The Casement Report 20

The Casement Report 20

At Bongandanga the men of the district named E**, distant about 20

miles, had been brought in with the rubber from that district. They

marched in in a long file, guarded by sentries of the A.B.I.R. Company,

and when I visited the factory grounds to observe the progress of the

“market,” I was informed by the local agent that there were 242 men

actually present. As each man was required, I was told, to bring in 3

kilog. nett of rubber, the quantity actually brought in on that occasion

should have yielded about three-quarters of a ton of pure rubber. The

rubber brought by each man, after being weighed and found correct, was

taken off to be cut up in a large store, and then placed out on drying

shelves in other stores. As considerable loss of weight arises in the

drying to obtain 3 kilog. nett a dead weight of crude rubber

considerably in excess of that quantity must be brought in. There were

everywhere sentries in the A.B.I.R. grounds, guarding and controlling

the natives, many of whom carried their knives and spears. The sentries

were often armed with rifles, some of them with several cartridges

slipped between the fingers of the hands ready for instant use; others

had cap-guns, with a species of paper cartridge locally manufactured for

charging this form of muzzle-loader. The native vendors of the rubber

were guarded in detachments or herds, many of them behind a barricade

which stretched in front of a house I was told was the factory prison,

termed locally, I found, the “maison des otages.” The rubber as brought

up by each man under guard, was weighed by one of the two agents of the

A.B.I.R. present, who sat upon the verandah of his house. If the rubber

were found to be of the right weight its vendor would be led off with it

to the cutting up store or to one of the drying stores. In the former

were fully 80 or 100 natives who had already passed muster, squatting on

raised cane platforms, busily cutting up into the required sizes the

rubber which had been passed and accepted. At the corners of these

platforms stood, or equally squatted, sentries of the A.B.I.R. with

their rifles ready.

 

In another store where rubber was being dried seven natives came in

while I was inspecting it carrying baskets which were filled with the

cut-up rubber, which they then at once began sorting and spreading on

high platforms. These seven men were guarded by four sentries armed with

rifles.

 

Somewhat differing explanations were offered me of the reasons for the

constant guarding of the natives I observed during the course of the

“market.” This was first said to be a necessary precaution to insure

tranquillity and order within the trading factory during the presence

there of so many raw and sturdy savages. But when I drew attention to

the close guard kept upon the natives in the drying and cutting sheds, I

was told that these were “prisoners.” If the rubber brought by its

native vendor were found on the weighing machine to be seriously under

the required weight, the defaulting individual was detained to be dealt

with in the “maison des otages.” One such case occurred while I was on

the ground. The defaulter was directed to be taken away, and was dragged

off by some of the sentries, who forced him on to the ground to remain

until the market was over. While being held by these men he struggled to

escape, and one of them struck him in the mouth whence blood issued, and

he then remained passive. I did not learn how this individual

subsequently purged his offence, but when on a later occasion I visited

the inclosure in front of the prison I counted fifteen men and youths

who were being guarded while they worked at mat-making for the use of

the station buildings. These men, I was then told, were some of the

defaulters of the previous market day, who were being kept as compulsory

workmen to make good the deficiency in their rubber.

 

Payments made to the rubber-bringers, depending on the quantity brought,

consisted of knives, matchets, strings of beads, and sometimes a little

salt. I saw many men who got a wooden handled knife of Sheffield

cutlery, good and strong--others got a matchet. The largest of these

knives with a 9-inch blade, and the smaller with a 5-inch, cost in

Europe, I find, 2_s._ 10_d._, and 1_s._ 5_d._ per dozen respectively,

less 2-1/2 per cent. cash discount. The men who got the knife of the

larger kind, or a matchet, had brought in, I understood, a full basket

of pure rubber, which may have represented a European valuation of some

27 fr. To the original cost of one of these knives, say 2-3/4_d._,

should be added fully 100 per cent. to cover transport charges, so that

their local cost would be about 6_d._ Among the natives themselves these

knives pass at 25 rods (1·25 fr.) and 15 rods (75 centimes) each. From

two of these rubber workers I later purchased two of these knives,

giving twenty-five teaspoonfuls of salt for the larger, and six

teaspoonfuls with an empty bottle for the smaller. From a third member

of their party, whose payment had consisted of a string of thirty-nine

blue and white glass beads (locally valued at 5 rods), I bought his

fortnight’s salary for five teaspoonfuls of salt. This youth, indeed,

confessed that his basket of rubber had not been so well filled as those

of the others.

 

I went to the homes of these men some miles away and found out their

circumstances. To get the rubber they had first to go fully a two days’

journey from their homes, leaving their wives, and being absent for from

five to six days. They were seen to the forest limits under guard, and

if not back by the sixth day trouble was likely to ensue. To get the

rubber in the forests--which generally speaking are very

swampy--involves much fatigue and often fruitless searching for a

well-flowing vine. As the area of supply diminishes, moreover, the

demand for rubber constantly increases. Some little time back I learned

the Bongandanga district supplied 7 tons of rubber a-month, a quantity

which it was hoped would shortly be increased to 10 tons. The quantity

of rubber brought by the three men in question would have represented,

probably, for the three of them certainly not less than 7 kilog. of pure

rubber. That would be a very safe estimate, and at an average of 7 fr.

per kilog. they might be said to have brought in 2_l._ worth of rubber.

In return for this labour, or imposition, they had received goods which

cost certainly under 1_s._, and whose local valuation came to 45 rods

(1_s._ 10_d._). As this process repeats itself twenty-six times a-year,

it will be seen that they would have yielded 52_l._ in kind at the end

of the year to the local factory, and would have received in return some

24_s._ or 25_s._ worth of goods, which had a market value on the spot of

2_l._ 7_s._ 8_d._ In addition to these formal payments they were liable

at times to be dealt with in another manner, for should their work,

which might have been just as hard, have proved less profitable in its

yield of rubber, the local prison would have seen them. The people

everywhere assured me that they were not happy under this system, and it

was apparent to a callous eye that in this they spoke the strict truth.

 

In September I visited a native village called D**, situated some miles

from the A.B.I.R. factory at Bongandanga. I went there to see one of the

natives, who, with his wife and little children, had come to visit me.

My going to his town was solely a friendly visit to this man’s

household, since I was told that he was an excellent character, and one

who set a good example to his countrymen. On the way, at some 4 or 5

miles only from the A.B.I.R. factory, I passed through a part of D**

(which is a very long town) where were several sentries of the A.B.I.R.

Society. One of these had a 6-chamber revolver loaded with six 4·50 Ely

cartridges--doubtless given, like the shot-gun at A**, for intimidation

rather than for actual use. Another sentry present had only his cap-gun.

He said there were in this one village six sentries of the A.B.I.R., but

that the other four had just gone into Bongandanga guarding some

prisoners. These were, it was explained to me, some of the natives of

the country side who had not brought in what was thought to be a

sufficiency of india-rubber. A little further on I met two more sentries

of the A.B.I.R. in this town. Coming home from D** by another road I

found two other sentries apparently acting as judges and settling a

“palaver” among the natives, this being one of the commonest uses to

which these men put their authority in their own interest, levying

blackmail and interfering in the domestic concerns of the natives by

compelling payment for their “judicial” decisions.

 

The following day my host at D** came in to say that the sentries were

making trouble with him on account of my visit of the previous day,

declaring that they would inform the agent of the A.B.I.R. that he and

others had told me lies about their treatment by that Company, and that

they would all be put in the prison gang and sent away out of their

country. That evening C E spoke to me of my visit to D** of the previous

day, assuring me that the natives were all liars and rogues. The fact

that I had personally gone to see a native community, theoretically as

free as I was myself, and that I had spoken at first hand to some of

these natives themselves, caused, I could not but perceive, considerable

annoyance.

 

That the fears of my native host were not entirely groundless I

subsequently learned by letter from Bongandanga, wherein I was informed

that two of his wives and one of the children I had seen had fled in the

middle of the night for refuge to the Mission evangelist--the sentries

quartered at D** having arrested my friend at midnight, and that he had

been brought in a prisoner to the A.B.I.R. factory.

 

As to the condition of the men who paid by detention in the “maison des

otages” their shortcomings in respect of rubber, I was assured by the

local agent that they were not badly treated and that “they got their

food.” On the other hand, I was assured in many quarters that flogging

with the chicotte--or hippopotamus-hide whip--was one of the measures

used in dealing with refractory natives in that institution. I was told

that men have frequently been seen coming away from the factory, after

the rubber markets, who had been flogged, and that on two occasions this

year, the last of them in March, two natives had been so severely

flogged that they were being carried away by their friends.

 

The A.B.I.R. Society effectually controls the movements of the natives

both by water as well as by land. Since almost every village in the

Concession is under control, its male inhabitants are entered in books,

and according to age and strength have to furnish rubber or, in the

villages close to the factory, food-stuffs, such as antelope meat or

wild pig (which the elders are required to hunt), as also the customary

kwanga bread, or bananas, and fowls and ducks. An agent showed me some

of these village lists, during the purchasing of the rubber, of the 242

E** men, explaining that the impositions against the individuals named

are fixed by the Government, and are calculated on the bodily service

each man owes it, but from which he is exempted in the Concession in

order to work rubber and assist the progressive development of the

A.B.I.R. Company’s territory. He added that it was not the few guns he

disposed of at F** which compelled obedience to this law, but the power

of the Congo State “Force Publique,” which, if a village absolutely

refuses obedience, would be sent to punish the district to compel

respect to these civilized rights. He added that, as the punishment

inflicted in these cases was terribly severe, it was better that the

milder measures and the other expedients he was forced to resort to

should not be interfered with. These measures, he said, involved

frequent imprisonment of individuals in his local “house of hostages.” A

truly recalcitrant man, he said, who proved enduringly obstinate in his

failure to bring in his allotted share of rubber, would in the end be

brought to reason by these means. He would find, I was assured, as a

result of his perversity that the whole of his time must be spent either

in the prison or else in being marched under guard between it and his

native town. Terms of fifteen days, from “market” day to “market” day,

were the usual period of detention, and generally proved

sufficient--during which time the prisoners worked around the

factory--but longer periods were not at all unknown. My informant added

that an excellent project for dealing with obstinate opponents to the

rubber industry had recently been mooted, but had not been carried into

practice. This was to transport to the Upper Lopori, or the Upper

Maringa, far from their homes and tribes, such men as could not be

reclaimed by milder methods. In these distant regions they would have no

chance of running away, but would be kept under constant guard and at

constant work. This proposal had, however, been disapproved of by the

local authorities. In one town I visited, the Chief and some thirty

people gave me the names of several men of the town who had, about

eighteen months previously, been transported in this manner to G**, an

A.B.I.R. post, some 340 miles by water from Bongandanga. Three, whose

names were stated, had already died, only two had returned, the others being still detained.