"JAMBO, BWANA" 



Let me state here one of the multifarious grievances 

 of the hunter or trader when setting out for the Congo. 

 We had got all our porters together down at Kampala 

 and paid ten rupees advance on each boy, as demanded 

 by Government there. We reach Hoima and some of 

 those boys are discovered to be suffering from sleeping 

 sickness ; those boys are allowed to travel to Butiaba 

 on Lake Albert, but must then return to their homes. 

 For our ten rupees we got a bare half month's work. 

 The collector was so uncertain that we should ever obtain 

 a refund of the six odd rupees lost on each carrier, and 

 the settlement of any claim would take so long, that we 

 were advised to hand the men over to the British Trading 

 Company and let them utilize them for taking loads to 

 Kampala. I am surprised that the Uganda Government 

 does not facilitate matters for those who bring money 

 and spend it in their colony. The laws regarding the 

 engagement of carriers are absurd. Many hunters and 

 traders travel via German and other territories, whose 

 Governments encourage new-comers, rather than be 

 thwarted and heckled in Uganda. All the ridiculous 

 formalities in this colony with regard to engaging carriers 

 are typical of an administration suffering from swollen 

 head. Safaris can reach the Congo by other routes than 

 through Uganda, where they know they will be dealt 

 with patronizingly by a crowd of self-opinionated young 

 officials who are inclined to treat the visitor in a rather 

 off-hand fashion. Their unpleasant demeanour is no 

 doubt due to jealousy, for it must be rather galling to 

 these young people to see hunters returning from the 

 Congo with a caravan laden with valuable trophies after 

 a few months' trip. East Africa was for some time the 

 playground of the officials stationed there, and when the 

 time came for land settlement those who took up land 

 were regarded by the officials almost as usurpers of what 

 they had come to consider as their prescriptive rights. 



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