OPENING UP AFRICA.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 8, 21 January 1905, Page 8 (Supplement)

OPENING UP AFRICA.

While the Cape to Cairo railway is being pushed northwards from' the Zambesi, and is so opening up the country commercially, efforts are being made at the northern end to bring the negro tribes under some sort of control. It has lately been decided to organise a British force of 1500 men to march through the country of the Niam Niam savages, a tribe of cannibals who used to figure prominently in travellers’ books. The country, which is situated some

eight hundred miles south-east of Khartoum, is within the sphere of British influence, although the natives themselves at present render no allegiance except to their own Sultan. The territory, which is situated on the fifth parallel, is more easily accessible to the Belgians from 1 Lado, on the Nile, than to the British from the Bahr el Gazel, and in consequence the entire trade of the country, which is rich in ivory, is in the hands of Belgian traders, who give the natives firearms in exchange for tusks. The only white influence in the Niam Niam country is, therefore, Belgian, though even this is purely of a commercial character. It is stated that only one Englishman, a Dr Stewart, ever penetrated into the land, and he was murdered and it is very doubtful whether the* Niam Niams have ever heard that their country falls within the British sphere of influence, or that they are British subjects. The expedition will be composed of Egyptian and Soudanese troops under British Officers, and will be prepared for severe work. The Niam Niams, it is said, could muster 20,000 m’en, armed with bows and Belgian rifles, so that if they are disposed to fight the little British force may be hard pressed. The savages, for all their cannibalism, however, are classed among the higher types or Central African natives, and are considered superior in intellect to the tribes of the Upper Nile Valley. For nine months in every year the greater part of their country is under water, and military operations will have to be confined to the three dry months. The country, too, is infested with the tsetse fly, so that only light machine guns, drawn by mules and coolies, can be taken.