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Colonial Policy | [P|S|M] |
Reichstagsakten 1888/89, 7. Lp., Vol. 121, Attachment 41: Collection of Documents pertaining the Uprising in East Africa, Report from the Imperial emissary in Brussels
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Brussels, August 24th 1888
My Prince,
I ask Your Excellency to accept the dedication of three examples of lectures on
slavery in Africa, which I have lately held in close succession in France,
England and Belgium. I have desired, to speak on these severe and hurting
questions also with the Imperial government and the christians in Germany, and I
trust that you would not have remained insensitive to the horrible misery. But
the condition of utter exertion, which I am in right now, prevents me presently
to undertake yet another journey.
Therefore I dare, my Prince, to inform you in writing about what I cannot tell
you by word of mouth.
In my function as mission bishop, dealing with the task of establishing missions
in Africa's interior for more than 20 years now, and in exercising the spiritual
jurisdiction over the interior regions of those parts of the eastern regions
which have been transferred to the German Empire, I have the honour to address
you in the interest of so many unfortunate souls, the aged pastor of whom I am.
The regions of Tabora and to the east of Lake Tanganyika, where my missionaries
are active, among them 4 Germans, are when it comes to slavery, not more
fortunate than other regions of Africa; they are even worse affected than many
other areas. If Your Excellency will read the letter of one of my missionaries
on the present appearance of the slave (p.409) market in Ujiji, you can imagine
the horrors. This letter is quoted in notes 14 and 15 of my address which I held
in London under the presidency of Lord Granville, and it is quoted in extract on
pages 10 and 11 in the lecture I recently held in Brussels.
Ujiji is located in an area which belongs to the German zone.
I have to add, that in all parts of Ounyanyembe and on the roads which lead from
Tanganyika through this region to the sea, on a daily basis slave caravans pass
and provide horrible spectacles of gruesome scenes caused by the former. If the
government of His Majesty the Kaiser wants so, it can easily remove these
infamies, and so, first in christianity, give an example of effective
suppression of the slave trade on land, which presently causes more damage on
land than ever has been created by slave trade on the seas. A simple measure,
which I have proposed in my lecture in Brussels for the Belgian Congo, the
disarmament of the Arabs and Muslim bastards which lead the slave robbing bands,
the number of whom does not exceed 200 or 300, and who, with their robbing
negroes go on slave hunts in the interior and sell slaves on all markets,
suffices to achieve this goal, in combination with the prohibition of the import
of arms and gunpowder from the coast and to transport them by caravans. A small
German force of 500 men, if it operates on its own, or a few skilled and
resolute officers in command of troops raised among the blacks, as this is
planned in Belgium for the western bank of the Tanganyika, suffice to execute
such a decision. I have explained this on pages 29-32 of the lecture I held in
Saint Gudule.
Legally the Congo Free State is not connected with Belgium; the King therefore
can not dispatch regular troops there. So he has to call on volunteers. But the
German Reich can do what Belgium can not. Its East African territories are not
legally separated from the Reich, and it all depends on the Kaiser and the
strict application of articles VI and IX of the principle Berlin Act. I ask Your
Excellency to transmit my request to His Majesty. There is nothing which will
attract God's grace more than such an act of mercy. Benedicto porituri, our holy
scriptures say, super me veniebat.
I have just visited the grave of the great Livingstone in London, who has
witnessed all these brutalities from close.
The English people have had his last words engraved on his tombstone in
Westminster Abbey : "I can only ask that the rich blessings of heaven will
benefit all those, who, whoever they may be, will contribute to
exterminate
the horrible evil of slavery in this world."
I direct the same plea to God and I implore Him, that his blessing may benefit
Your Excellency for what you will have done for the peoples who deserve our
mercy.
In these feelings I have the honour, My Prince, to call myself your most humble
and devoted servant
signed Ch. Cardinal Lavagerie
Archbishop of Carthagoo
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Originaldokument
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