1 66 In the Heart of Africa 



Congo State are certainly treated with an extremely firm hand, 

 but they are not overworked. Even in the great rubber dis- 

 tricts where the inhabitants are hostile, the reason is not to be 

 sought for in oppressive conditions of labour. The daily work 

 of an artisan in Germany far exceeds that which is turned out 

 by the negro. The true reason of the antagonistic attitude must 

 be looked for in the inborn dread of any compulsory, steady 

 bodily exertion, which is a cause of resentment with most negro 

 races, as well as with the dwellers in the virgin forest. 



I should like to record here that we met with many exemplary 

 institutions in the Congo State in comparison with which the 

 excesses of one or two individual officials are of no importance 

 whatever. The treatment of the natives might in many cases 

 be termed too humane, so that it often heavily handicaps the 

 administrative officers. An officer of a safari, for instance, may 

 only punish with castigation the people who are in his permanent 

 pay (Askari, " boys," etc.) ; he is powerless as regards the carriers. 

 He is even bound to report any offence committed by a carrier 

 in the first instance to the proper Chef de zone, or chief of the 

 station, who again must employ a European and not a coloured 

 man to bring in the offender. If a native is to be arrested at a 

 European outpost and he happens to be on the spot, he may not 

 be detained there. The punishment usually consists of deten- 

 tion in irons or imprisonment ; the flogging of non-employees is 

 prohibited. 



Now it is sufficiently well known that travelling in Africa is 

 impossible without the maintenance of the strictest discipline and 

 the use of flogging as a punishment for disobedience. This is 

 the experience of all those who have travelled with a large safari 

 for any length of time. Where severity is not combined with 

 justice and fairness, where the European after full inquiry is 

 not empowered to punish the offender as he merits, there the 

 discipline which is absolutely imperative in any caravan, as well 

 as the authority of the white man, speedily disappear. The 

 negro respects only the man who proves stronger than himself. 

 Power impresses him, not mildness or clemency ; the latter only 



