Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/330

CONGO FREE STATE. 278 CONGO FREE STATE. came up before Parliament, and it was decided to continue the present form of government, re- serving the right of annexation to the King alone. The departments of the local government are: Justice, defense, public force, finance, agri- culture and industry, transport, marine, and public works, and superintendence of State lands. For administrative purposes, the State is di- vided into fourteen districts, administered by commissaries. Civil law is in force wherever the State's authority reaches. Courts of First In- stance have been established, and there is a Court of Appeal at Boma, with a right of fur- ther appeal in more important cases to a su- perior council at Brussels. There is also a com- mission to protect the natives from ill treatment. The army, consisting of natives under Euporean officers and sergeants, numbers nearly 13,000 men. The chief sources of revenue are import and export duties, State domains. Government trans- portation lines, and portfolio taxes. The budget balances at present at about .$().000.000, the ex- penditure slightly exceeding the revenue. The principal expenditures are for administration, the public domains, and the marine and transport service. The legal money is the same as that of Belgium. The total indebtedness of the State amounts to over .$,'i2.000.000. including the 25,- 000.000 francs advanced by Belgium in 1890, and the loan of 50.000.000 francs, at 4 per cent., is- sued in 1901 for the construction of railways and other public works. The Belgian act of 1901 relinquished the rejiajnnent by the Free State of Belgium's advances and tlie interest thereon, and these obligations are to revive only in case Belgium decides not to annex the country. The population has been variously estimated at from fourteen million to twice that figure. The inhabitants are mostly of the Bantu race. The Azandes. a superior native people, are found in the northeastern part, and there are many bands of pygmies along the Congo. In 1901 the Euro- pean population was 2204, about half of whom were Belgians. Among the numerous 'stations' in the Free State are: Boma, the capital, situ- ated on the Congo, about 50 miles from its mouth, and the centre of a large trade; the port of Banana, with an excellent harbor; Ma- tadi, a promising railway point at the foot of the Congo Rapids; Xdolo, .an important river port; Leopoldville, apparently destined to become the capital of the State; Stanley Pool, Equator- ville. Basoko. and Stanley Fall's. The religion of the natives is generally of a verj- low order, consisting largely of a repulsive fetishism, in- cluding cannibalism in many districts. Mission- ary work, though without financial support from the State, is being actively and successfully car- ried on at 76 missions. The instruction is edu- cational as well as religious. Tlie State, mainly for military purposes, has provided three agri- cultural and technical colonies capable of receiv- ing 1500 boys. Ethnology. The natives of the Congo Free State are Negroid in race, largely mixed with Hamites of Caueasie blood. The Negroid ele- ment, far from homogeneous in physical charac- teristics, presents a great variety of types, due to intermixture with the true negroes as well as the pygmies north of them. The natives are handsomer than the negro, shorter in stature, less dolichocephalic and prognathic, the nose is more prominent and narrower, and the forehead less convex. Steel-gray eyes prevail in some tribes. In speech there exists over the Congo Basin the most astonishing unity. With the exception of the northern border, where true negro dialects have intruded, the languages all belong to the Bantuan family (from aba, or ha, plurality, and ntu, person, comes ha-ntu, men, people). They are agglutinative, and use the prefix almost exclusivelj- for modi- fying the meaning of the fundamental term. These languages have scarcely been studied suffi- ciently for .a minute classification. The Congo- ese, both men and women, are clever in handi- craft. The}' are not mechanical, however, and it is doubtful whether one of them ever invented a machine. Evidences of a Stone Age among them are meagre. Nature having furnished iron ore easily worked in open fires, the Iron Age has had a long history among them. The women are excellent weavers; the men are excessively fond of ornament. Their art sense is most primitive. Their knowledge of nature is confined to practical acquaintance with things of use. In social organization and customs the tribes of the Congo present the greatest varieties. In some of them the tribal bond seems loose, and cannibalism prevails to a dreadful extent. On the larger rivers and under more favorable skies, where there is an infusion of Hamitie blood and the benefit of Hamitie tuition, large empires have arisen, the form of whose govern- ment is purely despotic. Under such organiza- tion, polygamy and slavery are the legitimate types of family life. To the Bantu mind, the spirit world lies very near the material world. In faith he is an animist of the lowest type — i.e. a hecastotheist ; everything is vital, a vague somebody. ^Moreover, there are more spirits than bodies, and they wander about night and day, benevolent and malevolent. In cult there is no definite organization for social worship, except where the Caucasian race has taught it. Reli- gion is personal, its minister is the sorcerer or wizard, who knows how to call forth this spirit and that, to appease the powers that do harm even with human sacrifices, and to compel the services of the benevolent ones. See Colored Plate of Afkican Race.s. History. The Congo Free State was estab- lished as a neutral independent sovereignty in 1884. In 1876 King Leopold II. of Belgium had organized, with the cooperation of the lead- ing African explorers and the support of several European governments, the International African Association (q.v.), for the promotion of African exploration and colonization. In the following year Henry M. Stanley called attention to the Congo country, and was sent there by the Asso- ciation, the expense being defrayed by Leopold. By treaties with native chiefs, rights were acquired to a great area along the Congo, and posts were established. After 1879 the work was under the auspices of the Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo, which developed into the Inter- national Association of the Congo. This organi- zation sought to combine the numerous small territories acquired into one sovereign State, and asked for recognition from the civilized govern- ments. On April 22, 1884, the United States Government, having decided that the cessions by the native chiefs wore lawful, recognized the International Association of the Congo as a sovereign independent State, under the title of