The Casement Report 29

The Casement Report 29

On the 6th March, 1903, I reported to the State Agent here (M. Lecomte)

that I had seen at Mibenga a Chief, named Mopali, of Ngelo, who had been

carried from the Lukolela post, where he had been imprisoned, so as to

induce his village to bring more rubber. His head was wounded as with an

iron instrument of some kind, his lips were swollen as if from a severe

blow, and his legs were damaged as with blows from sticks. He and his

bearer asserted that these wounds were given him while he was chained

and made to carry firewood. M. Lecomte replied that the man had been

seen by him before he left, and he was then all right and asked for my

witnesses. I replied that the man himself and bearer were my informants.

He said he wished to trace the doers of the deed. Nothing more was heard

of the matter, so later I acquainted the Directeur-Général at

Léopoldville by letter, dated the 10th July, of the facts. Meanwhile, up

to the present, I have heard of nothing being done in the matter, only a

repetition of a similar case.

 

I was at the village of Mopali on the 18th August, and I inquired for

the poor fellow; some said he was dead, but most said that he had been

carried by his wife, at his own request, away out of the way, so that he

should not be found. He was afraid of the State chaining him again. From

them I heard he had been even worse maltreated than at first I knew;

they told me that his feet had been cut so that he despaired of walking

again, and those who had seen him last said he got along by dragging

himself along on his buttocks. I asked them pointedly whether they heard

from Mopali where he got his wounds; was it not after he left the white

man’s presence? With one voice the little crowd I asked replied, “No; he

received those wounds while in the chain.” I gathered also that at first

they were forced to take five baskets of rubber, and to make them take

ten they had chained up Mopali, and that two more baskets had been

recently added.

 

I learnt also that the youth who had run away from the soldier on the

occasion of the murder of the two chained prisoners was dead. I asked

how it was he was imprisoned at the post; they explained that he was

taken to free his master from the chain, which had been put round his

neck, to get more rubber from his village, and both youth and master

were since dead. They recounted these things to me, and asked me if they

were just. A case-hardened Jesuit would find it difficult to say yes. I

could only blush with shame and say they were unjust.

 

On the 17th August, at Mibenga, the Chief, Lisanginya, made a statement

to me in the presence of others, to the following effect: They had taken

the usual tax of eight baskets of rubber, and he was sent for (I think

it was the 8th June when he passed on his way through our station), and

the white man (M. Lecomte, M. Gadot also being present) said the baskets

were too few, and that they must bring other three; meanwhile, they put

the chain round his neck, the soldiers beat him with sticks, he had to

cut firewood, to carry heavy junks, and to haul logs in common with

others. Three mornings he was compelled to carry the receptacle from the

white man’s latrine and empty it in the river. On the third day

(sickening to relate) he was made to drink therefrom by a soldier named

Lisasi. A youth named Masuka was in the chain at the same place and

time, and saw the thing done. When the three extra baskets were produced

he was set at liberty. He was ill for several days after his return. I

referred to this in my letter of the 28th July, but it was too horrible

a thing to write the additional item until I had heard the thing from

the man’s own lips. I blush again and again as I hear the fame of the

State wherever I go, that when they chain a man now at the post they may

make the chained unfortunate drink the white man’s defecations.

 

In the evening of the 21st August, on returning to Mibenga, from a more

inland town Bokoko, Mrs. Whitehead and myself saw Mpombo of Bobanga,

village of Mbongi, some distance inland. He was in a horrible state. He

stated that he had taken ten baskets of rubber to the post, and they

wanted one more, so they chained him up to get it. He stated that he had

been roughly treated by Mazamba, who had charge of him. In his utter

weakness, he had stayed at Libonga (which was a village on the way), to

get stronger, for about thirteen days. What must have been his condition

when he arrived there I cannot imagine; he was so bad when I saw him at

Mibenga. His left wrist appeared to be broken (broken by a log of wood,

too heavy for him, slipping from his shoulder), one finger of the right

hand was severely bruised, and had developed a large sore (this had been

done he said with a stick with which he had been beaten), his back was

badly bruised, the left shoulder was much bruised, and had been

evidently slit with a knife, the left knee was bruised and feet swollen

from being badly beaten, and altogether he was in a very disordered

condition.

 

Later, I met Mabungikindo, a Chief from Bokoko, a large town inland, who

was also returning from the chain in which he had been detained to get

three more baskets of rubber. Their tax of rubber I understand had been

doubled this year, and this was to get three more on the top of that.

Poor fellow! How thin his thick-set frame had become! He was wearing his

State Chief’s medal. He took it in his hand and asked me to look at it.

I cringed with shame. He asked me if we did that sort of thing in our

country. I replied we did not. And this he said is how the State treats

us: gives us this, and chains up the wearer and beats him. Is that good?

Do you wonder, Sir, that the natives hate the State, and that its fame

is almost impossible of cleansing in this part? Again and again I had

the painful fortune to meet men coming back from imprisonment on account

of rubber. The State through its Agents at Lukolela is driving these

undisciplined people to desperation and rebellion. There is a rumour set

abroad from the State post that the soldiers are coming from Yumbi to

fight the inland people because of some words which have been brought

back from Bolebe and Bonginda. If we are going to have another war, it

will be one which has been engendered by this sort of treatment.

 

Allow me to trespass on your patience with another story of injustice

which can scarcely be equalled by any of these barbarians. At Mibenga

the Chiefs on the 14th August had great difficulty in getting their

young men to carry down the tax of 500 mitakos’ worth of manioc bread.

This was owing to the fact that a youth named Litambala had run away

from the post. The carriers usually returned the following day, but it

was not till the morning of Sunday, the 16th, that they arrived, and it

was found that one of them, named Mpia, had been chained up for

Litambala. To deal thus with what is called a market is in the native

eyes (and not unjustly so) pure treachery. Why had been Litambala

detained? I will explain. Sometime ago a youth named Yamboisele was

living on the river side, although a native of Mibenga; he fell ill of

small-pox, and I nursed him through it--it was very bad. And it was only

with diligent and careful nursing that he was saved from imminent death.

After his recovery he did odd jobs about the station and, unfortunately,

began to be dishonest. When he was found out he was dismissed. I

presumed he would return to his own home, but he engaged himself at the

State. After some time he ran away, and although he had engaged himself

without his people’s knowledge his Chief, Lisanginya, was sent for, and

they chained him up as a hostage for a replace for Yamboisele; after a

brief space, the same day, on a promise of sending someone, he was

released, and he sent a youth named Bondumbu. Presently Yamboisele

turned up at Mibenga, and they took him to the post and asked for the

release of Bondumbu. They refused to release Bondumbu, and retained also

Yamboisele. Presently Yamboisele (report says) was sent with 2,000

mitakos and 10 demijohns for water to the lower post, some distance down

river, and he made off with the lot to the French side. When the

carriers came down from Mibenga on the Saturday (this was the 16th May)

they chained up Moboma, and he was beaten by the soldiers; I myself saw

the weals from the strokes. The rest of the youths pleaded that he

should not be tied up, as he did not belong to the same Chief, so they

released him and chained up Manzinda. Next week they released him and

chained up Mola, who had come down also as a carrier.

 

After two weeks the white man (the natives say it was M. Gado) sent

Mango (a native of the village of Lukolela, not then in the employ of

the State) to tie up a man to come and work in place of Mola.

Lisanginya, the Chief, was away at time, but the man tied up Litambala

and took him to the State, and Mola was set at liberty. Litambala

continued a little time, till at length he was given some work to do,

which he thought he was not strong enough for, and so ran away. Then in

the week following the chaining of Mpia, so much trouble seemed likely

to ensue in getting carriers for the manioc bread, and much

recrimination of one another in the village, that Mombai, an able-bodied

and diligent man, went to the post and gave himself up to free Mpia. But

Yamboisele has not been heard of.

 

I have had several cases brought to my knowledge lately of the mode of

slavery adopted at the post. Briefly, it is as follows: a man for some

reason (sometimes his own and sometimes not) commences work at the post;

he completes his term, and he is told he cannot have his pay unless he

engages himself another term or brings another in his place. I know

those who have left the earnings in the hands of the Chef de Poste

rather than begin again. Such compulsion is contrary to civilized law,

and is rightly termed slavery, and is utterly illegal. I quote one case

in point--a recent one. On the 26th August I noticed a lad, Ngodele, at

Mibenga; I noticed he was a lad from the State post, and I inquired why

he was not at his work. The information was given that his term was

finished, and the white man had sent him to say that when they sent

another in his place he would give him his pay. I learnt that Ngodele

had been compelled to go by his Chief, because the Chef de Poste had

demanded some one to fill the place of another named Mokwala, who had

died at the post.

 

I appeal to you, Sir, that these things may cease from being perpetrated

on your subjects, and this defaming of the name of the State.

 

Accept, &c.

(Signed) JOHN WHITEHEAD.

 

 

Inclosure 3 in No. 3.

 

(See p. 33.)

 

_Statement in regard to the Condition of the Natives in Lake Mantumba

region during the period of the Rubber Wars which began in 1893._

 

The disturbance consequent on the attempt to levy a rubber tax in this

district, a tax which has since been discontinued, appears to have

endured up to 1900.

 

The population during the continuance of these wars diminished, I

estimate, by some 60 per cent., and the remnant of the inhabitants are

only now, in many cases, returning to their destroyed or abandoned

villages.

 

During the period 1893-1901 the Congo State commenced the system of

compelling the natives to collect rubber, and insisted that the

inhabitants of the district should not go out of it to sell their

produce to traders.

 

The population of the country then was not large, but there were

numerous villages with an active people--very many children, healthy

looking and playful. They had good huts, large plantations of plaintains

and manioc, and they were evidently rich, for their women were nearly

all ornamented with brass anklets, bracelets, and neck rings, and other

ornaments.

 

The following is a list of towns or villages--giving their approximate

population in the year 1893 and at the present time. These figures are very carefully estimated: