THE SLAVE-TRADE.
Most people are under the ini* pression that the slave trade in Africa—with perhaps the exception of the Congo <£ Free State is a thing of the past, but Mr H. AV. Nevinson, who speaks with the authority of first-hand knowledge, shows in the “Fortnightly” that the horror still exists in its worst form. After quoting Colonel Harding’s description of the slave route of Angola, written in 1900, Mr Nevinson says “ I traversed it twice in 1905, and found everything still exactly as he says innumerable shackles hanging on trees or strewn on the ground, skulls and bones lying on the path or in the bush close by, murdered men and women in every stage of decomposition, sometimes with the cleft of the axe visible in the skulls. But that stretch of the road was only the worst part of the whole journey because most slaves fall 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 300 miles away—with greater care for their value. You may find bones and shackles anywhere along the path as you go” west towards the coast from Nanakanduncln, near the very centre of Africa. The shackles are again particularly frequent as you approach Catumbella, the old slave depot close to the sea, only fifteen miles from the port of Bengttella, where most of the slaves are still embarked.” As to the method of obtaining these slaves, Mr Nevinson says that some have been pawned to pay off ancestral debts; some have been sold to pay the fine for imaginary witchcraft; some have been seized in village feuds, and it is a recognised custom for 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 io sell as slaves. A large supply also comes from native or Portuguese owners, who sell their own slaves or the children of the slaves to the “ emigration ” agents at a profit. With regard to the destination of these slaves, it is stated that most of them are required for the cocoa islands, and the writer makes the astounding statement that one fifth of all the cocoa and chocolate we consume is produced for us by a form of black labour as truly slavery as anything on our possessions before the emancipation, or on the plantations of the Southern States before the Civil War. He adds: “The mainland plantations are worked by slaves, I believe, without a single exception. I have passed through many and stayed on one. In all cases the slaves worked in gangs, watched by drivers, who urged them on with hippo whips, or long-pointed staves. Nearly the whole of the domestic work and other labour of the towns is also carried on by slaves, who are the absolute property of their masters, to keep, sell, or treat just as they please.”
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Waipukurau Press, Issue 298, 20 August 1908, Page 2
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506THE SLAVE-TRADE. Waipukurau Press, Issue 298, 20 August 1908, Page 2
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