Description
By Herbert Ward
The dramatic first-hand account of the establishment of the Congo Free State, a private colony set up under King Leopold of Belgium to stamp out the Arab slave trade in central Africa, written by a participant in the wars and adventures of the 1890s in that country.
Recruited to the service of the Congo Free State by the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley, the author’s first two years were spent along the upper and lower Congo River.
After being replaced by a Belgian officer, Ward joined the Sanford Exploring Company, but was soon recruited once again by Stanley, who was then assembling the Emin Pasha relief expedition.
Appointed with the rank of lieutenant, Ward held the position allocated to them for the next 14 months, only finally returning to England in 1899.
All during this period, he kept a diary and made careful sketches of all he saw and experienced, which included many instances of violence, savagery, cannibalism-and beauty.
His work provides some of the most detailed descriptions ever captured of the main tribes, of human sacrifice, of the central African Arab slave trade, the wildlife and the interior of Africa before urbanization. It is a glimpse of an Africa which has gone forever but the imagery he captured in writing and image is as enduring as ever.
This is a new, completely reset edition, which contains all the original illustrations digitally restored to the highest possible quality.
Herbert Ward (1863-1919) was a British artist who, after many adventures across the world, won fame as a sculptor of exquisite statues of Africans drawn from his experiences on that continent. After leaving school at the age of 15, he spent three years in New Zealand and Australia, before working in Asia with the British North Borneo Company. Thereafter followed two sessions of employment in the Congo, which became the basis of his book “Five years with the Congo Cannibals.” Retiring to France, he started his sculpting career, pausing only to open his house as an hospital during the First World War. He served as a lieutenant with the British Ambulance Committee and was wounded while in service. He died as result of his injuries in August 1919.
Contents
PART I LOWER CONGO
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I: Boyhood-Sailing for New Zealand
CHAPTER II: Interview with H. M. Stanley-Services Accepted
CHAPTER III: The Kikongo Language-Travels among the Bakongo
CHAPTER IV: The Bakongo-Their Villages
CHAPTER V: The Bantu Language-A Legendary Race of Dwarfs
CHAPTER VI: King of Life and Death-A Human Slave Bartered for a Fat Hog
CHAPTER VII: A Dish of Caterpillars-Young Girl Killed by a Leopard
CHAPTER VIII: A Casual Observer’s First Impressions
CHAPTER IX: Payment in Cloth, Beads and Brass Wire-Belles of Bwende
CHAPTER X: A Bland Acknowledgment of Theft-Elephants and Hostile Natives
PART II: UPPER CONGO
CHAPTER I: Sacrifice of Human Life-More Cruel Than Cannibals
CHAPTER II: The Balui Hunters of the Hippopotami-Skulls of Victims to Cannibalism
CHAPTER III: The Balolo, or Iron People-Instance of Domestic Affection
CHAPTER IV: A River Scene-Mata Bwiki Quells a Disturbance
Chapter V: “Master Wake up and Get Your Gun”-A Bloody Deed
Chapter VI: The Tribes of the Filed Teeth-Roasting of Human Flesh
Chapter VII: Efforts to Prohibit Slavery by the Powers
Chapter VIII: Hamed Bin Mohammed Alias Tippo Tib
Chapter IX: Tippo Tib’s Captial at Kassongo
Chapter X: A Tonic Soup from the Iron Waters of Nzungi
Chapter XI: FourDay’s Fight-Station Fired
Chapter XII: Dubois’s Sad Death-The Critical Position at Stanley Falls
PART III: CANOE JOURNEYS
Chapter I: Mistaken for Arab Plunderers-“We are Stanley’s Children”
Chapter II: “How Many Brass Rods Will You Give Me for Two Women to Help Paddle Your Canoe?”
Chapter III: We Enter Stanley Pool-A Narrow Escape
Chapter IV: A Friend of Dr. Livingstone’s-I Am Accused of Blasphemy
Chapter V: We Are Challenged to Fight-“You Lie, You Are Arabs”
Chapter VI: “Our Guns in Readiness”-I Venture Ashore
Chapter VII: Two Thousand Five Hundred Miles in Canoes on the Upper Congo
236 pages
Softcover ISBN
9781915645173
Hardcover USBN
9781915645326
