sir Harry Johnston falls into the popular error when he says that “with +the exception of Tunis, there is not a single French possession in +Africa which is self-supporting or other than a drain upon the French +exchequer.” It is a complete fallacy, and it can be proved so up to +the hilt. Here and there, it is true, the old, bad, paralytic red-tape +conception remains, but on the whole the French possessions north of the +Bights are progressing with an astonishing rapidity; able to construct +important public works out of their own surplus revenues, and to enter +into railway contracts on guaranteed loans of their own raising. Miss +Kingsley, in her “West African Studies,” suggested that, granting the +possibility of France becoming “commercially intelligent,” she might +“pocket the West African trade down to Lagos from Senegal,” and there can +be no doubt that if British policy in West Africa continues to be carried +out on the present lines, and if French policy in West Africa can escape +the contamination of the concessionnaire _régime_ applied with such +deplorable results in French Congo, France can and will do an enormous +amount of commercial damage to our possessions in West Africa, and on a +fair field, in legitimate competition. Senegal, French Guinea, the Ivory +Coast and Dahomey are all self-supporting, and the growth of trade in +these possessions is in all conscience eloquent enough, as the following +figures show: + + SENEGAL GUINEA IVORY COAST DAHOMEY + + 1889 £1,520,000 £320,000 £160,000 £360,000 + 1899 2,920,000 1,000,000 520,000 1,000,000 + 1900 3,189,400 973,000[206] 686,300 1,101,084 + +None of our Colonies can show such a rate of progress as their young +(Senegal excepted) Gallic competitors. The increase is really phenomenal. +In the French Colonies mentioned the expenditure is well within the +revenue. In French Guinea conspicuously so. Would that we could say the +same of our possessions! In all these Colonies the French are spending +less than we are in the work of administration. In some of them they +are nevertheless spending more in public works, and before long their +expenditure in that respect will in the aggregate far exceed ours. It +will suffice to give one or two instances in support of these general +statements. + +The position of Dahomey is particularly interesting, because it adjoins +Lagos, because Lagos is one of the transit ports for Dahomey, because +both Colonies are building a railway in the same direction, and because +both Colonies aim at capturing the bulk of the interior trade. Compared +with Lagos, Dahomey is, of course, only an infant in years, but an infant +of sturdy growth. Its trade has jumped from nineteen million francs in +1893 to twenty-seven million francs in 1900. The growth in its export +trade is very noticeable. In 1893 it amounted to £347,258 (8,681,463 +francs), and in 1900 had grown to £502,350. In 1893 the export trade +of Lagos was £836,295; in 1900 it was £885,111. True, Lagos saw better +days in 1896 and 1899 (£975,203 and £915,934 respectively),[207] but the +ratio of increase has not been equal to that of Dahomey. In 1894, on an +export trade of £821,682, the expenditure of Lagos amounted to £124,819; +in 1900, on an export trade of £885,111 the expenditure was £187,124, +including £37,214 for public works and £18,169 on account of public debt. +In 1900, on an export trade of £502,350 Dahomey spent £119,664, of which +£29,000 in public works, and in 1901 contributed £60,000 from its own +local revenue for the railway.[208] In 1900 Dahomey spent £8000[209] +in military and police; Lagos spent £39,095.[210] For some unexplained +reason Dahomey does not export timber, but her exports of palm-oil and +palm-kernels are increasing yearly. Dahomey is now actually exporting +very nearly as much palm-oil as Lagos.[211] In palm-kernels Dahomey has +not yet reached the level of Lagos, but is forging ahead, having exported +24,211,614 kilos, or roughly 24,000 tons, in 1901, against 21,986,043 +kilos in 1900, and 21,850,982 kilos in 1899. Lagos shipped in 1900-1901 +over 47,000 tons of kernels. Some years ago the French, annoyed at being +dependent upon Lagos as the only port of transit for the trade of their +Colony (Lagos is connected with Porto Novo, the capital of Dahomey, by a +lagoon, and the facilities of the Lagos route were, and still are, for +certain classes of goods very much greater owing to the bar service), +constructed at Kotonu one of the few wharves which exist on the West +African coast-line. This wharf, aided by the duty imposed on the Dahomey +transit trade _viâ_ Lagos by the Lagos authorities, has succeeded in its +object, and the bulk of Dahomey’s trade now passes through Kotonu instead +of _viâ_ Lagos. In this way has Lagos, for temporary revenue purposes, +played into the hands of her competitors. The Colony is also building a +railway[212] which is likely to prove a most important undertaking. The +fiscal policy adopted by France in Dahomey since the 1898 agreement, +abolishing the differential tariff for thirty years, has been well +calculated to bring about the conspicuous advancement observable, and +unless the railway concessionnaire, under his agreement with the local +government,[213] is allowed to interfere in the territories ceded to +him with the freedom of trade, and with native rights of land tenure, +the wisdom of Dahomey’s fiscal policy will continue to bear fruit. Most +people will be astonished to learn that Dahomey taxes her trade, in the +main, at a lower rate than Lagos, and it is unquestionable that the +circumstance acts in the former’s favour and to the latter’s detriment. +There is so much misconception about on subjects of this kind, which +nevertheless have so direct a bearing upon the prosperity and commercial +position of our West African possessions and of their rivals, that it has +been thought advisable to give in the Appendix as complete a comparative +table as possible of the duties in both Colonies.[214] To that list the +reader may be referred. On all articles but cottons Dahomey charges lower +duty than Lagos. If Dahomey can manage her affairs, and get a surplus +revenue to boot by charging 2_d._ a pound on tobacco and gunpowder, and +11_s._ 4_d._ and 4_s._ 10_d._ respectively on rock salt and sea salt, +why in the world cannot Lagos do the same, instead of charging 8_d._ +and 4_d._ a pound on tobacco, 6_d._ a pound on gunpowder, and 20_s._ on +both classes of salt? The answer is, because the Crown Colony system is +infinitely more costly than the French system of administration. + +France’s oldest Colony in West Africa, Senegal, despite the periodic +ravages of yellow fever, against which it is to be hoped science will now +be in a better position to struggle with success, is in a very healthy +condition commercially and financially, although rather too dependent +upon a single industry, viz. ground-nut production.[215] Its export +trade has increased from £517,934 in 1891 to £1,000,000 in 1900; but its +expenditure, instead of increasing in similar or greater proportion, as +is generally the case with British Possessions; has remained practically +stationary, at about £150,000; while surplus revenues have enabled her +to agree to pay a yearly subsidy of £36,000 for a period of twenty-two +years to the Western Sudan (Kayes-Niger) railway, from the completion of +which she is sure to largely benefit. In the construction of public works +Senegal is easily ahead of any European possession of West Africa. A +railway 250 kilometres long connects St. Louis, the capital, with Dakar, +the principal seaport, and the best on the coast. St. Louis, Dakar and +Rufisque have all been provided with fresh water. The Faidherbe bridge is +a great engineering triumph, and the wharves at Rufisque and Dakar are +well organised. Surveys for another railway through the Salum district, +with prolongation to Kayes, are being undertaken, and there is a project +on foot for improving navigation on the Senegal River. Senegal seems +destined to have a brilliant future. + +The Ivory Coast has come very much to the fore of late as a possible +goldfield, to rival if not to surpass the Gold Coast. _Le Transvaal +français_ is the title already given to it by enthusiasts. Prospecting +work is being undertaken, and hundreds of permits have been granted. A +good deal of secrecy is being observed in connection with the matter, +and a wise check appears to have been kept upon the flotation of bogus +companies. There seems to be good ground for believing that auriferous +deposits exist in considerable quantities, and recent explorations have +revealed the existence of many old native workings, and even of a mine +actually being exploited by the natives, that of Kokombo in the Baoule +district. Experts think that the Ivory Coast will prove particularly +rich in dredging propositions. The Baoule, Indenie, Attie and Jaman +countries are reported to be the four districts in the Colony which +will repay the gold-seekers. Commandant Binger, who has travelled all +over the country, is a great believer in its gold-bearing capacity, and +in Dr. Freeman’s opinion, South-West Jaman is the gold country _par +excellence_ of the entire region; richer than Ashanti and other portions +of the British Protectorate.[216] At the Paris Exhibition of 1900 many +samples of auriferous quartz from the Ivory Coast were exhibited, from +Kuadikofi, Nangu-Kru, Alepe and Adokoi, and also some specimens of native +gold workmanship from Baoule and Jaman which point to a high degree of +artistic talent on the part of the workmen. Gold dust has been exported +from the Ivory Coast for many years, of an average annual value between +1890 and 1897 of £25,000. At present the trade of the Ivory Coast, which +is steadily increasing, is chiefly remarkable for its timber export. The +ports of Grand Bassam, Lahou and Assinie are among the most important +timber-shipping centres on the coast. In 1892 the Ivory Coast exported +mahogany to the value of £23,000; in 1900, to the value of £44,000. +Nearly all the mahogany comes to Liverpool, which imported in 1899 from +the Ivory Coast 4714 logs measuring 2,727,349 cubic feet, and in 1900, +5748 logs measuring 3,697,416 cubic feet. In the old days the Ivory +Coast, the “Elfenbein Küste” of the Germans, was celebrated for the +article its name implies. + +Writing in 1730, Barbot says that “the inland country affords yearly +a vast quantity of fine large elephants’ teeth, being the best ivory +in the world, most of which is constantly bought up along this coast +by the English, Dutch, and French, and sometimes by the Danes and +Portuguese.” In quaint language, he goes on to tell us how important the +ivory trade of the Ivory Coast was in those days, and how the natives +profited thereby. “This great concourse of European ships,” he writes, +“coming hither every year, and sometimes three or four lying together +at anchor in the road, has encouraged the blacks to set so dear a rate +on their teeth (_sic_), and particularly on the larger sort, some of +them weighing two hundred pounds French, that there is not much to be +got by them, considering the vast charges that commonly attend such a +remote trade.” Barbot describes his own trading operations on the Ivory +Coast, and speaks of having “six large canoes about the ship full of fine +elephants’ teeth, each canoe manned by five or six hands at least—and +all lusty, resolute men.” Quoting some Hollanders, the same author +writes that “it is scarce to be conceived what a multitude of elephants +there is about this country.” It is quite clear that in those days ivory +was practically the only product exchanged by the natives against the +iron bars and rings, beads, kettles, cotton, brandy, and other articles +brought by European traders in their sailing vessels. Now the ivory +trade has practically disappeared, owing, no doubt, to the extermination +of the elephants in the coastal regions. What small quantity does come +down for shipment appears to be brought by caravans from the Western +Sudan. This disappearance of a trade which was flourishing enough at one +time to become the synonym of an extensive portion of the West African +coast-line, is one of those curious facts of which West Africa affords us +so many examples. It seems to me that we have one of the most striking +proofs of the highly developed commercial instinct of the West African +native, in the circumstance that no sooner has one branch of trade fallen +off than he replaces it by another. No doubt the initiative is not his +own, but the motive power is, and the very adaptability which he displays +in meeting the new demands of commerce affords the clearest indication of +the progressiveness of his race. Thus in the Ivory Coast; the ivory trade +has gone, and has been replaced by the oil, kernel, and rubber trade; +and, of quite recent years, by the mahogany trade. + +So far, the Ivory Coast is the most backward of the French West African +possessions in the shape of public works, although there is a wharf at +Grand Bassam; but a very big scheme is in contemplation including the +construction of a harbour and railway, the piercing of the sandbank at +little Bassam opposite to the well-known “bottomless pit” so dreaded by +mariners, and the dredging of the Bingerville lagoon. The future of the +Ivory Coast would appear to be in good hands, so far as a very efficient +staff of administrators is a guarantee; M. Clozel and M. Maurice +Delafosse in particular having distinguished themselves of late in +studying the aboriginal tribes, and in laying the basis of an intelligent +native policy which, if pursued, will make of that possession a second +French Guinea. Just now, however, the military element appears to have +the upper hand, and there has been a regrettable collision between the +French authorities and the powerful Baoules, which has undone the work +of years of pacific endeavour, and which might, in the opinion of those +Frenchmen who know the country best, have been avoided. Archæological +discoveries of profound interest have been made in the Baoule country, +pointing to former intercourse with a more advanced people, whom M. +Delafosse thinks must have been the Egyptians.[217] + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE LOCALITY AND NATURE OF HARBOUR IMPROVEMENT +SCHEME IN THE IVORY COAST] + +French Guinea can serve as a model of what a common-sense, commercial, +sympathetic administration is able to achieve in West Africa; and the +late Dr. Ballay, its founder and for more than a decade its governor, +will rank as the best type of Colonial Administrator, a worthy emulator +of his countryman, le Sieur de Brüe, and of our own Sir John Glover. The +strides which French Guinea has made since its birth in 1889 are really +phenomenal. In 1890, Konakry, the capital, was non-existent. To-day it +numbers 10,000 inhabitants, of whom some 300 are Europeans. The trade +of French Guinea, which in 1890 only amounted to £300,000, reached in +1899 and 1900 about £1,000,000. It is one of the most cheaply and yet +most effectively administered possessions on the coast. Its revenue +is buoyant, owing largely to the successful collection of a poll-tax, +and although a railway to Kurussa, on the Niger, is in course of +construction, the expenditure is well beneath the revenue. A magnificent +carriage-road 137 kilometres in length has been built from Konakry to +the foot of the Futa-Jallon plateau. Its import duties are, with the +exception of one or two articles, lower than in that of its moribund +neighbour, Sierra Leone. On the other hand, there is an export duty of 7 +per cent. on rubber and gum copal. Its condition as compared with that of +Sierra Leone can best be set forth in tabular form: + + FRENCH GUINEA IN 1900 SIERRA LEONE IN 1900 + + Total trade £962,209 Total trade £921,017 + Export trade 391,191 Export trade 362,741 + Expenditure 116,699 Expenditure 156,421 + + EXPENDITURE ANALYSED EXPENDITURE ANALYSED + + Public works and railway £57,478 Public works and railway £36,084 + Other expenditure 59,221 Other expenditure 120,337 + +It remains to be said that last year (1901) the export trade[218] of +Sierra Leone fell from £362,741 in 1900 to £304,010, reckoning specie, +and from £317,980 to £265,433, excluding specie, the latter figure +being the lowest for twenty-one years. At the same time the expenditure +increased from £156,421 to £173,457, only £91,976 less than the +purchasing power of the Colony. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +FRENCH AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT IN WEST AFRICA + + +Apart from the belief, which has been dealt with in the previous chapter, +that France cannot manage her West African possessions successfully, +another idea appears to be widely entertained. It is said that French +methods of rule in West Africa are excessively harsh. I cannot find +any evidence to support this view. The records of all the Powers who +have possessions in West Africa are tarnished by acts of oppression and +injustice to the native, but I have seen no proof that in this respect +France compares unfavourably with either England, Germany, or Portugal. +On the whole, France’s record is perhaps cleaner than that of most +other Powers. North of the Bights, the portion of West Africa which has +engaged our attention hitherto, I should say the balance of evidence is +decidedly to France’s credit. That is the opinion of Sir Charles Dilke; +it was the opinion of the late Miss Kingsley, and one or two other +competent authorities. Speaking in September of last year at a meeting +of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, an African of the Africans, and a +distinguished scholar, Dr. Blyden, who has had exceptional facilities for +judging, and who, withal, holds an official position under the Sierra +Leone Government, made a striking reference to the subject. + +“France,” said Dr. Blyden, “has a peculiar work to do for Africa—a +work much needed and suited to the genius of the Celtic race.... The +contribution of the French to the civilisation of Africa evidently +springs not only from what they have in common with all mankind, but +from what is special to themselves. France is France. England is +England. France can do for Africa what England cannot do, and England +can do for Africa what France cannot do. This all thinking Africans +recognise, and all gladly co-operate with each nation according to the +measure in which their systems agree with native ideas and customs +and traditions. And there seems to be more of conformity in the +French methods than in the more rigid and unimaginative system of the +Anglo-Saxon. Whatever there is among the natives of original, racy, or +romantic interest is not perishing under French administration.” + +That is a true saying, and it goes far towards explaining the political +success of the French in West Africa. + +It is surely a circumstance which should impress us that the French have +been able to successfully apply direct taxation in their possessions +without bloodshed or disturbance, while in Sierra Leone we have failed so +disastrously. As direct taxation in West Africa is a problem fraught with +great danger, one needing the utmost care and discrimination, it seems +worth while to give more than passing notice to what has already been +done by the French and ourselves in the matter. A poll-tax was applied in +French Guinea in 1897. In 1900 it yielded £90,000, and I am informed on +good authority that the returns for 1901 will reach £140,000, and will +still further increase, as the taxable radius has not yet been reached. +It has been peacefully collected. Was this the result of overwhelming +military strength? Not at all, for although French Guinea is now about +three times the size of Sierra Leone, the military, or rather the police, +force of the French Protectorate is just a little over half what it +is in Sierra Leone. The “show of force” theory has, therefore, been +conspicuous by its absence. It has been replaced by a plentiful supply of +imagination, plus the appreciation of certain scientific facts. What, in +the first place, are the scientific facts? The tax in French Guinea is +a poll-tax, the tax in Sierra Leone is a property-tax. In the one case +there was no interference with native land tenure; in the other there +was indirect interference with native land tenure. Mr. Chamberlain[219] +himself was “disposed to think that the natives saw in the tax an attempt +to interfere with their property.” Yet Mr. Chamberlain has maintained +the tax. Farther on Mr. Chamberlain says, “that the aversion of the +natives to the payment of the tax is not insuperable may be inferred +from the fact that a similar tax is levied without difficulty from +similar races by the French in the neighbouring territory.” There Mr. +Chamberlain showed that he was not properly informed. The tax was not +a “similar” tax, and the “races” in French territory are not “similar” +but dissimilar. What ethnic similarity is there, for instance, between +the Fulani, the ruling race in a large portion of French Guinea, and the +Mendi, Timini, Konnos and Sulimas of Sierra Leone? Such confusion is +extraordinary. The peoples of French Guinea are either Mohammedan, or +for the most part inured to direct taxation for many centuries past by +Mohammedan conquest.[220] The peoples of Sierra Leone were independent +races, who have beaten back every attempt at Mohammedan conquest, and +among whom a regularly recurring impost is unknown, and contrary to +all native ideas. An almost identical argument has been made use of in +regard to the Gambia. We collect a hut-tax in the Gambia; why not in +Sierra Leone? For the same reason that what may be sound in one place is +not sound in another. You cannot lump West Africa together and evolve +identical legislation for the whole! The passion for assimilation is +fatal to good government in West Africa. The peoples of the Gambia are, +again, either Mohammedan or have undergone conquest by Mohammedans. The +case of the Gambia, moreover, is in another sense quite different from +Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is covered with dense forests. Gambia is a +small strip of territory on either bank of a river. The villages along +its shores can be raked by gun-boats. Every part is easily accessible, +and on the other side of the border the French are in occupation. What +chance is there of resisting Government demands, even though the tax were +bitterly opposed, which is not the case for the reasons already given; +although the Gambia natives are probably no more in love with it than +we are with our income-tax? Direct taxation is ever unpopular; among +primitive peoples particularly so. Finally, the natives of French Guinea +are much richer than those of Sierra Leone. So much for the scientific +facts. Is it not about time that the Colonial Office took over the +services of a trained ethnologist, or created independent native councils +in West Africa in touch with the Administration? + +[Illustration: SUSU CHIEF AND STAFF] + +Dahomey and Ashanti also offer a parallel in another way. In Dahomey +the poll-tax was applied for the first time since the Conquest (1892) +in 1899. It yielded £8200 in 1899 and £22,290 in 1900. There has been +no trouble, and as in French Guinea, the tax has not prevented a +steady increase in the export trade, notwithstanding the thousands of +able-bodied men employed on the railway. In both Dahomey and Ashanti +the people taxed are Negroes, and were formerly subject to an unusual +state-form in West Africa, viz. a despotism. They have been conquered, +and conquest implies a tacit right to levy an impost. But conquest +involves great hardships on the conquered in West Africa. Villages and +granaries are destroyed, crops burnt, acres of land laid waste; many of +those who would be sowing and reaping and gathering produce have been +killed, and general distress ensues. That is the time for the conqueror +with his higher culture, and the lofty ideals of the religion he +professes, to take the conquered by the hand and try to renovate what he +has shattered, but on better lines; to act, since he chooses to call the +Negro a child, as a parent, who, after administering castigation, makes +friends once more with the offender. Put differently, every assistance +should be given, and due latitude allowed to a tribe which has been so +unfortunate as to incur the wrath of the superior people, whose reforming +zeal is nothing if not drastic. The French gave the Dahomeyans seven +years’ breathing space before they taxed them.[221] + +[Illustration: ASHANTI FIELD FORCE AT CAPE COAST _EN ROUTE_ FOR KUMASI] + +What has been our action in Ashanti? No sooner has a desolating war been +ended, a war attended by certain incidents which do not reflect credit +upon us as a nation; a war which was caused by a series of official +blunders of the grossest kind, than we clap on direct taxation, and +in such a form that a premium is put upon future troubles. In fact, +shortly after this taxation was announced to the beaten chiefs, yet +another rising was only averted by the prompt despatch of more troops +to Kumasi.[222] Could anything less imaginative—to put it mildly—be +devised than this application of a war indemnity nearly thirty years old, +previous non-payment of which was made the excuse for the arrest and +deportation of Prempreh and the annexation of the country; and when the +revival of the claim by the authorities in 1900 is admitted to have been +one of the contributory causes of the last rising? As Sir William Geary +pointed out in 1900: + + “To take a metaphor from private property, one cannot foreclose + a mortgage, receive the rents and profits of the land, and then + beyond that ask for interest on the debt when one has helped + oneself to payment. We annexed Ashanti in 1896, and not only + have we obtained formal sovereignty, but the matter has turned + out a good bargain for us. We are carrying away the natural + gold of the country for the benefit of European shareholders. + Now we want to tax the natives.” + +Is policy of this kind calculated to bring prosperity to British West +Africa? In 1864 the _Times_ expressed itself as follows with regard to +the ruler of Ashanti: + + “Instead of harbouring culprits against his crown, instead of + disregarding the treaties between himself and us, instead of + trying to sap the foundations of his throne, we should strive + to cultivate acquaintance with him by the tranquil arts of + trade. At the back of his vast dominions, receding to the foot + of the Kong mountains, reside natives who owe and yield him + obedience. What benefits might be showered on the Protectorate + if we would set our heads together to foster and consolidate an + intercourse based on amity and on the extension of legitimate + traffic!” + +Wise words, excellent precepts. Why does not the _Times_ preach them now +for application in other parts of West Africa, where the Crown Colony +system has not yet quite succeeded in undoing the work of generations +of peaceful, commercial efforts? If there be still life left in this +miserable residue of the once powerful Ashanti nation, no doubt but +that more trouble arising out of the tax will ensue. It does not seem +as though the contingency were looked upon as altogether remote even +in official eyes, and there are some significant passages in the last +Blue Book on the subject. Happily at present we have an excellent +resident at Kumasi in the person of Captain Donald Stewart, a man of +broad sympathies, and it may be that his personal influence will prevail +against the slumbering discontent which the policy of his chiefs renders +inevitable in the country, whether it be given open expression to or +not.[223] + +[Illustration: RETURN OF ASHANTI FIELD FORCE] + +There is a passage in the evidence of one of the European witnesses +before Sir David Chalmers, in the course of the inquiry into the hut-tax +war, which explains better than anything else perhaps the difference +between the procedure of the French in Guinea and that of the British +authorities in Sierra Leone. “They are not so particular there. The +great man Alimami Dowla is supposed to collect the tax, and he brings +the money to the Governor and says, ‘This is what I have been able to +collect,’ and the Government say, ‘Thank you.’” That is precisely what +the French have done all through. They have gone to the chiefs as “big +friend”; explained to them that they required money for the railway, +roads, and so on; pointed out the advantages; asked them to contribute; +presented them with an extremely handsome commission of one-third of the +moneys collected (in other words, subsidised them) in their respective +districts, and “winked the other eye,” so to speak, when the moneys +presented have not equalled the amount due. At the same time the prestige +of the chiefs has been everywhere upheld; the native courts preserved; +vexatious European legal formulas kept out of the country; European +merchants encouraged to come in, and regularly consulted in the work of +administration; the numbers of officials restricted; economy practised +in every branch of the service, and military methods tabooed. Result, +a magnificent success politically, commercially, financially. Compare +this with what has taken place in Sierra Leone. We are taking away the +power of the chiefs instead of strengthening it.[224] The hut-tax was +originally enforced in a hasty, not to say brutal manner. Instant payment +was demanded. Chiefs were dragged from their villages, treated as felons, +handcuffed and marched off to gaol under the eyes of their unresisting +people. The Frontier Police, an ill-disciplined force[225] recruited from +the dregs of the Protectorate, committed all sorts of abuses, and, to use +the words of the Royal Commissioner, “oppressive severity” was exercised, +and this most delicate business was approached in a general spirit of +“imperious and uncompromising force.” A rising very naturally ensued +which convulsed the whole Protectorate. Sir David Chalmers’ subsequent +report, which condemned the hut-tax and recommended its withdrawal, was +not acted upon; the hut-tax has been maintained, and an expensive civil, +military and magisterial _régime_ set up, unsuited to the country and +beyond its power to maintain. Result, the expenditure has risen to about +60 per cent. of the producing power of the Colony, which is steadily +decreasing; and the up-keep of the machinery to collect the tax costs +more than the tax produces. The Colonial Office, which exhausted itself +in ingenious explanations to disconnect the rising with the hut-tax, +has recently issued an optimistic statement—on top of many others of a +similar kind—containing the report of the new Governor’s tour in the +hinterland.[226] It seems that everything is for the best in the best +of all possible worlds. The natives are delighted with everything, the +hut-tax included. The fall in the exports (the true test of prosperity +of a West African colony), which have been on the downward grade since +the hut-tax was introduced, and were lower last year than they have been +for twenty years (the year of the rebellion excepted), is accounted for +by “want of activity on the part of native producers,” and to the action +of the French. With regard to the latter, the French have for many years +levied a tax upon native caravans crossing the frontier, and the rapid +development and the judicious management of French Guinea have killed the +transit trade which used to pass _viâ_ Freetown, and is now concentrated +at Konakry. Yet, in view of French competition, the authorities deem it +politic to keep up the tax and all the incidental expenses it involves. +The caravan traffic with the far interior was doomed when the French +secured the back country; and the revival of the complaint about taxing +caravans strikes one as a little insincere for several reasons, and +among them because, although it is natural that the natives of our +Protectorate adjoining the French possession should be sorry to lose +the profits they derived from the passage of caravans through their +districts, and complain accordingly, no evidence has been adduced to +show that the natives from the remoter hinterlands beyond the frontier, +which, be it remembered, belong to France, are desirous of travelling +all the way to Freetown to dispose of their products, when there are +French factories quite as near where as good prices can be obtained for +produce. It is curious, too, to contrast these explanations with other +official assurances given out both in 1899 and 1900, that the country +would soon recover from the hut-tax war and the export trade regain its +normal dimensions. French competition is no new thing. To conclude, the +export trade of Sierra Leone twenty years ago is given at £366,000 for an +expenditure of £72,000: last year the expenditure was £173,457 including +the railway expenses, and £154,210 minus the railway expenses. The +expenditure has, therefore, excluding the railway expenses, increased by +over 100 per cent. in the face of a decline in the producing power of the +country. That is the road to financial ruin, and those concerned know it +well enough; but until the British public makes up its mind to seriously +tackle these West African questions, the few who say so will, no doubt, +continue to be looked upon as pessimists, “sentimental theorists,” or +fools, until the inevitable day of reckoning comes. + + + + +PART V + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE CONCESSIONS _RÉGIME_ IN FRENCH CONGO + + “What is important in colonial matters is that the Governments, + in their difficult and uncertain, but systematic, march, should + have increasingly before them the ideal which they proposed to + themselves, and which they never lose sight of in the darkest + nights, the star which shines in the heavens, and of which the + beams are justice and humanity.”—M. DÉCRAIS, Colonial Minister + in the Waldeck-Rousseau Cabinet. + + “We even think that on account of the difficulty, of the + impossibility, in which the natives find themselves of making + known their feelings and expressing their grievances, the + interests of those natives should be the object of special + kindness and solicitude.... + + “Can we allow these natives to be subjected to the unbridled + exploitation, to the economical servitude with which they are + threatened? The exclusive right which the Concessionnaires + will arrogate to themselves of buying from the natives + living upon their concessions at such prices as they, the + Concessionnaires, choose to impose, the natural products of + the soil, or the harvest which their labour has produced, is + but a disguised form of slavery.... In conclusion, we can + but say that this Concession _régime_ is antagonistic to the + well-being, to the material and moral progress of our natives, + and to the responsibilities we have assumed in submitting them + to our domination.”—“Memorial” of the “French West African + Company”[227] to M. Décrais. + + +By one of those extraordinary contradictions of which French history +affords so many curious examples, liberty-loving France, with her +splendid record in West Africa, having proved her capacity to +successfully manage possessions in West Africa; numbering among her +officials and merchants connected with West Africa men of the highest +moral calibre, imbued with humanitarian instincts and earnest advocates +of a sound native policy; has within the last few years sanctioned the +institution of a _régime_ of territorial monopolies in the French Congo +which has already led to deplorable occurrences, and cannot fail to cause +still greater evils if permitted to continue. To explain all the phases +of this grave departure from French traditions in West Africa would +require a great deal more space than is here available. One can only give +its origin, indicate its main lines and the events which have hitherto +taken place in connection with it, and briefly discuss how it affects +the general relationship of Western Europe with Western Africa and the +interests of British subjects in the maritime zone of the French Congo. + +Some three years and a half ago the huge profits earned by certain +rubber companies, so-called, in the Congo State; the enormous premiums +at which their shares stood on the Antwerp Stock Exchange; the wild +speculations which anything to do with Congo rubber gave rise to in +Belgium; the colossal increase in the yearly output of rubber from the +Congo State, which from a value of 260,000 francs in 1888 had risen to +15,850,000 francs in 1898,[228] provoked in France—or, at any rate, +among some influential Frenchmen, notably in Government circles—a desire +that similar results should accrue in the French Congo. “Here,” ran the +argument, “we have an immense territory as rich in forest products, +notably rubber, as the Congo State, which is doing very little, which +for years has been a drag upon the metropolis; while the Belgians—these +new-comers in Africa, these tyros at tropical colonisation—are making +fortunes every day. Why cannot we imitate them?” The feeling was +thoroughly natural. Those who entertained it, however, forgot four +things—three of which may at this stage be referred to—or, if they did +not forget them, they at all events brushed them aside in the enthusiasm +of the moment. They forgot the causes which had led to the comparative +stagnation of French Congo on the one hand and the causes which were +moulding a state of prosperity in the remaining French Colonies on the +other. They forgot the political ambitions of the astutest diplomatist in +Europe—the Sovereign of the Congo State. They forgot _how_ the inflated +premiums, colossal profits, and the exaggerated production had been and +were being brought about. If the latter point did present itself to the +minds of a minority, it was assumed that, under a French administration, +abuses such as those known to exist in the Congo State were impossible, +and that results in every sense equal to those obtained in the Congo +State could be secured in French Congo without them. Swayed by these +considerations, the French Government and French Colonial public, with +the exception of a handful of far-seeing and experienced men, sought to +carry out the new programme without delay. + +King Leopold foresaw at once the danger and the opportunity; the danger +if a sudden influx of French capital into French Congo should lead to the +construction of a railway from the French coast-line to Brazzaville on +the Upper Congo, to threaten the monopoly of traffic with the interior +enjoyed by the Matadi-Stanley Pool railway; the necessity of averting it +by placing the financial control of the French concessions in Belgian +hands, whereby the construction of such a line could be delayed _ad +infinitum_; and the double advantage of (1) fostering the movement in +France, on account of the increased railway freight the development of +the movement would bring for the existing Belgian line, to say nothing +of the increased customs duties on goods and material for the French +Upper Congo (whose only practical route was, of course, _viâ_ Congo +State territory), which would accrue to the Congo State for the same +reason; and (2) of securing for the small but influential Belgian group +of which he is the supremely able leader a preponderating position in +the possessions adjoining his own.[229] Gathering his financiers and +co-partners in that vast Trust—which is called the Independent State +of the Congo—King Leopold flung himself into the breach, and with such +good effect that French Congo was in an incredibly short space of time +partitioned on paper into some forty odd concessions of all shapes and +dimensions, with nominal French heads, but with Belgians on the board of +administration, a majority of Belgian shareholders behind, with Belgian +capital either openly or in disguised form the controlling factor, with +strings pulled in Belgium, ideas borrowed from Belgium, Belgian methods +of tropical African development and Belgian methods of rigging the home +markets writ large all over them.[230] With what consummate skill the +Sovereign of the Congo State weaved his nets, flung them forth and +landed his fish, only those who have had a glimpse of what has gone +on behind the scenes can describe. It would make a curious story, and +not an altogether savoury one, and perhaps some day it will be fully +told.[231] The clever manipulating tactics of the king were only equalled +by the infatuation, the heedlessness, the utter want of reflection which +characterised the action of the French Government of the day and the +noisiest section of the French Colonial party. A policy involving the +most far-reaching consequences was suddenly adopted with, as a French +writer of distinction has said, “une insouciance, une désinvolture +presque criminelles.” Seemingly hypnotised, France plunged headlong +into an abyss whence she is vainly seeking to emerge, and in which she +has already soiled her hands, and as De Brazza rather nobly puts it, +“compromised her dignity.” + +Meanwhile the French Congo Concessions are in being, and what has +been the outcome up to the present after more than two years of the +experiment? The promoters have done excellently well. Floating their +concessions at absurd premiums on the Antwerp market, and coming on +the crest of the rubber wave, they were able—not in all cases perhaps, +but generally—to dispose of their holdings at substantial profits. The +shareholders who imitated their example showed prescience, for, with the +exception of two companies, there has not been one single transaction +this year in the shares of forty-three of these companies which are still +quoted in the Antwerp financial and Congo organs! Their paper, in fact, +is unsaleable. Several of the companies have fizzled out. Those who +have not been allowed to prey on the legitimate barter trade existing +in the Maritime Zone are in more or less of a moribund condition, and +after squandering their shareholders’ money have accomplished absolutely +nothing. But what of the effect upon the country? Free trade in the +Maritime Zone has disappeared, and with it the revenue it supplied to the +Administration. The export trade has actually decreased. The finances are +so gravely compromised that a loan of 10,000,000 francs is spoken of, +and at one period last year there was not even available in the local +treasury sufficient cash to pay the salaries of officials. All public +works and improvements of any kind are, of course, suspended. The local +Courts are kept busy with endless litigation between Concessionnaire +Companies who accuse one another of poaching upon their respective +preserves, the boundaries of none of which have, by the way, ever been +delimited. There have been two native risings attended with considerable +loss of life and destruction of property, and chaos reigns supreme. The +Paris Colonial organs are filled with suggestions, exhortations, threats, +revilings, but with the solitary exception of one Deputy[232]—M. le +Comte d’Agoult—and a handful of courageous journalists, such as M. Jean +Hess, the African explorer, and M. Serge Basset, of _La Revue_, no one +of note in French Colonial circles has boldly tackled the subject, gone +to the root of it, or preached the only possible solution. The fact that +the affair has raised an international problem—or rather two—of great +delicacy, may have something to do with the unwillingness to come to +close quarters displayed by the leading organs of the French Press. But +it is lamentable, in every sense of the word, that France with all her +generous instincts should be able on this occasion to record but very few +protesting voices against the fatal reversal of the wise and just native +policy she has hitherto pursued in the main, and with such conspicuous +success, in her other West African possessions. + +For it is in the relation it bears towards the natives that the +concession _régime_ in French Congo offers the strongest ground for +criticism. The saying that “evil communications corrupt good manners” +was never more applicable than in this case. Once started on the road +mapped out three years ago, subsequent events became inevitable. It +would have needed a man of iron—and the warmest friends of the ex-French +Colonial Minister, who was not the initiator, but the successor to a +heritage of trouble, would not credit him with such proclivities—to have +stemmed the tide and refused, even at the risk of resigning, to allow +his country to be dragged along the path of reaction towards which the +concession _régime_ infallibly tended. Step by step the French Government +has found itself impelled to gravitate nearer to the Belgian conception. +The Concessionnaires found English and German merchants trading +peacefully with the natives on what they claimed, according to their +contracts with the French Government, to be their own property. Disputes +arose, seizures of produce took place, and it became increasingly urgent +to define the “rights” of the concessionnaires. M. Décrais hung back +a long time, but goaded by nearly all the Colonial and some of the +daily newspapers, with constant pressure brought to bear upon him from +influential quarters, he was fain at last to take the leap. He took it, +and through the Governor of French Congo issued a decree (March 20, +1901) as to which one can only say that, if a few years ago it had been +predicted that a French Minister could have framed such a document, the +prophecy would have earned the contemptuous unbelief of all Frenchmen, or +foreigners acquainted with the part played by France in Western Africa. + +The decree declared that one idea dominated[233] the entire +concession policy, viz. that the products of the soil belonged to the +concessionnaires, who alone had a right to dispose of them, the natives +not being entitled to sell them to any one but the concessionnaires. To +tone down the arbitrary nature of this promulgation, mention was made +of native reserves, where the natives would be free to do what they +liked. But this apparent modification of the absolutism of the decree +is entirely illusory for three reasons: (1) the area of the reserves +was not delimited, and in view of the enormous difficulty and expense +delimitation would involve, could not hope to be for many years to +come; (2) a decision of the local courts had ordained that, pending +delimitation of the reserves, the reserves were legally non-existent, and +that the whole country was therefore exploitable by the concessionnaires; +(3) an antecedent ministerial decree had announced that, when the +reserves were delimited, the areas reserved should not include any land +producing saleable products.[234] Whatever may have been the difficulties +with which the French Colonial Minister was beset, the issue of the +above decree cannot in equity be defended. It virtually handed over the +population of French Congo to the mercy of European speculators, of +Belgians grown fat on the misery and the degradation of the natives in +the Congo State. It left the door open to the grossest abuses, the most +cynical outrages against humanity. It let loose the tongues and pens +of all the apostles of force and coercion for Africa. It reduced the +natives to the level of servants and serfs of the greedy clique which had +fastened its talons in the country, and it strengthened the position of +the Congo State in Europe. + +Secure in the official recognition of their “rights,” the concessionnaire +companies’ next move was precisely what might have been expected in view +of the class of men controlling them. Legitimate commerce having no place +in their calculations, they at once started a “campaign” for the purpose +of forcing the French Government to coerce the natives into bringing +rubber and other forest produce to their factories, on such terms as +they, the concessionnaires, chose to pay for the labour expended by the +natives in collecting it. While their subsidised organs daily devoted +reams to prove that compulsion was essential in dealing with primitive +peoples, their agents in Africa hastened, as far as possible, to put +these principles into practice. Arms of precision were smuggled into +the country, and soon the concessionnaires were attempting on a smaller +scale to copy the exploits of their countrymen on the other side of the +Congo River. _Facilis descensus Averni._ The agitation was partly met by +the application of a hut-tax paid in kind, the produce to be handed in +by the natives to the Government authorities, who would dispose of it +to the concessionnaires at a nominal price; thus giving an appearance +of legality to the transaction, and disguising coercion in the garb of +administrative requirements. The Government having accomplished nothing +whatever in the way of bettering the country, improving communication, +or constructing public works from which the natives might be expected to +derive some benefit, the hut-tax was naturally resented; its application +in French Congo being, moreover, scientifically unsound, and only +feasible of accomplishment by a long course of preparation. Grafted upon +the action of the concessionnaires, the measure was followed by outbreaks +in various directions, especially among the warlike Fans of the Ogowe and +the Upper Sangha people. + +This new step on the part of the French Government stirred up for a time +the opponents of the concessionnaire _régime_ in France. De Brazza sent +a memorable protest to the _Temps_. Its concluding passage is well worth +quoting: + + “France has assumed a duty towards the native tribes (of French + Congo) who for twenty-seven years have lent their assistance + in the work of expansion. These people have received from us + the seal of their future liberties.... We must not sacrifice + them to the vain hope of immediate results by thoughtless + measures of coercion opposed to the generous ideas which our + flag personifies. We should be committing a great mistake to + discount that result, by enforcing at the present time taxes + upon the products of the soil, or by compelling the natives to + work in the form of forced labour or military service. It would + constitute a great blow to our dignity if such labour and such + taxes were converted into a sort of draft-to-order in favour of + the concessionnaires.... It is to recall these considerations + to men’s minds, and to avoid the moral bankruptcy to which + economic and financial disasters may lead us, that I have + emerged from the reserve I had imposed upon myself.”[235] + +Just then, too, one of the very few genuine French concerns among the +concessionnaire companies, managed by a Frenchman distinguished for his +explorations in the country, M. Fondère, wrote publicly to the Colonial +Minister, abandoning his concession: + + “Experience has convinced us,” he wrote, “that, notwithstanding + any modifications of detail which your department might + suggest, either in the administrative organisation of the Congo + Colony or in the agreement between the Government and the + Concessionnaires, the exclusive monopoly of the concessions is + a vain epithet. The right to sell his products to whomsoever + he may please cannot be denied to the native, because he has + always possessed it. Moreover, all stipulations to the contrary + notwithstanding, it would be quite illusory to think of taking + this right away from the native. That could only be done by + force of arms.” + +Shortly afterwards, M. Albert Cousin, also a well-known man in French +Colonial circles, who had previously been a warm defender of the +concessions _régime_, published a pamphlet to the effect that he had +changed his mind, and was now convinced the experiment was a mistaken +one.[236] + +These repeated blows staggered for a moment the defenders of the +Belgian conception in France. The newspaper which had the most largely +contributed to influence French Colonial opinion even went so far as to +admit that it could not but be “very much impressed by the new ideas +which are coming to light.” The ideas are not new. They are as old as the +hills. They date back from the time when man, evolving from the brute, +became a law-maker, and decided that certain fixed principles of morality +should form the basis of social order. + +That temporary hesitation offered a great opportunity for French +statesmanship, but no one came forward to enforce the lesson. And so the +powerful influences which had been at work from the first set themselves +to destroy the “impression” created. They partially succeeded, but they +could not destroy it altogether, and I rather fancy it is becoming more +pronounced and will eventually carry the day. One factor, at any rate, is +likely to assist its growth not a little—the extravagant demands of the +concessionnaires and the violent attacks on the French Government on the +part of the Belgian organs devoted to the interests of their compatriots +in French Congo. The institution of the hut-tax was merely a sop. It +staved off the clamour for a time, but in the nature of things could not +last for long. To feed the army of concessionnaires with the proceeds +of a hut-tax an army of native levies is required. That is what the +concessionnaires claim must be organised, and once more the same strings +are being pulled, the same arguments put forward, the same machinery set +in motion. The French Government must do what the Congo State has done. +It must raise 15,000 or 20,000 men, arm them with weapons of precision +and turn them loose upon the population in order to enforce a tribute +on the yield of which the concessionnaires shall not only live but run +their shares up to high premiums, present respectable dividends to their +Belgian holders, and generally make money at the expense of the natives +of the French Congo, using the French Government as a sort of decoy-duck +the while. I doubt if it will work. I fancy King Leopold and his friends +are going rather too far. But one thing at least is certain. Either the +concessionnaires, who know nothing of trade and are not concerned with +mere matter-of-fact commercial considerations, who have never looked +upon commerce as an element in their “business,” will themselves be +compelled to throw up the sponge; or they will compel in one shape or +another the French Government to give them physical means to establish +slavery in the French Congo, as it has been established in the Congo +State. To suppose the latter is almost an impossibility, notwithstanding +all that has happened, and it is perhaps not displaying too great an +optimism to hope that the concession _régime_ in French Congo may perish +from its own internal corruption. Meanwhile it remains to be seen how +that _régime_ has affected and continues to affect British interests, +and the part it plays in the international situation created by the +proceedings of the Congo State. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS AND MONOPOLY + + “As to the ground on which we contend for the rights we have in + the interior of Africa, they have really been our own guiding + principles throughout. _It is not territory, it is freedom + of trade_, and on that ground we are strong and shall do our + very utmost.”—Extract from a speech by LORD SALISBURY to a + deputation of Chambers of Commerce, 1898. + + Speaking at Manchester in 1884, Sir H. M. Stanley prophesied, + as a result of the creation of the Congo State, an export + of British cotton goods to the Congo State of £26,000,000 + annually. According to the same speaker, one firm on the Congo + River alone imported, in 1879, British goods to the value + of £185,000. After seventeen years’ existence, the _total_ + imports of British goods to the Congo State is far below that + figure—viz. £133,200 in 1901! + + The importance of British trade interests in French West + Africa may be estimated from the fact that in 1900 the French + possessions absorbed British goods to the value of £709,900, + and sent £534,727 of produce to British ports. + + +In the _cahier de charges_ or agreements between the French Government +and the Concessionnaire Companies the latter were held to respect the +“acquired rights of third parties,” and the “general rights created by +the Berlin Act.” Who were the “third parties”? What were their “acquired +rights?” What were the “general rights created by the Berlin Act”? + +When in the early part of the nineteenth century the European nations +put a stop to the export slave trade, Great Britain, having led the way +in securing this reform, entered into treaties with most of the chiefs +and head-men along the West Coast, giving some of them subsidies and, by +means of consular and naval visitations, encouraging them to give their +attention to the gathering of their forest products for sale to Europeans +in exchange for the merchandise of Europe. In this way the trade in +palm-oil was stimulated in the Niger Delta and Windward Coast; whilst in +Gaboon it took the shape of barwood, ebony and ivory, and in the River +Congo palm-oil and ivory. At that time there was no European Government +established on the African coast between the Gold Coast and Ambriz. The +Europeans who settled along the coast traded from their vessels. After +the introduction of steam, the European traders (chiefly British) traded +in hulks in the Niger Delta, and built houses and stores at various +points along the whole coast-line down to Ambriz. Small sailing vessels +plied between these trading places and the terminus of the ocean steamers +(then Fernando Po, or Cameroons), and sailing vessels from Europe sailed +regularly to and fro, bringing their goods and taking home their cargoes +of vegetable and animal products. Soon after the establishment of steam +the French Government made a treaty with the chiefs of the Gaboon River, +by which ground was ceded for a coaling station for the French men-of-war +then plying on the African coast to put down the foreign slave trade. +Shortly afterwards, an American citizen established in Fernan Vaz +discovered a vine, of which the sap, when exposed to the atmosphere, was +found to yield india rubber, and in course of time this new industry was +fairly started and gradually spread over the adjoining territory. It was +a slow process, but in a few years the gathering of rubber became general +in that part of the coast, and in Gaboon the French naval officers saw +that there was a trade to be taxed, and forthwith a Custom House was +built and duties placed on imports. + +When British merchants first established themselves in Gaboon the +political authority of the French Government was confined to the Gaboon +River estuary, and the up-river trade was carried on at our merchants’ +personal risk. In order to induce the natives to collect rubber, European +traders had perforce to let the natives have goods on credit, as those +natives near the coast had to go far into the interior to buy from other +natives; who, in their turn, had to be given credit wherewith to buy from +natives still farther inland, and induce them to seek the vines and make +the rubber. In this way the credit system, as it exists to-day, was +created. + +In the pursuit of this rubber trade, fostered by British merchants, +the natives of Gaboon, crossing their country to the South, struck the +Ogowe River, which gave them easy access to a wide field from which to +collect produce. In course of time the European traders followed the +natives across country, and meeting the river,[237] lost no time in +tracing its course to the sea and at once establishing sea communication +between Gaboon and the Ogowe. Their example was imitated by the French +Government, and in due course possession was taken by France of the Ogowe +and Fernan Vaz; but when at Berlin the Governments of Europe settled +who were to become the owners of the Congo and the adjoining maritime +territories, France had, in point of fact, no political influence south +of Fernan Vaz. This expansion of Gaboon was initiated by British and +German enterprise, French white traders coming in after the pioneer +work was accomplished. When 2° 30´ of South latitude was fixed as the +northern boundary of the free-trade zone, it was expected that that line +would include within it the trade of Sette Camma, the trade of which +was British and German entirely. The Chambers of Commerce of Liverpool +and Manchester set forth these facts at the time: before the treaty was +made, and when urging the principle of free trade within the zone fixed +by treaty, no idea was in the mind either of the traders, the Chambers +of Commerce, or the representatives of the various Governments concerned +in the making of the Berlin Treaty, other than that the freedom of +trade therein referred to applied to the only known trade in existence, +viz. the collection and sale by the natives of the vegetable and other +products of their country in exchange for European merchandise. Any +legislation, therefore, of which the effect is to alienate the rights of +the natives to collect the produce of their country, and to dispose of +those products freely to whomsoever they wish, is a direct violation of +the principles of equitable treatment towards the natives which animated +the Conference and the rights of the signatory Powers of that Conference. + +It is then perfectly clear (1) that the “third parties” mentioned in +the _cahier de charges_ were the European merchants who had created the +existing trade of the French Congo, the taxes upon which supplied the +local administration with funds for purposes of revenue; (2) that the +“acquired rights” of those merchants consisted in the right to continue +their trade, the freedom of which was guaranteed under the Berlin Act; +(3) that the “general rights created by the Berlin Act” were, on the one +part, the rights of the natives (“whose moral and material well-being” +the contracting Powers to the Berlin Act bound themselves to “care for”) +to their land and the produce thereof; and, on the other part, the +rights of each of the signatory Powers to ensure that the principles of +the Berlin Act were not violated by any one of the parties to that Act. +The way in which the rights of the natives are “cared for” under the +concessions _régime_ was dealt with in the last chapter. It remains to be +said to what usage the “acquired rights” of the merchants trading in the +country have been subjected. + +Two of the most important firms trading in the French Congo at the time +of the issue of the Decree of Concessions (March 1899) were British.[238] +They were among the very first to open up the country to trade, their +representatives had always been law-abiding citizens under the French +flag; they had ever worked harmoniously with the French officers, who +from time to time had sought their assistance in developing this or +that district, had asked them to send their native traders into such and +such a region, and generally encouraged them in every way to promote +and extend the area of their trading operations. In the course of over +a quarter of a century’s trade in the country the British firms had +contributed large sums to the local revenue, and had cheerfully paid +the enormous differential customs tariffs levied upon British goods, +the taxes, the licences, the duties of all sorts affecting the various +branches of their businesses prescribed by the law of the land. Their +standing was, of course, well known to the French Government, and in a +secret letter of instructions[239] communicated to the concessionnaires +by the French Colonial Minister, the former were required to pledge +themselves “to leave entire latitude for two years to the existing +foreign firms for all the commercial undertakings which they may perform +in the territory conceded” to them; and further, that they should +propose to the said foreign firms at the end of the two years, and in +the event of difficulties arising with the latter, to buy up their +establishments. The pledge was duly given. But it was not carried out. +The French Government, finding itself incapable of compelling obedience, +allowed the matter to slide, and was brought by successive stages in +the development of affairs to the issue of the Decree of March 26, 1901 +(mentioned in the previous chapter), which declared, as has already been +stated, that the products of the soil—that is to say, the only medium +of trade in the country—belonged exclusively to the concessionnaires, +and that the natives were not free to dispose of them to any one but +the concessionnaires. The “acquired rights of third parties,” and the +rights of the natives, had gone by the board; the rights of England as a +signatory Power of the Berlin Act had been infringed; and the Act itself +had been violated in one of its most essential articles, viz. Article V., +which says that “no Power which exercises, or shall exercise, sovereign +rights in the above-mentioned regions shall be allowed to grant therein +a monopoly or favour of any kind in matters of trade.” + +To describe the series of outrages[240] perpetrated by the agents of the +Belgian groups, masquerading as French patriots, upon our merchants which +took place during the two years that the Concessionnaire Companies had +bound themselves to allow “entire latitude” to the firms trading in the +country; the protests of our merchants, who were never informed by the +French authorities that their _locus standi_ had become modified; who +continued on the one hand to pay customs dues on their imports, licences +for the factories and native traders, while forcibly prevented, under the +eyes of the same authorities and with their tacit assent, from disposing +of their goods to natives against produce; the expostulations of Sir +Edmund Monson, our Ambassador in Paris; the promises of M. Décrais which +were never fulfilled; the actions at law brought by our merchants at +great expense in the Congo to test the legality of the concessionnaires’ +proceedings; the deputation of nine Chambers of Commerce to Lord +Lansdowne; the upholding of the concessionnaires’ claim by the local +courts, whose judgments as _Le Temps_ (which has pleaded, together with +one or two other French papers,[241] for justice to our merchants) has +pointed out, was based not upon law, but upon the Decree of March 1901, +which the judges could not go beyond; the persecution of our merchants +by the concessionnaires for purchasing produce from their concessions on +the strength of the said judgment; the infliction of heavy fines upon +our merchants; the entire stoppage of their trade; the seizure of their +produce at African ports and even at a French port;[242] the evacuation +of our merchants which is now proceeding; the renewed representations +of British Chambers to the Foreign Office; above all, the unaccountable +lethargy of the British Government,[243] and, with one or two honourable +exceptions,[244] the indifference of the British Press—to adequately +describe these things would require a couple of chapters at least. + +The position to-day is this, that from the greater part of the Ogowe +Basin, which alone is unaffected by the Berlin and Brussels Acts, being +outside the Conventional Basin of the Congo, our merchants have been +expelled, without a penny compensation. In the Conventional Basin of +the Congo, where—as in the Ogowe—our merchants have been established +for upwards of twenty years; where their rights to trade freely with +the natives are solemnly guaranteed by International Treaties, British +subjects are being expelled, not only without compensation but with +ignominy and insult, after suffering heavy losses; the trade which they +brought into being ruined, the trading stations they have built deserted, +themselves arbitrarily removed from regions where they have laboured for +so long.[245] + +It is a shameful, a discreditable episode. But if it be true that +out of evil good may come, there is still some hope that out of the +treatment—treatment which to those who know all the details is beyond +the reach of Parliamentary language to characterise—meted out to British +merchants in the French Congo may come the liberation of the peoples of +the Congo State from the Belgian yoke, and an international understanding +binding upon the Powers whereby a rational, common-sense, and just +native policy may be mutually agreed upon, and the vast region of the +Congo Basin thrown open to the legitimate commerce of all nations. The +movement against monopoly based upon force in West Africa; against the +evil which King Leopold has sown; against the follies as well as the +horrors which that evil has engendered, is growing apace. The expulsion +of British subjects from French Congo may yet serve as the lever whereby +the edifice of fraud and greed and cruelty reared by Africa’s self-styled +“regenerator” may be overthrown. And the reason is this. + +The British Government has for years been pressed to inquire into +the doings of the Congo States upon humanitarian grounds. The German +Government, the Governments of the United States and of France have +been similarly approached. None of them have taken definite steps in +the direction desired. The chief reasons in the case of England, France +and Germany are probably three. First, international rivalries in the +partition of Africa and the political ambitions which those rivalries +have begotten. By a combination of circumstances of which King Leopold +took full advantage, the Sovereign of the Congo State has been able +to intrigue first with France against England (1892-94), with England +against France (1894), with France against England (1897-99). When +the expedition of Major Marchand—who would never have reached Fashoda +but for the reinforcements in men, ammunition and stores despatched to +him over the Congo Railway, through Congo State territory—was seen to +be a political failure, King Leopold turned fawning upon England, and +attempted to gain our consent to his appropriation of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. +With his usual astuteness he endeavoured to strengthen his diplomacy +at the Court of St. James by securing, meanwhile, a _fait accompli_ in +Africa. In this he failed, mainly through journalistic enterprise in +exposing his carefully laid plans (that also, by the way, would make an +interesting little story). After the Fashoda episode King Leopold was +again pro-British for a short time, until he became once more France’s +good friend, and plunged the French Congo into chaos. In the interval +of acting honest broker to England and France alternately, he has tried +to play Germany off against England in sundry matters, such as the +Trans-African railway scheme. So much for international rivalries on the +Western Central African field, in which the Sovereign of the Congo State +has held most of the trumps. To these must, of course, be added other +rivalries on a wider field amongst the Powers in question, which tended +still farther to paralyse all useful, disinterested and combined action +for humanitarian ends in the Congo. The second reason is dynastic. King +Leopold is connected with the Royal Families of England and Germany. +Only those who are in Court secrets know the exact extent to which +the Sovereign of the Congo State has profited by that, to him, happy +circumstance. It has, undeniably, been considerable. The third reason is +the self-imposed halo of sanctity with which the public press has been +gulled for years by the happy knack of attributing abuses of a more than +usually flagrant character to individual wrongdoing of agents—a plea used +again and again with never-failing results. To these reasons—there are +others, no doubt, and two of them are briefly touched upon in the next +chapter—are mainly due the failure of the Powers to fulfil their duties +under the Berlin Act _upon humanitarian grounds_. + +But now an altogether different aspect of the Congo problem has sprung +up. So far the Stokes affair[246] has alone provided what might be termed +a _material_ cause of complaint against the Congo State. The effect +of this outrage was modified by renewed international rivalries which +occurred shortly afterwards, and even the subsequent appointment of Major +Lothaire as Managing Director in Africa for one of the “Companies” in +which the Congo State holds 50 per cent. of the shares, and of which King +Leopold appoints the agents, failed to exercise the influence which, +but for the international rivalries aforesaid, it would otherwise have +wielded. But the horizon has cleared of late. The scramble for Africa is +over. The Powers are beginning to think seriously of the immense problems +which beset them in Tropical Western Africa. And it is precisely at this +turning-point, as it were, in European policy in Western Africa that the +material side of the question has risen. England and Germany have both +in their respective ways been sharply confronted with the Nemesis of +their past indifference to the repeated violation of the Berlin Act by +the Congo State. Germany has seen her ivory trade in German East Africa +disappear, her protected natives driven out of Congo State territory, +forbidden to purchase ivory or produce of any kind from the natives on +the Congo side of the German Congo State frontier, because by the laws +of the Congo State every product of the forest, whether vegetable or +animal—when either is of intrinsic value—belongs not to the native owner +of that forest, whose ownership the State does not recognise, but to the +State itself. England has seen her merchants expelled from the French +Congo by an extension of the system of territorial monopolies involving +absolute rights over the products of the soil, inaugurated by the Congo +State in 1892. The Belgian conception has thrived upon the Powers’ _non +possumus_. The African cancer has attacked both banks of the Congo, and +wherever spreads the fell disease, liberty, legitimate commerce, free +trade, alike for white man and black, disappear. + +The Belgian conception of development in Tropical Western Africa is +observed a little late in the day to have another side to it. It is not +now merely an institution for earning dividends and reducing the African +population. It stands forth as a menace to all legitimate European +interests in West Africa. What England and Germany could not agree to +do when humanitarian considerations alone were in question, they can no +longer ignore with safety to their interests in Africa. The tentacles of +the Belgian octopus are flung wider and wider, French Congo, Fernando Po, +the Muni Territory, Dahomey, the Ivory Coast and South West Abyssinia +are all alike either threatened, or victims to the insidious embrace +which breeds death and devastation to the natives of Africa.[247] The +treatment of our merchants in French Congo has given a fresh impetus, and +an added motive, to the demand of public opinion that the Congo State +shall be called to the bar of international inquiry; for if the expulsion +of British subjects from a region solemnly declared internationally free +commercial land, necessitates specific action on the part of the British +Government in the form of a request for arbitration, which is the line I +have reason to believe our Government has taken, there remains the larger +question behind—the question of the violation of the Berlin Act by the +Congo State, originator of the new African slavery. The Upas-tree has +thrown up a new sucker, and although the fresh growth may be removed, +no permanent good will ensue unless the tree itself be rooted up and +destroyed. The whole scheme, the _raison d’être_, the entire future of +European action in Tropical Western Africa is involved in this question. +If the Governments are still slow in realising it, the people are not. + +The well-informed press of England and of Germany is unanimous in +calling upon the British and German Governments to act in combination +for the suppression of the monopolistic _régime_ in West Africa, and +its fountain-head the Congo State. The German Colonial Society, with +its 32,000 members, has held two great meetings for this purpose, and +has passed resolutions of the most emphatic kind, and at the same +time is using its considerable influence to ensure that in the two +Cameroons concessions engineered at the same time as the French Congo +concessions and by the same means, trade shall be unrestricted and the +native free to dispose of his products, to whomsoever he will.[248] +In that respect, Germany is trying her best to undo an initial error, +committed under false advice, and the full consequences of which are +now understood. In England, we are witnessing a happy alliance of +genuine philanthropy, of scientific knowledge, and of commerce united +in a common aim, testifying to the fact that there never has been a +question of African politics where morality and practicability are so +closely entwined,[249] and if the British Press as a whole still lags +behind, it is only fair to remember that England has but just emerged +from a great war which has absorbed for three years the energies of +the country. Indeed, when all the circumstances are considered, we +should perhaps be thankful for the amount of attention which the Press +has given to the subject, while maintaining the view that, in the +specific matter of the treatment of our merchants in French Congo, it +has displayed singular lack of foresight. In the United States signs +are not wanting that the special responsibility incurred by America, +which first recognised the International _status_ of the International +African Association—subsequently the Congo State—is beginning, now +that the policy of the State is better known, to weigh with thoughtful +Americans, who for many reasons ought not to disinterest themselves +from West African affairs; and President Roosevelt has been appealed +to, to co-operate with other of the signatory Powers of the Berlin Act +to bring about a new Conference. It is to be hoped that the appeal will +be heard. America’s position is such that she can act in this matter +without a suspicion of selfish motive, and the importance of her moral +support at this juncture cannot be over-estimated. In France, it may +safely be asserted that the _élite_ of the French official element in +West Africa is entirely opposed to the monopolistic conception,[250] +that the most powerful French merchant firms are profoundly and +anxiously antagonistic, and that with few exceptions the best-informed +French writers on West African affairs and French local explorers (Mr. +Chevalier, for instance) are dead against it. How, then, can we account +for what has occurred? Very easily, I think. A grave mistake has been +committed. It is recognised, not always publicly, on nearly all sides +in France. But the French Government hesitates to admit it, and the +incident of the British merchants intensifies the difficulty. Every +French Government dreads the parrot-cry of being too friendly to the +English, and no one knows better than Lord Lansdowne how that permanent +feature in French politics hampers French statesmen. The influence behind +the concessionnaires is still strong. They have still the majority of +the French Colonial Press on their side—for reasons which need not be +too closely inquired into; and King Leopold’s personal influence in +Government circles (which he takes every opportunity of strengthening, +witness, for instance, the despatch of a special envoy of welcome to +President Loubet on his return from Russia), is still conspicuous, +as every diplomatist in Europe knows. The truth is that the French +Government is marking time. The next few months will be crucial ones in +the history of the concession experiment. The concessionnaires will make +a supreme effort to justify their existence, and to force the Government +to raise a large standing army in the Congo to coerce the natives into +collecting rubber. If they fail, the Government may begin to gently +remind them that they have fulfilled none of the terms of the _cahiers de +charge_, and if England and Germany can succeed in coming to a definite +understanding between themselves and the United States, France may be +only too glad to fall back upon a joint Conference as the best way out +of the _impasse_ into which her so-called friends, the Belgians, have +plunged her. + +It is possible that this forecast errs on the side of optimism, and, in +any case, it is but too obvious that the monopolists are very strong +and have great wealth and influence at their back. Meanwhile all those +to whom the continuation and growth of the Belgian conception in Africa +appears as a virulent disease spreading wherever it can obtain a +foothold, and to be fought without pause or rest, can best be fulfilling +what they conceive to be their duty, by throwing more and more light upon +the proceedings of the Congo State. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE + + “At the present time the body called the International + Association—however startling it may appear to you—is + invulnerable and unassailable. All the armies in the world + could not reach it. It is impalpable, intangible as air. I call + it Benevolence, Charity, Philanthropy—the Spirit of Peace, + good-will to all men—Progress. It is here amongst you to-night + ... It eludes your armies, it mocks your best efforts; at a + whisper it has disappeared and you cannot recall it.... The + founders of the International Association have been called + dreamers.... Men understand, or think they do, why a George + Peabody should invest hundreds of thousands in model lodgings, + or a Josiah Mason in an Institute.... They can understand also + why an entire nation spent £20,000,000 to free the slaves in + the West Indies.... Though they understand the satisfaction + of a sentiment when applied to England, they are slow to + understand that it may be a sentiment that induced King Leopold + II. to father the International Association. He is a dreamer + like his _confrères_ in the work, because the sentiment is + applied to the neglected millions of the Dark Continent. They + cannot appreciate rightly, _because there are no dividends + attaching to it_, this restless, ardent, vivifying, and + expansive sentiment which seeks to extend civilising influences + among the dark races, and to brighten up with the glow of + civilisation the dark places of sad-browed Africa.”—Sir H. M. + STANLEY at the London Chamber of Commerce, September 19, 1884. + + “Tous les pouvoirs émanent du Souverain qui les exerce par + lui-même ou par ses délégués. Il consulte s’il le juge bon le + Conseil Supérieur siégeant à Bruxelles. Il prend en personne + les mesures les plus importantes.... Le Souverain manifeste sa + volonté sous la forme de décrets contresignés par le Secrétaire + d’Etat....”—M. A. J. WAUTERS, “L’Etat Indépendant du Congo,” + chap. xxxii., “Pouvoir législatif,” p. 433. + + +Legends die hard. The legend which attributes to King Leopold of Belgium +and the Congo State a philanthropic motive in African affairs is still +alive among us, although not quite to the extent that it used to be. It +would have died long ago but for two causes, the misstatements indulged +in by two or three well-known Englishmen and the apparent failure of the +British Press, as a whole, to comprehend the _fons et origo mali_ which +is raising up such terrible future complications for Europe in Central +Africa. Upon occasion one is tempted to think—and the supposition +is strengthened by such articles as that which the _Times_ recently +devoted to the Congo annexation debate in the Belgian Chamber—that the +curious omission to come to close quarters with the subject proceeds +not so much from inability to see things as they really are, as from an +unwillingness to criticise the Sovereign of the Congo State himself. +Personalities are held to be bad form, especially where Royalty is +concerned. If that be, indeed, the real explanation of the whitewashing +of the Congo State which finds favour in many quarters, there is nothing +to prevent the process from going on indefinitely. I maintain that it +is utterly impossible to arrive at the truth, if the king’s personal +responsibility in the maladministration of the Congo State is to be +perpetually shelved. Why should it be? The administrative _régime_ of the +State, as M. Cattier has truly said, is an “absolute despotism.” No one +who is acquainted with that _régime_ believes for a moment that a Van +Eetvelde, a Droogmans, a Liebrechts or a Cuvelier exist for any purpose +than that of carrying out the king’s instructions and superintending +the routine work which those instructions entail. King Leopold is sole +master, and must bear the responsibility for the _sequelæ_ of measures +which he himself has initiated and, through his agents, caused to be +applied. The king has openly and repeatedly claimed for himself this +position before the world. He has posed, and continues to pose, as the +regenerator of the African. He has put it on record, in a letter to +his agents, that “his only programme is the work of moral and material +regeneration.” He has written of the “results achieved” by the Congo +State as being due “to the concentration of all my efforts in one field +of action.” He has, throughout, loudly insisted upon the purity and +unselfishness of his intentions. Adverse comment has been dismissed by +him with a loftiness of tone, a simulated consciousness of high purpose, +a dignified picturesqueness of expression from which it is impossible +to withhold a meed of admiration, as in the case of a play repugnant to +one’s sentiments but yet so excellently rendered that objection to the +theme cannot blind one to the art of the performers. “My aim throughout +life has been to find the truth and make the truth known to others. I +have often been misunderstood and misrepresented, but we must not be +discouraged; let us ever go forward in the path of duty, striving to let +the light shine forth.” It cannot be a subject of complaint on the part +of his Majesty or his Majesty’s friends if, under these circumstances, we +take the Sovereign of the Congo State at his word; if we recognise that +in the management of the affairs of the Congo State he has adopted to the +uttermost the proud assertion of Louis XIV.: “_L’Etat: c’est moi_”; if, +making due note that his declared policy has been the regeneration of the +African Negro—a policy in the execution of which he shuns not publicity +but only desires light and truth—we judge his acts and the consequences +of those acts from the standpoint he himself has laid down. + +It is essential for our purpose to give an historical retrospect of the +events which preceded the General Act of Berlin in 1885. + +On September 12, 1876, King Leopold held a conference in Brussels to +consider the best means which could be devised in order to open up +Central Africa to European civilisation. The “barbarism” of Africa +had already begun to perturb his Majesty, who was careful to place on +record the absolute disinterestedness of his intentions. Addressing the +assembled scientists and explorers,[251] King Leopold spoke thus: “Is it +necessary for me to say that in inviting you to Brussels I have not been +guided by egotism? No, gentlemen, if Belgium is small, Belgium is happy +and content with her lot, ... but I should be pleased to think that this +civilising movement had been inaugurated from Brussels.” The outcome of +this conference was an “International Association for the exploration and +civilisation of Central Africa.” Its professed objects were exploration, +together with the establishment of sundry centres where explorers of all +nationalities might refit. Committees for the collection of funds were +to be established in all the countries represented,[252] and an Executive +Committee appointed in Brussels to manage the funds. King Leopold, who +from the commencement was pursuing his own ends—as he clearly showed +later—saw to it that the Belgian Committee should be in the forefront of +the subscribers, and to such good purpose that ere long the Association +came to be looked upon as a Belgian Organisation. + +The association first of all directed its efforts towards the East +Coast of Africa; but when Stanley arrived home in January 1878, after +having discovered the course of the Congo, the necessity of a change of +policy became obvious. The king speedily secured Stanley’s services, +a “Committee of Studies” for the Upper Congo was formed, and Colonel +Strauch was despatched to the Congo as a representative of both the +association and the committee of studies. Meanwhile King Leopold’s +ambitions were slowly maturing, and the theory of an African State in +which he would be the representative head was already shaping itself +in his Majesty’s mind. In a letter which he wrote to Stanley, Colonel +Strauch suggested the formation “of an independent confederacy of free +negroes, the king, to whom the conception and the creation of such a +confederacy would be due, to be president thereof.” “Our enterprise,” +continued Colonel Strauch, “does not tend to the creation of a Belgian +Colony, but to the establishment of a powerful _negro kingdom_.” This +idea appears to have been sedulously fostered by Colonel Strauch among +the European traders established in the Lower Congo, with results which +afterwards became apparent. Whether it was put forward as a blind or +not it is difficult to say. Anyhow, Stanley knocked it on the head. +About this time France and Portugal began to evince uneasiness at the +somewhat exclusive complexion which the association and the committee +were beginning to assume, and there ensued a long intrigue in which +the principal actors were Stanley and De Brazza. De Brazza forestalled +Stanley on the right bank of the Congo, and Stanley checkmated De +Brazza on the left bank above Stanley Pool. Portugal, whose explorers +discovered the Congo’s mouth in 1484,[253] whose treaties with the +natives undoubtedly possessed greater validity than those concluded by +the association’s agents, and who still retained commercial interests +in the region, now became thoroughly alarmed, and endeavoured, with the +assistance of Great Britain, to make good her claims. On February 26, +1884, a Convention was signed between Great Britain and Portugal, the +practical effect of which would have been to put a stop to the expansion +of the Association in the interior. The Convention was attacked at home +and abroad; abroad, from various motives, including the fear that Great +Britain’s political influence on the Congo would become paramount; at +home, because, by the terms of the Convention, the right of Portugal to +impose a moderate import tariff was recognised, and it was feared that +this recognition might lead later on to the application of differential +tariffs to which Portugal was wedded, and because the British Chambers +of Commerce and the British Press were deluded as to the real nature of +the International Association, which represented itself as devoted to +free-trade principles. The Convention was opposed by European merchants +in the Congo for the same reasons, backed by the belief that the aims +of the Association tended towards the maintenance and strengthening of +native rule, which the community of mercantile West African interests +well knows to be the best guarantee of the development of legitimate +trade. + +The Convention was by mutual consent abandoned. Its abandonment was +preceded by a remarkable event, viz. the recognition by the United +States of the Association[254] as a friendly State. The king, aided by +Stanley, who was still at that time, I believe, an American subject, had +played his cards cleverly with General Henry S. Sandford (subsequently +one of the two American representatives at the Berlin Conference), and +the declaration sent by the former to the United States Government, in +which he stated that “the International Association of the Congo hereby +declares that by treaties with the legitimate sovereigns in the basins of +the Congo and of the Niadi-Kwilu, and in adjacent territories upon the +Atlantic, there has been ceded to it territory for the use and benefit of +Free States established and being established,” appears to have exercised +a considerable influence. The “Free States” appealed to American +sentiment.[255] Needless to say, the one thing that has not been created +in any shape or form in the Congo is freedom either for native States, +or native institutions, or European trade,[256] and how General Sandford +could have been deceived to the extent of penning the above despatch, +in view of the emphatic manner in which Stanley had rejected Colonel +Strauch’s suggestion in 1878 (which presumably General Sandford had in +his mind, although six years had passed since it was made), it is hard to +understand. The American recognition of the new status of the association +was followed by Bismarck’s suggestion of a conference of the Powers, in +order to set at rest the rivalries which had arisen in the Congo Basin. +The conference first met in November 1884, and subsequently in February +1885. Largely influenced by the decision of the United States, the Powers +authorised their representatives to follow the lead of the American +Government, and on August 1, 1885, King Leopold had the inexpressible +satisfaction of notifying the Powers that the association would be +henceforth known as the Congo Free State, and himself as the Sovereign +of that State. In this manner was the evolution of King Leopold from a +pure philanthropist to the ruler of a million square miles of territory +in Central Africa accomplished. The king, argue his admirers, had come +to see that patriotism was a duty greater even than philanthropy. The +practical had outweighed the ideal. Very well; but as we study the next +stage in this royal metamorphosis, let those who follow us remember +the memorable words spoken in 1876 before the assembled scientists and +explorers in Brussels: “Is it necessary for me to say that, in inviting +you to Brussels, I have not been guided by egotism? No, gentlemen; if +Belgium is small, Belgium is happy and content with her lot.” + +The Berlin Conference laid it down that no import dues should be +established in the mouth of the Congo for twenty years. But in 1890 King +Leopold, alleging the heavy expenses to which he had been put by the +campaign against the Arabs in the Upper Congo, applied for permission to +levy import duties. It was the first disillusionment; and the British +Chambers of Commerce began to wonder whether their opposition to the +Anglo-Portuguese Convention had not been mistaken. The king’s request was +granted (the Powers merely reserving to themselves the right to revert to +the original arrangement in fifteen years), but not without the bitter +opposition of the Dutch, who had very important commercial interests +in the Congo, backed by the British Chambers of Commerce and all the +traders in the Congo, irrespective of nationality. A representative +gathering was held in London on November 4, 1900, presided over by Sir +Albert Rollit, to protest against the imposition of import duties and to +denounce the hypocrisy which attributed to philanthropic motives the +desire on the part of the Congo State so to impose them. The speakers at +the meeting drew attention to the strange anomaly revealed by the sight +of a monarch who, having spent certain sums with alleged (and loudly +advertised) philanthropic motives, now came forward to claim repayment +of those sums, just like an ordinary business man, but a business man +who, having acquired a vast estate under false pretences, demanded from +the victims the wherewithal to pay for its management! They quoted with +telling effect Stanley’s speech at Manchester on October 21, 1884, given +on behalf of the association and against the Anglo-Portuguese Convention, +in which he declared that “the £500,000 which it (the association) has +given away to the Congo, it gave freely; the thousands of pounds which +it may give annually it gives without any hope of return, further _than +a sentimental satisfaction_.” They were able to show that—even then—King +Leopold, notwithstanding his formal assurances to the commercial world +that the Congo State would never directly or indirectly itself trade +within its dominions, was buying, or rather stealing, ivory from the +natives in the Upper Congo and retaining the proceeds of the sale on the +European market. They proved that, profiting by the silence of the Berlin +Treaty on the subject of export duties, the Congo State had already +imposed taxes amounting to 17½ per cent. on ivory, 13 per cent. on rubber +and 5 per cent. on palm-kernels, palm-oil, and ground-nuts, the total +taxation amounting to no less than 33 per cent. of the value of the whole +of the trade. Finally, they had no difficulty in demonstrating that, with +all his professed wish to stamp out the slave-raiding carried on by the +half-caste Arabs in the Upper Congo,[257] his Majesty was himself tacitly +encouraging the slave trade by receiving tribute from conquered chiefs in +the shape of slaves, who were promptly enrolled as soldiers in the State +army.[258] The sincerity of King Leopold’s solicitude for the natives of +Africa was in other respects appearing in its true colours, _vide_ the +letter of Colonel Williams, a British officer in King Leopold’s employ, +who, in disgust at the outrages which were taking place on the Congo, +denounced them to the king. This letter, from which I give the following +extracts, was read at the conference by Mr. Philipps, representing the +Manchester Chamber of Commerce. It ran thus: + + “Your Majesty’s Government has been and is now guilty of + waging unjust and cruel wars against natives, with the hope of + securing slaves and women to minister to the behests of the + officers of your Government. In such slave-hunting raids one + village is armed by the State against the other, and the force + thus secured is incorporated with the regular troops. I have no + adequate terms with which to depict to your Majesty the brutal + acts of your soldiers upon such raids as these. The soldiers + who open the combat are usually the bloodthirsty cannibalistic + Bangalas, who give no quarter to the aged grandmother or the + nursing child at the breast of its mother. There are instances + in which they have brought the heads of their victims to their + white officers on the expeditionary steamers and afterwards + eaten the bodies of the slain children.”[259] + +The history of King Leopold’s action in Central Africa between 1876 and +1890 may therefore be summed up as follows. First stage: Inauguration +of a “movement” for the “exploration and civilisation of Africa” from +motives (so stated) of pure philanthropy, devoid of any shade of personal +egotism or ambition on the part of Belgium. The expenditure of a certain +sum of money for this (alleged) intent. The acquisition of a certificate +of high moral purpose. Second stage: The “movement” takes the form of a +State, possibly an “independent confederacy of free negroes,” with the +king as president. This idea is abandoned, and for it is substituted the +theory of an “Independent State” administered directly by the king and +his representatives. The theory takes root, and by the Act of Berlin is +converted into a _fait accompli_. According to this Act, the king becomes +sovereign of the “Congo Independent State,” and undertakes that the State +shall grant no monopoly or privilege in matters of trade, shall watch +over the welfare of the natives and shall not impose any import duties. +Formal assurances are also given to the commercial world that the State +will not trade on its own account, directly or indirectly. Third stage: +The State promptly starts trading for ivory in the Upper Congo, and +wages war against the natives by means of a cannibal army, raised from +slaves captured in war and paid by the vanquished as tribute. Its agents +begin to be accused of shocking treatment of natives. Fourth stage: The +king asks for permission to impose import duties, pleading the expenses +which he is incurring in putting down slave-raiding, and the Brussels +Conference grants the request. + +It may, I think, be fairly argued that the “sentimental satisfaction” +which in 1884, according to Sir H. M. Stanley, was all that the king +required as a reward for his out-of-pocket expenses, had assumed +a singularly practical shape in 1890. From a philanthropist to an +ivory-trader is a long step. + +No sooner had the Sovereign of the Congo State obtained the acquiescence +of the Powers in the imposition of import duties, which, it is almost +unnecessary to say, enormously strengthened the international position +of the State, than the plans which his Majesty had conceived for the +development of what was rapidly becoming tantamount to a Belgian +possession, manifested themselves. What were those plans and what were +their _leit motif_? So far as the plans are concerned, I will come to +them later. But their _leit motif_ may be briefly stated now. To those +who have studied the personality of King Leopold, acceptance of the +philanthropic claim put forward by that monarch is simply impossible at +any stage of his African undertaking. In any case, the philanthropic +claim weakened with every year that passed after 1876. The revelations at +the London meeting of November 4, 1890, definitely exploded it. Whoever +attributed philanthropy to the Sovereign of the Congo State after that +meeting was foolishly credulous, although he might still be honest. +Whoever, being acquainted with the edicts of 1891 and 1892, from the time +those edicts were thoroughly known in Europe, that is to say, towards +the middle of 1892, has endorsed the philanthropic claim must have been +guilty of gross deceit. I would go even farther than this, and say that +such persons have been guilty of conniving and inducing the public to +connive at a crime which has been steadily growing ever since, in the +extent and heinousness of its criminality; a crime for which Europe will +yet pay dearly. + +King Leopold found himself in 1885 possessed of an enormous territory, in +the acquirement of which he had expended a certain sum as an investment. +Not being a philanthropist; but, on the contrary, a very shrewd man of +business, his next thought was how to get his capital back—with interest. +By throwing open the Congo to legitimate commerce; by encouraging and +facilitating the trade of all nations as he solemnly undertook to do; +by pursuing a common-sense policy towards the natives, the Sovereign of +the Congo State might have recovered the original capital he had sunk on +the Congo, and even have realised a fair percentage upon it. At the same +time he would have laid the foundations of a peaceful and commercially +prosperous colony _for Belgium_, a colony with vast resources, a +magnificent river system and unlimited future possibilities. That would +have been true patriotism, and the ends attained might have justified +the not very honourable means employed. King Leopold preferred to adopt +another course, which has led him from illegality to violence, and from +violence to barbarism. The king’s intention all through was to recoup +himself for his expenditure at the earliest possible moment. So much for +the _leit motif_. + +The measures adopted by his Majesty to bring about this desired result +were as follows: Five months after the termination of the Berlin +Conference, King Leopold issued a decree (July 1885), whereby the State +asserted rights of proprietorship over all vacant lands throughout the +Congo territory. It was intended that the term “vacant lands” should +apply in the broadest sense to lands not actually occupied by the natives +at the time the decree was issued. By successive decrees, promulgated +in 1886, 1887 and 1888, the king reduced the rights of the natives in +their land to the narrowest limits, with the result that the whole of +the odd 1,000,000 square miles assigned to the Congo State, except such +infinitesimal proportions thereof as were covered by native villages +or native farms, became _terres domaniales_. On October 17, 1889, the +king also issued a decree ordering merchants to limit their commercial +operations in rubber to bartering with the natives. This decree was +interesting merely as a forewarning of what came later, because at that +time the rubber trade was very small. In July 1890, the same year as +the Brussels Conference, the Congo State went a step farther. A decree +issued in that month confirmed all that was advanced in November of the +same year by the speakers at the London Conference, held to protest +against the imposition of import dues by the State. By its terms King +Leopold asserted that the State was entitled to trade on its own +account in ivory—the first open violation of his pledges. Moreover, the +decree imposed sundry extra taxes upon all ivory bought by merchants +from the natives; which, since the State had become itself a trading +concern, constituted an equally direct violation of the Berlin Act, by +establishing differential treatment in matters of trade. Such were the +plans King Leopold made, preparatory to obtaining from the Powers the +power to impose import duties.[260] Everything was ready for the great +_coup_, which should also inaugurate the fifth stage of his Majesty’s +African policy. + +The Brussels Conference met. The Powers with inconceivable fatuity +allowed themselves to be completely hoodwinked, and within a year the +greatest injury perpetrated upon the unfortunate natives of Africa +since the Portuguese in the fifteenth century conceived the idea +of expatriating them for labour purposes had been committed, and +committed, too, by a monarch who had not ceased for fifteen years to +pose as their self-appointed regenerator! On September 21, 1891, King +Leopold drafted in secret a decree which he caused to be forwarded to +the Commissioners of the State in the Ubanghi-Welle and Aruwimi-Welle +districts, and to the chiefs of the military expeditions operating in the +Upper Ubanghi district. This decree never having been published in the +official Bulletin of the State, its exact terms can only be a matter of +conjecture; but we know that it instructed the officials to whom it was +addressed “to take urgent and necessary measures to preserve the fruits +of the Domain to the State, especially ivory and rubber.” By “fruits of +the Domain,” King Leopold meant the products of the soil throughout the +“vacant lands” which he had attributed to himself, as already explained, +by the decree of 1885. The king’s instructions were immediately followed, +and three circulars, dated respectively Bangala, December 15, 1891, +Basankusu, May 8, 1892, and Yakoma, February 14, 1892, were issued by +the officials in question. Circular No. 1 forbade the natives to hunt +elephants unless they brought the tusks to the State’s officers. Circular +No. 2 forbade the natives to collect rubber unless they brought it to +the State’s officers. Circular No. 3 forbade the natives to collect +either ivory or rubber unless they brought the articles to the State’s +officers, and added that “merchants purchasing such articles from the +natives, whose right to collect them the State only recognised provided +that they were brought to it, would be looked upon as receivers of stolen +goods and denounced to the judicial authorities.” + +Thus did the Sovereign of the Congo State avail himself of the additional +prestige conferred upon him by the Brussels Conference. He did not +obtain his own way entirely, because the years which had elapsed since +the Berlin Conference had witnessed the creation of a powerful group +of Belgian trading companies, presided over by one Colonel Thys, who +afterwards brought the construction of the railway which unites the Lower +to the Upper Congo to a successful termination, and who is now probably +the largest land-owner in Africa. These companies were doing a large +trade in rubber and ivory with the natives. They were well organised, +and the man at their head was both capable and fearless. The companies +invoked the Act of Berlin, protested against its gross infringement by +the State, dwelt largely upon the sacredness of free trade and native +rights, pleaded for Belgium and the world at large; and, finding these +considerations insufficient, violently attacked the king himself with +the avowed intention of forcing him to abdicate his “sovereignty” on the +Congo. It is useless to detail the process of an agitation which, if it +did nothing else, showed up in lurid colours how much the patriotism of +the King of the Belgians was subordinated to the egotism of the Sovereign +of the Congo State. The upshot of it was that the king squared the +colonel, and the commercial companies of the Rue Bréderode group, as they +are familiarly designated, were induced to keep silence by the grant of a +trading monopoly over a very large area where they would be free to carry +on their business unmolested. His resolute adversary being thus disposed +of, the king forthwith issued a decree, dated October 1892, by which he +defined the limits of his _terres domaniales_, and crowned the policy +he had ever steadily pursued by creating for himself in Central Africa +a vast preserve, a _Domaine Privé_, from which he might draw unlimited +resources with a view to his own personal enrichment. The extent of this +preserve cannot cover less than 800,000 square miles.[261] The summit of +King Leopold’s ambition had been attained. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE _DOMAINE PRIVÉ_ + + “Our only programme, I am anxious to repeat, is the work of + moral and material regeneration.”—Extract from a published + letter of his Majesty King LEOPOLD II., King of the Belgians, + Sovereign of the Congo Free State. + + +It is to be regretted that writers who, from time to time, call attention +to the terrible maladministration prevailing in the Congo State do not, +as a rule, strive to bring its _causa causans_ clearly before the public. +The main issue becomes too often imbedded in a mass of surplus detail, +and the bewildered individual searching for light gropes about in despair +with an eternal query on his lips—“Why?” Why these atrocities which have +been attested by dozens of honourable men[262]—atrocities which the Congo +State Administration has long ceased to deny, and now merely attempts to +minimise; atrocities of which every mail from the Congo brings additional +proof?[263] Why this callous ferocity which appears at first sight to +have in it naught but incoherence and downright stupidity, which seems +so monstrous as to be almost incredible, and yet is vouched for, not +only by travellers and missionaries who have witnessed its effects, not +only by those who are in a position to guarantee the authenticity of +information received from persons unwilling to allow their names to +appear through fear of jeopardising their means of livelihood, but by +the actual perpetrators, who, not without reason—although this excuse +cannot shield them from execration—throw the responsibility upon the +system whose servants they have been? Where is the underlying motive of +it all? The answer to the query is, the _Domaine Privé_. When you have +learnt what the _Domaine Privé_ is, what it means, what it involves, +what it necessitates, what it renders inevitable, the story is told and +everything is explained. + +In the first place, let these main facts be borne well in mind. The vast +territories of the _Domaine Privé_ have for eleven years been absolutely +closed to legitimate private enterprise. Trade, which in Central Africa +means the exchange of European merchandise for raw products, does not +exist therein. The native living within these territories has been +deprived by Royal Decree of his rights as a land-owner. Property held +for centuries by well-defined native laws, vested in particular families +and tribes, has been appropriated without consulting the interested +parties, let alone compensating them. With the deprivation of his land +the native has been dispossessed of the fruits thereof; the rubber +growing so luxuriously in his forests he may (by decree) only gather +for the State—we will see presently how the “may” becomes “must”; the +ivory stacked about his villages is no longer his, but another’s; the +elephants which roam about his country and damage his plantations he can +incur the physical peril of destroying, but may not reap the reward to +which he is thereby entitled, for the tusks of the slain beast do not, +according to Royal Decree, belong to him. Since he cannot dispose of his +produce, which is his wealth and also his currency; since he has lost his +rights in his own land; since he cannot even hunt the wild beast which +provides him with the wherewithal to make horns for war and the chase, +armlets and anklets for his wives, ornaments for his habitation, he is +no longer a free agent, but has become _de facto_ a serf. In theory, +then, the decrees of September 1891 and October 1892 made of the native +throughout the _Domaine Privé_ a serf. In theory a serf he remained +for a little while. But as the grip of Africa’s regenerator tightened +upon the _Domaine Privé_, as the drilled and officered army, armed with +repeating-rifles, gradually grew and grew until it was larger than the +native forces kept up by any of the great Powers of Europe on African +soil,[264] as the radius of the rubber taxes was extended, as portions +of the country began to be farmed out to so-called “companies,” whose +agents were also officials of the king; the native of the _Domaine Privé_ +became a serf not in theory only but in fact, ground down, exploited, +forced to collect rubber at the bayonet’s point, compelled to pay onerous +tribute to men whose salaries depend upon the produce returns from their +respective stations—the punishment for disobedience, slothfulness, +or inability to comply with demands ever growing in extortion, being +anything from mutilation to death, accompanied by the destruction of +villages and crops. + +The _Domaine Privé_ is “worked” in two ways. The country is vaguely +divided into districts, and the business of the _Commissaires_ of +districts, and their agents and sub-agents, is to collect _impôts de +nature_, the taxes in kind, which the king levies. There is no limit to +this taxation. The _Commissaires_ are told to “devote all their energies +to the harvesting of rubber,” but at the same time to proceed “_as +far as possible_ by persuasion rather than force.” The purport of the +instructions maybe briefly summed up thus: “Obtain all the rubber and +ivory you can; your future advancement depends upon your energy.”[265] +Of course, this _régime_ in a country like Africa, where the native is +not obliged to “work” in order to live, would be so much beating of the +air, if force were not used to give it practical effect. King Leopold +understood that well enough, and, to use the expression of a French +Colonial writer of repute—M. Pierre Mille—“the basis of the king’s +economic policy has been the formation of an army sufficiently strong to +force the natives to pay the rubber and ivory tax.” A large army, chiefly +recruited from the Bangalas and Batetlas—both cannibal tribes—was raised, +and when not engaged in rebelling against its officers, it has proved +only too well its value. + +Side by side with the enforcement of the _impôts de nature_, King Leopold +bethought him of another scheme whereby to increase his revenue, and, at +the same time, to throw dust in the eyes of European public opinion, by +professing to sanction private enterprise in the _Domaine Privé_. His +Majesty took to farming out portions of his domain to certain financiers +with whom it suited him to keep on good terms. “Companies” were formed, +in which the State retained a half interest. These companies are supposed +to obtain the rubber and ivory they ship home in such large quantities +by barter; but as more often than not the king’s officials and the +companies’ agents are the same persons, and as the companies have the +assistance of the _Force Publique_ (or permission to raise their own +forces) to facilitate their commercial operations,[266] we may judge of +the amount of legitimate barter trade which is carried on. There are six +of these companies[267] in existence. The first group of five consists +of the _Société Anversoise du Commerce au Congo, the Abir, the Compagnie +du Lomami, the Comptoir Commercial Congolais, and the Société Générale +Africaine_. The State holds half the shares of the _Abir_ and half the +shares of the _Société Anversoise_. It has no shares in the _Comptoir +Congolais_, but receives 50 per cent. of the profits. Its arrangement +with the _Compagnie du Lomami_ is, I believe, on the same lines as +that with the _Comptoir Commercial Congolais_; and with the _Société +Générale Africaine_ on the same lines as the _Abir_ and _Anversoise_. +The _Société_, or rather _Comité Spécial du Katanga_, is also a _Domaine +Privé_ company, but under a somewhat different form. One-third of the +profits of the latter institution go to the Thys group of companies and +two-thirds to the State. The principal officials of the _Comité Spécial +du Katanga_—the sixth _Domaine Privé_ company—are Messrs. Droogmans +(president and Secrétaire-Général), Arnold, De Keyser, and Lombard. All +these men are highly-placed officials of the State. Droogmans is the +Minister of Finance, Arnold is director of the Domaine, director of +Agriculture, and of “Central book-keeping”; De Keyser is a director of +the Finance Department, and Lombard is a director of the Department of +the Interior. + +The _Société Anversoise du Commerce au Congo_ being a typical +representative, we may examine its condition. It was formed in August +1892 under Belgian law, but reconstructed in January 1898 under Congo +law—quite a unique jurisprudence, of which it may be said _summum jus +summa injuria_—with a capital of 1,700,000 francs divided into 3400 +shares of 500 francs each. King Leopold has conferred upon this company +some 12,000 square miles situated in the Mongalla district. Within +that large area, of course, no one has the right to enter; in that +particular, the Mongalla district resembles every other portion of the +Congo _Free_ State above Leopoldville, in the sense of being a monopoly +within a monopoly. The administrative seat of the _Anversoise_ is 104 +Rempart des Béguines, Antwerp; its principal headquarters in Africa are +at Mobeka. Its president is M. A. de Browne de Tiège, nominated under +the constitution of the company by the king himself. M. de Browne de +Tiège is the king’s principal financial adviser in Congo affairs, and +has several times lent moneys to the State. He has a seat in the House. +The administrators are Baron Goffinet,[268] Ed. Bunge, and C. de Browne +de Tiège; the “Commissaire” is Count Emile le Grelle. The original +shareholders are: the Congo State, 1700 shares; A. de Browne de Tiège, +1100 shares; Bunge & Co., 100 shares; E. P. Grisar, 130 shares; Deyman +& Druart, 100 shares—which accounts for 3130 out of the 3400. No one +with even a superficial knowledge of Belgian society need be told of the +relations between the king and Baron Goffinet, Count le Grelle and E. P. +Grisar. The net profits for the four years 1897-1900 have been: 1897, +120,697 francs; 1898, 3,968,832 francs; 1899, 3,083,976; 1900, 84,333, or +say a profit in four years of 7,275,838 francs. The “State’s” holdings +being 50 per cent., its share in the profits would be proportionate. At +this point it may be well to remark that the inspired utterances which +from time to time appear in the British Press, dated from Brussels, to +the effect that the Sovereign of the Congo State does not hold a single +share in these companies, constitute, of course, a polite fiction. In all +matters affecting the _Domaine Privé_ the State is the King. The _Domaine +Privé_, let it be reaffirmed once again, is the king’s property and his +alone. The shares of the _Société Anversoise_ have stood as high as +13,730 francs (March 1900), which for a 500-franc share is sufficiently +alluring. At that figure, which can be easily verified by the sceptical, +his Majesty’s 1700 shares were worth over 23,000,000 francs, or say +£933,000. During the last two years, outbreaks in the Mongalla district +have been so numerous that the profits of the company have fallen +somewhat. + +The performances of this particular offshoot of King Leopold’s _Domaine +Privé_ have been worthy of the regenerating nature of the Congo State +rule. In 1900, one or two of its agents confessed to killing, by order, +150 natives, cutting off 60 hands, crucifying women and children, and +impaling the sexual remains of slaughtered males on the stockade of the +villages whose inhabitants were slow in gathering rubber! “_Les scandales +de la Mongalla_” led to stormy debates in the Belgian Chamber on July 16 +and 17 of last year. It may not be out of place to recall their nature. + + “July 17.—M. VANDERVELDE: We are not anti-colonial in + principle.... But we are adversaries of a capitalist colonial + policy which entails exploitation, theft, and assassination.... + You dare not, in the name of Christian morality, defend the + exploitation of the _Domaine Privé_.... Rubber and ivory + represent 93 per cent. of the exports.... The _Domaine Privé_ + produces much more than the budgetary returns. How are these + extraordinary results obtained?... The Congo State has + introduced forced labour, tribute, paid in kind, and a twelve + years’ military service.... We protest against this disguised + form of slavery. (Applause.) The greatest names in England + and Germany have condemned this system. The premiums given + to Congolese agents have been repudiated by the honest ones + amongst them. (M. DE BROWNE DE TIÈGE interrupts.) M. de Browne + de Tiège, who is interested in Congo affairs, must be admirably + posted in the Mongalla lawsuit, which revealed acts of cruelty + in his very own district. + + “M. DE BROWNE DE TIÈGE: It is false. + + “M. MAROILLE: No doubt; like the stories of the severed hands. + + “M. LORAND: It is so true that, as a result of what I have + stated here, the particular officer whom I challenged to deny + the facts has written giving me information, in which he admits + that these ‘war trophies’ were brought in. That is Congo + civilisation! On all sides war, massacres, crimes continue + there. How can you possibly defend these things? + + “M. FURNEMONT: On the coat-of-arms of the city of Antwerp + figure cut hands. M. de Browne, who inhabits Antwerp, no doubt + considers the emblem very appropriate.... + + “M. DE SMET DE NAEYER (Belgian Premier): The exploitation of + the _Domaine Privé_ is conformable with jurisprudence.... + People criticise tribute paid in kind (_prestations de + nature_). Do they not exist to a certain extent in Belgium? Why + suspect the Congo State of cruelty? + + “M. LORAND: We are entitled to do so. Remember the 1300 severed + hands. + + “M. DE SMET DE NAEYER: Faults have certainly been committed, + but the State is applying itself to their disappearance. The + disinterestedness of the creators of the Congo State will find + its reward in the gratitude of the country.... + + “July 18.—M. LORAND: Your colonial policy is analogous to + the crimes mentioned in Article 125 of the Penal Code; it is + a policy of devastation, pillage, and assassination. [The + speaker (I quote from the Parliamentary report of the Belgian + papers of that date) then read some correspondence published + in the Antwerp newspaper _La Métropole_, in which a series of + executions, murders, and expeditions against the Bundjas are + mentioned.] ‘Are we,’ he continues, ‘to have another edition of + the severed hands incident?’ + + “M. DE BROWNE DE TIÈGE: That is not the question. + + “M. LORAND: Indeed. But it happens precisely to be the + question. (M. DE BROWNE DE TIÈGE interrupts.) + + “M. VANDERVELDE: Your interest, M. de Browne, is so direct + a one in this matter that you might refrain from any + participation in this debate.” + +The cutting-off of hands item is a constantly recurring charge. I have +in my possession at the present moment a photograph from the Upper Congo +of three natives, a woman and two boys; the woman and one of the boys +have their right hands severed at the wrist, the other boy has both +hands severed. The correspondent who sent it me—and whom I know to be an +honourable man—saw the victims himself, and was satisfied that soldiers +of the State were the culprits. I fully believe him, but the photograph, +of course, does not prove it.[269] + +[Illustration: THE VICTIM OF A RUBBER RAID + +A LIVING ILLUSTRATION OF THE “MAIN COUPÉES” DEBATES IN THE BELGIAN +CHAMBER. THE BOY HERE PHOTOGRAPHED IS NOW CARED FOR BY A BRITISH +MISSIONARY IN THE UPPER CONGO] + +In November last, an American ex-agent of the _Société Anversoise_, Mr. +Canisuis, who served for some time under the amiable ex-Major Lothaire, +who, as already stated, was appointed Director in Africa of this company +_after_ the murder of Stokes, in a Press interview said: “Last year I +was on a rubber expedition with Major Lothaire, and during the six weeks +it lasted 900 natives were killed and scores of villages were burnt.” + +According to this gentleman, the natives receive the equivalent of one +penny per pound of rubber, paid in merchandise valued at 100 per cent. +above cost price. We knew that before. As things go in the Congo State, +that particular rate of pay is even generous. But you cannot get rubber +in Africa at even the munificent sum of one penny per pound, and sell +it in Europe from 3s. to 4s. per pound, without those gently persuasive +methods which find favour in quarters where the “regenerating” instinct +is properly developed! + +I trust I shall not be unduly troubling my readers if I pass another +of King Leopold’s _Domaine Privé_ companies under review. It is not my +fault that the whitewash has been laid on so thickly, and the process +of scraping is bound to take some little time—and, from the author’s +point of view, no little trouble. What company could be better singled +out than the _Abir_, the most powerfully equipped of all—the “Queen” of +Congo companies as it has been called? Originally the Anglo-Belgian India +Rubber Company, founded in August 1892, and in which Colonel North was at +one time largely interested, it was, like the _Anversoise_, reconstructed +under “Congo law” in 1898 with a capital of 1,000,000 francs, divided +into 2000 shares without designation of value, “giving right of 1/2000 +of the _avoir social_.” King Leopold has conferred upon this company +the monopoly of exploitation in the Lopori and Maringa districts of the +_Domaine Privé_. The administrative seat of the _Abir_ is 48 Rempart +Klipdorp, Antwerp; its headquarters in Africa are at Bassankusu. The +President is M. A. van den Nest; administrators, A. Mols and Count H. +van de Burgh; _Commissaires_, Jules Stappers and F. Reiss; Director, Ch. +de Wael; Director in Africa, Ch. Sterckmans. I am under the impression +that the British interests in the company ceased when it ceased to be +a company in the ordinary acceptation of the term, viz. in 1898, as +aforesaid. At any rate, I can find none but Belgian shareholders in the +documents I have been able to obtain. First and foremost comes the Congo +State with its 50 per cent., viz. 1000 shares, the inevitable M. A. de +Browne de Tiège being _mandataire_ for the State; then M. A. de Browne +de Tiège has 60 shares in his own name, and M. C. de Browne de Tiège 50, +while our old friend the _Société Anversoise_ has 150 shares represented +by M. de Browne de Tiège, President, and M. Bunge, Administrator; Bunge +& Co. (whom we have seen hold 100 shares in the _Anversoise_) have 50 +shares; other shareholders are Alexis Mols, Charles de Wael, F. Reiss, +&c.[270] I have used the word _clique_ to describe the handful of persons +who are running the Congo State (and as much more of Africa as they can +lay hands on) with the king as Managing Director. It is an appropriate +term, as the particulars given for these two “Companies” show. I may add +that M. A. van den Nest, President of the _Abir_, is the original holder +of 120 shares in the _Comptoir Commercial Congolais_, of which company M. +Alexis Mols is President, while Messrs. Charles de Wael and F. Reiss are +also holders, the one to the extent of 100, the other to the extent of 60 +shares.[271] Baron Goffinet’s name crops up again in the _Lomami_,[272] +and so it goes on.[273] These men are the king’s bodyguard. I know +nothing of them personally. They may in private life be the most +blameless of men, but the extraordinary thing is that Europe should be +content to allow 1,000,000 square miles of African territory to be run +by this _clique_ with its royal head, entirely for their own ends, and +to fill their own pockets! Why, in the name of common sense and common +decency, should hundreds, if not thousands, of natives of Africa be slain +annually on account of this _clique_? It would be grotesque, were it not +so horrible; so monstrous as to seem more like a nightmare than a reality. + +But to return to the _Abir_. Its net profits in 1897 were 1,247,455 +francs; in 1898, 2,482,697 francs; in 1899, 2,692,063 francs. The figures +for 1900 I am unable to give, I regret to say. In 1901 the net working +profits (_bénéfices nets d’exploitation_) were 2,455,182 francs, and +the “profit and loss account” was closed with 2,614,370 to the good. +A dividend[274] of 900 francs was declared on each share, and “the +State” being the possessor of 1000 shares, it follows that its august +Sovereign raked in the nice little sum of 900,000 francs, or say £36,000, +for one year’s working of this eminently satisfactory “subsidiary” of +the _Domaine Privé_. In four years the _Abir’s_ net profits amounted, +therefore, to 8,877,397 francs, nearly nine times as much as its total +capital! In June 1899 the shares stood at 17,900 francs per share, and +the total value on the Antwerp Stock Exchange of this concern, whose +capital is one million, was 35,800,000 francs! But since that date the +shares have been up to over 25,000 francs per share! In June of this +year they had fallen to a little over 11,000 francs per share. For a +considerable time past they have been quoted _in tenths_; that is to +say, one-tenth shares are bought and sold, and give rise to a great +deal of speculation on the Bourse. Imagine the fortune which a holder +of 1000 _full_ shares has had the opportunity of making during the last +few years! Those 1000 shares, at 25,000 francs per share, were worth a +million sterling! What it is to be a royal rubber merchant in the Congo! + +It will have been noticed that the shares of the _Abir_ have dropped. +The fact is that there have been “indiscretions,” and several Belgian +newspapers published in October of last year some unpleasant details with +regard to the circumstances under which these enormous stocks of rubber +find their way to Europe. Amongst other revelations published—all of +which purported to come from “a most honourable and esteemed agent” of +the _Abir_—were the following: (1) In September 1897, the whole of the +Upper Bolombo country was devastated (“_mis à feu et à sang_”) by the +Dikila factory to compel the natives, with whom contact had not before +been established, to make rubber. (2) “On Aug. 24, 1900, I met at Boyela +two young women, one of whom was _enceinte_, with their right hands cut +off. They told me they belonged to the village of Bossombo, and that the +soldiers of the white man of Boyela had cut off their hands, because +their master did not produce enough rubber!” These statements appear to +have had the effect of depreciating the market value of the shares. But, +really, the “bulls” might have been prepared for them. Possibly, they had +not read the evidence given a year before by M. de Lamothe, ex-Governor +of French Congo, before the Commission of Colonial Concessions held in +Paris. M. de Lamothe, who had just returned from five months’ sojourn in +the Upper Congo, remarked in the course of his deposition that: + + “The Belgians have recently had insurrections in their + territory. It is but right to add, however, that they sometimes + make use of proceedings towards the natives that Frenchmen + would never use.... The _Abir_, for instance, possesses a + considerable territory and has even police rights (_sic_) + over the natives. From that point of view the rights which + its charter confers upon it are exaggerated. _Its agents have + applied this so well that they have succeeded in inducing + 30,000 natives to leave their territory and take refuge on the + French bank of the Congo._” + +Is it necessary to plunge yet deeper into this garbage of human +villany and greed? The entire system is based upon terrorism. No man +in his senses can really believe otherwise. A volume might be filled +with misdeeds which since the days of Cortès and Pizarro have never +been equalled, much less surpassed. The habitual _modus operandi_ in +the Mongalla territory was tersely put by one of the agents of the +_Anversoise_: + + “When natives bring rubber to a factory they are received by + the agent surrounded by soldiers. The baskets are weighed. + If they do not contain the 5 kilos. required the native + receives 100 blows with a _chicotte_.[275] Those whose + baskets attain the correct weight receive a piece of cloth, + or some other object. If a certain village contains, say, 100 + male inhabitants (a census is always taken of the village + before operations begin) and only fifty come to the factory + with rubber, they are retained as hostages, and a force is + despatched to shoot (_sic_) the fifty recalcitrant natives and + burn their village.” + +There are some districts which do not produce rubber: such a district, +for instance, as the Bangala country proper, where hardly any rubber +grows. Let it not be imagined that the people of that district are the +gainers thereby. They are not subject, it is true, to either the rubber +tribute or the rubber-collecting operations of the _Domaine Privé_ +companies. But their lot is little better for all that. The Bangala +country is one of the great recruiting centres of the State for its +army.[276] The Bangalas are cannibals, and good fighters. It is also +a victualling centre for the State posts. A great deal of information +has been reaching me from this district of late. It may be usefully +epitomised. First, as to the recruiting. The method adopted is this: A +general order is sent from Boma to the Commissaires of Districts to the +effect that so many recruits must be sent down. Each Commissaire then +sets to work to obtain recruits. There is no system in the demands. Towns +are dropped on according to the whim of the Commissaire. A particular +village is summoned to supply a certain number of young men. The summons +is rarely communicated by a white officer: almost invariably by native +soldiers. The summons once made, it has to be obeyed, or the usual +punishment is meted out. Nevertheless there has, upon occasion, been +active opposition to this forced recruiting. There is always passive +opposition. Both men and women object and complain very bitterly, but +they have to submit. Mothers, wives, and relatives have been seen crying +and protesting against their children, husbands, and relatives being sent +away as recruits, for very few ever return; which is not astonishing, +seeing that they serve twelve years. Secondly, as to the victualling-tax. +Every month, and sometimes every fortnight, goats, fowls, palm-oil, eggs, +and cassava bread have to be supplied to the State troops. The burden is +increasingly heavy, because since it was first assessed the population +has very much decreased. When accused of extortion the State replies +that it pays for its produce. It does pay, at about one-twentieth of +the market value. The natives have not infrequently to purchase produce +themselves, in order to meet the demands of the State, which they are +compelled to dispose of to the State soldiers at a much lower price than +they have paid themselves: + + “Every two or three miles a sentry, with a subordinate or two, + and two or three servants from the locality, are stationed. It + is part of the sentry’s duty to see that the tax is taken up + regularly, and if he does not do so he is severely reprimanded + by his chief. Now a keen-witted soldier will see to it that + he is not reprimanded, and an unprincipled soldier will do + anything to the people to wring the tax out of them, rather + than run the risk of being a marked man in the Commissaire’s + book.” + +The oppression and misery which ensue can be imagined. The result of this +double pressure for men and foodstuffs has been, naturally, to bring +about a great decrease in the population. A correspondent who knows the +Bangala country well, tells me that between 1890 and 1895 there was no +perceptible decrease in the population. The taxes were first levied in +the latter year, and in five years (1895-1900) there has been a reduction +of one-half of the population. This appalling ratio of reduction is +partly to be accounted for by the fact that sleeping sickness is endemic +in the country, and that the withdrawal of the strongest and most virile +elements of the population to serve in the army is naturally followed +by a decline in the birth-rate. Those that are left have “the heart +wrung out of them” by the food-tax. The people along the river are +fast dying out, and the State “is forcing the backwood folks to start +towns on the river the better to exploit them.” In one relatively small +area my correspondent says, “Since 1890, one town half a mile long has +disappeared; another, a quarter of a mile long, has also gone; and up a +creek where there were 1500 people, there are scarcely 400 now.” + +So long as Europe tolerates the _Domaine Privé_, so long will these +things be—just as long as the regenerator of Africa and his friends can +make money out of their philanthropic undertaking and can count upon +dishonest, interested, or infatuated friends in Europe to throw dust in +the eyes of the public. + +There is one other feature of this unsavoury business which must be gone +into before we can close the chapter on the _native_ aspect of Congo +State rule. The Congo State invariably attempts to wriggle out of the +responsibility for these horrors, by attributing their perpetration +to the “excesses” of individual agents; and M. Jules Houdret, the +Consul-General of the Congo State for England, had the effrontery the +other day to point to the punishment of some of the _Anversoise’s_ +people as affording a justification for the State’s claim to be what +it professes, viz. solicitous of the welfare of the natives! It is +a barefaced attempt to bamboozle public opinion, as impudent as the +proposal made by the representatives of the Congo State at the Mansion +House meeting last May to “inquire” into specific acts of cruelty +brought forward. We know what these “punishments” mean. Occasionally, +with a grand flourish of trumpets, the State announces that an agent +has been punished. The announcement generally follows each fresh crop +of revelations. One or two sub-agents are, for the time being, made +scapegoats, and everything goes on as before. How could it be otherwise +when the SYSTEM ITSELF is what it has been shown to be? The time has +gone by when the public can be deceived by these sophistries, by these +perpetual and frivolous excuses and denials. + +The edicts of the Congo State administration, coupled with certain +material facts as to which there can be no dispute, show the main +factors, if one may say so, of the system of African tropical +development, which it has instituted, to be these: + +(1) Alienation of native ownership in land. + +(2) Monopoly over the products of the soil. + +(3) Natives forbidden to collect those products for any one but the +State, or the subsidiary trusts (_Domaine Privé_ companies, if that +appellation be preferred) created by the State, and in whose profits the +State shares, generally to the extent of 50 per cent. + +(4) Natives compelled to bring in rubber and ivory, and also recruits for +the native army (and for labour in the cocoa and coffee plantations), to +the State as tribute, and to supply the subsidiary trusts with rubber and +ivory. + +(5) The existence of a regular army of fifteen thousand[277] men armed +with Albini rifles, and an unnamed number of irregulars to enforce the +rubber and ivory tribute and to “facilitate the operations” of the +subsidiary trusts. + +(6) White officials in receipt of instructions to devote all their +energies to the exploitation of rubber and ivory; in plain words, to +get as much rubber and ivory out of their respective districts as they +possibly can. + +(7) The financial existence of the State dependent upon the rubber and +ivory tribute, and upon the profits it derives from its share in the +subsidiary trusts. + +When on the one side you have the factors already enumerated, and on +the other a primitive and—in the face of coercion backed by rifles +of precision—helpless population, common sense asserts that gross +oppression, violence, and every form of tyranny and outrage must be the +infallible outcome of such a system; and it is that _system_ which the +Powers are morally bound to put a stop to, seeing that it is they who are +morally responsible for its existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE “TRADE” OF THE CONGO STATE + + +It is a little surprising to find that M. Cattier, the Belgian +Imperialist, whose masterly indictment of King Leopold’s administration +does him infinite honour, should attempt to defend, not the outcome of +the system of the _Domaine Privé_ in the shape of compulsory military +service for twelve years, forced labour in Government plantations, &c., +all of which he condemns, but the legality of the system itself. He +states his case as follows. Article V. of the Berlin Act, which forbade +monopoly and privilege in the Congo Basin in matters of trade, was meant +to apply internationally, and the Congo State was thereby bound not to +grant commercial advantages to the subjects of any one nation which it +denied to the subjects of another nation. M. Cattier says: + + “The Government of the Congo State could not, therefore, adopt + any legislative measure, nor establish any _régime_ conceding + international monopolies or privileges.... All facilities + granted to its subjects in trade matters should be legally + extended to the subjects of other nations.... But this does + not prevent the Congo State from establishing the commercial + _régime_ which it thinks advisable, and no objection can be + raised against its legislative action, when the measures + adopted apply, under the same conditions and in the same + manner, to the subjects of other nationalities, including the + Congo nationality.” + +It follows, therefore, according to M. Cattier, that in attributing to +himself all vacant lands in the Congo Basin, from which action arose the +_Domaine Privé_, and in farming out portions of the _Domaine Privé_ to +his financial friends, upon whom he has conferred an absolute monopoly of +exploitation in the regions affected, the Sovereign of the Congo State +has not violated the Act of Berlin; although M. Cattier admits that by +so doing he has committed “a violation of the rights of the natives.” + +This curious theory of M. Cattier’s has been dismissed by Dr. Anton +(_Professeur agrégé à l’Université d’Iéna_) as a legal quibble, in which +opinion I entirely concur. M. Cattier’s views are mutually destructive. +Admitting, for the sake of argument merely, that the interpretation he +gives to Art. V. of the Berlin Act is, from the strictly legal aspect +of the matter, accurate; once M. Cattier attempts to put his case in +language that laymen, unversed in legal subtleties, can understand, it +breaks down hopelessly. For what does M. Cattier tell us in the passage +above? “No objection can be raised against its (the State’s) legislative +action when the measures adopted apply under the same conditions and +in the same manner to the subjects of all nationalities, including the +Congo nationality.” But the measures adopted do not apply equally to +all nationalities! Three-fourths of the Congo State is the State’s—that +is, the king’s—private property, and is closed to the trade of all +nationalities, except the Belgian and “Congo nationality;” not in theory +but in fact. Can an Englishman, or a German, or a Chinaman if you like, +import European merchandise in the territory, for example, acquired by +the _Société Anversoise_, and barter that merchandise against the raw +products of the soil, on a basis of a legitimate commercial transaction? +Of course they may not. Was not an Austrian arrested—on Lake Moëro, and +on, it appears, a British steamer—only a few months ago for trading with +the natives in the Katanga region, although he actually had a permit to +trade from the Katanga Company, given to him prior to the arrangement +arrived at by the Congo State and the Katanga Company to work those +territories on joint account? And arrested, too, in such a way that +his removal from this world was a matter of moral certainty—handed +over to the merciful treatment of King Leopold’s cannibal soldiery, +to be transported 2000 miles away; he a white man and unarmed![278] +What pitiful sophistries are these which attempt the squaring of the +Congo circle! The Congo State, which undertook not to trade directly or +indirectly in its dominions, has become not only the largest “exploiter” +within it, but in the major portion thereof the exclusive “exploiter.” +The king has translated Article V. of the Berlin Act, which reads that +“no Power which exercises or shall exercise sovereign rights in the +above-mentioned regions, shall be allowed to grant therein a monopoly or +favour of any kind in matters of trade,” by conferring upon himself an +absolute monopoly, which has made of him the biggest ivory and rubber +merchant in the world. In this capacity he can export his produce under +special conditions, free of dues, which come out of one of his Majesty’s +pockets to go in at the other. All this is diametrically opposed to the +provisions of the Berlin Act. + +My object is principally to prove that King Leopold’s intervention in +the Dark Continent has from first to last been due to selfish motives, +and has resulted in the most appalling consequences; whether we confine +ourselves to the past and present merely, or whether we look into the +future. I must crave forgiveness for having dwelt so largely upon matters +of trade. It was, however, necessary, because the king’s native policy is +the inevitable sequel of his commercial policy. I must, indeed, revert +again to this aspect of the question in order to refute once and for +all the untruths so sedulously fostered, that the Congo State is in a +nourishing condition and that independent trade is flourishing within +it; and in refuting it to show—which is more important—that, were it not +for the ivory and rubber which the natives of King Leopold’s preserve +are forced to produce at the cost of constant warfare, massacres, and +atrocities innumerable, the export returns, and consequently the whole +trade of the Congo State, would be practically _nil_, or so small as to +be unworthy of attention. This can best be done by giving facts and +figures which all the ingenious theorising in the world cannot overcome. + +The following table shows the relative proportion of the rubber and ivory +exports from the Congo to the total exports: + + TABLE I + + Total of Total of + Year. Rubber. Ivory. both Exports. all Exports. + + Francs. Francs. Francs. Francs. + 1898 15,850,987 4,319,260 20,170,247 22,163,481 + 1899 28,100,917 5,834,620 33,935,537 36,067,959 + 1900 39,874,005 5,253,300 45,627,305 47,377,401 + 1901 43,965,950 3,964,600 47,930,550 50,488,394 + +If the rubber and ivory exports are deducted from the total exports, it +will be seen that—apart from these two products—the exports only amounted +in 1898 to 1,993,234 francs, in 1889 to 2,132,422 francs, in 1900 to +1,750,096 francs, and in 1901 to 2,557,844 francs, about 97 per cent. of +which was represented in each year by kernels and palm-oil shipped almost +exclusively from the Lower Congo[279] to Rotterdam, by the Dutch House +_Die Nieuwe Afrikaansche Handels Vennootschap_. + +The next table provides statistics of the rubber and ivory shipped home +by the Congo State, as shipper, being the proceeds of the taxes—_impôts +de nature_—levied upon the natives of the _Domaine Privé_. As will be +observed, the Congo State is at pains to conceal the real proceeds. Ever +since 1893, when the actual returns exceeded the estimates by one-half, +the State has never published the former. The correct figures may, +however, approximately be arrived at by comparing the estimates with the +rubber and ivory disposed of by the State, as vendor, on the Antwerp +market. The enormous difference during these last few years between the +estimates _and the produce actually sold by the State_, possesses a +significance which will not be lost upon my readers. Into whose pocket +does the surplus go? But need we ask the question? + + TABLE II + + VALUE OF PRODUCE (IVORY AND RUBBER) DERIVED FROM THE + “DOMAINE PRIVÉ” IN THE SHAPE OF TAXES (IMPÔTS DE NATURE). + + Produce (ivory and + rubber) from the + Year. Published returns. Actual returns. _Domaine Privé_, sold + on the Antwerp market + by the State’s brokers. + + Francs. Francs. Francs. + 1893 237,057 347,396 Unobtainable. + 1894 300,000 } _Ibid._ + 1895 1,250,000 } 5,500,000 + 1896 1,200,000 } Withheld 6,000,000 + 1897 3,500,000 } from public 8,500,000 + 1898 6,700,000 } knowledge. 9,000,000 + 1899 10,000,000 } 19,130,000 + 1900 10,500,000 } 14,991,300[280] + +It will thus be seen that, out of a total rubber and ivory export from +the Congo State in 1898 amounting to 20,170,247 francs (see Table I.), +the _Domaine Privé_ taxes produced 9,000,000 francs, or close upon +one-half; and that out of a total rubber and ivory export in 1899, +amounting to 33,935,537 francs, the _Domaine Privé_ taxes produced +19,130,000 francs, or not far short of two-thirds. The illustration is +in itself sufficient to destroy the theory of commercial prosperity so +assiduously propagated by King Leopold and his friends, in order to +deceive public opinion. Such “prosperity” entails the death of many human +beings. What could, indeed, be more eloquent of the true condition of +affairs! The total exports from the Congo State in 1899 are found (see +Table I.) to amount to 36,067,959 francs, of which 33,935,537 francs are +represented by rubber and ivory, in which the Congo State’s share as +tax-gatherer is no less than 19,130,000 francs. The Congo State asserts +that it does not trade. It merely imposes taxes which every “civilised” +Power (Heaven save the mark!) has the right to do; yet it incorporates +in its so-called trade figures the yield of its taxes! What becomes, +then, of this flourishing trade we hear so much about? On the evidence +produced, it sinks for 1889 to 16,937,959 francs (36,067,959 minus +19,130,000) instead of 36,067,959 francs, which the world is invited +to believe. In reality it does not amount to anything like 16,937,959 +francs, for the simple reason that there is no “trade” at all in the +Congo State north of Leopoldville; and that, if we extract from the +remaining figures the exports from the Lower Congo, where genuine trade, +sadly hampered by taxation, alone exists, the balance is represented by +the shipments of the _Domaine Privé_ subsidiary monopolies in which the +Congo State benefits to the extent of 50 per cent.; and by the shipments +of the Thys Trust, which is a monopoly within a monopoly, although +conducted, it is but right to add, on different lines. Such is the +“trade” of the Congo State, the most gigantic fraud which ever came into +being to work misery upon mankind. + +It would be unjust not to recognise that all this sordid history +has aroused loathing and distress in the hearts of many honourable +Belgians—not confined to the Party which opposes Colonial policy for +Belgium—mainly, as I believe, on the ground that King Leopold, in the +course of his illegalities and intrigues, will end by compromising +the neutrality of his country. It would be as equally unjust not to +express admiration for the indomitable energy displayed by Colonel +Thys in constructing the railway to Leopoldville, as to include in the +condemnation of King Leopold’s POLICY in Africa all the Belgians who +have been employed at one time or another in the State service. Sir +Harry Johnston has recently lent the weight of his name in favour of the +Congo State, in respect to the “very small portion” of the State which +he has visited. Sir Harry Johnston might have added that the rubber laws +are not in full operation in the “very small portion” of the country +he visited, and that the Belgian officers with whom he came in contact +have not been employed in that degrading business, their duties in that +particular region being confined to strengthening the obscure political +aims which King Leopold is pursuing in the Nile Valley. For a description +of the state of affairs prevailing south of the “very small portion” +of the Congo State alluded to, Mr. Grogan’s volume, and Mr. Robert +Codrington’s recently published “Travel and Trade Routes in Northern +Rhodesia and adjacent Parts of East Central Africa,”[281] together with +the revelations attending the treatment meted out to the late Mr. Rabinek +by the officials of the State, may be consulted with advantage. It would +be an insult to Sir Harry Johnston—who has himself condemned the system +of territorial concessions—to suggest that he desires in any way to +bolster up the Congo State; but it is certainly a thousand pities that +he has committed himself, even partially, to statements which, however +accurate in themselves, cannot fail to exercise an unfortunate influence, +without making himself acquainted with the general system under which +the Congo State is run. When the nature of that system is understood, it +becomes an outrage upon common sense and common decency to write one word +in extenuation of the system, or of the man who has originated it. + +M. Cattier, to whose work I have several times alluded, represents the +type of Belgian who, convinced of the necessity of a colonial programme +for Belgium, has sufficient perspicacity to realise, and sufficient +courage to assert, that the policy of King Leopold in the Congo State +carries within it the germs of death. How true this is, the reader must +judge for himself; but it is at least significant that among a section +of French Colonial writers who think they see in the recent abandonment +of M. Beernaert’s Annexation Bill, at the king’s dictation, the final +postponement by Belgium and the consequent assertion—at some future +date—of France’s right of pre-emption, are beginning to ask themselves +whether the king’s ultimate aim is not to continue for some years longer +his “ruinous exploitation” of the Congo State; and then, when uprisings +have reached such a scale that the king’s cannibal army, however large it +may by that time have become, is powerless to cope with them; and when +whole tracts of the richest and most easily accessible rubber districts +have been irretrievably impaired, to offer the squeezed lemon, for a +consideration, to his Gallic neighbours. If the pernicious _régime_ +which King Leopold has inaugurated in Africa were confined to the Congo +State, it would still be sufficient, one might have thought, to stir the +conscience of Europe, if not for the sake of her own dignity outraged in +the violation of solemn obligations, if not for the sake of humanity, +then for the sake of the future relations of black man and white man in +Central Africa. But, as we have seen, the _régime_ is spreading, and with +every year that passes it threatens more acutely all legitimate European +enterprise in Africa.[282] + +This accursed _Domaine Privé_, and all the evils it has brought with it, +cannot last for ever. Like all such “negations of God” it will perish. +But what will remain behind for Europe, when the Congo State has passed +away, to deal with? A vast region, peopled by fierce Bantu races, with an +undying hatred of the white implanted in their breasts; a great army of +cannibal levies, drilled in the science of forest warfare, perfected in +the usage of modern weapons of destruction[283]—savages whose one lesson +learned from contact with European “civilisation” has been improvement +in the art of killing their neighbours; disciplined in the science of +slaughter; eager to seize upon the first opportunity which presents +itself of turning their weapons against their temporary masters; rendered +more desperate, more dangerous, more debased than before the advent of +King Leopold’s rubber collectors, who, by way of regeneration, have +grafted upon the native’s failings, born of ignorance, the worst vices +of the Africanised civilisation of modern Europe—cupidity, hypocrisy, +cruelty, and lust. + +In their own most obvious interests, for the sake of humanity and right, +in the name of enlightened statesmanship and political common sense, +the Powers cannot allow the disease introduced into West and Central +Africa by King Leopold of Belgium to be farther extended. Nor do their +responsibilities end there. The source of the disease must be dealt with. +The canker must be rooted out and cast upon the dunghill. The Congo State +must be called to account for its crimes against civilisation; for its +outrages upon humanity; for the unparalleled and irreparable mischief it +has committed. + +And what a warning lies here for the Western nations! The Congo State is +the living embodiment of the evil counsels, so lavishly, so thoughtlessly +given in connection with native policy in West Africa. In the Congo +State we see what these counsels lead to when put into practice. All +this talk about the puerility of preserving land tenure, the futility of +maintaining native institutions, the efficacy of punitive expeditions, +the necessity of teaching the native “the dignity of labour,” the cry for +territorial concessions, the advocacy of monopoly, and all legislative +acts framed in accordance with these views, or with some of them, tend to +produce in greater or less degree a state of affairs in Western Africa +similar to that which prevails on the Congo. In the case of the Powers, +the motives may be of the very best, the intentions honest and sincere; +but if once the thin end of the wedge be driven home; if once legislation +be passed or acts sanctioned which are founded upon a repudiation of +the inherent right of the native to his land and the fruits thereof; if +once it be officially admitted that it is legitimate to force the native +to give under compulsion that which is purchasable on fair terms, we +are committed to a policy of reaction of which no man can prophesy the +consequences or the end. To those conceptions Tropical Africa opposes her +vastness, her climate, and the prolific nature of her peoples. They can +be tried; apparent success may attend them for a time; lasting success +they will never secure. Tropical Africa _cannot permanently be held +down by force_, and in attempting to do so by placing modern engines +of destruction in the hands of Africans, Europe will be but digging the +grave of her ambitions on African soil. + +But Europe can achieve a great work in Tropical Africa for good, +and benefit her own peoples in doing so. To divorce the two is +impossible. Evil wrought in Tropical Africa will have its aftermath +in Europe. The European has need of the Negro, and the Negro of the +European. In occupying the country of the Negro, Europe has assumed +a great responsibility. It is well, perhaps, European statesmen +should occasionally be reminded, that for Europe to forget the moral +responsibility in pursuing the material ends is to invite a certain +Nemesis. These pages cannot be more fittingly closed than by recalling +the words of a wise and good woman, who understood the nature and +immensity of the problem: + +“Not only do the negroes not die off in the face of white civilisation +in Africa, but they have increased in America, whereto they were taken +by the slave trade. This fact urges on us the belief that these negroes +are a great world race—a race not passing off the stage of affairs, but +one that has an immense amount of history before it. The moulding of +that history is in the hands of the European, whose superior activity +and superior power in arts and crafts give the mastery; but all that +this mastery gives is the power to make the future of the negro and +the European prosperous, or to make it one of disaster to both alike. +Whatever we do in Africa to-day, a thousand years hence there will be +Africans to thrive or suffer for it.”[284] + + E. D. M. + + + + +APPENDIX + + + + +SIERRA LEONE + +EXPENDITURE, LOANS, EXPORT TRADE, RAILWAY + + + Expenditure Export Trade + 1897-1902. 1897-1902.[285] + + 1897 £112,000 £361,747 + 1898 121,000 267,156 + 1899 145,000 307,929 + 1900 156,000 317,980 + 1901 173,457[286] 265,433 + 1902 177,882[287] + + +RAILWAY + + Railway Expenditure + 1899-1902. + (Included in total + expenditure.) + + 1899 £10,493 + 1900 23,320 + 1901 19,642 + 1902 23,606[288] + + +LOANS FOR RAILWAY + + Amounts advanced to end 1900 £307,539 + Loan authorised 631,000 + +First section, 32 miles, formally opened May 1st, 1899. + +Second section, 23¼ miles, “taken over by the open line,” end 1900. + +Third section, 80½ miles, in course of construction. + +According to the statement forwarded by the Local Traders’ Association of +Freetown to Sir A. King-Harman in 1901, the third section of the railway +(to Bo) will entail an annual charge on the Colony of £11,000, plus a +further sum of £6000 for “increased cost of administering and operating.” + + +FOR MILITARY PURPOSES + +Annual charge of £6000 for eight years from 1899 on account of the sums +advanced by the Imperial Treasury for the Hut-tax war. + + +THE PROTECTORATE + + Expenditure 1898-1902. Revenue 1898-1901. + Civil. Military. Total. + + 1898 £10,455 £20,634 £31,089 £7,754 + 1899 14,124 25,672 39,796 21,943 + 1900 17,000 23,499[289] 40,499 33,468 + 1901 25,767[290] 23,707[291] 49,474 38,347 + 1902[292] 24,807 24,911 49,718 + + + + +GOLD COAST + +EXPENDITURE, LOANS, EXPORT TRADE, RAILWAY + + + Expenditure Liabilities incurred Export trade + 1897-1900 1897-1902. 1897-1900. + (Inclusive.)[293] (Incomplete.) (Inclusive.)[294] + + 1897 £406,370 1897 £ nil. + 1898 377,976 1898 265,000 1897 £857,793 + 1899 309,656 1899 100,000 1898 992,998 + 1900 272,303 1900 928,300 1899 1,111,738 + 1902 1,035,000 1900 885,446 + + Total £1,366,305 Total £2,328,300 Total £3,847,975 + +Expenditure, £1,366,305; Liabilities incurred (incomplete), £2,328,300 +Export trade, £3,847,975. + +The Gold Coast Report for 1901 has not yet been published. According +to the statement made this year before the Legislative Council of the +Colony by Sir Matthew Nathan, the Imperial Government advanced £400,000 +on account of the last Ashanti expedition, but whether this sum includes +the £202,300 advanced for the same purpose in 1900 is not clear. Assuming +that it does, the liabilities incurred by the Colony from 1897 to 1902 +inclusive will amount: (1) Loans by Imperial Government, £1,491,000; (2) +Gold Coast Government Loan, £1,035,000; Total, £2,328,300. + +The Ashanti Blue Book (1901) estimated the total cost of administrating +Ashanti at about £60,000 per annum. According to Sir Matthew Nathan’s +statement referred to above, the expenditure in 1902 may be set down at +£107,148. Assuming these figures to be correct, the total expenditure in +Ashanti from 1897 to 1902 (reckoning an expenditure of £60,000 in 1901) +works out at the very large figure of £319,385, entirely exclusive of +grants-in-aid (assuming the £202,300 in 1900 to be incorporated in the +£400,000 advance), amounting to £695,000. Up to and including 1900, the +revenue of Ashanti was £3406. In the Ashanti Blue Book already mentioned, +the annual revenue for Ashanti is estimated at £14,600, less 10 per cent. +to the Chiefs (_i.e._ less £1460). Assuming this amount to have been +collected in 1901 and 1902, the total revenue for Ashanti from 1897 to +1902 inclusive amounted to £29,686, against an expenditure of £319,385, +and grants-in-aid to the amount of £695,000. + +These figures should be borne in mind when examining the following +tables, which do not go farther than 1900, that is to say, as far as the +last issued Colonial Office Report. + + +EXPENDITURE, GRANTS-IN-AID, AND REVENUE OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORIES AND +ASHANTI + +1897-1900 inclusive + + +TOTALS + + Expenditure. Grants-in-Aid. Revenue. + + Northern Territories £213,338 £195,000 £7,736 + Ashanti 175,450[295] 202,300 3,406 + + +DETAILED + + +NORTHERN TERRITORIES + + Expenditure. Grants-in-Aid. Revenue. + + 1897-98 £121,022 1898 £45,000 1897 Nil. + 1899 54,875 1899 100,000 1898 ” + 1900 37,441[296] 1900 50,000 1899 ” + 1900[297] £7,736 + + +ASHANTI + + Expenditure. Expenditure. Revenue. Grants-in-Aid. + Ordinary. Extraordinary. + + 1897 £13,723 1897 £151,614[298] 1897 Nil. + 1898 4,304 1898 603 1898 ” + 1899 2,608 1899 20 1899 ” + 1900 2,578 1900 Not given. 1900 £3,406 1900 £202,300 + + +RAILWAY + +Position December 31st, 1901: Completed, say, 45 miles;[299] sum +expended, £389,869.[300] + +Loans from the Imperial Treasury: 1898, £220,000 (Railway +Ordinance);[301] 1900, £676,000 (“certain public works, railway +construction,” etc.)[302] + +Future: Officially expected to reach Obuassi end 1902. + +Gold Coast Loan: 1902, £1,035,000, “to defray cost of constructing a +railway 169¼ miles from Sekondi to Kumasi.” + + + + +LAGOS + +EXPENDITURE, LOANS, EXPORT TRADE, RAILWAY + + + EXPENDITURE, 1891-1902-03 LIABILITIES INCURRED + + 1891 £66,388 “The amount of the debt of the + 1892 86,513 Colony on 31st March 1901 was + 1893 101,251 £972,902. This debt has been + 1894 124,829 incurred solely for the building + 1895 144,483 of the railway from Lagos to + 1896 168,444 Ibadan, the tramway from Lagos + 1897 182,668 to Iddo, the Abbeokuta branch of + 1898 203,802 the railway, and the bridges from + 1899 223,289 Lagos Island to the mainland. + 1900-1901 187,124 “The Legislature has sanctioned + 1901-1902 231,597[303] the borrowing of £1,053,700 for + 1902-1903 240,718 these purposes.”[304] + It is recognised that the above + amount will not be sufficient to + defray the entire cost. + + +EXPORT TRADE + +(These figures include the export of specie.) + + 1891 — + 1892 — + 1893 £836,295 + 1894 821,682 + 1895 985,595 + 1896 975,263 + 1897 810,975 + 1898 882,329 + 1899 915,934 + 1900-1901 831,257[305] + +Owing to the intelligent way in which the Report for 1900-1901 is +prepared, it is possible to separate the specie from the total exports +for the years 1896-1900, 1901, as given in that Report. The total +exports, less specie, for the above-mentioned period were as follows: + + +EXPORT, LESS SPECIE + + 1896 £906,393 + 1897 740,179 + 1898 821,112 + 1899 834,358 + 1900-1901 705,237 + +There are special reasons to account for the heavy fall in 1900-1901. +Nevertheless, a glance at the expenditure and export columns cannot fail +to accentuate the fact that the growth in expenditure is incommensurate +with the increase in the purchasing power of the Colony. The financial +future of Lagos now depends entirely on the railway. When the entire sum +authorised has been expended, which will be this year, I believe, and +other expenses are added thereto, it is estimated that the railway will +have cost about £9000 to £10,000 per mile. In this connection the Dahomey +figures should be consulted. + +The notes in the expenditure column include, of course, moneys expended +on public works. The growth in expenditure and the relation it bears to +the producing capacity of the country would, perhaps, appear even more +clearly if the expenditure totals were given, minus the expenditure on +public works. It has not been possible to satisfactorily separate them in +every case; but, as a simple illustration, 1893 and 1900 may be compared. + + Ordinary expenditure. Export trade. + 1893 £75,207 £836,295 + 1900 131,742 831,257 + +It will thus be seen that whereas, within the period given—eight +years—ordinary expenditure has nearly doubled, the producing power of +the country is found, at the close of the eighth year, to be stationary. +It may be argued, and justly, that the area of the Protectorate has been +extended since 1893. But the point is, _the way these dependencies are +managed_. Is not the management carried out upon altogether too elaborate +and expensive a scale? Does this increase in ordinary expenditure +correspond with an increase in the production, that is to say, in the +prosperity of the colony and the people of the colony? If it does not, +no special knowledge of political economy is required to predict that, +if the system be not modified in the future, the steadily increasing +expenditure will, before very long, act as a positive deterrent upon the +producing power of the country. In fact, there is sufficient evidence +to justify the fear that in some instances this stage has already been +reached. + + + + +COMPARATIVE TABLES OF IMPORT DUTIES IN VOGUE IN LAGOS AND DAHOMEY + + + DAHOMEY. LAGOS. In favour of + + Tobacco (manufactured) 2⅙d. per lb. 8d. per lb. Dahomey. + ” (unmanufactured) 2⅙d. ” 4d. ” ” + Gunpowder 2⅙d. ” 6d. ” ” + Trade guns 1s. 7⅕d. each 2s. 6d. each ” + Kerosene 0⅜d. per gallon 2d. per gallon ” + Salt rock 11s. 4½d. per ton 20s. per ton ” + ” sea 4s. 10½d. ” 20s. ” ” + Lead ⅑d. per lb. 1d. per lb. ” + Coal Free of duty Pays duty 10% ” + Fresh fruit and seeds ” Pay ” ” + Tools of all kinds + (_i.e._ mechanical, + agricultural, etc.) ” [306]Pay ” ” + Furniture ” [307]Pays ” ” + + +SILKS, VELVETS, COTTONS AND PRINTS + +In Dahomey these articles pay duty on their weight; in Lagos the tax is +an _ad valorem_ one. How these different duties work out in practice can +only be ascertained by giving specific instances. The following examples +are taken from actual shipments: + + DAHOMEY. LAGOS. + 50 c. per 10 per cent. + kilo. _ad valorem._ In favour of + £ s. d. £ s. d. + Silk shipment of £50 value— + 38 kilos weight 0 15 3 5 0 0 Dahomey. + Velvet shipment of £90 value + —384½ kilos 7 13 9 7 0 0 Lagos. + Cottons shipment of £52 value + —659 kilos 13 3 7 5 4 0 ” + Prints shipment of £100 value + —979 kilos 19 12 0 10 0 0 ” + + +SPIRITS + + DAHOMEY. LAGOS. In favour of + Brandy, rum, &c., 18/20 + under proof, equals 46° + Tralles, at 1f. 20c. per + hectolitre per degree + plus 5c. for bottles 2s. 1d. per gallon 3s. per gallon Dahomey. + Gin 0° to 20° Tralles 1s. 9½d. ” ” ” + Gin 20° to 50° ” 2s. 8⅖d. ” ” ” + Gin 57° proof (Sykes) 3s. 1d. ” ” Lagos. + Alcohol: + 68 over-proof—96° Tralles 4s. 2¼d. 5s. 0¼d. Dahomey. + 60 ” —91° ” 4s. 4s. 9⅗d. ” + + + + +THE DAHOMEY RAILWAY + +LENGTH—ESTIMATED COST—FINANCE—PRESENT POSITION—GENERAL REMARKS + + +KOTONU-TCHARU (TCHAOUROU) + +Length, 605 kilometres, or 377 miles, in two sections. First section, +Kotonu-Acheribe (Atcheribe). Second section, Acheribe-Tcharu. + +Length of first section, 186 kilometres, or say 115 miles. Estimated cost +of first section, 63,000 francs per kilometre. Estimated total cost of +first section, 11,718,000 francs. + +In English figures[308]—Total estimated cost of first section, 115 miles +long, £468,740, or say £4076 per mile. + +It is intended to subsequently carry on this line from Tcharu to Karimama +on the Niger. + + +RESULTS AS FAR AS AT PRESENT KNOWN + +Actual work commenced May 1, 1900. In March 1902, 82 kilometres, or +say 51 miles, of embankment, earthworks and “ouvrages d’art” complete, +were handed over to the Concessionnaire, who is called upon to provide +and lay down sleepers and rails, provide rolling-stock, &c. Fifty more +kilometres, or say 32 miles, similarly complete, were ready at the date +mentioned to be handed over to the Concessionnaire. The Colony, which +has itself undertaken the work, has thus prepared in less than two years +132 kilometres, or say 82 miles of line. The chief difficulties met with +have been in crossing the swamps between Kotonu and Godomey, the marshy +streams of Whydah and the Pahu lagoon, where the earthworks are 26 feet +high. To fill up a depression of 16 feet in the centre of the lagoon +40,000 cubic metres of sand and earth were required. A distance of 12 +kilometres between Wagbo (Ouagbo) and Taffo required 75,000 cubic metres +of embankment. In the crossing of the Lama 2500 workmen were continuously +employed for five months in placing 80,000 cubic metres of gravel. All +the labour was found in the Colony. The number of natives continuously +employed has varied from 3500 to 5000, _entirely recruited through the +Chiefs_. There has been no trouble with the workmen, and no police force +has been employed on the works. The export trade of the Colony has not +suffered during the process, notwithstanding the withdrawal of so large +a quantity of labour from the farms; but, indeed, has increased,[309] a +tribute to the wisdom of leaving the _recruiting entirely in the hands of +the Chiefs_. + + +FINANCE + +The Colony undertakes the cutting embankment, earthworks, &c., everything +but the laying of the rails, sleepers, the providing of the same, +rolling-stock, stations and so forth. + +It has undertaken to advance for five years _out of its own local +resources_ a sum of one million francs, say £40,000 annually. For 1901 +the Colony undertook to provide £60,000, instead of £40,000. + + +GENERAL REMARKS + +The French accurately claim that their railway will carry them much +farther inland for a given distance covered than the Lagos railway with +the big curve eastward which it takes from Abbeokuta; whereas they +are pushing their line almost due north, and at their present rate of +progress, in comparison with the time taken over the British line, their +iron horse will have penetrated very much farther into the interior than +Ilorin, long before the British line creeps up to that place. Upon this +premise they base a number of conclusions, the first and foremost of +which is that the French line will thus be able to capture the inland +traffic which finds its way into the Lagos hinterland from the Niger, +along the Nikki road (the French have a “post” at Nikki, which is a great +centre for the caravan traffic), and to drain the western portion of +Sokoto, to the detriment naturally of Lagos and Northern Nigeria. Well, +in Northern Nigeria we do not seem to care much about trade, the military +and political policy being more showy, albeit a nice little bill will +have to be met presently, for the showy policy cannot be indulged in in +West Africa without having to pay the piper some day. But in the case of +Lagos it is a different affair, and the French argument is worth looking +into. There can be no doubt that if the Concessionnaire of the Dahomey +line lays his rails and provides his rolling-stock at the same ratio of +speed as the Colony has performed its share of the work, the contention +that the French rail-head will in a couple of years be carried deeper +into the interior is correct. That the Concessionnaire will do so is, +of course, an assumption. He has been engaged in quarrelling with his +contractors for a considerable time, but now it appears he is seriously +setting to work; at least, that is the information I get from Lagos. It +is equally true that the French line, when it has reached its terminus +at the 377th mile, will plunge into a network of trade roads, branching +eastwards to Lagos and westwards to Togo, and will have an excellent +chance of diverting the flow of the internal commerce from both those +Colonies. To that extent Lagos will probably be a loser, because the +African is very conservative and will cling to his old trade routes +rather than abandon them for new ones, and naturally the French railway +will benefit him. But the French, perhaps, forget that the Lagos line, +as far as Ibadan, at any rate—as far, that is to say, as it goes at +present—does not rely upon inland traffic for its existence. It will +be fed locally by the increased production which will accrue along its +line of march by the conversion of thousands of carriers of produce, +into cultivators and reapers of produce. Between Ibadan and Ilorin, it +cannot hope to do much anyhow. Beyond Ilorin again, increased local +production will feed it, Nupe being a rich and well-populated country. If +the British line remains stationary at Ibadan for many years, however, +the danger from its French competitor, supposing the latter to follow a +progressive construction, would certainly become more acute. Here, again, +the question of finance comes in, and the French Colony is decidedly +better off. What greater contrast could, indeed, be imagined?—Lagos +in debt to the tune of over a million, burdened for all time with an +annual drain of £50,000, while Dahomey is not in debt to the extent of +one penny, and cheerfully advances £60,000 in one year to the works of +construction out of its surplus funds! As for the _cost_ of construction, +if the French estimates hold good, or anywhere near it, the French line +will be built at about half the cost of its British competitor. + + * * * * * + +Since the above remarks were written news has been received that 65 +kilometres of the railway were opened to traffic in September, and that +rail-head is expected to reach Abomey in January next. + + + + +FRENCH GUINEA RAILWAY + +LENGTH. ESTIMATED COST. FINANCE. PRESENT POSITION + + +KONAKRY-KURUSSA _viâ_ TIMBO + +Length, 550 kilometres, or 342 miles. + +Highest estimated cost of line, 80,000 francs per kilometre. + +Highest estimated total cost, 44,000,000 francs. + +First section, Konakry-Kandia, 150 kilometres, or say 92 miles. + +In English figures: Total estimated cost of line, 342 miles long, +£1,700,000; or say, roughly, about £5140 per mile. + + +RESULTS UP TO DATE, ACCORDING TO THE REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF +FRENCH WEST AFRICA IN JUNE LAST + +The earthworks have reached Kandia at the 149th kilometre (say 92nd +mile). + +With the exception of two places, between the 27th and 44th kilometre, +and between the 90th and 107th kilometre, the earthworks and embankment, +&c. are finished and in good condition. One steel bridge thirty-three +yards long is already fixed up, and two others are in process of being +so. The 34 kilometres which remain are being proceeded with rapidly. +Seventeen hundred workmen are continuously engaged thereon. Rails and +sleepers are being regularly landed at Konakry. The first locomotive +has arrived. By October the rolling-stock complete for the first 150 +kilometres, say 92 miles, will have arrived in the Colony. + + +FINANCE + +For the first section the Colony borrowed from the “Caisse des +Retraites,” on its own guarantee, eight million francs (£320,000), at 4 +10% in August 1899; and four million francs (£160,000) at 4% from the +“Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations” in March 1901. The first loan is +to be paid back in forty annual payments, and the second in twenty-five +annual payments, the two annuities together amounting to 430,000 francs, +or say £17,200. + +These loans will be further supplemented by drafts upon the Colony’s +local funds. + + + + +WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY TRADE + + +IMPORTS OF WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY INTO EUROPEAN PORTS IN THE YEARS +1898-1901 + + 1898 40,167 tons + 1899 48,902 ” + 1900 55,959 ” + 1901 44,582 ” + + +DESTINATION OF IMPORTS IN 1901 + + Liverpool 29,312 tons + London 6,998 ” + Glasgow 278 ” + Germany 4,735 ” + France 3,259 ” + + +IMPORTS, IN SUPERFICIAL FEET, OF WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY INTO LIVERPOOL FOR +THE PAST 13 YEARS + + Sup. ft. 1889 68,000 + ” 1890 259,000 + ” 1891 1,600,000 + ” 1892 3,000,000 + ” 1893 4,984,000 + ” 1894 4,700,000 + ” 1895 3,400,000 + ” 1896 5,098,000 + ” 1897 8,134,000 + ” 1898 10,519,000 + ” 1899 13,508,000 + ” 1900 14,034,000 + ” 1901 11,652,000 + + +IMPORT, CONSUMPTION AND STOCK OF WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY INTO LIVERPOOL +1898-1901 + + 1898. 1899. 1900. 1901. + + IMPORT 10,519,000 ft. 13,508,000 ft. 14,034,000 ft. 11,652,000 ft. + CONSUMPTION 10,571,000 ” 13,496,000 ” 13,764,000 ” 11,978,000 ” + STOCK 633,000 ” 645,000 ” 915,000 ” 589,000 ” + + +IMPORTS OF WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY INTO LIVERPOOL FOR THE FIRST SIX MONTHS +OF 1901 AND 1902 RESPECTIVELY + + LOGS + + January. February. March. + 1901. 1902. 1901. 1902. 1901. 1902. + Lagos 1558 799 767 184 386 120 + Benin 202 599 62 376 69 — + Sapeli 65 49 44 44 58 — + Other West African Ports 2373 626 505 1130 264 198 + + April. May. June. + 1901. 1902. 1901. 1902. 1901. 1902. + Lagos 311 42 210 43 72 114 + Benin 121 181 56 66 77 — + Sapeli 87 89 36 42 77 — + Other West African Ports 604 617 206 502 320 114 + + + + +THE GOLD COAST MINING INDUSTRY + + +Having but casually referred to the Gold Coast mining industry, it has +been suggested to me that a few remarks might be contributed to the +subject in an Appendix. I am somewhat reluctant to write anything on the +point, because I know absolutely nothing about mining; and the opinions +I have formed, such as they are, are the outcome (1) of conversations +with a number of men who are more or less experts, and have formed their +views of the prospects of the Gold Coast mining industry from personal +investigation on the spot; (2) the perusal of a quantity of reports by +Companies which are operating and prospecting ... and by Companies which +are doing nothing at all but squander their shareholders’ money; (3) +historical research and study of the past performances of the Gold Coast +as a gold producer. Beyond that I have no knowledge whatever; nothing but +opinions, which perhaps the reader will kindly bear in mind when perusing +the following notes. + +There is not the slightest doubt that gold exists in considerable +quantities in West Africa. The earliest records we have of any trade at +all being done on the West Coast of Africa is a trade in gold dust. The +external trade of West Africa dates back to the period when the Negroes +beheld the Carthaginian galleys bearing down upon their shores. The +internal gold trade of West Africa is probably even more remote—but there +we enter the domain of conjecture. + +There is not the slightest doubt that the Portuguese, Dutch, English, +French, and so on, obtained enormous quantities of gold from the Gold +Coast. + +For many years the gold _trade_ in the Gold Coast has practically been a +thing of the past. The gold _trade_, as a trade, is long since dead. + +At the beginning of last century the great gold store—which had been +accumulating for ages—of the Coast peoples of the Gold Coast became +exhausted. At that period the Ashantis, farther inland, still retained +large quantities of gold ostentatiously displayed. James, Bowdich, +Dupuis, Hutton, and Hutcheson bear witness to that. With the gradual +undermining of the Ashanti Kingdom this store also disappeared. + +Coming to more recent times, we find that the geological formation known +as “banket” was discovered in 1878 in the Takwa district by a French +traveller called Bonnat. That seems to have been the basis of the future +modern mining industry in the Gold Coast, replacing the extinct trade. + +Many years of disappointment and failure followed Bonnat’s discovery, +due in a very large measure to the absence of transport facilities and +to mortality. However, some of the mines which had come into existence +subsequent to the discovery refused to be discouraged, and went on +working, more or less half-heartedly, notably in the Wassau and Takwa +districts. + +In January 1900 the scene changed, as though by a magician’s wand. +The man who waved it was a Mr. Stanley Clay, an engineer reputed of +considerable ability, in the employ of the Consolidated Goldfields of +South Africa, which Corporation had been approached by the men who owned +the Wassau and Takwa mines. This gentleman reported in effect that the +banket formation of the district he had been despatched to examine was +so like the banket formation of the Rand as to be hardly distinguishable +from the latter. Although some years previous to that report the Ashanti +Goldfields Corporation, Limited—the parent, so to speak, of the Ashanti +mines—had come into existence, I believe I am correct in stating that the +remarkable “boom” in Gold Coast mining undertakings practically dates +from the favourable report above alluded to. + +Be that as it may, the last two years have witnessed the extraordinary +movement with which every one is familiar. According to “Wallach’s West +African Manual” for June 1901, 321 companies had at that time been +created, with a total nominal share capital of £25,567,170. “The issued +share capital will amount to approximately £15,750,000, if all is fully +paid up.”[310] + +This is truly colossal. But all is not gold that glitters. The boom, +prematurely, and to a large extent, dishonestly engineered, collapsed. +Deep distrust has taken the place of sanguine anticipations, and public +confidence, greatly shaken, is apt to rush to the opposite extreme. The +Gold Coast mining industry has many enemies and many unwise friends. The +“boom” was, of course, thoroughly unjustified. The public lost their +heads completely. Company after company was formed, a large proportion +of which hardly knew where their territory lay, let alone whether it +contained any gold. But the public did not care twopence so long as it +was a Gold Coast venture, and a great many rascals have done excellently +well out of the British investor. Finally, this constant flotation of +companies got to be in the nature of a scandal; and the Governor of the +Gold Coast, in a courageous speech, which has remained famous, before the +local Chamber of Commerce, and for which Sir Matthew Nathan deserves the +greatest possible credit, denounced the abuses which the movement was +giving rise to. Mr. Chamberlain promptly endorsed the Governor’s views, +and caused a public statement to be made which fell like a bombshell on +the market-riggers. Flotation of new companies after that was an almost +impossible task, and the market received a staggering blow from which it +has not yet recovered. There is pretty certain to be renewed activity at +some not very distant day. Let us hope that the next time it will rest on +something more tangible than fairy tales. + +That gold exists in the Gold Coast is demonstrated beyond a shadow of +doubt. That it can be worked at a profit has yet to be satisfactorily +proved, even in the case of the properties which are, or will be, in +close proximity to the railway now in course of construction. For the +purposes of illustration the Gold Coast may be divided into three +portions. First, where gold exists in such quantities—other conditions +being favourable—that it is reasonable to believe the mines, if +economically and wisely administered, will become dividend-producing. +Secondly, where gold exists, but not in sufficient quantities—the +conditions of mining in West Africa being what they are—to enable the +mines ever to become dividend-paying. Thirdly; where no gold exists at +all. + +Now when it is borne in mind that options have been acquired by +individuals pretty well all over the country, and companies have been +formed to work those options, it will be easily understood that shares of +a considerable number of existing companies are not worth the paper upon +which they are inscribed. In my opinion, if Mr. Wallach’s “321” companies +were divided by six, the residue would be an optimistic prophecy as to +the number of Gold Coast mining companies existing ten years hence. +This number would be amply sufficient to allow of the Gold Coast to +become, what I believe it will become, a gold-producing region of very +considerable value. Personally, I am as equally convinced that some of +the mines will become good dividend-payers, as I am that the majority are +rubbish. The two main difficulties which the mining industry in the Gold +Coast have to face are climate and transport. + +The first is a very real difficulty, and the public would do well to +treat with the utmost scepticism reports emanating from directors of +Gold Coast companies, especially those whose properties are situate near +the coast; who pooh-pooh the danger of the climate. If Major Ross’s +indefatigable efforts are backed up by the authorities and the mining +companies, we shall see a better state of things before many years are +past. But that the climate will always be an adverse element to contend +against is positively certain. Those who say the contrary are not dealing +honestly with the public. + +Many people imagine that transport difficulties will vanish when this +crawling single line to Kumasi has been completed. Let those who are +inclined to that belief study one of the excellent maps of the Gold Coast +mines now available, and see how many of the properties, out of the total +of companies floated, approximate sufficiently to the line to feel its +usefulness. Before transport difficulties can be said to be overcome, the +Gold Coast must be a network of railways. That may come, but the time is +not yet by a long, a very long way. + +The alleged labour difficulty I have dealt with elsewhere. It is largely +fictitious, as the most reputable companies and the most experienced +Europeans will bear witness. The boot, the stick; abuse; inadequate pay; +dishonest dealing—so long as these incentives to labour exist on the +Gold Coast, and they exist to-day, so long will certain people endeavour +to make the British public believe that labour is improcurable in West +Africa save by measures of coercion, or by Asiatic emigration, or by +draining the other West African colonies of their able-bodied men. Decent +wages; just treatment; tactful dealing; a high type of representative—the +mining companies which supply these have not, and will not have, +occasion to complain. The Administration might play a useful part in +imitating the French policy of obtaining labour for the Guinea Railway, +viz. through the Chiefs, and through them alone, and refuse to allow +authorised or unauthorised recruiting agents. + +From the point of view of the investing public, those who contemplate +putting any money into the Gold Coast mines should carefully weigh +the difficulties mentioned against the counterbalancing reasons for +optimism in the facts (1) that some undoubted experts, and some men of +undoubted integrity and ability who have a reputation to lose, have +staked that reputation upon the existence of “paying” gold in the Gold +Coast; (2) that a powerful corporation has undertaken a heavy liability +in guaranteeing a certain sum for a number of years to the Gold Coast +Railway; (3) that a very large sum of money has been sunk in the +country for the purpose of mining enterprise; (4) that the past history +of the Gold Coast is all in its favour. Finally, the investor should +discriminate carefully between the companies and “groups” which are +justifying, or honestly seeking to justify, their existence and those +that are not. + + + + +APPROXIMATE AREA AND POPULATION OF THE BRITISH WEST AFRICAN POSSESSIONS + + + GAMBIA. Population, 14,260. + + SIERRA LEONE. Colony, 4000 square miles; population, 136,000. + Protectorate, 30,000 square miles; population, + 750,000. + + GOLD COAST. Gold Coast Proper, 40,000 square miles; population, + 1,500,000. + Ashanti proper. Neither area nor population known. + Northern territories, 38,000 square miles[311]; + population, 317,964 (C.O. Report, July 1902). + + LAGOS. Colony, 3460 square miles } Population,[312] + Protectorate, 25,450 square miles } 1,500,000. + + NIGERIA. 500,000 square miles; population, 25 to 30 + millions.[313] + + + + +THE RABINEK CASE + +(See Chapter xxxii.) + + +On October 27th, Sir Charles Dilke, having asked the Under-Secretary +for Foreign Affairs if he could say whether, in the Rabinek case, the +prisoner was taken by the Congolese authorities from a British ship +in British waters, and, if so, what course his Majesty’s Government +proposed to adopt, Lord Cranborne, in a printed answer, said: “It is at +present uncertain whether Mr. Rabinek was actually on board a British +vessel when arrested, or whether the ship was at the time in British +waters. Inquiries are, however, being made, and on receipt of definite +information his Majesty’s Government will be in a position to consider +what action should be taken in the matter.” + +Since the above question by Sir Charles Dilke, the doubt as to the +actual place of Mr. Rabinek’s arrest has been removed. The Congo State +authorities can no longer evade the point. Here is a copy of the +_Procès-verbal d’arrestation_, showing conclusively that Mr. Rabinek was +arrested _on board a British vessel_. + + PROCÈS-VERBAL D’ARRESTATION. + + Le soussigné, Saroléa, Louis, Sous-Lieutenant de la Force + Publique, commandant la colonne mobile du Tanganyka, stationnée + à Mpueto, officier de police judiciaire, a procédé le 15 Mai + 1901, à 3 heures de l’après-midi, à l’arrestation du sieur + Rabinek en exécution du mandat d’arrêt délivré le 17 Décembre, + 1900, à charge du dit Rabinek par le tribunal territorial + d’Albertville. _Le prénommé se trouvait à bord du steamer + anglais “Scotia,” ancré dans le port de Mpueto._ Le Sieur + Rabinek a été remis à M. Chargois ff du représentant du Comité + Spécial du Katanga à Mpueto. + + Fait à Mpueto, le 15 Mai 1901. + + (L.S.) Lieutenant Commandant la + Colonne mobile du Tanganyka. + + (Sig.) SAROLÉA. + +The British Government has now a copy of the above. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] _Journal of the African Society_, October 1901. + +[2] Among the principal exceptions may be mentioned gum arabic from +Senegal, pepper, spices, &c., from the Guinea Coast. + +[3] The totals here given do not, of course, include foreign and Colonial +merchandise shipped to British West Africa from British ports. + +[4] The total volume of trade—British and foreign and coastwise—in each +of the West African Colonies in the five years 1896-1900, including +specie, has been as follows: + + Gambia £1,797,916 + Sierra Leone 4,646,503 + Gold Coast 10,393,850 + Lagos 8,853,461 + Niger Coast Protectorate (and for 1900, “Nigeria”) 8,183,288 + ----------- + Gross total £42,728,479 + +The trade of the former territories of the Niger Company, from 1896 to +1899 inclusive, is not reckoned in this total, no public figures being +available. + +[5] The totals given are, of course, exclusive of foreign and Colonial +merchandise shipped to these foreign possessions from British ports. + +[6] Due to exceptional imports of coal and telegraph apparatus. + +[7] German imports, like British imports, are largely for re-exportation +to other European and American ports. + +[8] The chief town in Borgu on which the Lugard and Decœur expeditions +were directing their efforts. + +[9] _Journal of the African Society_, January 1902. + +[10] This document is published _in extenso_ in the annual report of the +Liverpool Chamber of Commerce for 1901. + +[11] The Foreign Office lost us the Cameroons, the French Congo littoral, +Futa-Jallon, and heaven knows what besides. In doing so it showed itself +the indifferent servant of an indifferent public. + +[12] See, more particularly, Appendices and the chapter on the Finances +of Nigeria. + +[13] “By the end of April 1900,” says the report for Southern Nigeria for +1900, “twenty proclamations were passed.” I should be afraid to say how +many have been passed since. + +[14] The activity of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been +phenomenal, and the useful work performed by it is internationally +recognised. To the splendid enterprise of Sir Alfred Jones, its initiator +and President, is due the astonishingly strong financial position which +the School has attained—entirely the outcome of private benevolence. + +[15] In the remarkable speech he made at the Lagos Literary Institute—the +most able and statesmanlike oration ever delivered by a British official +in West Africa—Sir William MacGregor said in reference to the extension +of the Lagos Railway: “It would require probably not much greater +expenditure than would a number of military campaigns, it would save many +valuable lives to open up the country in that way, and it would leave a +permanent valuable asset. In this the locomotive would be preferable to +the Maxim.” + +[16] That admirable German Institution, the _Kolonial Wirtschaftliches +Komitee_ (Agricultural Committee) might also be imitated with advantage +by our Government. Attached to the German Colonial Society, the +Agricultural Committee devotes its exclusive attention to a study of the +economic resources of the German possessions, giving special notice to +cocoa, rubber, gutta-percha, cotton, &c. Experts have been despatched +by the Committee to the South Seas to study gutta-percha, to the States +for cotton, to Central and South America for cocoa, &c. The Committee +is really composed of a trained body of agricultural and botanical +specialists working in the joint interests of the Government and the +merchants. + +[17] M. Empain has lately been granted by King Leopold a huge concession +in the Aruwimi region of the Congo State in connection with the promotion +of a railway to the Great Lakes. + +[18] The London Chamber being mainly—although not exclusively—concerned +with Gold Coast trade and mining developments. + +[19] It was entirely owing to the assistance of the African Association’s +agents that the people of the Niger Delta were induced to accept British +protection and consular jurisdiction. By the merchants’ good offices, +Consuls Johnston and Hewett were enabled to ascend the rivers to places +where they would not have dared to enter unaccompanied by representatives +of the merchants. + +[20] Chairman of the African Section. + +[21] Report of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1900. + +[22] Messrs. Shelford’s estimate is £7000 per mile. But this cannot be +reconciled with the amount expended. It leaves out of account the cost of +bridges between Lagos Island and the mainland, which are part and parcel +of the railway scheme. In March of this year the Colony had already +expended its loan of £1,053,700, which works out at £8430 per mile. But +although the railway has reached its present terminus it is not yet +properly finished. Speaking in March, Sir W. MacGregor foreshadowed a +further expenditure of £60,000, and added, “the probability is, however, +that this will not be sufficient.” On the same occasion the Governor, +reviewing the state of the Colony, said that one of the two “principal +causes of anxiety” was “the difficulty experienced in getting the railway +into working order.” + +[23] French Guinea borrowed £480,000 at the rate of 4.10 per cent. and 4 +per cent. respectively. + +[24] 14_s._ 8_d._ per head of the whole population of the territory. + +[25] Another incident of the kind is referred to by Sir W. MacGregor in +one of his speeches before the Legislative Council. Plans were sent home +for a steam-hopper or tramway to remove refuse. The plans were rejected +by the “consulting engineers.” The Governor sarcastically remarked: “It +is doubtful that any remedy that would cost less than £100,000 will ever +be approved by the engineers.” + +[26] The same belief was entertained, curiously enough, by the +inhabitants of the Niger Basin itself even in Clapperton’s day, as +witness Sultan Bello’s map, drawn for Clapperton at the latter’s request, +referred to farther on. + +[27] Lyon subsequently gained Timbuctoo from Murzuk, being the second +European to visit the mysterious city. It has always remained an open +question whether Horneman did not actually cross the Desert and reach +the Chad. Denham, indeed, believed that he did so, but no trace of the +unfortunate German has ever been discovered from the time he left Murzuk, +nearly a quarter of a century before Denham arrived there himself. + +[28] Caffre—_i.e._ unbeliever. + +[29] For instance, the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Bahr-el-Asrek, Bahr-el-Abiad, &c., +all rivers. + +[30] Some authors consider the Hausas to be a branch of the Mandingo +race. According to this theory, the Mandingoes are the parent stock, +and the Hausas, Songhays, Bambarras, &c., are all offshoots of the +same great family. Although there would appear to be a certain basis +of probability—especially as regards the Bambarras—in the plea of a +common Mandingo origin, our historical and ethnological knowledge of the +different races of West Africa, which is still in the embryonic stage, +precludes anything in the nature of a positive assertion. + +[31] Subsequent to the final overthrow of the Berbers, under Kuseila, by +the Arabs in 688 A.D. + +[32] “Historical Account of the Kingdom of Tek-roor.” By Sultan Mohammed +Bello of Hoosa. Denham & Clapperton. Vol. ii., Appendix xiii. + +[33] “Hausaland.” By the Rev. Charles Robinson. P. 179. + +[34] The _Hausa bokoy_, or seven States, as distinct from the _Banza +bokoy_ or Bastard States, representing the seven other provinces where +the Hausa language had partly spread. + +[35] “A Mission to Central Africa.” By James Richardson. 1850-51. + +[36] “L’Annamite mère des langues.” Le Colonel Frey. 1892. + +[37] Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil’s estimate, 1891. + +[38] For hours you may wander about noting industrial scenes like these, +showing to what a length their advance in civilisation has increased +the wants of the people, and produced a necessary division of labour +into weavers, dyers, blacksmiths, brass-workers, saddle-makers, tailors, +builders, horse-boys, agricultural labourers, domestic servants, +shoe-makers, shopkeepers, traders, and others.—Joseph Thompson, in _Good +Words_, 1886. + +[39] Leo Africanus tells us that Gober “had a good trade and considerable +industry, especially in leather-work” (beginning of sixteenth century). + +[40] Since the above was written, Mr. Consul Jago’s report (No. 578) +on the “Trade and economic state of the vilayet of Tripoli during the +past forty years” has been published by the Foreign Office. It is a most +interesting document. The Consul gives a table of the value of Tripoli’s +trade with the Central Sudan States (Sokoto, Bornu, Wadai) for the period +1862-1901 as follows: 1862-71, £318,000; 1872-81, £1,846,300; 1882-91, +£1,283,000; 1892-1901, £1,141,700; annual average, £114,725. + +[41] Consul Jago appears to favour this view. I venture to suggest that +the paragraphs (pp. 7 and 8) in which he refers to the point are open to +criticism. Take, for instance, the cost of transport. Notwithstanding +that, at first sight, the assertion may appear strange, I believe that, +if any one cares to take the trouble to work out the cost of transport of +a ton of European merchandise from London to Kuka (1) _viâ_ Tripoli and +by caravan across the desert, (2) _viâ_ Burutu, the Niger and overland, +the former route will be found the cheaper of the two. Things do not +always appear to be what they are in Africa. If France can come to a +working understanding with the Senussis, the caravan trade will revive. + +[42] According to Lieutenant-Colonel Pilcher, who commanded the West +African Frontier Force in 1898, the Hausa is more quarrelsome than the +Yoruba or Nupe, gets into trouble more often, and is not so quick at +picking up drill or musketry (Colonial Office Report, No. 260, West +African Frontier Force, June 1899). Other officers eulogise the Hausas, +and among military men they are, I think, believed to be superior +fighters to either the West Indian or Mendi Negro, while about equalling +the Yoruba. The Negro seems to fight more fiercely and recklessly when he +has Islam to fall back upon. + +[43] “Géographie Universelle,” livre xii. p. 587. 1887. + +[44] “The Colonisation of Africa,” p. 282. 1899. + +[45] “Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa.” + +[46] “The Language of Bornu.” + +[47] “Magana Hausa.” By J. F. Schön, D.D., F.R.G.S. + +[48] “Hausaland; or, Fifteen Hundred Miles through the Central Sudan.” +1897. + +[49] “Specimens of Hausa Literature.” “A Hausa Grammar.” “A Hausa-English +Dictionary.” “The Gospel of St. John in Hausa.” + +[50] Full details are supplied in Canon Robinson’s book. + +[51] Apart from the question whether the Hausas can claim to have +“attempted the production of a literature” any more than the Fulani or +Kanuri, there remains the fact—which goes to confute Canon Robinson’s +somewhat sweeping generalisation—that the language of the Tuareg—the +Tamashek—has been reduced to literature in _Tamashek characters_, and +that both sexes among the Tuareg are regularly instructed therein. + +[52] “Kanuri Proverbs and Kanuri-English Vocabulary.” By the Rev. S. +N. Koelle. On page 9 of the introduction to his book, Koelle speaks +of the system of orthography followed by him as that of Professor +Lepsius, of Berlin, in the pamphlet entitled “Standard Alphabet for +Reducing _Unwritten Languages_ and Foreign Graphic Systems to a Uniform +Orthography in European Letters.” + +[53] Baikie gives nine Hausa dialects, viz.: “Katshena, the purest and +best; (2) Kano; (3) Gober; (4) Daure; (5) Zamfara; (6) Zuzu; (7) Biranta +Goboz; (8) Kabi; (9) Shira, or Shura.”—“Narrative of an Exploring Voyage +up the Rivers Kwora and Binue.” By William Balfour Baikie. 1856. + +[54] It is found in French Guinea, north of Sierra Leone, but is not +there the staple product, rubber taking its place. + +[55] Southern Nigeria, or rather the Niger Delta, is commonly known as +“the rivers.” + +[56] The figures for 1900 include the whole of Nigeria—that is, the +former Niger Company’s territories in the Lower Niger, and the Niger +Coast Protectorate, now incorporated into Southern Nigeria. + +[57] _Idem._ + +[58] Germany has a protective tax on kernel or other foreign crushed +oil, which enables her to keep the home market to herself, and she +has made a profitable use of the cake for feeding cattle, whilst our +farmers—largely, I understand, through the operation of the tenant-right +conditions of tenure, or perhaps through mere prejudice—refuse to use it +to any extent. + +[59] In Senegal and the Gambia the ground-nut industry, which is also +essentially a native industry, takes its place, the number of palm-trees +in those possessions being very scanty—not worth mentioning, in fact. + +[60] It is also used for lubricating mixtures for the axles of railway +carriages. + +[61] Giving out trust is not invariably confined to the European. Native +chiefs have been known to give trust to Europeans up to 1000 cases of +palm-oil, in days, too, when palm-oil was worth £15 per puncheon. This +would represent a credit of £15,000. + +[62] In point of fact, palm-oil from the Congo district is the richest in +stearine. + +[63] The first West African kernels were imported in 1860 by Mr. A. +Mackenzie Smith and the late Mr. Charles Lane, of Liverpool. The Old +Calabar district led the way in Southern Nigeria. The trade was begun +there in a small way in 1864. Benin was the next place in Southern +Nigeria to follow suit, and by 1867 the trade was fairly large. By 1880 +the trade had spread to the other rivers, New Calabar, Bonny, Brass, and +Opobo. + +[64] The average crushing of the African Oil Mills is, I believe, about +600 tons weekly. + +[65] The exception is the machine erected at the Brass River in 1877 (by +the Count de Cardi, I believe) and used to this day by the firm which has +the principal trade of this district. It can produce, I believe, forty or +fifty bags of clean kernels per day of ten hours. It would require 600 or +700 pairs of hands to give this result in the same time. + +[66] I am given to understand that efforts to use hand-crushing machines +are being made by a merchant firm in French Guinea. + +[67] An interesting account of this most valuable experiment is given by +M. Pierre Mille in the _Journal of the African Society_ for October 1901. + +[68] Various types of hand-ploughs are now being experimented with +in Senegal for the purpose of quickening production.—See _Journal +d’Agriculture Tropicale_, September 1901. + +[69] Many people, on the other hand, will consider the somewhat elaborate +judicial machinery set up in Northern Nigeria as distinctly premature. +The administration of English law in West African Protectorates (see +p. 16, Northern Nigeria Report), even when modified by native law +and custom, is a feature of the Crown Colony system which has little +to recommend it. Dr. Ballay’s plan in French Guinea was infinitely +preferable. In all matters affecting the relations of natives with +natives Ballay insisted that native law should be the basis. He declined +to introduce all the technicalities of European law among a people whose +own laws are founded upon just principles, and, given security in their +application, work effectively and well. + +[70] August 1, 1891. It was first called Consular Jurisdiction. + +[71] Sir Ralph Moor has since declared that Southern Nigeria is in +“a very sound financial position.” The test of sound finance must be +different in West Africa from any other part of the world. + +[72] Colonial Office Report, No. 315. + +[73] In that year Southern Nigeria spent £30,196 on military expenses +and £8236 only on the “Aborigines” department. Under “Political +and Administrative” expenses, £20,327 was absorbed; under “Marine +Department,” £32,531; £24,654 only was spared for public works, but +“Prisons” necessitated £7200, against £1171 under “Botanical” and £1147 +under “Sanitary”! + +[74] In 1890 the value of exports from the Delta was estimated at over +£1,300,000. + +[75] The Nupe campaign was undertaken after great provocation, and is +understood to have been carried out with the approval, tacit or avowed, +of the Emir of Sokoto, who had reason to complain of the Emir of Nupe’s +conduct. + +[76] Similarly Nupe refused to have anything to do with Herr von +Puttkamer in 1889 without consulting the Company, although the German (or +his interpreter) passed himself off as the “Queen of England’s messenger.” + +[77] Northern Nigeria. + +[78] “The Foundation of British East Africa.” + +[79] Colonial Report, No. 346, page 11, par. 2. + +[80] Lord John Russell’s Instructions to Captain Henry Dundas Trotter, +Commander William Allen, Commander Bird Allen, and William Cook, Esquire, +Commissioners for making and concluding agreements with the Chief Rulers +of the Western Coast of Africa for the suppression of the traffic in +slaves and the establishment of a lawful commerce, 1840. + +[81] The absence of any wish to “act otherwise” on the part of the native +is invariably assumed in Europe, and but too often by Europeans in +Africa. In this connection the following passage from Clapperton (when +travelling in Nigeria) is worth noting: “It was with feelings of the +highest satisfaction that I listened to some of the most respectable of +the merchants, when they declared that; were any other system of trading +adopted, they would gladly embrace it in preference to dealing in slaves.” + +[82] Archibald Constable & Co. 1898. + +[83] Not to be confounded with the King of Benin who massacred +Consul-General Phillips. + +[84] Referring to domestic slavery in the Northern Territories of the +Gold Coast, the late Lieut.-Colonel Northcott, C.B., whose death was a +sad blow to the Empire and to West Africa particularly, in his report +on those territories (Report on the Northern Territories of the Gold +Coast—published by the Intelligence Division of the War Office in 1899), +says: “The every-day life of slaves differs in no respect from that +of the free men. Ground is allotted to them, on which they are free +to work for their own benefit, the rule generally being that they may +take two days out of every five for work on their own account. With the +accumulated results of this labour they are at liberty to purchase their +freedom. The price demanded is not excessive, and ranges from £2 to £5, +according to locality; but so lightly does the yoke of slavery bear +that only a comparatively small proportion seek their emancipation by +this means. Slaves may marry, and are encouraged to do so, the children +becoming the property of the master. The apparent hardship of liability +to sale is in reality not oppressive. The march to the new owner’s place +of abode is free from any suggestion of cruelty or force; the slave +partakes of his master’s food and shares his lodging, and he is certain +of kind treatment on arriving at his destination.” + +[85] This is pidgeon-English, the Hausa for ivory tusk (_i.e._ piece of +ivory) being _hakorin_, or _hauwin giwa_. + +[86] Named in honour of Park, who is supposed to be the first European to +have noticed it. + +[87] And Lagos again since the opening of the railway. + +[88] Up to the present, however, shipments of this prepared latex have +met with scant success. + +[89] In the “Report of the Sierra Leone Company” (London: James Phillips, +printer, 1794) the following passage occurs, which most probably refers +to the _Pendatesma butyracæ_. “Butter and tallow tree. This is common in +low lands about Freetown; it abounds with a juice resembling gambodge +in taint and durability, which exudes after the least laceration, and +becomes more coagulated, viscous, and of a darker colour. The wood of +this tree is firm, and seems adapted to various economical purposes. The +fruit is nearly oval, about twice the size of a man’s fist; the rind is +thick, pulpy, and of a pleasant acid; in the inside are found from five +to nine seeds of the size of the walnut, containing an oleaginous matter, +extracted by the natives and used with their rice and other food.” A +gentleman of my acquaintance who knows this tree, tells me he has seen it +growing in Sierra Leone, so that there seems no reason why experiments +similar to those undertaken in French Guinea should not be made in our +colony, which adjoins that French possession. + +[90] Known as “piassava” in the trade. Large quantities are imported from +Liberia. It is used in brush-making. + +[91] Benni seeds crushed yield a fine edible oil. + +[92] On the right bank of the Binue: in the Mitchi or (Munshi) country. + +[93] Stone potash used to be a monopoly of the Igarras, who sold it to +the down-river tribes, but the Niger Company has taken the monopoly from +the Igarras of late years and disposes of it at Lagos, realising, it is +said, considerable profit—from 2 to 300 per cent. + +[94] He will sometimes cut the vine down and chop it into pieces of about +one foot in length the more readily to extract the sap. + +[95] Or even 20 per cent. + +[96] There are many other ways of preparing rubber: this is one of them. + +[97] “A Short Account of the Invasion of Hausa by the Phulas.” By +Bashima, a Hausa-Fulani, in the “Magana Hausa” (J. F. Schön. 1815). + +[98] About 1840. + +[99] And by no one so well as Joseph Thompson, “Mungo Park and the Niger.” + +[100] “Othman established the severest punishment upon whoever committed +the slightest violation of the law.”—“Travels of Sheik Mohammed of Tunis” +(Bayle St. John. London: 1854). + +[101] One of the numerous designations of the Fulani. + +[102] “Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa,” &c. +1829. + +[103] Under the old Hausa _régime_ the inhabitants of the Northern +Hausa States paid direct taxes to the Kings. According to the curious +and interesting records of Assid-el-Haji-Abd-Salam Shabiny, a Tunisian +merchant, the Sultan of Hausa imposed a tax of 2 per cent. on all +products of the land. The people also paid a land tax, and certain duties +were exacted on all goods sold in the market-place (“Relation d’un voyage +à Timbuctoo vers l’année 1787”). + +[104] A missionary has recently admitted that “To the Hausa what is in +the Koran is of God, and what is not in the Koran is not worth knowing.” + +[105] To-day, _Guinée française_. + +[106] This is explained by the unwillingness of the Fulani to allow +unions between their women-folk and their Negro neighbours. + +[107] Recently translated into French by M. O. Houdas (Paris: Ernest +Leroux. 1900). + +[108] Leo Africanus. + +[109] At one time Melle ruled over Songhay and Timbuctoo. In 1329 the +Mellians were driven from Timbuctoo by the pagan Mosis (the most powerful +pagan kingdom which ever arose in West Africa). The people of Melle +reconquered the place, but were finally expelled by the Tuareg in 1433. +Melle was subsequently overcome by the Songhay and fell to pieces. + +[110] Published by the Hakluyt Society. + +[111] We are indebted to M. Dubois for the first complete copy. + +[112] The reigning family says the _Tarik_ were white and their subjects +Wakoris (Mandingoes). This strengthens the Fulani argument, the +complexion of the pure-blood Fulani inclining to white by comparison with +their neighbours. In his “Notice Géographique sur la Région du Sahel” +(which includes Bakunu, the former Baghena), Commandant Lartigue says of +the Fulani still inhabiting that district, “Quelques-uns sont presque +blancs; leur cheveux sont à peine crépus, et ils ont les traits fins et +réguliers des Européens de bonne race.” + +[113] The language of the Fulani. + +[114] The Empire which, as we have observed, was raised upon the ruins of +Ghanata by the Mandingoes, the subject race at the time of the latter’s +foundation. + +[115] D’Eichtal’s assertion (“Les Foulahs.” Paris: 1842), that the +Fulani “to this day” call the whole of Senegambia “Melli,” I do not find +confirmed, but it is worth mentioning, nevertheless. + +[116] The first map in which Melle figures is a Spanish one (1375 A.D.). +In the map of Mathias de Villadestes, the Venetian (1413 A.D.), the word +“Toucuzor” is written by the side of that of the King of Melli, “Mussa.” +For “Toucuzor” read “Toukulor” (Tukulor), the cross race of Fulani-Joloff +and Fulani-Mandingo.—“Considérations sur la Priorité des Découvertes +Maritimes sur la Côte Occidentale d’Afrique.”—Binger. + +[117] Barth’s chronological table of the Songhay. + +[118] Marmol—born in Granada, 1580—translated by Nicholas Perot +d’Ablancourt. + +[119] The _Tarik’s_ statement that Salta Tayenda fled into “Futa” affords +substantial indication of the presence of Fulani in that country at a +previous date, which we know, of course, from other sources. + +[120] This tradition obviously refers to Fulani pressure—the root of the +word (Pul, or Ful) signifying red, or reddish. + +[121] A correspondent of a Paris paper, _La Dépêche Coloniale_, writing +from Kunde, on the Sangha River, on December 10, 1901, says: “Our +clothes, which are ragged from bush travelling, do not convey a great +idea of our influence, especially when compared to the Fulbes (Fulani) +in their embroidered cloths and leather riding-boots. They are all on +horseback and we are on foot. _There are thousands of them_, and all are +armed.” + +[122] Their presence in Omdurman—that is to say, in the heart of the +Eastern Sudan in the Nile valley—has already been noted by Father +Ohrwalder. On page 300 of “Ten Years’ Captivity in the Mahdi’s Camp” +(Major Wingate, R.A. London: 1895), we read, “Several of the Fellata, who +came from distant parts of Bornu, Wadai, &c., were stopped at Omdurman on +their way to Mecca”; and again, on page 305, “The inhabitants of Omdurman +are a conglomeration of every race and nationality in the Sudan—Fellata, +Takruris, natives of Bornu, &c.” + +[123] Dr. Barth’s estimate as to the date of the foundation of Ghanata +is certainly not exaggerated, in view of the _Tarik’s_ statement that +twenty-two kings had reigned before the Hejira. + +[124] Ernest Flammarion, Paris. English edition: W. Heinemann. + +[125] Toledo was wrested from the Moors in 1085; Saragossa in 1118; +Valencia, 1238; Seville, 1248; the Beni-Nasr held Granada until 1492. + +[126] De Barros, Barth, _Tarik_. + +[127] Makrizi, de Barros, Barth. + +[128] _L’Anthropologie_ (Tome x., No. 6), of which Dr. Verneau is one of +the editors. + +[129] In plain language, a prominence of the jaws—one of the +characteristics of the Negro type. + +[130] Dr. Randle MacIver and Anthony Wilkin, in “Libyan Notes.” Macmillan +& Co. 1901. + +[131] Concubinage with negresses being the natural explanation. + +[132] Other authorities, basing their arguments, _inter alia_, upon +the assumption that the wild people “covered with hair” encountered +by the Carthaginian colonists were none other than the gorillas which +Du Chaillu, more than two thousand years afterwards, brought to the +knowledge of an incredulous world, and upon the unlikelihood of any +of those animals being in Hanno’s day so far north, maintain that the +expedition reached the Gaboon estuary, or even the mouth of the Congo. +The point is never likely to be cleared up. The two sides are stated with +great clearness by the late Miss Kingsley in “West African Studies.” +(Macmillan & Co.) + +[133] Lest it be supposed that I am appropriating other people’s ideas +without acknowledgment, I hasten to add that Major Rennel, in his notes +on Park’s travels (“Travels in the Interior of Africa.” London: 1799) +hazards the same suggestion, and Barth and Frey follow suit. But I think +that, in the light of our further knowledge of the peoples and history of +Western Africa, the identification of the “Leucæthiopes” with the Fulani +becomes a good deal more than a suggestion. + +[134] The cattle possessed by the Fulani—who are the herdsmen of West +Africa—are the hump-backed Asiatic kind (_Bos indicus_). That was a great +point with Faidherbe in favour of the Eastern theory. The Abyssinians’ +cattle, it may be observed, belong to the same breed. + +[135] “Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said: ‘My father and my +brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are +come out of the land of Canaan, and, behold, they are in the land of +Goshen.’” + +[136] Cattle-rearer. + +[137] “An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra +Leone.” By Thomas Winterbottom, D.D., Physician to the Colony of Sierra +Leone. 1803. + +[138] The Joloffs (Senegal) declare that the Fulani converse habitually +with their cattle. + +[139] Moore, writing of the Gambia Fulani in the eighteenth century, +says, they manage cattle so well that the Mandingoes give them their own +to look after. + +[140] Native cavalry soldier. + +[141] Related in the French African Committee’s journal. + +[142] De Guiraudon was, apparently, unaware of this passage, which has an +important bearing upon his statements. + +[143] Not pear-shaped, as with the negress. + +[144] Barth, Baikie, Gray, Monteil, Mollien, De Giraudon, Callié, &c., +vie with one another in their enthusiasm over the beauty of the Fulani +woman of pure blood, which is all the more pronounced in view of their +ethnic surroundings. Barth speaks of young Fulani girls whose forms +“recall the finest Grecian sculptury.” “The women are very beautiful, and +possess strange powers of fascination in their large deep eyes,” says +Monteil. “The women in particular,” remarks Gray, “might vie in point of +figure with the finest forms in Europe, and their walk is particularly +majestic.” “The Fulani women, many of whose countenances are resplendent +with a veritable beauty” (Reclus). + +[145] “West Africa.” + +[146] _Ibid._ + +[147] Witness, for example, the admirable work on land tenure on the +Ivory Coast just published by Administrator Clozel; also that gentleman’s +article in the _Journal of the African Society_ for July. + +[148] I have not yet heard of any departure from the rule. + +[149] “Modern ideas and legislation,” says Dr. Alfred Zimmerman, “forbid +violent proceedings. The natives should be taught to work by cultivating +the sentiment in them that it is their interest to do so. _Experience +proves that protection of property is the surest means to attain that +end._” + +[150] Paul Kollmann’s “The Victoria Nyanza” may be consulted in this +connection with advantage. The illustrations of domestic ornaments, of +flasks, bark-boxes, drums, &c., constructed by the natives of Usukama and +Ukerewe show real beauty of design. + +[151] Sir Marshall Clarke’s recent report is instructive. Speaking of the +natives of Rhodesia, he says: “They work in the mines either from direct +pressure brought to bear upon them by the administration, a pressure only +short of force, or the necessity of earning enough to pay their taxes.... +This,” continues Sir Marshall Clarke, “does not tend to make industry +attractive”; and, he adds, “At present there is undoubtedly discontent +among the natives.” + +[152] “The evidence available seems to indicate that the labour +difficulty on the Gold Coast may probably be overcome without the +importation of labourers from other countries, and that success or +failure in the matter is largely dependent on the person in charge of the +undertaking. It is very desirable that the persons in charge should be +gentlemen and men of education, as it is found that such are more likely +to be able to deal satisfactorily with the natives, who generally require +to be handled with much tact and judgment.”—Par. 9, “Labour Ordinance”: +issued by Colonial Office. + +[153] “According to native ideas there is no land without owners. What is +now a forest or unused land will, as years go on, come under cultivation +by the subjects of the Stool, or members of the village community, or +other members of the family” (“Fanti Customary Law,” J. M. Sarbah). What +holds good in the Gold Coast is equally applicable to the rivers and to +Lagos, indeed throughout West Africa, wherever Negro culture is met with. + +[154] In order, of course, to do away with the idea that there is any +wish or desire on the part of the Government to alienate the land from +the rightful owners thereof. + +[155] The amended Lagos Bill exempts from its operation native +customary rights and defers to the authority of the Native Councils +of the hinterland. Its working depends largely, therefore, upon the +interpretation placed by the Colony’s Governor for the time being on the +nature of the relationship between those Councils and the Administration. +Sir W. MacGregor has passed a Bill (the Native Councils Bill) which, he +thinks, will strengthen the position of the Councils. But it is safe to +say that, in all matters affecting land legislation in West Africa, the +procedure for safeguarding native rights, and in their main lines those +rights themselves, should be laid down as clearly as possible in the Act +itself. + +[156] For an intelligent native view on the subject the reader is +referred to the speeches of Dr. O. Johnson, Member of the Legislative +Council of Lagos, in moving the rejection of the Amended Forest Ordinance +(May 1902). Dr. Johnson’s status in the Colony may be estimated from +the fact that the extraordinarily able historical address on the native +history of Lagos, delivered by him at the Lagos Institute last year, was +published as a Government paper in the Colony. + +[157] Who, for some time past, has individually done much to stimulate +cotton-growing for export in West Africa. + +[158] In the manifesto issued by the Association in October there figures +a list of Vice-presidents, headed by Sir Alfred Jones, K.C.M.G., and +including no less than twenty-two members of Parliament, among whom one +notices such well-known names as Winston S. Churchill, R. Yerburgh, +Alfred Emmott, Sir William Mather, Lord Stanley, the Hon. Arthur Stanley, +the Hon. W. R. W. Peel, C. A. Cripps, K.C. J. H. Whitley, Sir J. Leigh, +&c. + +[159] Moloney. + +[160] Secretary of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. + +[161] The cotton-producing capacities of Northern Nigeria have already +been commented upon. + +[162] The _Deutsche Togo-gesellschaft_. + +[163] And as with cotton, so with rice—the Songhays were great +rice-growers, and _Gao_, or Gago, their ancient capital, is said to mean +rice in the Songhay language. + +[164] Sir Alfred Jones has voluntarily offered to carry cotton from West +Africa freight free for two years, and I understand that Mr. Woermann, of +the line of that name, has agreed to ship a considerable quantity of Togo +cotton free of charge. + +[165] And where the enterprise has been carried out on the household +labour plan, which has been compared to the peasant proprietary system. + +[166] Chemical manure has been supplied free by manufacturers of the +article. An exhibit of cloths manufactured with Togo cotton has been held +at Dusseldorf, &c. + +[167] Sir H. Johnston’s and Mr. Grogan’s discoveries have recently +emphasised this fact. + +[168] Now Southern Nigeria. + +[169] And, say the merchants engaged in the trade, to high freights. + +[170] The American demand is, I understand, increasing. + +[171] C. O. Report, No. 348. + +[172] For a technical explanation read the following: “The extremely high +prices obtained here for figured logs have naturally excited shippers, +especially native traders, and all are desirous to learn what constitutes +figure.... This is a subject difficult to elucidate, but we may say that +‘roe’ may be described as the curved direction the grain of the wood +takes by one ring overlapping the other; to be of any value, beyond +ordinary plain wood, it must be of a very pronounced and bold character. +This gives the required variation of light and shade.” + +[173] The conversion of several hundred natives to Islam at Jebu-Ode, one +of the large Yoruba centres in close proximity to Lagos, and where the +Church has laboured for years, is a recent incident which points in the +direction stated. + +[174] _Tarik._ + +[175] Kanem at the time ruled over what was known later as Bornu. + +[176] Makrizi attributes the introduction of Islam into Kanem to Hadi el +Othman, who was probably of Fulani origin, although Makrizi does not say +so. + +[177] Timbuctoo was not founded until about seventy years after the +conversion of Za Kasai. + +[178] The theory which gives an Eastern origin to Mohammedan proselytism +in Kanem seems unworthy of consideration. + +[179] The manatee is the _ayu_ of the Fulani, and its signification—viz. +that of a mythical creature living in the water and dragging any one in +who sees it—seems to argue the existence of an ancient superstition. +In various parts of the Niger and Binue this strange animal is still +regarded with a certain awe, which, however, does not prevent it from +being slaughtered, both for its flesh and skin. The Soninke legend of the +water serpent, which each year claimed the handsomest girl of the village +as a victim, would seem to bear a distinct relation to this, the former +_ayu_ worship of the Songhays. + +[180] Binger suggests that the word Mande, or Mandingo, is derived from +the same root as manatus, and signifies the people of a country where the +manatus is worshipped. + +[181] “Mungo Park.” Joseph Thomson. The “World’s Greatest Explorers” +series. + +[182] Palgrave’s “Arabia,” vol. i. p. 372. + +[183] “Niger and Yoruba Notes,” January 1900. + +[184] A native of the Western Sudan. + +[185] Blyden. + +[186] It has been pointed out to me that the Muslim teachers in this +mosque do not teach reading, but only the Slate-pattern. That simply +shows that Islam in West Africa is capable of being much improved, and +should be moulded, if possible, on Western lines of thought; but it does +not affect the main argument in the least. + +[187] Captain Morrison’s report, issued by the Government of the French +Sudan. + +[188] For instance, read the following passages in “Pilkington of +Uganda” (C. F. Harford Battersby). “This is the lost truth, the loss of +which gave Satan the opportunity of introducing both Mohammedanism and +Popery.... They (the Waganda) have learnt to contend with the three forms +of darkness which they will meet in Africa: Heathenism, Mohammedanism, +and Popery.” And again: “Does it not seem as if the French Mission is +just God’s appointed instrument to complete the confusion of Rome in +Uganda?” + +[189] Le Chatelier. + +[190] The nineteenth century. + +[191] The nineteenth century. + +[192] It is a remarkable fact, frequently borne witness to, that an +unarmed Muslim Negro can travel without molestation through vast +stretches of country in Africa, a privilege denied to his Christianised +compatriot. + +[193] “Esclavage, Islamisme, et Christianisme.” + +[194] Affecting in many parts the laws and customs of the people in +respect to native land tenure. + +[195] “Le Sénégal: la France dans l’Afrique Occidentale.” + +[196] Negro medical men—I mean qualified medical men—of whom there are +a few in West Africa, emphatically corroborate this: and they bring a +great many arguments, founded upon actual experience, in support of the +contention. + +[197] An ecclesiastic well known in the African field, and for whose +really wonderful labours I entertain the highest respect and admiration, +informed me only the other day that, within his personal cognisance, +over 150 couples had been married in Liberia by a certain minister, +in a certain district, within a period of five years; and that the +total number of births up to date was five, and the survivals two. My +reverend friend found in that striking fact (for the truth of which he +vouched, and he is a truthful man) a justification of his view that a +large proportion of Liberians, that is to say, the descendants of the +blacks from the States, led indolent and unhealthy lives. To my mind, it +conveys an eloquent demonstration, that _on West African soil_ monogamy +for the Negro spells race extinction. Naturally my friend would not +admit the conclusion, although in his heart of hearts I believe he is +rather troubled on the subject. But he recognised—and admitted—in course +of conversation that polygamy was a question which the Church, in her +work among tropical peoples, had now to resolutely face and earnestly +discuss. There is, I fear, no doubt that the monogamist—or professing +monogamist—Liberians are, like the Waganda, dying out. + +[198] Politically, the same attitude is adopted by the British +authorities; and in the case of the Sierra Leone Hut-tax war, and +the Forest Ordinances in Lagos, it has been sought to divorce the +educated—and mainly, professing Christian—element of the coast from +community of thought, sympathy, and common racial feelings with the +non-educated, and mainly pagan or Mohammedan, element of the interior. + +[199] “As soon as half a dozen missionaries leave Liverpool,” writes the +same authority, Archbishop Dobson, “no end of a stir is made about the +devoted party, and so forth. I do not mean to be sarcastic about the +missionaries, but it does make one a trifle ashamed at times to meet a +stalwart trader hereabouts on an occasion, who has been coming here off +and on for twenty years, and his chief business is palm-oil, and his best +view a mangrove swamp.” + +[200] It is even admitted to be harmful by Sir Alfred Jones, whose +steamers carry a large proportion of this liquor to West Africa, and +by a large proportion of the merchants who deal in it. The merchants +are sometimes violently attacked on account of this trade. Personally, +I detest the West African liquor traffic. I look upon it in the same +light as the opium traffic in the Far East—a blot upon the escutcheon +of Christian Europe. But those who denounce the merchants might just +as well, and more logically, denounce the Governments. _Per se_ the +liquor traffic is not a lucrative trade to the merchant, but to the +local administrations on the coast it is the backbone of revenue. I was +never able to share the late Miss Kingsley’s views on this subject, +while fully agreeing with her as to the inanity of making the merchants +the scapegoats of an evil the responsibility for which is, in a sense, +universal. Despite anything that may be said to the contrary, I shall +believe that a powerful factor in determining Miss Kingsley’s views was +the knowledge that, but for the existence of the liquor traffic as a +supplier of revenue, direct taxation would be substituted throughout +British West Africa owing to the extravagance of the Crown Colony system; +and I know that Miss Kingsley strongly objected to the introduction of +European spirits into the interior regions by means of the railways. The +liquor question would require a special chapter to adequately discuss. + +[201] He will, no doubt, be edified to learn that the Cape Government has +found it necessary to pass a law imposing a severe term of imprisonment +upon white _women_ convicted of sexual intercourse with the natives—a +circumstance not precisely calculated to increase his respect for our +Christian civilisation. + +[202] Captain—now Commandant—Binger has for some little time past been +in charge of the African Department of the French Colonial Office. His +travels, books, and pamphlets are familiar to every student of Western +Africa. + +[203] It would seem now that they have temporarily prevailed with the +Government. + +[204] In the Sokoto Empire (Hausa States) more particularly. + +[205] They did it so well that, after the failure of their attack upon +the French camp, they denuded the country of supplies and reduced the +expedition to terrible straits for a time. + +[206] The fall predicted, and officially foreseen, in 1901 has come +about, owing to the rubber crisis. The measures taken during the last +fifteen months to stimulate fresh industries in the country, and the +advance of the railway, will, no doubt, make themselves felt in the next +two or three years. + +[207] For the Lagos exports and expenditure, see Appendix. + +[208] C.O. Report. 1900. + +[209] “Rapport d’ensemble.” Dahomey, 1900. + +[210] For 1902, on a total estimated expenditure of £121,560, Dahomey +provides £32,000 for the railway and £11,911 for public works ordinary +or, say, a total of £43,911 for railway and public works. + +[211] The following statistics of the export trade of Dahomey, compiled +from figures recently obtained, are interesting: + + QUANTITIES IN KILOS. + (1015 kilos to the ton.) + + Palm-kernels. Palm-oil. + 1898 18,091,312 6,059,539 + 1899 21,850,982 9,650,081 + 1900 21,986,043 8,920,359 + 1901 24,211,614 11,290,658 + First quarter 1902 6,972,297 3,488,766 + _Ibid._ 1901 4,768,050 1,993,520 + +[212] See Appendix. + +[213] It is worthy of note that the French Government authorises the +Administration of the several West African colonies to make their own +agreements for railway construction. + +[214] So far as the heavier duties charged on spirits in Lagos are +concerned, the fact is distinctly to the credit of Lagos. + +[215] There is a very curious circumstance connected with the ground-nut +trade. All the ground-nuts go to the Continent—both from Senegal and +Gambia—the oil extracted, therefrom, or the bulk of it, is used in making +margarine, which is subsequently consumed, to a very large extent, +by the English people! Why have we not our own crushing-mills? Is it +because we are short of milk? It cannot but strike one as peculiar and +unfortunate that we should send our West African ground-nuts to France, +and afterwards buy from the French the oil the nuts yield for our own +consumption! Ground-nuts will grow anywhere in West Africa, and the +labour involved in cultivating them is very small. + +[216] Belgian syndicates have been trying, and are still trying, to +get hold of the French Ivory Coast goldfields. Hitherto they have been +defeated by the vigilance of the French merchants; but there is no +knowing what may happen in view of the extraordinary influence which King +Leopold appears to wield over the French official world. + +[217] “Sur des traces probables de civilisation Egyptienne et d’hommes de +race blanche à la Côte d’Ivoire.” Masson & Cie., Paris. A pamphlet which +ought to be read by all students of West Africa. + +[218] Specie is usually included in the trade figures—a very misleading +practice. + +[219] Sir David Chalmers’ report, p. 169. + +[220] Like the Susus, for example, who are very numerous in French +Guinea, but of whom a few only have settled in the British Protectorate +adjoining. + +[221] Let it not be imagined that the contrast here made between French +political action in Dahomey and British political action in Ashanti +implies approval of direct taxation _per se_. It is ever a dangerous +experiment in West Africa, especially with pagans, even if conquest has +supervened. If the system under which the taxes are collected is not +carefully watched, grave abuses are almost certain to follow. Quite +recently rumours of oppression in the taxation of the natives in Upper +Dahomey have appeared in the French Press. What truth there may be in +them I do not know. But it is true, I believe, that the excellent staff +whom Governor Ballot gathered round him has left the Colony since Ballot +left it, and has been replaced by less experienced and less competent +material. + +[222] Last Ashanti Blue Book, 1902. + +[223] See Note in Appendix. + +[224] See the evidence of Lieutenant-Colonel Gore, Colonial Secretary for +Sierra Leone. Sir David Chalmers’ report. + +[225] Between July 1894 and February 1898 no fewer than sixty-two +convictions—admittedly representing a small proportion of offences +actually committed—were recorded against them for flogging, plundering, +and generally maltreating the natives. + +[226] One of the pet arguments of the authorities consists in invoking +the benefits which have accrued to the people of the Protectorate since +the passing of the Protectorate Ordinance in the matter of putting down +the slave trade. For these benefits the natives, says officialdom, ought +to be delighted to pay a tax. Possibly they would have paid it in time, +more or less willingly, had they been approached in a different spirit. +But, so far as the slave trade is concerned, the argument is singularly +weakened by the circumstance that Sir F. Cardew publicly declared in +1895 that the slave traffic had “practically disappeared within the +Protectorate.” + +[227] The French West African Company, _Cie française de l’Afrique +Occidentale_, is the largest French firm of African merchants in West +Africa. Founded in 1887 with a capital of 7,000,000 francs; total +turn-over in 1899, 22,000,000 francs; factories in Senegal, French and +Portuguese Guinea, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Lagos, and Ivory Coast. + +[228] In 1900, 39,874,005 francs; in 1901, 43,965,950 francs. + +[229] The same game was tried with the Germans in Cameroons. To quote +from an article in the _National Zeitung_, which, as I have reason to +know, may be accepted as authorised: “If in the Congo State itself the +Berlin Act could be disregarded in this way, and the natives obliged to +bring in the produce against their will, why could it not also be done +in other places? And as the Congo State was itself making the best use +of its monopoly, and only gave concessions to others at high prices, the +monopolists tried, and not without result, to obtain the same state of +affairs both in France and in Germany. In Germany, the German Colonial +Society at once protested against this state of affairs. In spite of +this, however, several of the Belgian capitalists were able to obtain the +help of influential German persons, who obtained from the Government the +concession of South Cameroon. This company had obtained the assistance +of Colonel Thys for its operations on the Brussels Stock Exchange, and +immediately after the flotation of the company the shares were driven up +to two or three times their value. Further concessions in the free-trade +zone were not conceded, and, with the exception of the North-West +Cameroon concession, in consequence of the energetic opposition in +colonial circles, no further concessions were, or will be, made in the +German territories. The German Government has entirely abandoned this +policy of concessions.” + +[230] It is, of course, no easy matter to get at the precise +constitution of these companies, but the following example of one of +the “groups” is typical of the majority of them. _Comptoir Colonial +français._ Parent company: head offices, Paris; has founded at least six +Concessionnaire Companies, of a total capital of 9,650,000 francs; Board +of Administration numbers six directors, of whom three are Belgians; +two-thirds of the shares held in Belgium; two of the Belgian directors +are directors of the four _Domaine Privé_ Companies in the Congo State, +whose profits are shared by the State (read the King); the third also +belongs to the Congo clique; among the Belgian shareholders are other +directors of these same _Domaine Privé_ Companies, all men enjoying +the confidence of, and closely connected with, the Sovereign of the +Congo State. One of the six Concessionnaire Companies of this “group” +has specially distinguished itself in the persecution to which British +merchants have been subjected—discussed in the next chapter. + +[231] Some light has been thrown upon its African chapters by Mr. R. E. +Dennett, an Englishman in French Congo, and a recognised authority on the +Fjort peoples, in “West Africa.” + +[232] I should say now, ex-Deputy. + +[233] “Une idée domine l’ensemble du système, tous les produits du +territoire, concédé quels qu’ils soient, sont la propriété de la Société +Concessionnaire. Seuls les agents de cette Société ont le droit de les +recueillir ou de les acheter des indigènes qui les ont récoltés; ces +derniers ne pouvant disposer librement que des produits des reserves qui +leur ont été spécialement attribuées et sur lesquelles je reviendrai, et +devant en thèse générale, lorsqu’ils s’emparent d’un produit quelconque +du sol en dehors de ces reserves, les remettre aux concessionnaires dont +l’intérêt bien entendu, est de remunérer ensuite leur travail.” + +[234] “Les indigènes ont droit aux superficies qui leur sont nécessaires +pour les cultures vivrières correspondantes aux besoins de leur +alimentation. On peut leur attribuer une certaine étendue de forêt +nécessaire à leurs besoins de chauffage et de construction, mais ils +n’ont pas droit a réclamer des forêts domaniales _dans le but de +faire commerce de leurs produits naturels_ et de constituer ainsi une +concurrence ruineuse pour le concessionnaire” (Art. 18). + +[235] The French Government has recently voted De Brazza an annual +pension of 10,000 francs. + +[236] “Concessions Congolaises.” By Albert Cousin, Membre du Conseil +Supérieur des Colonies. Paris: Augustin Chalamel. + +[237] An English trader, Mr. Walker, was the first to do so. He is +admitted by French writers to have discovered the Ogowe. + +[238] Messrs. John Holt & Co. and Messrs. Hatton & Cookson, both of +Liverpool, and both connected with the West African Trade for upwards of +half a century. Mr. John Holt is probably the most enterprising pioneer +of Britain’s trade in West Africa, possessing trading stations in most of +the British and Foreign West African Colonies. He is the vice-chairman +of the African Trade Section of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and +very few men living have so wide a grasp of West African questions or so +profound a knowledge of West African problems. + +[239] Whose existence was unknown in England until towards the end of +last year. + +[240] Seizure of British goods on public roads; breaking open of British +factories; flogging of British native agents, &c. + +[241] Notably that most excellent monthly, _Le Bulletin du Comité +de l’Afrique française_, through the instrumentality of the two +distinguished thinkers and writers who dictate its policy, Count Robert +de Caix and M. Auguste Terrier. + +[242] Forty tons of ebony, bought in the usual way by a British firm on +the Congo and shipped to Havre in a French ship, were seized at that +port (1902) on a mandate of a Concessionnaire Company. This produce has, +however, now been restored. + +[243] The Foreign Office was warned as far back as the beginning of 1898 +by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce of the danger of the possible +inauguration of a system of territorial monopolies. Lord Salisbury said +it would receive “our most earnest attention,” and admitted inferentially +that in fiscal questions England had, as a free-trade country, “inferior” +means of influencing other countries; “with the occasional exception,” +added his lordship, “of territorial concessions, we have no means +whatever of persuasion.” Nevertheless, in the purely fiscal question +which formed the principal object of the Deputation of Chambers of +Commerce to Lord Salisbury on this occasion, that of the differential +tariff in the French possessions, Lord Salisbury was able to get his +own way, simply by persuasion, by “influencing France’s ideas.” Yet in +this matter of the French Congo Concessions, in which the purely fiscal +question does not enter at all, and where we have an international treaty +to work on, Lord Lansdowne has been unable to prevent the expulsion of +British merchants from an internationally free-trade zone! + +[244] The _Morning Post_, the _Manchester Guardian_, the _Liverpool Daily +Post_, and _West Africa_. + +[245] The German merchants, despairing of obtaining even the most +elementary justice, have evacuated the territory. Our merchants have +chosen the nobler part of making a stand for their rights, guaranteed +under international law. + +[246] To which must now be added the somewhat similar Rabinek affair—an +Austrian subject arrested and “removed” by the Congo State in the Katanga +district under circumstances analogous, in some measure, to the case of +Mr. Stokes. + +[247] The other day the then French Parliamentary representative of +Senegal, in a speech to his constituents at St. Louis, warned them that +the greatest danger threatening their hinterland, the French Sudan, was +King Leopold of Belgium and his monopolist gang. + +[248] At the great “Colonial Congress” held in Berlin on October 11, +Consul Vohsen moved a resolution, unanimously carried, calling upon the +Powers to institute proceedings for the revision of the Berlin Act. +Consul Vohsen said: “From the very first the Congo State, and recently +France in the French Colony of French Congo, have acted against the +principles laid down in the Congo Act.” ... Referring to the Congo +State, he continued: “All so-called countries ‘not occupied by natives’ +situated in the Free Trade zone were, as far back as July 1885, declared +the property of the State, and in the year 1892 heavy taxes were imposed +upon the rubber trade, which was entirely prohibited in parts of the +Free Trade zone. The consequence was that the freedom of trade and +commerce guaranteed by the Congo Act was practically abolished. The first +condition of freedom of trade for the nations is freedom to the natives, +in such a way as to leave them free to dispose of the natural products +of the soil and of the chase; which state of affairs existed before the +passing of the Act in all French, English, and German colonies in West +Africa, and exists to-day, with the exception of the territories of the +Congo State and the French Congo, the very colonies where, strange to +say, free trade is insisted upon by Articles I. and V. of the Act.” + +[249] Among the supporters of the Mansion House meeting of May 15 +(held under the auspices of the Aborigines Protection Society) were +Mr. John Morley, Sir J. Kennaway, Earl Spencer, the Marquis of Ripon, +Lord Avebury, Mr. Lecky, M.P., Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., Sir W. Brampton +Gurdon, M.P., K.C.M.G., Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., Sir Mark J. Stewart, +M.P., Mr. James Bryce, M.P., Mr. W. S. Robson, M.P., and other +politicians of both parties. Five Chambers of Commerce, the African +Society, and the German Colonial Society were represented, and Dr. Alfred +Zimmermann, _attaché_ to the German Embassy in London, also attended. + +[250] Commandant Binger’s views are well known. M. Cousturier (Governor +of French Guinea), in his report on French Guinea for 1901, does not +conceal his adverse opinion of Belgian methods of collecting rubber in +the Congo State. + +The author could produce documentary evidence showing that similar +opinions are held by other well-known French officials in West Africa. + +[251] Belgium, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and +Russia sent delegates to the conference. + +[252] This was done with the exception of England. + +[253] Diego Cam. + +[254] The original title had by this time been changed to that of +“International Congo Association.” + +[255] The point is brought out very clearly by Mr. Dennet, our only +authority on the Fjort Kingdom of Congo, and the author of several books +concerning the Fjort, in a series of interesting letters published +last year in “West Africa.” Mr. Dennet, who has lived twenty-two years +consecutively in the Lower Congo, positively declares that the treaties +made by the Association, and referred to by General Sandford, had no +validity whatever in native law. + +[256] In his report on the Congo State for 1898, Consul Pickersgill +concludes a long enumeration of the taxes levied upon independent trade +by the following humorous passage: + +“I may sum up this portion of my remarks by quoting the jocose +observations of the English and American missionaries, who declared to +me that there is nothing free in the Independent State, except fevers; +while a Belgian Father with whom I had some conversation on the subject, +remarked: ‘The Government taxes even the civilisation we bring.’” + +[257] Who held the monopoly of the ivory trade in the Upper Congo, which +the Congo State, by exterminating them with the aid of its cannibal +soldiery (see Hinde’s “Fall of the Congo Arabs”), became possessed of. + +[258] See Mr. Herbert Ward’s “Five Years with the Congo Cannibals,” p. +297. + +[259] The whole paragraph might have been written a few weeks, instead +of eleven years, ago. The state of affairs pictured by Colonel Williams +has worsened instead of bettered. The evil is more widespread and the +means of perpetuating it more extensive and more powerful. Read in this +connection the latest revelations by Mr. Canisius and Captain Burrows. + +[260] The importance of the 10 per cent. import duty was purposely +exaggerated. The amount derived therefrom was trifling. The merchants +objected to it on principle. As Sir Albert Rollit justly remarked, +“The reason for our opposition is only that they (the import duties) +would infringe the great principle of freedom of commerce, which was +the very basis of the programme of the Berlin Conference.” It is quite +clear, however, that the majority of the merchants also opposed the +import duties from a vague distrust of the king’s ultimate intentions, a +distrust which events proved to be only too well founded. + +[261] The map published by the African Society in the May (1902) issue of +its Journal may be consulted with advantage in this respect. + +[262] Among whom might be mentioned Augouard, Hinde, Glave, Morrison, +Hawkins, Sheppard, Andrew, Sjöblom, Alfred Parminter, De Mandat-Grancy, +Rankin, Murphy, Lloyd, Grogan, and many others, without counting Belgian +authorities—more numerous than all foreigners put together. + +[263] At the present moment heavy fighting is going on in the Welle +district, due, as I have reason to know, to the usual rubber taxes. The +facts as to this particular rising may, happily, have been made public +before the publication of the present volume. + +[264] The regular army—_Force Publique_—of the Congo State is admitted +officially (Bulletin, July 1900) to be 15,000, but we know that in +addition to this regular force—15,000 cannibals armed with Albinis, +sections of whom are continually revolting—the State habitually arms, +whenever it deems necessary, thousands of irregulars, cannibals for +choice (see the letter written in October 1899 to the king by the acting +head of the American Presbyterian Mission in the Kassai district). There +is also a large reserve corps, but the extent of it is not known. + +[265] It may be usefully noted here that the _impôts de nature_ are +applied by the Congo State in the so-called Free Trade Zone as well as +in the _Domaine Privé_, and until the Kassai district was incorporated +in the _Domaine Privé_ many and bitter were the complaints by companies +operating in the former zone of the unfair competition to which they were +subjected by the levying of this tribute. Instances have been given by +some of these irate traders where the State’s officials have threatened +the natives with condign punishment if they did not hand over all their +rubber to the said officials. An arrangement has recently been concluded +between the State and the Kassai companies—the Kassai district was +the only portion of the Upper Congo where independent trade had been +allowed—whereby the Kassai companies have amalgamated into a syndicate +_in which the State holds one half the interest_. To all intents and +purposes, therefore, the Kassai has now been incorporated in the _Domaine +Privé_, WHICH HENCEFORTH EMBRACES THE WHOLE OF THE CONGO STATE NORTH OF +STANLEY POOL. + +[266] Both these facts have been repeatedly asserted. They were proved +beyond manner of doubt last year by the disclosures attendant upon the +Mongolla scandals, in which agents of the _Société Anversoise_ were +involved. + +[267] Seven, if we include the Kassai Trust recently formed. + +[268] Baron A. Goffinet is “Conseiller de Légation, Secrétaire des +Commandements de leurs MM. le Roi et la Reine, Major de l’Etat, Major de +la Garde Civique, Aide-de-camp, Ministre Résident.” Baron C. Goffinet is +“Conseiller de Légation, Intendant de la Liste Civile du Roi, Ministre +Résident, Major de la Garde Civique.” + +[269] I have quite recently received from another correspondent in the +Congo the photograph here reproduced. + +[270] “Abir (Société à responsabilité limitée) Statuts.” Anvers: +Imprimerie Ratinckx Frères, Grand Place, 40-42. + +[271] “Comptoir Commercial Congolais (Société à responsabilité limitée) +Statuts.” Anvers: Imprimerie Ratinckx. + +[272] “Compagnie du Lomami (Société Anonyme) Statuts.” Bruxelles: P. +Weissenbruch, Imprimerie du Roi, 45 rue du Poincon. + +[273] In chapter xxviii. I referred to the constitution of the _Comptoir +Colonial français_, which has managed to secure for its subsidiaries such +a respectable slice of French Congo. Well, Alexis Mols is one of the +Administrators, and so is A. Osterrieth, a shareholder in the _Abir_, and +so is A. Lambrechts, also a shareholder in the _Abir_, &c. &c. + +[274] I am afraid Sir H. M. Stanley was somewhat premature when, in 1884, +he told the London Chamber of Commerce that people “could not appreciate +rightly” King Leopold’s philanthropy, because there were “no dividends +attaching to it.” + +[275] Whip made out of hippo hide—the Congo _sjambok_. + +[276] Or was until quite recently. + +[277] In Congo circles in Belgium it is suggested that to guard against +“attacks which might become too threatening” (by “attacks” is meant +exposures in the public Press, and on public platforms in England and +Germany) the Congo State should largely increase its standing army. + +[278] The author, who may claim to have brought the Rabinek affair to +light, is able to state that the British Government is causing specific +inquiries to be made through its representatives in Central Africa in +connection with the matter. See Appendix. + +[279] The trade of the Lower Congo has sensibly diminished since the +Congo State came into existence. On August 10 of last year the merchants +established in the Lower Congo (of whom there remain a few) petitioned +the king to reduce taxation. After pointing out the heavy import and +export duty on goods and produce (20_s._ per ton on palm-oil, for +instance) and showing how small the existing export trade already was, +owing to the taxes and emigration of native labour, due to “the means +employed in raising native levies,” the petitioners went on to say: +“We do not disguise from ourselves that business in the Lower Congo is +practically _nil_.... Each of us,” continues the petition, “consistently +hopes for an increase in trade; but these hopes appear to us more and +more unreliable, and the Government of the Congo State, instead of coming +to aid us, imposes increased and too onerous taxes.” + +[280] The figures for 1900 are based upon the known sale on the Antwerp +market by the State brokers in 1900 of 1828 tons of rubber and 153,445 +kilos. of ivory, worked out at an average of 6 francs per kilo. for +rubber (1115 kilos, to the ton) and 18 francs per kilo, for ivory. I +believe a proportion of the produce imported was held in stock on account +of the poor state of the rubber market. + +[281] “There is no trade, properly so called,” says Mr. Codrington, “on +the Congo coast of Tanganyika, but all rubber and ivory is regarded as +the property of the State, and has to be surrendered by the natives in +fixed quantities annually. The natives are, however, continually in +rebellion, and the country is unsafe, except in the immediate vicinity +of the military garrisons, and within the sphere of influence of the +missionaries.” + +[282] As was anticipated, the acquirement from Spain for purposes of +exploitation of a portion of the Muni territory (which was recently +handed over to Spain by France) by the Belgian “clique” has been followed +by the usual results. A correspondent, whose name commands universal +respect, and who is in a position to speak _de visu_ on the subject, +wrote to an English friend recently that “atrocities” were going merrily +on; natives being shot down, and villages burnt in the course of “ivory +collecting” by the Belgian concessionnaires; “outrages on the villagers +are indiscriminate,” the writer adds. The same “clique” is threatening +Fernando Po. + +[283] Apart from the large quantities of rifles, cap-guns, and +ammunition imported into the Congo State for the arming and equipment +of the soldiers, regular and irregular, it is morally certain, although +not easy to prove, that the agents of the State and the agents of +the _Domaine Privé_ Companies encourage some of the biggest and +most powerful chiefs of the Upper Congo to obtain ivory for them by +presents of repeating-rifles and ammunition. In this connection a M. +Léon. C. Berthier, writing from the French Upper Congo to the Paris +organ _La Dépêche Coloniale_ (issue July 16, 1902), says: “The M’Bomu +(a branch of the Upper Ubanghi, which forms the frontier between the +French and Congolese possessions, and which pursues its course to the +Bahr-el-Ghazal), here very wide, forms the southern base of the square; +this is the route where the ivory passes _sous notre barbe_ to be sold +to the Belgians on the other bank, _who pay for it in Albini rifles_, +notwithstanding all the Acts of Berlin and Brussels, which forbid even +the sale of percussion-cap guns!” The writer goes on to assert that he +has documents to prove his statements. + +[284] Mary Kingsley, in the “Story of West Africa.” + +[285] Excluding specie. The figures are taken from the Parliamentary +Report, June 1902. + +[286] _Sierra Leone Royal Gazette_, April 18th, 1902. + +[287] Estimated. Appropriation Ordinance, 1902. + +[288] “Railways and Telegraphs,” Appropriation Ordinance, 1902. + +[289] Colonial Office Report, No. 324. On page 8 of the same Report the +figures a given as £29,126 18s. 7d. I cannot explain the difference. + +[290] _Sierra Leone Royal Gazette_, April 18th, 1902. + +[291] _Idem._ + +[292] Estimated. + +[293] The figures for 1900 do not include the expenses of the Ashanti +expedition. + +[294] Including exports of specie. + +[295] Ordinary for 1897, 1898, 1899 and 1900; extraordinary for 1897, +1898 and 1899. + +[296] Sir Matthew Nathan’s report on the Northern Territories (No. +357—issued July 1902) says: “The expenditure in 1901 has not yet been +completely estimated.” Farther on he estimates the expenditure for 1902 +at £52,381 11s. 7d. The expenditure is, therefore, largely increasing. +The above amount includes £23,038 11s. 7d. or military purposes. + +[297] According to Lieutenant-Colonel Morris (C.O. Report, No. 35) the +revenue in 1901 was £7415 4s. 3d. It was estimated at £8000; and the +estimate for 1902 is also £8000. + +[298] Including £97,769 paid back to the Imperial Government for cost of +expenditure on Ashanti expedition. + +[299] Official statement, dated March 1902:—1st section, 39¼ miles long, +open to traffic; and section, of 9¾ miles, “approaching completion.” + +[300] Colonial Office Report, No. 344:—Sum borrowed to end 1900, +apparently £798,000 (£220,000, 1898; £578,000, 1899). + +[301] _Idem._ + +[302] Railway development, £578,000; harbour works at Accra, £98,000. + +[303] Estimated. + +[304] Colonial Office Report, No. 348. + +[305] _Idem._ + +[306] If for re-sale. + +[307] _Idem._ + +[308] One mile—1609 metres. + +[309] In 1901 there was an increase of 4600 tons of palm oil and kernels +exported compared with the previous year. + +[310] Wallach. + +[311] Late Lieutenant-Colonel Northcote’s estimate. It does not include +the portion of the Anglo-German neutral territory, which is eventually to +be incorporated within the British sphere, according to the Anglo-German +Convention of November 1899. + +[312] The principal towns of the Protectorate are Ibadan (population +180,000), Abbeokuta (population 150,000), Oyo (population 50,000). + +[313] If we assume the population of Northern Nigeria to be 30 millions, +this gives us a rough total, exclusive of Ashanti, of 33,218,324 +inhabitants to 645,000 square miles of territory; or not far short of the +population of France, in a territory as large as France and Germany, with +a good half of Austria-Hungary thrown in. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abbeokuta, 199 + + Abderrahman ben Abdallah ben Imran ben Amir Es-Sa’di, 130 + + _Abir_, _see_ Congo State + + Aborigines Protection Society, 185 + + Abutshi, 119 + + Abyssinia, _see_ Christianity + + Adamawa, 57, 61, 95, 128, 180 + + African Association, 28, 38 + + African Oil Mills Co., 79 + + Agoult, Comte d’, 290 + + Agricultural Committee, _see_ German + + Ahmed-Baba, 55, 130 + + Air, 53, 54 + + Akassa, 56, 75 + + Allen, Commander, 94, 103 + + Alvensleben, Count, 176 + + Amageddi, 111 + + Anglo-French Convention, _see_ Treaties + -German Convention, _see_ Treaties + -Portuguese Convention, _see_ Treaties + + Angola, 193, 241 + + Ansorge, Dr., 181 + + Anton, Dr., 344 + + _Anversoise_, _see_ Congo State + + Apis, 146 + + Ashanti, 14, 19, 68, 104, 135, 205, 280, 281 + + Assay, 76 + + Assinie, 204, 271 + + Atani, 75 + + Axim, 204 + + + Baghena, 131, 132 + + Baghirmi, 57, 258, 259, 262 + + Bakundi, Lake, 111 + + Bakunu, 130 + + Ballay, Dr., 87, 114, 274 + + Ballot, Governor, 280 + + Bambarras, 53, 129, 180, 215 + + Bamboo-palm, 116, 117 + + Bambuk, 133 + + Bangalas, 330, 339 + + Banyo, 111 + + Baobab, 116 + + Barbot, 271 + + Barros, de, 133 + + Barth, Dr., 40, 44, 52, 54, 55, 59, 60, 62, 70, 71, 72, 118, 126, + 131, 133, 136, 209, 214, 221 + + Basset, Serge, 290 + + Bathurst, 162 + Earl, 39 + + Battel, Andrew, 241 + + Bayol, Dr., 139 + + Belgian policy in West Africa, 176, 307, 311, _see also_ Congo State + + Belgians in French Congo, 288, 307 + on Muni River, 307, 350 + + Belgium, King Leopold of, _see_ Congo State + + Bello, Emir, 36, 46, 49, 50, 51, 53, 59, 150 + + Benin, 68, 105, 204 + + Berlin, Act of, _see_ Treaties + + Béthancourt, De, 239 + + Bilma, 42, 58, 67 + + Binger, Commandant, 133, 211, 220, 239, 240, 249, 271, 309 + + Binue, 109, 111, 113, 118, 119, 148, 211, 257 + + Biru, _see_ Walata + + Bismarck, 250, 317 + + Blyden, Dr., 130, 139, 149, 213, 214, 222, 226, 227, 245, 276 + + Bohn, M., 173, 247, _see also_ French West African Co. + + Bondu, 133, 180 + + Bonny, 79 + + Borgu, 9, 49, 251 + + Bornu, 40, 41, 43, 45, 50, 57, 58, 63, 85, 87, 113, 209, 259 + + Brass, 79, 80 + + Brazza, De, 251, 289, 293, 315-316 + + Bretonnet, Lieut., 259, 260 + + British Cotton Growing Association, 188, 189, 190 + + Brown, Dr. Robert, 131 + + Brüe, Sieur de, 134, 251, 274 + + Brussels, Act of, _see_ Treaties + + Burutu, 64, 75, 76, 86 + + Bussa, 49, 50 + + Butter-tree, 114, 115 + + + Ca-de-Mosto, 133 + + Caix, Count Robert de, 302 + + Cambyses, 76 + + Cameroon, 14, 177, 201, 287, 308 + + Caravan traffic, 41, 62-65 + + Cardew, Sir F., 283 + + Cardi, Count de, 80 + + Cattier, M., 313, 343, 344, 350 + + Chad, Lake, 38, 41, 42, 43, 48, 58, 63, 67, 70, 118, 136, 256, 259, + 260, 262 + + Chalmers, Sir David, 281, 282 + + Chama, 204 + + Chamberlain, Right Hon. Joseph, 12, 25, 59, 169, 278, _see also_ + Colonial Office + + Christianity, in Abyssinia, 237 + in Uganda, 227, 228, 229 + in West Africa, 208-37, 256 + + Clapperton, 35-51, 53, 103, 126, 147, 150 + + Clarke, Sir Andrew, 83, 258 + + Clarke, Sir Marshall, 182 + + Clozel, M., 171, 173, 273 + + Codrington, Mr. Robert, 349 + + Colonial Office, 165, 169, 183, 184, 281, 283, _see also_ Chamberlain + + _Comptoir Colonial français_, 288, 336 + + Conakry, 20, 114, 274 + + Concessions _régime_, _see_ French Congo + + Congo State, history of, 312-326 + “trade of,” 286, 343-53 + taxation in, 327-29, 330, 339, 340, 347, 348 + native policy of, 287, 292, 319, 328-29, 337, 345, 352 + land policy, 323, 324 + commercial policy of, 319, 323, 325, 330, 344, 345 + traffic in arms, 351 + _Force publique_, 329, 330 + _Domaine Privé_, 327-42, 343, 347, 351 + privileged Companies in, 330-38 + Stokes’ affair, 306 + Rabinek affair, 306, 344-49, _see also_ Appendix + and Belgian Parliament, 333-334 + on Tanganyika, 349 + in Nile Valley, 349 + slavery in, 296 + influence in France, 271, 287, 288, 289, 310 + + Copal, _see_ Trade in Gums + + Copra, 80 + + Copts, _see_ Gober + + Cotton, 59, 117, 180, 181-200, _see also under_ Trade + + Cousin, M. Albert, 294 + + Cousturier, M., 115, 309 + + Crampbel, Paul, 259 + + Crown Agents, _see_ Crown Colony System + + Crown Colony system, 12, 13, 16, 17, 22, 31, 32, 33, 85, 87, 89, 92, + 93, 184, 186, 235, 269, 281 + + Crowther, Bishop, 97 + + Currency, 60, 101 + + + Dahomey, _see under_ French + + Dakar, 270 + + Daw, Mr., J. A., 170, 183 + + Décrais, M., 285, 291, 302 + + Degama, 75 + + Delafosse, 173, 273 + + Denham, 35-51 + + Dennett, Mr., 289, 317 + + Denton, Sir George, 194 + + Desert, the, 38, 41, 64, 70, 111, 209, 253 + + Dilke, Sir Charles, 276 + + Dobson, Archbishop, 233 + + Donovan, Captain, 170 + + Dubois, M. Félix, 131, 137, 138 + + Dufferin, Marquis of, 252 + + Dybowski, M., 259 + + + Ebony, 117, _see also_ Timber + + Edrizi, 55 + + Egga, 76 + + Eichtal, M. d’, 132, 140 + + El Bekri, 55, 209 + + El-Haji-Omar, 129, 223, 252, 261 + + El-Kuti, 259 + + Ellis, A. B., 171 + + Etienne, Eugène, 250-63 + + + Faidherbe, 143, 226, 243, 250, 252, 263 + + Fans, 293 + + Ferry, Jules, 243, 244, 249 + + Finances of British West Africa, 17, 18; _see also_ Appendix + of Nigeria, 17, 89, 93; _see also_ Appendix + + Finances of Lagos, 267; _see also_ Appendix + of Sierra Leone, 274, 275, 284; _see also_ Appendix + of French Colonies, 266, 275; _see also_ Appendix + + Flatters, 259 + + Fondère, M., 294 + + Forcados, 204 + + Foreign Office, 14, 26, 303 + + Foureau, M., 254, 259, 261 + + Freeman, R. Austin, 104, 201, 271 + + French, exploration and discovery, 238-48 + trade, 4, 5, 265-75 + policy, 18, 64, 249-84 + in French Guinea, 81, 111, 114, 266, 274, 275, 281-84 + in Dahomey, 177, 266, 267, 268, 269 + in Chad region, 64, 254, 256, 257, 259, 260-64 + in Western Sudan, 196, 251, 256, 257 + in Senegal, 76, 81, 266, 269, 270 + in French Congo, 177, 201, 263, 285-304 + in Ivory Coast, 177, 266, 270, 271, 272, 273 + and British, 238-48, _see also under_ Nigeria, French policy, and + French in French Congo + West African Company, 285, _see also_ Bohn + + Frey, Colonel, 55 + + Fulani, origin of, 136-52 + history of, 125-29, 130-135 + in Yoruba, 125, 126, 135 + in Hausa States, 47, 60, 85, 102, 125-30 + in Gambia, 130, 134, 141 + in Futa-Jallon, 128, 130, 133, 139, 140, 180 + in Senegal, 127, 128, 132, 133, 134, 136, 252 + in Western Sudan, 128, 147, 148, 253 + in Gurma, 134 + in Adamawa, 128 + in Baghirmi, 262 + in Congo Basin, 135 + in Segu, 129 + in Baghena, 131, 132, 133 + in Bornu, 40, 128, 138 + in Melle, 131, 132, 133 + in Omdurman, 135 + in Massina, 129, 134, 214 + and Portuguese, 133 + and British, 46-50, 152 + and French, 134, 147, 148, 152, 252 + and Hebrews, 145, 152 + characteristics of, 47, 134, 146, 148 + religion of, 55, 56, 127, 216, 254 + language of, 70, 71, 72, 132 + + Fula, _see_ Fulani + + Fulbe, _see_ Fulani + + Fulfalde, _see_ Fulani + + Futa-Jallon, 9, 14, 20, 66, 139, 245, 274 + + + Gaboon, 298, 299 + + Gambia, 19, 134, 194, 196, 197, 242, 269, 278 + + Gambetta, 243, 244 + + Gando, 57, 95 + + Gao, 197, 210 + + Geary, Sir William, 280 + + _Générale Africaine, Société_, _see_ Congo State + + Gentil, Lieut., 254, 258, 259, 260 + + German, trade, 4, 5, 74, 75, 193, 196, 199 + agricultural committee, 23, 24, 196 + Colonial advisory board, 23, 24 + + German Colonial Society, 29, 308 + + Ghana, 131 + + Ghanata, _see_ Walata + + Gober, 53, 54, 55, 59, 125, 129 + + Gold Coast, 12, 13, 18, 25, 57, 183, 194, 204, 245 + + Gold, _see_ Mining Industry; _also under_ Trade + + Goldie, Sir George, 9, 39, 68, 104 + + Grand Bassam, 204, 273 + + Green, Mrs. J. R., Foreword + + Gregory, Professor, 99, 179 + + Grogan, Mr. H. S., 178, 179, 181, 202, 349 + + Ground-nut, _see under_ Trade + + Guiraudon, Capt. de, 148-50 + + Gutta-percha, 116 + + + Hamarua, 113 + + Hanno, 136, 140, 141, 142, 202 + + Hatton and Cookson, 300 + + Hausa Association, 70, 71 + language, 54, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 + history, 53, 54 + religion, 53, 56, 68 + + Hausas as manufacturers and traders, 57, 63, 67, 68, 69, 111, 117 + as travellers, 57, 69, 111, 116 + as soldiers, 68, 69 + as slave-owners, 55, 63, 112 + relations of with Fulani, 53, 55, 56, 68 + + Helm, Mr. E., 182 + + Herodotus, 35, 76 + + Hess, M. Jean, 290 + + Holt, Mr. John, 300 + + Horneman, 38 + + Houdas, M. O., 130, 132 + + Hourst, 22, 26 + + Hut-tax in Sierra Leone, _see under_ Taxation + in French Congo, _see under_ Taxation + + Hutton, Mr. Arthur, 11, 20, 188 + + Hyksos, 140, 142, 143, 145, 146 + + + Ibi, 111 + + Idah, 76 + + Igarras, 56, 118 + + Ilorin, 68, 96 + + Illushi, 76 + + Indigo, 117 + + In Salah, 65 + + International Congo Association, 309, 314-20 + + Islam in West Africa, 208-23 + in Bornu, 209, 213 + in Hausa States, 53, 55, 56, 101, 213, 214, 221 + in Baghirmi, 215 + in Kanem, 209, 210 + in Gambia, 278 + in Yoruba, 208 + in Adamawa, 214 + in Lagos, 213-15 + in Sierra Leone, 213-15 + in Futa-Jallon, 215 + in Western Sudan, 209, 215, 216, 244, 254 + in Kong, 220, 221 + in French possessions, 215, 216, 278 + + Ivory Coast, 57, 206, 220, _see also under_ French + + Ivory, _see under_ Trade + + + Jago, Consul, 64 + + Jalonkes, 128 + + Jebba, 76, 119 + + Johnson, Dr. O., 187 + + Johnston, Sir H., 70, 141, 202, 227, 228, 265, 349 + + Joloffs, 128, 147 + + Jones, Sir Alfred, 20, 188, 192, 235 + + + Kanem, 45, 69, 209, 254, 257 + + Kano, 45, 46, 52, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62-67, 70, 72, 86, 111, 112, 191, + 192 + + Kanuri, 56, 59, 70, 71, 72, 114, 128 + + Katamansu, battle of, 28 + + Katanga Co., _see_ Congo State + + Katsena, 54, 55, 59, 62, 72 + + Kingsley, Miss Mary, 86, 124, 141, 171, 173, 232, 235, 266, 276, 353 + + Koelle, the Rev., 72 + + Kola, 57, 116 + + Kontagora, 98 + + Kotonu, 268 + + Krause, the Rev., 70 + + Kuka, 41, 43, 48, 63 + + + Labat, 134, 240 + + Labour, native, 76, 77, 170-87, 197 + Ordinance in Gold Coast, 13 + + Lagos, 18, 19, 49, 162, 164, 186, 193, 199, 201, 204, 206, 245, 267, + 268, 269 + + Lahou, 204, 271 + + Lamy, Lieut.-Colonel, 254, 259, 261 + + Lamy, _see under_ Trade + + Lander, Richard, 40, 41, 48, 51 + + Land-tenure, in West Africa, 170-87 + in Sierra Leone, 278 + in Ivory Coast, 171 + in French Congo, 291, 292 + in Congo State, _see_ Congo State + + Lansdowne, Lord, 302, 303, 310 + + Lau, 111 + + Laveran, 163 + + Leather-ware, 58, 59, 60 + + Leo Africanus, 59, 131, 137, 209 + + Lepsius, Professor, 143 + + Leucæthiopes, _see_ Fulani + + Liberia, 57, 220, 229 + + Liquor traffic, 179, 235 + + Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 20, 163, _see also_ Ross + + Logon River, 43 + + Lokoja, 76 + + _Lomami_, _see_ Congo State + + London School of Tropical Medicine, 20 + + Lucas, 38 + + Lugard, Sir Frederick, 9, 83, 85, 87, 88, 89, 99, 104, 127 + + Lyon, 38 + + + Macdonald, Sir Claude, 11 + + MacGregor, Laird, 28, 94 + Sir William, 19, 22, 32, 33, 162, 163, 164, 168, 170, 187, 189 + + Maclaud, Dr., 138 + + Mahogany, _see under_ Trade (Timber) + + Maistre, M., 259 + + Makrizi, 210 + + Malaria, 12, 153-69 + + Manatus, 55, 211 + + Mandara, 39 + + Mandingoes, 53, 128, 131, 133, 150, 195, 211 + + Maritime Zone, 290 + + Marmol, 133 + + Maroba, 97 + + Méline, M., 247 + + Melle, 131, 132, 195, 210 + + Mendis, 69, 123, 278 + + Merchants, British, in West Africa, 8, 22, 23, 25, 30, 238, 239, 246, + 252, 257 + in French Congo, 286, 291, 298-304, 306 + and liquor traffic, 235 + German, in West Africa, 23, 24 + in French Congo, 291 + French, early exploits of, 240-42 + in Senegal, 81 + in Ivory Coast, 81 + + Mille, M. Pierre, 81, 330 + + Mining industry, in Gold Coast, 12, 29, 182-83, _see also_ Appendix + in Ivory Coast, 270-71 + + Misahöhe, 196 + + Missionaries, _see_ Christianity + + Mitchi, 118 + + Mohammed-el-Kanemy, 45, 51 + + Mohammed Lebo, 129 + + Mohammedans, _see_ Islam + + Moloney, Sir Alfred, 203 + + Mongolia, atrocities in, _see_ Congo States + + Monopoly, _see_ Congo State and French in French Congo + + Monteil, Lieut.-Colonel, 57, 59, 70, 96, 118, 251 + + Moor, Sir Ralph, 90 + + Moore, Francis, 130, 147 + + Mosis, 9, 131, 251 + + Mosquitoes, _see_ Malaria + + Muni River, 307, 350 + + Murzuk, 38, 41, 42 + + + Nachtigal, 118 + + Nathan, Sir Matthew, _see_ Appendix + + National African Company, _see_ Niger Company + + Natron, 58, 61 + + Navarette, 239 + + New Calabar, 79 + + N’Gaundere, 111 + + Niger Coast Protectorate, _see_ Nigeria + + Niger Company, 9, 67, 75, 88, 90, 91, 95, 96, 111, 112, 118 + + Niger, _see_ Nigeria + + Nigeria, discovery of Northern, 35-51 + inhabitants of, 84, 180 + trade of, 59, 60-66, 84, 91-93 + finances of, 89, 93 + administration of, 18, 19, 83-88, 255, 257, 258 + forest ordinances in, 184-87 + national industry in, 74, 82 + and the French, 66, 85 + + Nikki, 9 + + Northcott, Lieut.-Colonel, 107, 108 + + Nupe, 50, 58, 61, 68, 95, 97, 104 + + + Ogowe, 293, 299, 303 + + Ogute Lake, 75 + + Old Calabar, 79 + + Onitsha, 75 + + Orashe River, 75 + + Osogbo, 126, 135 + + Othman Fodio, 45, 53, 55, 57, 125, 126, 129, 222 + + Oudney, Dr., 35-51 + + Overweg, 70 + + + Palm-oil industry, in Southern Nigeria, 74-82, 110 + in Dahomey, 268 + in Lagos, 67, 268 + in Sierra Leone, 123, _see also under_ Trade + -kernels industry, in Southern Nigeria, 76 + in Dahomey, 268, _see also under_ Trade + in Lagos, 268 + + Park, Mungo, 36, 37, 150 + + Paw-paw, 114, 115, 116 + + Peddie, Major, 37 + + Peuhl, _see_ Fulani + + Pickersgill, Consul, 317 + + Pilcher, Lieut.-Colonel, 69 + + Pliny, 35 + + Polygamy, _see_ Islam + + Porto Novo, 268 + + Portugal and the Congo + and the Fulani, _see_ Fulani + and Great Britain, _see_ Treaties + + Portuguese discoveries in West Africa, 239, 240, 259 + Church in West Africa, 216, 217, 218 + + Potash, 118 + + Prempreh, 26, 280 + + Prince Henry the Navigator, 240 + + Ptolemy, 141 + + Punitive expeditions, 19, 87, 98, 279 + + Puttkamer, Herr von, 96 + + + Quadriyah, 219, 220 + + + Rabba, 50 + + Rabah, 63, 64, 256, 258, 259, 261, 262 + + Rabinek, _see under_ Congo State + + Racka, 48, 49, 50 + + Railways, in British West Africa, 12, 18, 22, 32, 193, 267, 284, _see + also_ Appendix + in French Guinea, 20, 32, 66, 274, _see also_ Appendix + in Dahomey, 66, 267, _see also_ Appendix + in Senegal, 270, _see also_ Appendix + in Northern Nigeria, 8, 66, _see also_ Appendix + Matadi, Stanley Pool, 37, 69, 287, 348, _see also_ Appendix + + Reclus, Élisée, 118 + + Religion, _see_ Christianity and Islam + + Richardson, James, 55, 70, 96 + Rev. J., 86 + + Ripon, Marquis of, 12 + + Ritchie, 38 + + “Rivers,” the, _see_ Nigeria + + Robinson, John A., 70 + Canon, 54, 70, 71, 72, 231 + + Rollit, Sir Albert, 318, 323 + + Ross, Major R., 20, 152-69 + + Roume, M., 196 + + Rubber, in Nigeria, 67, 110, 119-24 + in French Congo, 298 + in Lagos, 82, 123 + + Rubber, in Congo State, _see_ Congo State + + Russell, Lord John, 94, 103 + + + Sahara, _see_ Desert + + Salisbury, Lord, 252, 253, 297, 303 + + Salmon, C. S., 20, 170 + + Salt, 58, 62, 167 + + Samory, 256, 261 + + Sandford, General, 316 + + Sangha, 57, 293 + + Sanitation, 153-69 + + Sapelli, 117, 204 + + Sarbah, 171, 184 + + Schön, 70, 71 + + Schurz, 98 + + Sekondi, 204 + + Senegal, 25, 82, 132, 197, 243, 252, 269, 270, _see also under_ French + + Senussi, 64, 257 + + Sette Camma, 299 + + Shari, 43, 44, 45, 57, 63, 215, 258, 259, 261 + + Shea-butter, 113 + + Sherbro, 82 + + Shongo, 76 + + Shuwa, 75, 180, 254, 262 + + Sierra Leone, 14, 18, 19, 27, 28, 74, 82, 164, 194, 201, 242, 245, + 252, 274, 275, 277, 278, 279 + + Silver, 118 + + Slavery, in West Africa, 100, 218 + over-sea, 228, 255, 297, 298 + domestic, 94-109 + in Sierra Leone, 283 + in Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 107, 108 + in Nupe and Ilorin, 109 + in Congo State, 296, _see also_ Congo State + the “New Slavery,” 177, 307, _see also_ Congo State + + Slave-raiding, 87, 94-109, 171, 219, 319 + + Slaves, “White Slaves of England,” 107 + + Sokoto, treaties with, _see under_ Treaties + under Bello, 41, 45, 47, 49, 50, 126, _see also under_ Fulani + + Songhays, 53, 55, 56, 131, 197, 209, 210, 211, 253, 236 + + Soninkes, 211 + + Stanley, Sir H. M., 297, 312, 315, 319, 321, 337 + + Stewart, Captain Donald, 281 + + Stokes, _see under_ Congo State + + Strachan, Dr., 163 + + Strachir, Monsignor, 227 + + Strauch, Colonel, 315 + + Susus, 278, 279 + + + Tanganyika, 349 + + _Tarik_, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 209, 211, 214 + + Taxation, in Sierra Leone, 14, 18, 27, 82, 135, 277, 278, 281, 284 + in Lagos, 269 + in Dahomey, 269, 279, 280 + in Ashanti, 279-81 + in Gambia, 280 + in French Guinea, 274, 277, 278, 281-84 + in Congo State, _see_ Congo State + in French Congo, 293, 295, 301 + in Hausa States, 127 + direct in West Africa, 280 + + Terrier, Auguste, 262, 302 + + Thomson, Joseph, 9, 39, 56, 58, 95, 97, 118, 126, 211, 221 + + Thys, Colonel, 37, 288, 325, 348 + + Tibati, 111 + + Tijaniyah, 129, 219 + + Timber, _see under_ Trade + + Timbo, 139 + + Timbuctoo, 38, 59, 65, 128, 131, 210, 253 + + Tin, 118 + + Togoland, 193, 196, 199 + + Trade, British trade with British West Africa, 2, 3, 4 + French West Africa, 4, 5, 6, 297 + German West Africa, 4, 5 + Portuguese West Africa, 4, 5 + Congo State, 297 + of Gambia, 4, 194 + Gold Coast, 4, _see also_ Appendix + Lagos, 4, 267-69, _see also_ Appendix + Sierra Leone, 284, _see also_ Appendix + of Kano, 60, 61, 62, 65 + of Nigeria, 4, 74-82, 91-93 + of French possessions, 265-75 + of Congo State, 286, 343-53 + early in West Africa, 238-48 + in ivory, 38, 61, 67, 118, 202, 203, 271, 272, 298 + in Gold, 38, 63, 118, 202, 203, 271, _see also_ Mining Industry + and Appendix + in ostrich-feathers, 38 + in kola, 57, 116 + in benni-seed, 117 + in skins, 38, 63 + in “lamy,” 115 + in timber, 117, 201-207, 271, 272, 298, _see also_ Appendix + in bees-wax, 67 + in gums, 67, 112 + in shea-butter, 113, 114 + in cottons, 59, 67, 111, 269 + in palm-oil, 74-82, 110, 268, 272, 298 + in palm-kernels, 74-82, 268, 272 + in ground-nuts, 76, 81, 194, 269, 270 + in rubber, 67, 82, 110, 111, 119-124, 298, 299 + piassava, 117 + + Treaties, Anglo-French, 24, 67, 246, 247 + Anglo-German, 111 + Anglo-Portuguese, 316, 318, 319 + Franco-German, 111 + with Fulani Emirs (Sokoto), 9, 85, 86, 95, 97, 257-58 + Berlin Act, 177, 297, 299, 300, 301, 303, 306, 307, 308, 314, 318, + 319, 321, 323, 343, 344, 345 + Brussels Act, 303, 323, 324, 325 + of Vienna, 243 + + Trentinian, Général de, 196 + + Tripoli, 33, 41, 42, 58, 62, 63, 64, 65, 213 + + Trotter, Captain, 94, 103 + + Tuareg, 53, 56, 58, 71, 85, 128, 253, 260 + + Tuckey, Captain, 37 + + Tugwell, Bishop, 86 + + Tukulors, 129, 131, 253, 254 + + Twin Rivers, 204 + + + Ubanghi, 57, 215, 262 + + Uganda, 181, 227 + + United States, 200, 204, 309, 310, 316, 318 + + Unyoro, 179 + + + Verneau, Dr., 138 + + Viera, 239 + + Villadestes, 132 + + Villaut de Bellefonds, 240 + + Vohsen, Consul, 308 + + Volta, 193 + + + Wadai, 57, 64, 254, 257, 263 + + Wahuma, 144, 180 + + Wa-Kavirondo, 181 + + Walata, 131, 133, 134, 137, 209, 210 + + Waldeck-Rousseau, 244, 285 + + Washington, Booker T., 199 + + Wauters, A. J., 312 + + West African Frontier Force, 86 + + Western Sudan, 35, 129, 130, 147, 209, 210, 272 + + Winterbottom, 147 + + Woermann, 197 + + + Yola, 111, 119 + + Yoruba, 193 + + + Za Dynasty, 209 + + Za-Kasai, 209, 210 + + Zaky, _see_ Othman Fodio + + Zanfara, 55 + + Zaria, 57 + + Zeg-Zeg, 54, 55 + + Zimmerman, Dr. A., 175 + + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + London & Edinburgh + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75580 *** |