The story of the Congo Free State

The development of the State administration is attested in a general way by the ever-increasing number of Posts of different kinds that are in operation in its territories.

Thus there are at the present time 233 Posts and Stations, all of them under the command of white men, scattered over the 14 districts.

The European staff attached to the services of the districts mentioned is distributed as follows:

The number of blacks attached to the different services of the districts is about 20,000 men.

I here render justice to the zeal and devotion of the servants of the State; besides Belgians, who form the great majority, they also comprise Italians, Swiss, Scandinavians, Germans, English, etc., according to the following order:

Belgians, 898; Italians, 197; Swiss, 89; Swedes, 86; Danes, 34; Germans, 31; Norwegians, 22; Finns, 19; English, 16; Dutch, 9; Russians, 5; French, 4; Austrians, 3; Americans, 2; Turks, 2; Luxemburgers, 2; Portuguese, 2; Greeks, 1; Spaniards, 1; Cubans, 1; total, 1424.

To whatever nationality they belong they vie with each other in the ardour with which they perform their numerous duties. All are penetrated with the greatness of their rôle in the heart of savagery, and impelled by the noblest emulation compete in the gradual realisation of our civilising work. Numerous are the testimonies that I have collected during my last official tour of their fruitful activity exercising itself in all directions, of their protecting benevolence with regard to the natives; and these testimonies emanate from missionaries, from learned men, from travellers, and even from persons inclined rather to criticise than to praise our works.

In order that this staff may become more experienced, by acquiring progressively a knowledge of the country, its resources, and its inhabitants, it has been particularly recommended to the agents composing it that they should learn the native dialects. Knowledge of the local idioms is, indeed, indispensable to the European who seeks to enter into direct relations with the blacks—to study their manners and customs, and by that means take account of the measures to employ for the introduction and development of our ideas of civilisation.

The judicial statistics show the vigilance and impartiality with which the Parquet (Public Ministry corresponding to our Public Prosecutor) inquires into breaches of the law, no matter who their authors may be, and aims at allowing no offence to remain unpunished. If some faults have been committed by our agents, the guilty have been prosecuted conformably to the law.

The attention of the members of the service besides has been frequently called to the consequences which would result for them from transgressing the laws and instructions of the Government. In order to ensure their faithful and complete execution, the Government has just again added to the staff of superior officials new State Inspectors.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

The magistrates by profession number at the present time 32; they are assisted by 25 judicial agents properly so called.

The judicial services of Boma, to which are attached seven magistrates by profession, and a dozen judicial agents, allow of:

1. An Appeal Court, composed of a President and two judges, of the State Prosecutor who occupies the seat of the Public Minister on this jurisdiction, and of a Registrar;

2. A Council of War in Appeal, the presidency of which devolves on the President of the Appeal Court, of two judges, officers of the Public Force, of the State Prosecutor, and of a Registrar;

3. A Court of First Instance, composed of a professional judge, of a substitute, a doctor of laws, and of a Registrar;

4. A Council of War of First Instance, composed of a judge, officer of the Public Force, of the substitute attached to the Court of First Instance, and of a Registrar.

These four jurisdictions are competent in penal cases. Those occurring under 1 and 3 are competent also in civil and commercial matters. They sit in such cases without the Public Minister. A report of the Registrar of the Court of First Instance attached to this sets forth the order of civil business.

The other professional magistrates are distributed between the territorial courts and the councils of war.

Territorial courts exist at Matadi, Leopoldville, Popokabaka, Coquilhatville, New Antwerp, Basoko, Stanleyville, Toa (Albertville), Lukafu, Kabinda (Katanga), Lusambo, and at the chief place of the Rusisi-Kivu zone (Uvira), independently of the councils of war, which will be shortly replaced by ordinary courts as the number of magistrates is increased. The Parquet attached to these courts is represented by the substitutes of the State Prosecutor, all of whom are doctors of laws.

Among the following officials of judicial rank the majority are Belgians. There are also Italians, Danes, Swiss, and Norwegians.

President of Court of Appeal: Baron G. Nisco.

Judges, Court of Appeal: M. Horstmans, M. A. Gohr.

Judge, Court of First Instance: M. T. Beeckman.

Prosecuting Attorney: M. F. Waleffe.

Director: M. A. Gohr.

Magistrates (Territorial Judges and Substitutes): Ernest Dupont, Hermann Weber, Iwan Grenade, Louis Rossi, J. Jenniges, P. Vincart, C. M. B. L. Greban de St. Germain, Stanislas Lefranc, Martin Rutten, Albert Sweerts, Robert de Meulemeester, Michel Cuciniello, Angelo Cagginla, Mario Falcetti, Gennaro Bosco, Frederic Erdrich, Manlio Scarpari, F. J. S. M. Lambin, Torquato Polimante, Louis Tessaroli, Paul Bossolo, T. C. Lund, H. G. Moth-Borglüm, C. J. R. Vandekelder, A. A. A. Celletti, C. E. A. M. Smets, C. L. Gianpetri, Jacob Vogt, Ragnvald Koht, T. Fessante, Adrien Beeckman.

The administration of justice shows that its representatives are conscious of the responsibility of their mission. No one has ever been able to impugn its impartiality and independence, and the judgments and sentences awarded establish its anxiety to reach all the guilty, and not to leave unpunished any breach of the laws for the protection of the natives. I will not mention any other examples of this than the judgments recently pronounced against the agents of a trading company, upon whom heavy sentences of penal servitude were passed for crimes committed upon natives. The tribute which the Government on that occasion paid to the Courts’ sense of their duties will be a valuable encouragement for them. I am confident that the Government’s appeal to the vigilance of the Department of Public Prosecution to prevent any offence of the kind passing unpunished will not be in vain.

The superior administration of Boma is instructed to follow the principle of bringing before the competent courts all cases of abuses of natives that are pointed out to it by the authorities, by the direct complaints of residents in the Congo, or by criticisms in the press. These last accusations, the frequency of which is found to coincide with the campaign conducted against the Congo State, are regularly submitted on the spot to careful examination in detail. The impression that is left by the investigations that have been made, and some of which are still unfinished, is that as a general rule the complaints formulated are wanting in the precision necessary to fix the responsibility, if any, for them; or that they rest exclusively on the gossip and statements of natives which have not been sufficiently verified. In this latter respect a long experience of African affairs has shown me with what circumspection, not to say with what distrust, the statements of the blacks must be accepted. Their peculiar mental characteristic renders them inclined to lie with an ease that is disconcerting, and magistrates are obliged to direct their inquiries and questionings with real skill and untiring patience in order to arrive at the truth amongst the inaccuracies and omissions of coloured witnesses. That will reveal how much and how often the stories of sensational facts circulated by natives are distorted by them, when they are not absolutely invented, and what disappointments those who accept them too easily prepare for themselves. A typical case is that of a Protestant missionary who was accused by natives of having inflicted on the black engineer of his mission’s steamer blows and wounds that caused his death. The judicial investigation disposed of this charge, which had been fabricated in all its details by the natives with the view of avenging themselves on the missionary, with whom they were engaged in a dispute on a question of wages. And yet the natives making the accusation never ceased for a moment, despite the proofs to the contrary, from maintaining their lying charges with a persistency which could not fail to create an impression. It is to be regretted that Mr. Casement[19] was not put on his guard against the statements of the blacks, and especially by this incident, of which he could not have been ignorant, since the missionary concerned accompanied him during the inquiry into the case of Epondo, whom the natives also represented to have been the victim of a criminal act.

I will, by another example revealed during a recent inquiry, show how much the charges brought against the Administration of the State are wanting in prudence. Some correspondence from a missionary published in England has given rise to violent comments in the press of that country upon the Congo Free State. When invited by the State Prosecutor to formulate and present his charges, this missionary did not allege anything against the State agent, whom, in his writings he had charged with responsibility for odious crimes. He had invoked, as corroborating his own statement, the affirmations that other European agents had made to him; he declared by what follows that these affirmations were to be kept strictly confidential. “It is true,” he adds, “that these facts have been published, but as the publication was made in England I thought that the confidence placed in my discretion was not betrayed.” He also declares that “before accepting the responsibility of revealing and specifying in a precise manner the facts, he desires to consult, and take the opinion of, if not a barrister, at least some one knowing Congolese law, and that the extracts published of his letter have not perhaps been made with strict precision of language.” In short, the want of clearness, the subterfuges of the examination, attracted the attention of the State Prosecutor, and left on his mind the most unfavourable impression as to the good faith of this missionary, and as to his highly blameworthy manner of recognising the hospitality that he has hitherto enjoyed in the Congo.

I have entered into these few details in order to show the occasionally inconsiderate character of the attacks directed against our Administration.

And I owe it to truth to make another reproach, not less grave, with regard to certain foreign elements which do not seem to have an exact view of their duty in inculcating the natives by their example and teachings with the respect due to the authority of the State and to its representatives. It is impossible not to be struck by the strange rumours in the vicinity of the Protestant missions, which for some time have been announcing to the population a change in the established order, and predicting the end of the State. There natives have been seen to offer insults to the European agents; officers of the Companies have lodged complaints as to the arrogant attitude of part of the population subject to certain influences; a tendency to shake off the duty due to the State, and to repudiate respect for our laws, has manifested itself among them. It is not doubtful that here we see the result of the underhand intrigues sapping, more or less intentionally, the legal authority. The remark inevitably follows that this position reveals itself solely in the neighbourhood of some evangelical posts, and it assumes a more significant character when it is known that the tendency of these establishments is to exercise over the surrounding population a sort of sovereign power, in opposition to “Boula Matari,”[20] thereby creating a state of antagonism between the influence of the mission houses and the authority of the State agents. I have pointed out for the attention of the Government this grave position, and the measures that it ought to take if it continues. Already local agents have been obliged to act on their own initiative to safeguard the State’s authority, and if it becomes necessary the Governor-General will consider the occasion for making use of the means placed at his disposal, by the decree of 15th September, 1889, for dealing with foreigners who should employ against the State their influence over the natives.

It would be desirable that an appropriation be provided to carry out the plan at present under examination, of establishing on the Upper Congo a number of civil courts and a second Court of Appeal.

In my opinion the Government ought to go farther in the way of developing our judicial machinery. A point which has not ceased to attract attention is, in the first place, the recruiting of the staff. Whatever may be the goodwill of the judicial agents, it is beyond doubt that some newcomers have not always possessed, before their entrance into our judiciary, a sufficiently long experience of judicial practice. I here renew the wish, already expressed, to hear that judges of Belgian courts and parquets be authorised to obtain leave of absence to occupy judicial posts in the Congo.

The Minister of Justice has just authorised Belgian magistrates who may be desirous to do so, and be accepted by the Congo Free State, to undertake, by a limited engagement, to serve as judges in the Congo,—and for that purpose, to obtain leave of absence without pay, save that their rights of seniority in the Belgian magistracy are to be reserved....

The Congo has been for us a field of heroism. It has enabled numerous Belgians, who were smothering within their frontiers, to prove their value in a much broader sphere, where territorial, political, and diplomatic conditions permitted some display of their inborn qualities, and to reveal themselves first-class pioneers, soldiers, and administrators.

If considered only from an ideal point of view, this advantage is well worth something. And those of our officers who out there have put down slavery, pacified the native tribes, opened the ways of navigation, commerce, and industry, created agricultural stations, depots, railways, forest exploitations, and roads will surely from this point of view alone have rendered our little country as much service as they could have rendered it in the service of our garrisons.

It has often been said that narrow frontiers mean narrow ideas. To broaden our horizon, is to broaden our ideas. It seems to us that without going beyond these considerations, this decision taken by our Department of Justice deserves to be commended.

Without any burden on our Treasury on that account,—since the Belgian judges serving in the Congo will, during the term of their service, cease to draw upon our budget,—our magistracy will be losing nothing of their value, so justly appreciated, by delegating a few of their members—selected from the youngest—in those new regions where their knowledge of law, coming into more direct contact than at home with nature and practical needs, will acquire renewed strength at the very springs of equity and juridical conscience.

At the same time, their authoritative participation in the colonial undertaking will contribute to do away with the very suspicion of those abuses which, after being systematically exaggerated by interested opponents, have been used as a pretence for this deplorable Congophobe campaign which has led away in England a few minds more generous than enlightened.

Fortified in this manner, the Congolese magistrates, who even now worthily bear comparison with any colonial magistracy, will, by the mode of their recruitment, and their own merit, command respect from our adversaries.

They will be continually renewed, which is advisable in these tropical regions, where the conditions of climate very soon exhaust individuals, and the new and continued relations which will thus progressively spring up between Belgium at home and its African extension will contribute to force into our colonial undertaking the best part of our traditions and of our national spirit.

It would be also useful if the ambulatory character attributed by Congolese law to the Courts of First Instance were made more effective, by rendering it an obligation for these courts to move about periodically throughout the extent of their province, to sit regularly at important centres, and to betake themselves to all points to which the necessities of their presence required them to proceed. This object might be easily attained, if only there were placed at the disposal of the magistrates the material means—with regard to transport, provisions, and lodging—that the frequency of these movements on circuit might call for.

I would also recommend a new measure which would consist in establishing in the different jurisdictions a corps of special agents who should be remunerated by the Government, and whose mission would be to discharge in the interests of the natives the rôle of barristers. At present it is to the magistrates themselves that the native addresses himself in order to obtain the necessary counsel for the protection of his rights. It would be preferable that those who may be called upon to lay down the law on a conflict of civil right, should not fill also the post of being counsel to one of the parties. On the other hand, from the penal point of view the measure that I propose would permit of professional defenders being assured to the accused. This institution, which it would be necessary to render of as general application as possible in the Upper as in the Lower Congo, would thus place on the spot, at the disposition of those natives who thought they had ground of complaint, gratuitous defenders of their interests.

Indeed it would be useful to constitute in Belgium a Court of Cassation to which the sentences and definite judgments in penal matters which might possibly be contrary to the law should be submitted. Such a court might be composed of members of the Belgian Court of Cassation, or of the Appeal Courts admitted to the grade of emeritus, or actually practising.

It will certainly seem natural that these different opportunities of co-operating in the Congolese work should be given to the Belgian magistracy. Belgium would see therein, as it seems to me, the occasion of drawing closer the links of a moral nature which already unite it to its future colony, and the mission not without distinction which Belgian officers have fulfilled and are fulfilling in Africa would find its complement in the collaboration of jurists of merit who can be counted in our country in great numbers.

NATIVE CHIEFTAINCIES

The institution of native chieftaincies, due to the decree of 6th October, 1891, realises an idea too just and too politic for it not to receive all the extension possible. If during the first days that followed the promulgation of that decree the district Commissioners displayed praiseworthy emulation in recognising native chieftaincies, it is not less certain that these have not rendered, up to the present, all the services which we could expect, so far as they were called upon to create between the European authority and the natives a natural intermediary, having its duties and responsibilities, and calculated to facilitate the action of the Government.

The cases in which it has been applied still show the advantages of the system and testify to the greater facility with which the natives rally to the new order of things when it is personified in their eyes by the chief whom they have always recognised. It is proved that respect for the orders of authority, obedience to the laws, the execution of legal obligations, such as military recruiting and the payment of taxes,—in a word the principles of an organised social state, are more easily accepted by the natives forming part of a chieftaincy than by those who are quite independent. The chiefs, besides, have generally a real influence over the population, and thus, as has several times been said, if they feel themselves supported they will succeed in making our ideas prevail and in imposing them on the natives through our support.

Another appeal has just been quite recently made by the local government to all the chiefs of districts and zones in order to inspire them with these views, and so that they may increase the official chieftaincies to a great extent.

The instructions issued are inspired by a double object: to maintain and even to extend the authority of the chiefs over their subjects, to avoid all intervention in the internal affairs of the tribes which would be of a nature to compromise the prestige of that authority.

“It is the right of the chief,” these instructions declare, “to assure the execution of his orders according to native rules and particularly to bring to his decision the sanction demanded by native custom.”

The only restriction on the authority of the recognised native chiefs lies in the necessity for them not to run counter, in the decisions taken, to public order, that is to say, principles which are at the base of the organisation of society, as it is comprehended and wished to be by the legislator.

The chief’s authority ceases as soon as the measures taken are contrary to that public order.

Thus, in matters of private right, the native chief could not legitimately take any course which would assail the organisation of families constituted under the régime of the civil Code, and according to its prescribed form,—in other words, entered on the European statute.

On the other hand, he could not establish slavery, oppose religious liberties or commercial liberty, or order acts contrary to the penal law.

Still it is necessary to remark that he may employ coercive and repressive measures to ensure, as chief, and within the limits of his power according to custom, the execution of his orders.

But this sanction itself would be contrary to public order if its character differed from our ideas of what repression should be, more especially if it were accompanied by torture, mutilation, or other acts of cruelty, or if it were surrounded with superstitious practices, such as the proof by poison; in a word, if it were really to run counter to our ideas of humanity and the civilising object of the State.

Corporal punishments, similar to those employed by the State and in a similar measure to what is employed by it, inflicted by the native chief according to custom, would evidently not be contrary to public order.

Such are the regulations set forth in a general way which govern the 258 recognised native chiefs in their participation with the political life of the State.

These instructions recommend to the territorial authorities “continual relations with the native chiefs, incessant instructions and recommendations, a direction and control without interruption, and a moral and material support in order to maintain and increase the chief’s authority with a similar object,” and to the judicial authorities “an intervention marked by prudence in order not to diminish uselessly the chief’s authority, and not to destroy, or even weaken, the influence that he should have, and of which the Government means to make use for the spread of civilisation.”

The care of maintaining intact and of developing the principle of the chief’s authority might perhaps one day be carried farther. It would indeed be permissible to wish that, in the future, all the decisions of an administrative and judicial character, passed by the European authorities themselves, should be executed by the intermediary of the recognised chief; in other words, the native would receive orders only from his natural chief.

This measure, when it becomes possible, will produce the best results with regard to order and discipline, the natives being less inclined to rebel against the orders of the chief whom they have freely chosen.

In order to avoid the abuse which might result from ignorance of our laws, and to make the native chief acquainted with his rights, there should be attached to the procés verbaux of investitute of the chiefs a protocol setting forth the penalties that it will be permissible for the local authorities to continue to apply, as in the past, with a specific mention of the offences subject to their jurisdiction.

They will be made acquainted with this act on their investiture, at the same time as they are instructed as to the general obligations imposed on them by the State, and which should also figure in the document in question.

All that precedes evidently relates only to native chiefs properly so-called, and not to the present sultans who, as prescribed by the Government’s instructions, must not have the authority which they at present possess increased.