A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free StateDorman, Marcus R. P.
History
A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State
Dorman, Marcus R. P.
Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Description and travel
In the evening the place was illuminated by very simple, but effective,
means. Stakes were driven into the ground and on each was placed a tin
which presumably had contained condensed milk. These were filled with
palm oil and pieces of wood to serve as wicks. The mosquitoes here are
very bad indeed and it is necessary to take quinine every day to
counteract the effects of their poison.
At daybreak next morning most of the troops were exercising in the
square and their precision and manoeuvring were really marvellous. Any
European colonel might indeed be proud to hear such a single click as
his regiment shouldered arms. The officers state that the natives attend
very carefully all the time for the word of command and act very quickly
after it is given. The native corporals evidently make good instructors
and the raw recruit is soon converted into a smart and responsible
soldier. This military education is certainly the best that could be
given to a savage; it teaches him punctuality, regularity, obedience and
collective responsibility; it shows him how to build houses and keep
them clean and it gives him an idea of justice for he knows he will be
punished for wrong doing. The soldier therefore soon becomes an
altogether different person and realises that he is no longer an
animal-man living wild in the forest, but a soldier-man and a friend of
the great _Bulamatadi_. who governs the country. What we may call the
caste feeling has indeed contributed greatly to civilising the country.
Anyone who is brought into direct contact with the whites as a soldier,
a worker in the plantation or on the roads, soon feels that he is
superior to the wild bushman and then becomes more attached to his new
master than to his own cousins. It is rather amusing to hear the native
domestics or _boys_. who probably rank higher than any other natives on
the social ladder, speaking of the _indigenes_. with great contempt as
though they were quite another and an inferior species. Speaking of
_Bulamatadi_, it may be of interest to state the origin and meaning of
the term--it means literally in the native tongue _one who breaks
stones_. and was given to Stanley, when he blasted rocks to make roads
the term being afterwards buried with him on his coffin. Since then it
has been applied to all officials of the State and is used to connote
anything and everything connected with the State. Thus the State side of
the river is Bulamatadi, a State Post is Bulamatadi, a State steamer is
Bulamatadi, anything indeed belonging to the State is Bulamatadi. White
men traders and hunters, not State officials, are _mundellas_, but the
native at once has a nick name for everyone which describes his chief
characteristic. Lord Mountmorres usually wore long hunting boots and was
named _big boots_. and as I wore eyeglasses, I became _double eyes_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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