AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13682, 26 August 1908, Page 7

AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.

Most people are under the imprecision that the slave trade in Africa, with perhaps the exception of uhe Congo " Free" State, was a thing of the past. Mr. W. H. Nevinson, who speaks with the author-' iry of first-hand knowledge, shows in the '•"Fortnightly" -that ihe horror etill exii-.ts in its worst form. After quoting Colonel-. Harding's description of the slave route of Angclia, written in 1900, Mr. Nevinson says:—"'l traversed it twice in 1905, and found everything still exactly as he says—innumerable shackles hanging on trees or strewn ou •the ground, skulls and bones lying on the path or in the bn6h close by, murdered men and women in every stage of decomposition, sometimse with the cleft of the axe visible in the skulls, but that stretch or load was only the worst part of the whole journey, because meet slaves fell out there through hunger and sickness. Also it comes just before the caravans reach- the district of Bihe, where the official agents purchase most of the slaves and forward them down to the coast—about' three hundred miles away—with, greater care for their value. You may find bones and shackles anywhere along the path r.s you go west towards the coast from Nanakitndwidu, near the very centre of Africa. The shackles are again particularly frequent as you approach Cat-urn--bella, the old slave depot close to the sea, only fifteen miles from the port of Benguelfa, where most of the slaves are still embarked." . As to the methods of cbtaining thesjs slaves, Mr. Nevinson says that some have been pawned io pay off ancestral debts; some have been sold to pay the fine for imaginarv witchcraft: some have been, seized in village feuds, and it is a recognised custom lor large caravans to go up from Bihe or the coast, and offer their services to the chief for raids on condition of keeping the captives to sell as -slaves. A large party also come* from native or Portuguese owners, who sell llinir own skives, or the cliildren of the slave* io tl.ie "'Emigration" agents at a profit. With regard to ihe destination of the* 6 slaves, it is stated that most of tliem Are. required for the cocoa islands, and thft writ?!' makes the astounding statement that ops-fjfik of all the cocca and chocolate we ennsurne- is produced for us by a form of black labour as truly slavery as anything °n DU »' pefsesfiionji before, the tmiincipation, or on the plantations of the Homhjtrn Stares before the Civil War. He ;adds t "The mainland plantations are worked by slaves, 'I be. liw, withom a single exception. I havs passed through many and stayed on two. Jjj all ca>cs ihe slaves worked in gangs, watched bv drivers ,who urged them on with hippo whips, or long.pointed staves. Nearly the whole- of the domestic work and other labour of ihe towns is also carried on by slaves, who are the absolute property of their masters, fo keep, or sell, or" treat just as they please,."

And yet.as far back as 1845 Great- Uri-, tain mid the ;Unit;e<l'States agreed to maintain joint squadrons' oft' the African coast for the suppression of the.slave traffic.