The Casement Report 27

The Casement Report 27

It will be observed that the devastated region whence had come the

refugees I saw at N*, comprises a part of the “Domaine de la Couronne.”

 

 

Inclosure 2 in No. 3.

 

(See p. 29.)

 

(A.)

 

_The Rev. J. Whitehead to Governor-General of Congo State._

 

Dear Sir,

 

_Baptist Missionary Society, Lukolela, July 28, 1903._

 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Circular and the

List of Questions respecting the sleep sickness sent through the Rev. J.

L. Forfeitt.

 

I hasten to do my best in reply, for the matter is of paramount

importance, and I trust that if I may seem to trespass beyond my limits

in stating my opinions in reference to this awful sickness and matters

kindred thereto, my zeal may be interpreted as arising from excessive

sorrow and sympathy for a disappearing people. I believe I shall be

discharging my duty to the State and His Majesty King Leopold II, whose

desire for the facts in the interests of humanity have long been

published, if I endeavour to express myself as clearly as I can

regarding the necessities of the natives of Lukolela.

 

The population of the villages of Lukolela in January 1891 must have

been not less than 6,000 people, but when I counted the whole population

in Lukolela at the end of December 1896 I found it to be only 719, and I

estimated from the decrease, as far as we could count up the number of

known deaths during the year, that at the same rate of decrease in ten

years the people would be reduced to about 400, but judge of my

heartache when on counting them all again on Friday and Saturday last to

find only a population of 352 people, and the death-rate rapidly

increasing. I note also a decrease very appallingly apparent in the

inland districts during the same number of years; three districts are

well-nigh swept out (these are near to the river), and others are

clearly diminished; so that if something is not soon done to give the

people heart and remove their fear and trembling (conditions which

generate fruitfully morbid conditions and proneness to attacks of

disease), doubtless the whole place will be very soon denuded of its

population. The pressure under which they live at present is crushing

them; the food which they sadly need themselves very often must, under

penalty, be carried to the State post, also grass, cane string, baskets

for the “caoutchouc” (the last three items do not appear to be paid

for); the “caoutchouc” must be brought in from the inland districts;

their Chiefs are being weakened in their prestige and physique through

imprisonment, which is often cruel, and thus weakened in their authority

over their own people, they are put into chains for the shortage of

manioc bread and “caoutchouc.”

 

In the riverine part of Lukolela we have done our very best as

non-official members of the State to cope with disease in every way

possible to us; but so far the officials of the State have never

attempted even the feeblest effort to assist the natives of Lukolela to

recover themselves or guard themselves in any way from disease. In times

of small-pox, when no time can be lost in the interests of the

community, I have, perhaps, gone sometimes beyond my rights as a private

citizen in dealing with it. But there has always been the greatest

difficulty in getting food for them (the patients) and nurses for them,

even when the people were not compelled to take their food supply to the

State post, but when food supplies and labour are compressed into one

channel all voluntary philanthropy is paralyzed. It is quite in vain for

us to teach these poor people the need of plenty of good food, for we

appear to them as those who mock; they point to the food which must be

taken to the post. A weekly tax of 900 brass rods’ worth of manioc bread

from 160 women, half of whom are not capable of much hard and continuous

work, does not leave much margin for them to listen to teaching

concerning personal attention in matters of food. At present they are

compelled to supply a number of workmen, and some of these are retained

after their terms are completed against their will; the villages need

the presence of their men, there are at present but eighty-two in the

villages of Lukolela, and I can see the shadow of death over nearly

twenty of them.[21]

 

The inland people and their Chiefs tremble when they must go down to the

river, so much has been done latterly to shake their confidence, and

this fear is not strengthening them physically, but undermining their

constitutions, such as they are. They hate the compulsory “caoutchouc”

business, and they naturally do their best to get away from it. If

something is not quickly done to give these timid and disheartened

people contentment and their home life assured to them, sickness will

speedily remove many, and those who remain will look upon the white man,

of whatever nation or position, as their natural enemy (it is not far

from that now). Some have already sworn to die, be killed, or anything

else rather than be forced to bring in “caoutchouc,” which spells

imprisonment and subsequent death to them; what they hear as having been

done they quite understand can be done to them, so they conclude they

may as well die first as last. The State has fought with them twice

already, if not more; but it is useless, they will not submit. A cave of

Adullam is a thing not always easily reckoned with.

 

May I be permitted to seize the present opportunity of respectfully

pleading on behalf of this people that their rights be respected, and

that the attention as of a father to his children be sympathetically

shown them? May I also be permitted to place before you a few

suggestions which have been impelled into my mind face to face with this

dying people of what is their need while medical inquiry goes forward,

please God, to master this terrible scourge? I suggest the following as

immediately needful for the riverine people:--

 

1. That the present small population of Lukolela be requested to vacate

the present site of their dwellings, and form a community on the

somewhat higher ground at present used for gardens, the soil of which

has been impoverished by years of manioc growing. This is known by the

name Ntomba; and that they be requested to clear the undergrowth on the

beach, the sites of their present dwellings, and plant bananas, &c.

 

2. That no one known to have sleep-sickness be permitted to dwell on the

new site; but all be removed to a site lower down the river; and that it

shall be the duty of the people to supply their sick with the necessary

food and caretakers. The islands are unsuitable, being uninhabitable for

a large part of the year.

 

3. That they be compelled to bury their dead at a considerable distance

from the dwellings, and to bury them in graves at least a fathom deep,

and not as at present in shallow graves in close proximity to the

houses.

 

4. That they be encouraged to build higher houses with more apertures

for the ingress of sunshine and air in the daytime, and with floors

considerably raised above the outside ground.

 

5. That a strong endeavour be made to get them to provide better latrine

arrangements.

 

6. That they be encouraged to give up eating and drinking together from

the same dish or vessel in common.

 

7. That the men be encouraged to follow their old practices of hunting,

fishing, blacksmithing, &c., and with the women care for their gardens

and homes, and that they be given every protection in these duties and

in the holding of their property against the State soldiers and workmen

and everybody else that wants to interfere with their rights.

 

8. All the foregoing they will not be able to do unless the present

compulsory method of acquiring their labour and their food by the State

is exchanged for a voluntary one.

 

9. That the Chiefs or present chief representatives of the deceased

Chiefs among whom the land was divided before the State came into

existence (I believe about three will be found at Lukolela itself) be

recognized as the executive of these matters, and that they be requested

to devote their levies (restored as of old) made on the produce, &c., of

their lands to the betterment of their towns and district, by making

roads through their lands, &c.

 

10. To appoint sentries to carry out either the above or any other

beneficent rules in any of the villages would be to endeavour to mend

the present deplorable condition with an evil a hundred-fold worse.

 

All the above suggestions adjusted to suit the locality are equally

applicable to the inland districts.

 

In answering the list of questions I would say:--

 

1. Sleep-sickness is sadly only too well known at Lukolela. It is

prevalent in the whole of the riverine and inland districts. In the

inland districts I am not yet able to say whether it is more prevalent

than in the riverine one; that can only be ascertained by a more

prolonged residence there than as yet I have had opportunity to make. In

the riverine district I estimate that quite half of the deaths are from

sleep-sickness. The cases do not occur in batches like cases of

small-pox and measles do; there are too many in a given place unaffected

at one time. It will, however, gradually sweep away whole families. The

common notion among the natives is that the sickness came from

down-river; and it was prevalent, though not to such an extent as now,

as far back as the oldest people I have met can remember. Before our

Mission was founded here a suspected case would be thrown into the

river; but inland I do not think there is any evidence to show that they

did otherwise than to-day--nurse their sick perfectly, heedless of the

contagion in respect of them (the nurses) or their friends, and, as they

do on the beach, bury their dead close to their houses, and in some

cases live on the top of the graves.

 

2. From my own observation (since January 1891) the sickness is endemic;

in the riverine villages the death-rate slowly increased until 1894,

when the people quite lost heart and felt their homes were no longer

secure to them, and then hunger, improper food, fear, and homelessness

appeared to increase the death-rate from sleep-sickness and other causes

most appallingly, and the rate has still further increased, especially

during the last two years. The fewer the population becomes the

proportionate rate of death increases most fearfully.

 

3. The district of Lukolela may be described as follows: The beach line

is wooded, broken by one or two creeks, one of which winds for a

considerable distance inland to a district which can be reached overland

by a journey of at least three days at the shortest. There is more or

less of low-lying land connected with the creeks. The 6 miles below the

Mission station is lower than the 8 miles above. The highest point of

our land is about 19 metres above high-water level, and possibly there

is a further rise of 3 metres or so further up stream. The ground which

I suggest the people be removed to may be on an average about 12 to 15

metres above high-water level. This ridge of river bank shelves down

into low-wooded land and grass plains which are flooded at high water,

though for the most part dry at the lowest ebb; then behind these rise

small plateaus separated by low valleys of wooded and grassy land. From

the pools and streams of this low ground the people get most of their

fish; even when the river is at medium height a journey between the various plateaus where the villages and farms are found requires about half the time to be spent in wading, sometimes breast deep.