WEST AFRICAN MIDDLEMEN.

Western Star, Issue 834, 12 April 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

WEST AFRICAN MIDDLEMEN.

The M’pongwe is not himself a producer or even a trader on his ovm account. He is simply a middleman who conducts operations between the inland and European tribes, exacting an unmerciful percentage .for : this self-im-posed task. The interior tribes do not care to come in contact with the European traders, the coast tribes, who produce almost nothing, inspiring them with a dread of the' white. These interior tribes, in their turn,perform a similar part with the still more inferior ones, until an elephant’s; tusk arrives on the coast enormously enhanced in value by the continual commissions which have to be paid by and to the different hands it has to pass.. This system is the bane of trade in the; West Coast of Africa, and results in rearing up a most unblushing set of liars and rogues in the shape of these 11 mediators ” themselves. The captains of vessels , who conduct their own buisnesses, and have no time to put off, are the chief victims of the M’pong wes knavery ; the traders at the factories, being sble to purchase more at leisure, are not so apt to be imposed on, The system of credit is in full operation ,in. this region. A trading captain gives out a certain amount of goods on credit, his debtors agreeing to supply cargo for it on his return trip. Uu coming back he finds only part of ivory, ebony, red-wood, or palm oil ready. The rest, he is told, is out iu the interior on its way to the coast. Day after day he awaits until in the pestilential river his health fails, his crew gets stricken down with fever, “the ship is eating her head off with expenses,” and the winter is com-, ing on, jivhen it is dangerous ,to on such an unprotected coast ; but still never a stick of ebony, never a gallon of palm oil goes into the hold';-' tie Is simply in the power of the natives, and they know they can soon tire him out. And they do. Finding his crew dead or dying, and he himself scarcely capable of mixing his daily rations of brandy and water, he deserts the river, preterring to sacriface his goods rather than stay any longer at the terrible risks he is undergoing. Yet the rascally M’pongwe does not grow rich. To do so would require too long and too continued exertion ; he merely manages to live tolerably well for a little wuilo, or if he chooses to invest his illgotten gains in wives or. slaves,, aud he indulges in , a little mote rum and a good deal more sleep, and takes his ease after the manner of an arboriginal grandee—“ The Peoples of the World. ”