CANNIBALISM ON THE CONGO.

Evening Star, Issue 10332, 4 June 1897, Page 4

CANNIBALISM ON THE CONGO.

A GHASTLY STORY. For a considerable time past it has been known that the administration of the Congo Free State has been most unsatisfactory. The murder of Mr Stokes, the atrocities committed on the Natives (both men and women) by some of the younger Belgian officials, have aroused general indignation, and the State has been warned that the Powers of Europe, which created it, can also unmake it. The story told by Captain S. L. Hinde, to which the attention of Parliament has been called, and espacially the revelations concerning cannibalism, have shocked the public mind. Captain Hinde deals with the war between the Free State forces aud the Arabs in the Upper Congo regions in the years 1892-93. Baron Dhanis (who is now at the head of another army operating in the Upper Nile region) was in command; and the charge brought against the Baron and his officers is that, while they destroyed the Arab civilisation and put nothing in. its place, they directly or indirectly enoouraged. the horrible practice of cannibalism.

Let us see what Captain Hinde says on this point. In the first place, it is abundantly clear that cannibalism was terribly prevalent, but that under the immediate command of the white officers drastic steps were taken to prevent the eating of human flesh, as is instanced by the shooting of a chief found with a bag slung round his neck containing an arm and leg of a young child. Baron Dhanis was, however, accompanied by a large force of allies under a half-caste Arab named Gongo, and it was largely owing to the aid of this man that Tippoo Tib's followers were defeated (with a total loss, as estimated by Captain Hinde, of 70,000 men). Writing of the capture of an Arab fort early in the campaign,-Captain Hinde says:—" It was here that the cannibal propensities of our friendlies and camp followers were first brought before me. On returning through the town after following the inhabitants a mile or two beyond, I found that the killed and wounded had all disappeared, and some of my men volunteered the information that the friend, lies had cut them up and carried them off for food. This I did not believe. On our way home, however, we were again attacked. The friendlies, who were dancing along in front, promptly broke and fled, leaving, amongst the other loot soattered about the road, several human arms, legs, and heads, which the men whose information I had doubted took care to point out to me as a proof that they had not lied." A little later the captain says exj Ijiotbly : "The fact that both Bides were cannibals, or rather that both sides had cannibals in their train, proved a great element in our success," and for the following reason ':— "The teaching of the Mahometan religion does not allow that a man whose body has been mutilated can enter into the highest heaven, where only perfect men are admitted. As a consequence of this belief, the white Arabs and other faithful followers of Islam would, after a rebuff, instead of trying to retrieve the fortunes of the day, fly from the field with all possible speed—not so much in order to save their lives as through fear lest their carcasses, in the event of their falling, should' be torn to pieces." On the day after the capture of Nyangwe the whole force were sent out to bury the dead, or rather to throw them into the river, "it being im-/ possible to deal otherwise with them":— •| Matters were, however, simplified for us, since only a few hundred heads were to be found, all the bodies having been carried off for food. ... For three days we saw nothing of Lutete, and I learned afterwards, when talking over affairs with him, that during this time he had not left his awn quarters; the sights in hia camp were so appalling that even he did not care to, put himself in the way of seeing th.em unnecessarily. He told us that every one of the cannibals who aoc.ompan.ied him had at least one b.ody to eat. All the meat was cooked and and formed prcjvivisions for the whole of his force and for aft the camp followers for many days afterwards." ' r■ * i

A? Captain, Iflnda somewhat naively poinds out, "they"—the whitei—»«reaped the only advantages that oould be claimed for thia disgusting custom. " These human wolves"—the.paptajn is referring to the enormous crowds of camp-followers belong-, ing to their army—by eating tip the dead* after a battle "saved ua, no. donbt, from

many anepidemic." It U pretty plain that, white amongst the enllated soldiers canflibaU»m: was prohibited, nothing whatever WM #toe th#(tomp-foTloweHfe«nd the taste] for human fleshl(i«iK|ltbiost. pS J lfe> who not a Belgian^Jbut an Stelish medical man—Sidney> Hrnfc d?* scribed on the title-page of his book ft* " medical officer of the interior, British East Africa, late Captain Congo Fnee State Forces." A reference to the ' Medioal Register' shows that Mr Hinde is a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, London, and qualified in 1890. He was a friend and admirer of Baron Dhanis and loyally supported his chief, but, from many indications in his book, was obviously dissatisfied with the Administration, Whose service, be it noted, he has left, St. James's Gazette.'