The Slave Trade in Portuguese West Africa
In Harper's Magazine for January, the following description is given by Mr. H. W. Nevinson, of the manner in which the slave trade continues to flourish in Portuguese West Africa, in spite of the edicts of the great commerce-controlling powers, which are supposed to have swept this iniquitous practise out of existence. The slave trade in this part of Africa exists not in defiance of the law, but in evasion of it. Writing of what he saw at Benguela, Mr. Nevinson says:— A day or two before the steamer is due to depart, a kind of ripple seems to pass over the stagnant town. Officials stir, clerks begin to crawl about with their pens, the long, low building called the tribunal opens a door or two, a window or two, and looks quite busy. Then, early one morning, the curador arrives and takes his seat in the long, low room as representing the beneficent government of Portugal. Into his presence the slaves are herded in gangs by the official agent. They are ranged up, and in accordance with the decree of Jan. 29, 1903, they are asked whether they go willingly as laborers to San Thome. No attention of any kind is paid to their answer. In most cases no answer is given. Not the slightest notice would be taken of a refusal. The legal contract for five years' labor on the island of San Thome or Principe is then drawn out, and, also in accordance with the decree, each slave receives a tin disk with his number, the initials of the agent who secured him, and, in some cases though not usually at Benguela, the name of the island to which he is destined. He also receives in a tin cylinder a copy of his register, containing the year of contract, his number and name, his birthplace, his chief's name, the agent's name, and 'observations,' of which last I have never seen any. Exactly the same ritual is observed for the women as for the men. The disks are hung round their necks, the cylinders are slung at their sides, and the natives, believing them to be some kind of fetish or 'white man's Ju-ju,' are rather pleased. All are then ranged up and marched out again, either to the compounds, where they are shut in, or straight to the pier where the lighters, which are to take them to the ship, lie tossing upon the waves. The climax of the farce has now been reached. The deed of pitiless hypocrisy has been consummated. The requirements of legalized slavery have been satisfied. The government has 'redeemed' the slaves which its own agents have so diligently and so profitably collected. They went into the tribunal as slaves, they have come out as 'contracted laborers.' No one in heaven or on earth can see the smallest difference, but by the change of name Portugal stifles the enfeebled protests of nations like the English, and by the excuse of law she smooths her conscience and whitens over one of the blackest crimes which even Africa can show.