Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-11
TIPPU rlB ON SLAVERY.


From the New York Sun.
BRussEIs Feb. 24-Before Lieut. Becker lef,
Africa, where he had spent three years, he had
long talk with the famous Tippu lib, the
richest man in Central Africa, ON the slave
trade of the dark continent Few people in
Europe who read Of him have any conception
during his twenty-five years In Central Africa.
On Reclus' map considerable part Of the east
earn territory of the Congo State is indicated a.
THE Domain of Tippu Tib." Some idea of
the immense operations Of this princely trader
may be gathered from the size Of the caravan
he was taking to Zanzibar when Becker met
him at Tabora.. Some powerful chiefs were at
war in the country through which he had tray
eled, and he had with him thousand armed
slaves to guard his ivory. His ivory porters
numbered 1000 slaves. each of whom carried a
tusk. The property he was taking to the coast
included, therefore, 1900 tusks of ivory and
5000 slaves. The procession stretched for miles
along the narrow roadway. and no such enor-
nous caravan had ever before been seen in
equatorial Africa
Tippu lib showed his intellectual acuteness
in his defense of slavery. "White men he
said, shave very incorrect ideas of our man.
ners and customs. They have the effrontery to
propose to abolish at once in other lands insti-
buttons which quite recently flourished in their
own. L am told that in big country called
Russia, some years ago, nearly all common
people were slaves, and great misery has be-
fallen them since they became their own mas
tiers.
"What is the difference between a slave and
a servant? The servant is free and may leave
his master when he pleases. So may slaves. !
have no guards to Keep them from DESERVING
me. They are too well content with their lot
to run away. IL were unjust to them, perhaps
they might fee. But how would that help
them2 They would simply fall once more into
the power Of their equals TO be sold again, to
be maltreated to be killed, perhaps, or to toll,
very likely twice as hard as they did before.
"You say it is immoral to own slaves that
slavery debases men and puts them on a level
with cattle. Nov, it does not debase negro
to exchange the abominable yoke of a negro
tyrant for the protecting care of an Arab mas
ter, whose religion commands him to be be-
nevolent and Just. You say the negroes are
our bretheren. Well we treat them quite
fraternally. since we raise our children with
theirs. We are kinder to them than you are
with your lackeys. l would not dare to treat
negro as / have seen white travellers treat
their white servants.
IF we buy men 1t is only because they are
offered to US, and we cannot procure labor in
any other way; and / am sure it is better for
them to fall into our hands than into those Of
tribal enemies, who kill or further degrade
them. II You call it immoral to compel men to
steal it than win it honorably, would like to
ask on what basis your morality rests.
IF all the savages and canibals of Africa
could be reduced to slavery their children
would some day constitute nations, and would
bless us for lifting them out of a state of saw
agery. The slave trade exists everywhere in
the interior, and the African himself does not
wish to suppress it. He would sell himself if
he were emancipated. Freedom for him means
nothing more than license to steal, to kill. to
get drunk. You come here with your theories
from Europe, but 1 tell you the facts as they
exist in Africa"
Lieut.. Becker says the Arabs in the lake re-
gions no longer send out siave-stealing expedi-
lions, but only buy the slaves that are brought
to their markets. We know, however, that they
stimulate slave hunting and all its horrors by
the large markets for slaves which they main
tain. Tippu lib did not speak of the inhuman
and murderOus aspects of the slave trade 1t
must be admitted, however, that in Africa there
Is force in some Of his arguments. Becker
says: Between the happy, faithful, and de-
voted slaves of Tippu lib, and the wretched
men slayers and cattle thieves we meet here in
free condition, no comparison can be made"
The fact that this same Tippu lib is now in
the service of white government, and subsi-
DICED for the express purpose of stopping slave
raids and compelling his Arab brethren to SUBJ
NIT to the new regime introduced from Europe
Is not SO strange as it appears. This powerful
person is q consistent Tippu lib man every
time. His chief interest is ivory, and the great
cost OF sending tusks by porters from Congo to
Zanzibar has cut sadly into his profits. He
needs the Congo route to the sea- and he can
not get 1t without cooperating with the whites.
For this reason he promised to stop slave raid
ing and to restore order in the Stanley Falls
district. and he has done IL